The Hollow Days

A beloved former pastor gave a Christmas sermon one year on "the hollow days." (He credited a friend with that great phrase.)

He spoke about a real spiritual problem: the ennui and let-down many people experience at, and after, Christmas. He didn't exactly say the holiday itself was hollow. But he came as close to taking on that shibboleth as any pastor I've ever heard.

The "hollow"ness of Christmas that always stands out for me is its astounding lack of spiritual content. At least, in the Church. The world undoubtedly puts on a temporary spirit of "good will toward men:" much-needed, even if only superficial, short-lived, and merely-sentimental. But the Church is where we would expect that continuing message of God's good news to be most deeply manifest.

The opposite seems to be the case. In my experience, the Church' entire month of December, perhaps even a few weeks before and a few weeks after, is given over to the "Christmas" spirit. There is at least a month every year when my church puts on hold all of our Bible-studies, sermons, prayer-groups, worship services and all the other distinctives of a Christian church, to focus entirely on special "Christmas" festivities and presentations. It feels very much like a break from the Church' God-given work, when we can relax and join unbelievers in idolatry of the holiday.

There are of course the obligatory, usually formulaic, sermons...about the wonderfulness of Christmas. But Sunday School classes, Bible studies, prayer groups...the places where we hear God's thoughts and ways, where we approach Him and enjoy His Presence...are put on hold for Christmas activities: decorating the sanctuary, practicing the pageant, organizing, advertising, and driving forward all the Christmas events. There is never less awareness and sense of God's Real Presence in the Church than at the season we claim to celebrate His Presence among men.

I've written several times before about the false history of Christmas, its origin as an expedient for a half-pagan Church, its revival in modern times as a Christ-less sentimental narrative. A "holy-day" exactly of, and to, the world's tastes. But only the Church manifests the deep hollowness of Christmas. Only the Church can.