For some reason this year, the fact that some Protestant megachurches have decided to not have services on Christmas is big news. Perhaps part of the reason is that this year Christmas is on a Sunday, so not having church on Sunday seems like an even bigger deal.
At the crux of the defense of not having worship on Christmas is what most Protestants, especially Evangelicals, consider to be worship: Singing, reading, and preaching. They sing songs, read the Bible, and then hear a homily. It is vastly different from those churches with a sacrificial liturgy, especially Catholics and Orthodox whose liturgies make Christ sacramentally present in the Eucharist. In Protestant services, they recall Christ and celebrate Him, but in Eucharistic liturgies, we encounter Christ in person, we receive Him.
And frankly, many Protestants of my acquaintance haven’t held too closely to the interpretation of the Third Commandment as requiring church attendance. If they’re on vacation, well, as long as they don’t work on Sunday and perhaps pray a little, that’s enough to keep holy the Sabbath.
But there’s another aspect as well that is peculiar to the megachurches. Like much of Evangelical culture, the goal seems not to be countercultural, but to ape the culture and provide a palatable substitute for secular enticements. Thus, the churches begin to resemble mini-malls with bookstores, coffee shops, even food courts. The services are less like worship and more like staged variety shows with stage managers and bands and skits and intermissions. There are no pews, just stadium seating. And so it seems natural for the “mall” to be closed on Christmas, like the regular mall, and the hundreds of people required to stage the weekly events can instead stay home from work.
It is a stark difference between Catholic culture and Evangelical Protestant culture, which too often is a gussied-up form of plain, old American culture.
Update:Kelly Clark reminds me that the Third Commandment, not the Second, requires us to keep holy the Sabbath. So much for my apparently failing memory.
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Spot on Dom. Chesterton said it well –
“The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.”
I think I would add that many of these communities are based on sentimentality. The oh so good feeling you get from a motivational speaker and event. It is a mile wide and an inch deep. It is not, by and large even the public demonstration of a firmly held belief, but an opportunity to morph into the culture of nice and good people. As opposed to good and holy people with their lives well ordered.
In this instance, we witness the children of the age acting in accord with the age. Family first. That is correct and honorable in the temporal (pagan) order. But in the supernatural order, it is God first. Actually it could be a violation of the first commandment, one that is often ignored as an actual sin, placing creatures before God.
Yet another situation where having non-married priests/ministers makes a lot of practical sense.
A Protestant pastor (childhood friend of mine) doesn’t have services on Christmas or Easter because he says that no one would come. I’ve always thought that was odd. But I’ve always thought being Protestant was odd too. So maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised.
(By the way, Dom, it was great to meet you and Mel at Patti’s b-day party.)
Not nearly as bad as what Protestant churches, but still not great is:
Catholic parishes that have 7 Christmas Eve services (and “children’s liturgy services” as early as 2:30pm) and basically almost nobody showing up on Christmas Day (9,000 vs 50 people on Christmas Day)..
Some parishes “virtually” take Dec 25th off…
Megachurches: For Profit Prophets!
“By the way, Dom, it was great to meet you and Mel at Patti’s b-day party.”
Quit your braggin’
I just posted on Megachrurches about a week ago. They don’t make much sense during the rest of the year either. Here’s my little take on them: http://thursdaystrifles.blogspot.com/2005/12/megachurches.html.
Yours in Christ,