Of Solstices and Superbowls

Holidays are funny things. Even the word is misleading. It used to be, simply, Holy Days. But there are all kinds of holidays now, holy or otherwise. We have religious holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah,etc.), cultural holidays (Halloween…I know you pagans say it’s religious, too.), government holidays (labor day, etc.), and even holidays made up by greeting card companies (Mother’s Day..).

At this time of year, with Christmas coming up quickly, I always mess with my Christian friends about the Winter Solstice. Well, lo and behold, a group of atheists and agnostics has gone to court to put up a Winter Solstice display beside the nativity at the Arkansas State Capitol. As I checked it out online, they were not really celebrating the winter solstice, either. It is just a big wall of anti-God, anti-Christian quotes from celebrities. The winter solstice was celebrated by pagans, not God-haters.

The winter solstice, simply put, is the longest night of the year. After that night, the days begin to get longer. Many ancient cultures celebrated this night as the time when the sun began to re-emerge. Also, with the Romans, it was the time when wine and beer had fermented and were available for the long winter. The germanic tribes celebrated Yule at this time.

In the Julian calendar of Roman times, the solstice was on December 25th. Since the Gregorian calendar was adopted, it usually falls on the 21st of December.

How did this become Christmas? Long story short, the pagan festivals would not go away, even when Christianity was adopted by the populace. So the church chose this day, around the 4th century AD, as far as I can tell, to celebrate the birth of Christ. Still, the reindeer, the Christmas trees, yule logs, Christmas ham, elves, and a lot of other traditions all come from our Pagan forebears.

So what are we to make of all these things? Theologically, the December 25th celebration of Christmas has no real meaning. But culturally, it’s a stoke of genius. 

The church took the biggest pagan bash of the year and made it a time when even Wal-mart plays songs celebrating the birth of our Savior. The only problems come up when we mistake all these traditions as real Christianity. Then we have dead religion, received mindlessly by generations of people who go through these motions just because Mama did. But if you can celebrate real and vital faith in Jesus within the context of the culture, you can become an agent of change and renewal in that culture.

 This does not mean that we water down our convictions, but we see cultural festivities as an open door to be “salt” and “light”,  to use Christ’s terms. For instance, I do not drink alcohol. But I have gone to company Christmas parties where it is served. Now, when they start getting drunk and the party is getting to embarrassing proportions, I check out early and go home. But what good is salt unless it gets out of the shaker? I am on a mission. I can overlook some things to earn the right to minister to those people. By isolating ourselves from the culture, the church lets the culture decay further into rot.

So for those of you who were wondering last week, I love Christmas. I enjoy the opportunity for Christians to lead in a post-Christian society.  I will go even further than that: I think we should look into sanctifying other cultural events for the sake of the Gospel. Like Superbowl Sunday.

Hey, they put it on Sunday, I didn’t. This could be nati0nal men’s ministry night, celebrating fathers, sons, uncles, grandpas, best buds, and manly grilling. Turn off the TV at half-time and give a quick, inspiring word about Godly manhood and encourage men to commit to be that man Jesus made them to be, then turn it back on to watch the Saints win their first Superbowl. ( Yes, I said that.) If we can run with this cultural mainstay and make it our own, think of all the new people with whom we could come in contact. See, all those men have women and children it their lives. ( Ladies, this could be your big night…y’all do anything you like,  just let your man watch the game in peace.) I am sure, eventually, the play-offs would become the “Four Weeks of Superbowl”, and we would sings songs about it.  Then, years from now, we could complain about all those people who just come to church on Christmas, Easter, and Superbowl Sunday.