Building up the Culture of the Family of God
The cultural traditions of Christmas are enduring through generations. There are many people today who still celebrate Christmas in culturally recognizable ways, even after they have long since abandoned the Christian faith. Cultural traditions sink deep roots into our hearts and minds. In the case of our loved ones who have wandered far from the church, we pray that the cultural link to “the glad tidings of great joy” will someday be a door through which the Word of God once more enters their lives to give them repentance and forgiveness, faith, and life in Jesus. Healthy and stable Christmas traditions can keep the door open to the Christian faith.
Our cultural traditions in the church are evidence that Christian doctrine is not merely a bloodless, disembodied idea or a system of philosophical propositions. Doctrine is life, as my spiritual fathers taught me. This means that what we believe and what we do go together and have the same source in God’s Word. God’s Word actually changes and shapes how we live.
Consider how a simple theological fact and a beautifully narrated historical account of that theological fact has blossomed into the Christmas we love today. The theological fact is that God became man in the Person of our Savior Jesus Christ. This fact is at the heart and center of our entire Christian faith. The historical account of that fact is recorded beautifully in Matthew 1 and 2 and in Luke 1 and 2. The text is deeply ingrained in our hearts: “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus….” The great doctrine of Christ’s incarnation happened in a particular time and place with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the little town of Bethlehem all becoming a part of that great historical event. This doctrine and event have become the Christmas we celebrate year by year.
The incarnation and birth of God is the wonderful reality and joy-filled conviction of our lives. It is expressed and reinforced by a endearing array of practices: Christmas trees, candles, lights, special foods and meals, celebrations, gift-giving and cards, carols and hymns, Scripture readings, worship services, and more. Each family and each congregation has its own particular variations. The blending of the Christmas doctrine with language and rituals and Christian piety takes deep root into our lives and shapes our convictions, emotions, and actions.
We Lutherans have always been careful to distinguish the divinely mandated doctrine and rituals, like the incarnation and the Lord’s Supper, from the liturgical traditions and cultural practices that express God’s Word. We don’t make law out of traditions. But we also have the knowledge that our humanity is made for ritual, traditions, and cultural practices. Man is a cultural, ritual creature. Our convictions, relationships, habits, and dispositions are formed and sustained by healthy cultural traditions. The richness and truth of our doctrine has conceived and brought forth such beautiful and pious practices among us Christians
It is in the use of God’s Word—reading, teaching, preaching, hearing, pondering—that the Spirit of God sustains and keeps us in the true faith unto life everlasting. The Christmas traditions of our Western cultural past would become mere tinsel and garish neon lights, ultimately empty and depressing, if the heart of our Christmas culture were not kept and treasured by using and believing God’s Word. Thus we gather in our homes to read and sing God’s Word. So also we gather in church to hear and believe together year after year the beautiful Word that the Son of God is born as a little man-child for our salvation. “And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.”
God grant you and all your loved ones a blessed and merry Christmas as you join in the celebration of Christ’s incarnation and birth!