Would Jesus Celebrate Christmas?

Reading from Frederick Buechner, "Emmanuel," in A Room Called Remember

Reading from Jeanne Schramm, "The Roots of Christianity," in the CLF Newsletter

I try my hardest, when given the opportunity, to share the liberal gospel of Unitarian Universalism - our broad and eclectic understanding of religious faith. But every once in a while, when given such an opportunity, I'm prevented from seizing it, embracing it, and I come up speechless, unable to utter nothing but guttural mumblings.

Last week I found myself in such a moment. Head and body tilted in a reposed position and my mouth full of equipment, I was finished with a dental cleaning and awaiting a check out from my dentist. The nurse saw that I was clutching Jack Nissenbaum's book The Battle for Christmas. I'm sure she knew nothing about the book (which is a cultural history of Christmas in the U.S.) and just as little about Unitarian Universalism. But knowing that I am a minister, she felt compelled to tell me about something she thought I'd want to know! She had taught her grandchildren to refer to Christmas as Baby Jesus' birthday, and for shorthand simply His Birthday as in "Soon it will be His Birthday" or "After His Birthday, can we make our trip?"

Now understand that for the past month I have been reading about Christmas, steeping myself in preparation for just such a moment and there I found myself unable to shape my lips for even the most rudimentary of responses! And the morning only got more frustrating as they pumped me full of pain medication turning my jaw into Jell-O and distancing any possible meaningful conversation about Christmas, Jesus' birthday, the church's observance of the 25^th and what I, as a Unitarian Univeralist minister - preacher of the liberal religious gospel - think about all of this! Thank goodness for Sunday mornings for now you get to hear a version of what I might have included in a response to her.

Would Jesus celebrate Christmas, "His Birthday"? There's at least three ways to go about answering this question I've posed:

First, to look at what Jesus and his contemporaries - his family - might have been doing on December 25^th. This in fact might be the most honest answer to this question. Or another way to look at it might be to wonder - before there was a Christmas, before there was a Jesus Christ, what was happening? What was the world like, the world into which Jesus was born?

Another possible way to look at the question: What did the early church do for "His Birthday"? These were Jesus' family, friends and followers and I suppose you could argue that since they were the closest to him they might have some insight and understanding that might have escaped us. And so there is something to learn from them. Or even the institutional church that followed. As we go back, closer to the actual event, peeling away layers and layers of history, you'd think we might get closer to the truth.

Third, I wonder what Jesus might say about the church's observance and celebration of his birthday as we have come to know it. And we can only guess, and often do, how he might respond to the cultural Christmas that has grown up around the 25^th - I mean every year there are op-ed diatribes, magazine articles and sermons from every Christian faith community seeking a more simple, more meaningful, more Christ-like holiday.

And that's just the point of this historical and faith exercise this morning. What is a more Christ-like holiday? From my earliest recollections I remember people talking about the corruption of Christmas, of putting Christ back into Christmas, of how commercialism had ruined what I always thought, as a child, was a wonderful event - "Oh to return to a simpler day when Christmas was meaningful" I would hear the grownups groan (and evidently, according to Nissenbaum, it's been a mantra among adults since at least the 1840's).

Would Jesus celebrate Christmas? Would he observe his birthday? Let's see.

There are at least two things that we do know for sure. First, Jesus was Jewish and second, his homeland was occupied territory. As a Jew, you'd wonder if Jesus and his family might observe Hanukkah during December - remember that unlike the 25^th, Hanukkah moves anywhere from late November to late December, and it lasts for eight days. But as I was explaining last week, Hanukkah not only is considered a minor religious observance but it was not always observed because of embarrassment: after the Maccabees defeated their oppressors, they eventually became just as corrupt and oppressive. Those who had supported and believed in them, especially the rabbis, were distraught and embarrassed as their nation fell apart, and finally once again, under foreign domination. Jesus might have observed a version of what we now recognize as Hanukkah, but I doubt it.

It's far more likely that Jesus, his family, and their faith community were, like everyone else, caught in the tug and pull of competing political, cultural and religious ideologies that might make even our diversity-conscious heads spin. Remember that what we would eventually recognize as the Christ story, that similar kinds of stories were abundant in his days. Jean Schramm's description of the birth, life and worship of Zoroaster - who lived six centuries before Jesus - is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Zoroastrian followers were still active in his day. And this is just the beginning of the religious potpourri:

It is fascinating to reflect that the time which finally became the birthday of Jesus also happened to be the birth time of Hercules, who was born of a virgin; of Krishna, the incarnate Hindu god who was born of a virgin mother in a cave while shepherds watched their flocks and his parents fled a wicked king; of Bacchus, or Dionysos, who was born of a virgin and Zeus; of Tammuz, the god of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, who was born of a virgin and Attis, the Phrygian sun god. (Peter Samson)

And let's not forget that this was Roman territory, it was an agrarian society, and versions of Roman pagan-nature observances and beliefs permeated almost everything. Topping the list was Saturnalia, which many say is the historical Christmas. Saturnalia was a week long bash of merry-making, sex and drunkenness all to celebrate the birthday of the Sun, actually the so-called "return" of the sun. The 7 days of Saturnalia saw gift-giving and equality among all people, and finally culminated on the 25^th the day Romans believed was the shortest of the year.

All of this, then, is what filled the lives of Jews around the time of Jesus' birth. It's what Jesus would have been born into. To what extent people had to participate in one observance or another I don't know; to what extent Jews were left alone to practice their faith, I don't know. What we do know is how easily a small faith community, as Jews were on "His" Birthday," can be pushed, shoved, manipulated and transformed by a dominant culture. I mean, just based on our own experience as Unitarian Universalists and from watching or participating in Judaism, we can feel or know how orthodox Christian dogma can take over and nearly drown out all of the other voices. It must have been similar for Jesus' tiny Jewish community who had to live among the tug-of-war of all the different ideologies and theologies under Roman occupation.

Would Jesus celebrate Christmas? Historically, the simple answer is no because Jews considered birthdays heathen recognitions and not part of Jewish practice. But living in such a multi-cultural, diverse, religiously and politically explosive setting, Jesus must have been aware of his birthday and if only in his mind, paused to note it.

And still, we have no idea when Jesus was born. With no clues to be found in the Gospel narratives, early church fathers of the 3^rd century placed his birth on May 20 and others on April 19 or 20. Clement, Bishop of Alexandria (died c. 215), nominated November 18. Hippolytus (died c. 236) calculated that Christ must have been born on Wednesday, the same day God created the sun. [Another church leader] posited that the first day of creation coincided with the first day of spring, on March 25, and contended that Jesus' birthday fell four days later, on March 28. All of these dates and any other ones are merely speculative, someone's best guess scenario.

Again, what we do know, and is quite clear is that in the years after Jesus' death his followers had absolutely no interest in knowing his birthdate because they anticipated the end of the world and Jesus' return - why should they bother with a birthdate when they believed he'd never died?! But we also know that as the years pealed away, the Second Coming didn't happen and the end of the world didn't come, as early theologians like Paul had to create new reasons for staying loyal to the faith. It was then that learning more about the nativity grew important. But it was too late - no one remembered the month or day.

Sometime in the early years of the fourth century, Christianity had grown enough and felt secure enough to challenge all the other cultural and religious traditions that filled the times, many of them the same observances that had filled the life and mind of Jesus. In one of the most astute moves ever, one that would characterize Christianity's growth until today, their leaders chose to appropriate popular, on-going holidays and piggy-backed on them. And that's the way December 25^th was chosen. Having no idea when Jesus was born, the early church selected the last day of Saturnalia as fitting for their observance. In this way, they could then indirectly challenge Roman authority and paganism, but also who was celebrating what event became confusing thus creating the illusion that there might be far more Christians than anyone realized. The scales were finally tipped in the middle of the 4^th century when Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and in a symbolic act of conversion and loyalty he built the Vatican atop the hill where sun worshippers may have gathered.

On the surface, Christmas is to Christianity as Hanukkah is to Judaism - an important but peripheral recognition. On the other hand, Christianity's Easter and the High Holy Days of Judaism are quintessential events in the life of these faith communities. You see, the Christian message is meaningless without death and resurrection. Or as one author put it - no one ever waits outside a delivery room expecting the birth of a great person, meaning that Jesus did not become an important figure at birth, but only at death. Christmas has become a significant date because of who Jesus became, of how he died which is what Easter is all about. It's in this sense that the Puritans were theologically right when they chose to ignore Christmas - in fact, as long as they were in power Christmas was outlawed! It was sacrilegious to observe Christmas.

All of this is simply to say that if we look at the meaning and message of the early Christian church, there is no lessening of the birthday confusion. With each decade and then century after crucifixion, the confusion deepened and the story grew to a point that had Jesus returned, he would never have recognized his own birth narrative.

Imagine someone telling you the story of your birth and having very little of it - maybe even none of it - sound remotely plausible or familiar. This is what Jesus would have found within a couple of centuries of his death and certainly today. To put it bluntly, the gospel biographies - all of them - are wrong: they are make-believe stories, stories created and told for particular audiences. This is why no two of the stories are the same and why it's impossible that they are parts of the same story. And what's amazing is that while few us could recognize this without help from outside sources, Jesus, because he was Jewish, would recognize it immediately. For example, both the Matthew and Luke narratives, the ones always used, are full of references to Hebrew scripture that all Jews would have recognized and valued. And why did they include these? Because they were trying to persuade Jewish audiences that Jesus was the Messiah, the new David, the King of Kings. And so they pulled out every sacred scriptural story and reference that they knew their audience would be familiar with, stories and references that would "prove" Jesus was the Son of God. Those birth narratives were not written for us, they are not descriptive of "His Birthday," they are as fictional as any of the other ancient myths we've read. I imagine Jesus laughing and laughing if he heard these stories - they are so far from historical reality, a reality that we can only speculate about.

But they are great stories, as historically flawed as they might be. And when coupled with the Yuletide mythology that is part of the secular world, the result is a December 25^th that would be unrecognizable to Jesus, his followers or any of the early Christians of the first century.

Back in the 1970's, there was a poem that I used to read at every Christmas that I still think captures my fantasy of how Jesus would react to all of "His Birthday" goings-on. The poet is Lawrence Ferlinghetti:

Ferlinghetti is saying us to set aside as nice and yes, even fun the secular and sacred stories from culture, family and church - transcend them by discovering that Christ climbed down and entered the souls of each of us, and there he waits for a reconception, another opportunity to share his gospel. He's suggesting that Jesus the person is not that important - don't make the messenger the message. But the message that Jesus "teached and preached," that's what's in our souls, that's what climbed down from the cross, that's what the Christmas story is all about.

And while the biblical narratives are story, the very finest of fiction, the hopes, disappointments, dreams and disillusions that they speak about are very real, they are as real as life is real. While written for Jewish ears and eyes, they also speak to the hearts and spirit of all people. This is why they are so appealing - they strike chords that resonate throughout the ages, beyond time, ethnicity, gender, and culture.

In the quiet of reflection about the Christmas season, "at the heart of the silence" that Frederick Buechner told us about, if you have the ear to hear and heart to feel, you too will be able to know Emmanuel - God within. If this is what the Christmas season is about, if finding Emmanuel within yourself and each other is what "His Birthday" means, then yes, Jesus would probably celebrate Christmas.

Let Christmas be a time to remember and celebrate the prophetic teachings and parables attributed to Jesus. What better way to celebrate his birth and life than to reconceive his message.

© the Rev. Fredric J. Muir
December 5, 1999

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