Cancelling Church for Christmas?
Only a church that has lost its way would willingly forfeit worship on the Lord's Day. Public worship on the Lord's Day is the center and heart of the Christian life.
There is a story of then President-elect George Washington traveling to Connecticut on his way to New York being stopped by law enforcement. His offense? Traveling on the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath. The story goes the lawman (perhaps he was a Christian Nationalist?) - enforcing prohibitions against unnecessary travel on the Lord’s Day - permitted the General to continue his journey on the condition he would go no further than his admitted destination.
Although the anecdote is perhaps apocryphal, it nonetheless illustrates the honor in which American society once remembered the Day of Christ’s resurrection.
American society has been thoroughly paganized. In former times, even deists like Washington attended morning and evening worship on the Lord’s Day because it was recognized as the right and decent thing to do, nowadays the Lord’s Day is Sunday Funday for amusements and/or idleness. Former Southern Baptist convention president J.D. Greear even likened insisting on Lord’s Day worship to the strictures of the Pharisees.
The influence of pagan practices and priorities on the visible Church in this country is only gradually being made clear. But there are key indicators of the extent to which this pagan society has influenced the visible church:
Grove City College Sociology Professor David J. Ayers has warned the sexual ethics of Christian young people are strikingly similar to that of non-Christians. Buy his book, After the Revolution: Sex and the Single Evangelical.
In the 2016 GOP primaries, one presidential candidate touted his support from American “evangelicals” despite frequent gaffes that revealed how little he understood the Christian gospel. But then it became clear these so-called “evangelicals” who formed the base of his primary support were largely not actual church-goers.
The 2022 Ligonier State of Theology report revealed widespread “confusion…both inside and outside the church.” The brothers on Assurance of Pardon podcast do fine work analyzing the results.
The fact that American society has been thoroughly paganized is indisputable; the visible church also seems increasingly paganized. Yet another sad indicator of this is the number of “churches” who have decided to cancel worship on December 25.
Keith Foskey has made a scathing satire regarding this phenomenon. And a followup. Rev. Foskey superbly and concisely highlights the utter absurdity of not gathering for public worship on the Lord’s Day when it happens to coincide with Christmas Day.
I. A Worship Holiday?
In 2016, when Christmas last coincided with the Lord’s Day, I do not recall much chatter from American Christians suggesting that worship might be cancelled due to the holiday.
But this year, it seems quite common for church leadership to encourage people to attend a “Christmas Eve” service and then cancel public worship on the Lord’s Day.
The secular media has noted this oddity. YahooNews interviewed a pastor who explained rather than call people to repentance, they will “meet people where they are,” which means cancelling public worship on Christmas Day. Instead of merely meeting people where they are, a Christian church ought also to call people to repentance.
TGC/Big Green Eva even ran an article defending the practice. The author of the TGC article presents an innovative view that Christians are not obligated to worship on the Lord’s Day and that it is possible to “honor the Lord” in deciding not to worship on the day of Christ’s resurrection.
He explains that he ministers in an “extremely transient and secular city.” In his culture, the “secular nature of the city also means our neighbors are uninterested in visiting our church on Christmas morning.” In such a case, is it right that Christians are imitating their pagan neighbors and likewise not worshiping on the Lord’s Day? To pastors worried about poor attendance, PCA TE Derek Radney offers sage advice:
Moreover, the author asserted that it would be too much work to pull off a worship service on a Lord’s Day when 80% of the congregation may be traveling. One wonders exactly how many people it takes to conduct a worship service at this faith community of “about 100 people.”
The author asserted that since the congregation is meeting in a joint service on December 24 with candles, singing, and preaching, they are at liberty to cancel God’s worship on the following Lord’s Day. Do we have the right to take a “holiday” from worship on the Lord’s Day?
II. The Necessity of Public Worship
A. Presbyterians and Christmas
Presbyterians - and most Protestants with English-speaking heritage - have a short history with the observance of Christmas. It wasn’t until the mid 19th Century that Christmas was even widely observed in this country. The venerable Robert Lewis Dabney comments rather humorously about an Episcopalian trying to make a Presbyterian feel bad about not observing Christmas Day as a special religious holiday.
For Presbyterians there is no special religious significance to December 25. Presbyterians historically acknowledge 52 church holidays annually, all of which conveniently fall on the Lord’s Day.
The Dean of American Presbyterianism Samuel Miller noted with dismay in 1836,
The observance of uncommanded holy-days is ever found to interfere with the due sanctification of the Lord’s day…the zealous observers of stated fasts and festivals are characteristically lax in the observance of that one day which God has eminently set apart for himself [Sunday], and on the sanctification of which all the vital interests of practical religion are suspended.
Already in 1836, Miller could see how devotion to such things as Christmas and Easter diminished the honor with which people regard God’s holy day. Read Miller’s essay with comments by PCA TE David Coffin here.
I was so impressed by the elders of the Session on which I serve when one of them proposed rather than modifying our worship schedule on December 25, we instead unburden the people from having to attend yet another event on December 24 and free them to be well-rested for morning and evening worship on the Lord’s Day.
B. The Priority of the Lord’s Day
Presbyterians confess the Lord’s Day is the Christian sabbath:
From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week, ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. (WSC 59)
The Lord’s Day as the Christian Sabbath and day for gathered public worship is not simply based on theological inference, but is patterned after the practice of the Apostolic church.
Christ, of course, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and poured out His Spirit all on the First Day of the Week. But that is not the only reason why Christians worship on the Lord’s Day.
The Apostolic church gathered for worship on the First Day of the Week (see Acts 20:7 and I Cor 16:2). While the Apostolic church initially continued meeting in and with the synagogues, distinctively Christian worship very quickly became centered on the Lord’s Day (Rev. 1:10).
While Christians are free to gather and worship on other days (e.g. Wednesdays, St. Stephen’s Day, etc.), gathering on the Lord’s Day is a joyful duty set forth both by apostolic practice and by positive command (Heb. 10:25).
C. The Meaning of Church
To be an Apostolic church, the people must gather on the First Day of the Week.
The word church is translated from the Greek and Hebrew words which are elsewhere rendered assembly or congregation (see e.g. Acts 7:38).
So if a faith community is cancelling worship on December 25, they are failing to do one of their most essential and vital functions: assemble, gather, and congregate.
More can be said on this and much has been said in the wake of the Fauci/Covid urge to cancel public worship. So that’s all I’m going to say about it.
D. The Urgency of Public Worship
Public worship is where God promises to meet with His people. The Old Covenant saints celebrated the fact that God was with them particularly in their public assemblies:
In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel. His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. (Psalm 76:1–2)
The Old Covenant Church was commanded to do family worship and teach their children the truths of God (see e.g. Deut. 6:4ff), but they also recognized it was in the gathered, public worship of God in the Temple at Mount Zion where God especially manifested His presence:
On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. (Psalm 87:1–2)
The principle continues for the New Covenant Church as well. Jesus promises His blessing as His people gather in His Name; the Saviour is said to walk among the “golden lamp stands,” which are His churches (Rev. 1:17ff). There is no place where the Saviour manifests His glory, His grace, and His presence more powerfully and intensely than when His people gather for public worship on the day of His appointment.
III. Sanctify the Lord’s Day
A. Be Present in Worship
English-speaking Protestants are unique in that they only recently jumped on the “Christmas bandwagon” (or is sleigh?) Lutherans have observed the day for centuries. Calvin, in Geneva, recognized Christmas Day as an occasion on which special services should be called.
I hope this year you and your family will make special effort to be in worship, morning (Psalm 59:16) and evening (Psalm 92:2). What better way to spend the day of Christ’s resurrection than sitting under the means of grace twice? And - if you believe Christmas Day is a special day - then surely there is no better way to make it special, or sanctify it - than by worshipping the Saviour; if you believe “Jesus is the reason for the season,” prove it by worshipping Him on the day.
This may mean you have to change some of your time-honored family Christmas traditions. But that’s okay. As Christians, our schedule is to be centered on the Lord’s Day not the other way around. This may confuse or perplex some of your extended family and friends, but that provides a great opportunity to share the gospel with them, to explain to them why the Lord’s Day is a special day, a holy day for you and your house.
B. Join with Christians to Worship
If the faith community with whom you regularly worship is not meeting together on December 25, then find a church that is.
The Session of the church I serve decided to try to begin a new tradition: having a joint evening worship service on the last Lord’s Day of the year with the nearby OPC church. When we realized that would be December 25, we were all the more delighted at the thought of worshipping with our brethren on that day.
If you’re in church leadership and you’re concerned about manpower and the ability to set up and conduct the worship service, then join with another congregation and have a joint service that Lord’s Day. All public worship is a picture of heaven, but a joint service is an even clearer picture of the New Creation: for then all the saints of God are gathered to worship Him together.
C. Prepare in Advance for the Lord’s Day
In the Biese household, whenever a special event falls on the Lord’s Day we do not celebrate that event on that day. It doesn’t matter if it’s our wedding anniversary or birthday or even Christmas. Instead, we celebrate a day early!
Parents, can you imagine a better way to help your children get excited than to say: “Guess what, kids, we’re opening presents a day early this year!” I don’t at all mean you should necessarily skip the secular aspects of the holiday, just don’t observe them in a way that distracts or takes away from the ordinary specialness (holiness) of the Lord’s Day.
Presbyterians confess the Lord’s Day is something for which we should prepare our hearts and homes beforehand to better sanctify:
…to that end, we are to prepare our hearts, and with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose, and seasonably to despatch our worldly business, that we may be the more free and fit for the duties of that day. (WLC 117)
Our catechism reminds us of the underlying purpose of all this preparation and rearranging: our freedom, the freedom of God’s people for the worshiping, resting, fellowshipping, and serving that take place on the First Day of the Week.
As we sanctify the Lord’s Day this Christmas Day, we are reminded indeed that it is not “Infant Jesus, meek and mild” whom we worship, but a risen, ascended, reigning King whose death we proclaim “until He comes” again.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3–4)
Cancelling Church for Christmas?
Thank you for this. I was expecting (sigh) yet another warning to the goats in the visible church about the importance of worship. But your article was so much more, it was an excellent reminder of just how fortunate we are to be under Presbyterian teaching. While I am looking forward to singing at the Christmas Eve Event, I am even more looking forward to worshiping on the Lord's Day.
This is fine work. I shared with our Elders and Deacons. We have 52 feast days each year, no need to invent more. Everybody talks about the RPW until its time to do RPW stuff...