Finding Christmas Joy in the Post-Christian World
According to an October 2023 survey published by Alexander Kunst at Statista, 88% of Americans plan on celebrating Christmas in some form.
What that survey does not ask is what people mean when they say they will celebrate Christmas. Christmas has, for many in America, become December’s version of Labor Day, except with excellent music and gift-giving. It is a great day for social gatherings because almost everyone has the day off of work, but they might have difficulty telling you why this holiday matters. According to a survey from Lifeway conducted in 2021, 22% of Americans were confident they could retell the biblical account of Christmas from memory. Another 31% said they could tell the story but might miss details, while another 25% could give a quick overview. 17% said they could not give the story whatsoever. Just over half of the American population is confident that they could tell the Christmas story. For a nation that self-identifies as 70% Christian, according to Pew in July 2023, there is obviously a lot of confusion in this data.
We seem to be in a nation of people who love to celebrate what originated as an explicitly Christian holiday, but we don’t really know the story even though we say we are Christians, also known as followers of Jesus Christ, the baby born on Christmas.
At a minimum, it seems safe to conclude that we like the cultural trappings of Christmas a great deal, even if we don’t know what it means. We like to exchange gifts. We like to sing songs. We like to have family gatherings. We might even like to attend one church service, even if it is all superstition. It is part of the Christmas season, after all.
Nevertheless, I am one of those radicals who embraces the full meaning of Christmas, complete with the historical account of Jesus Christ being born of a virgin in a real time and a real place. I can tell you that story, but the fact that so many people cannot reaffirms to me what sociologists have been saying for some time now. The West is indeed becoming post-Christian if it is not already there.
This fact by itself can threaten to take away our joy this Christmas season. Like Charlie Brown, we can despair about commercialism and ask if anyone can tell us what Christmas is all about. We can assume that the fight is over, and Christianity might as well pack up and leave town. However, I am not quite ready to despair yet. There is still reason to find joy in the post-Christian world.
When the angels visited the shepherds, as detailed in Luke 2, the shepherds were afraid. However, the angel told them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Even if people have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, the words of the angel are good news for them. The words of the angel are good news for all the people.
“They are not just good news for those of us who are Christians right now. They are good news for people who are going to need that joy.”
I recently finished a wonderful book entitled The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ by John Starke. I highly recommend it. Regarding joy, he wrote, “Joy in the Bible is not a weak or watery concept that merely dilutes our sadness and pain. Rather it’s the hard deck on which all of life finds its legs. Biblical joy is a deep reserve that remains even when everything else is collapsing. When everything else is falling apart, you aren’t.”
I am not losing my joy this Christmas season because even though the world might fall apart sometimes, I don’t have to. I have a foundation beyond myself; it is not about me. This joy is not about my strength, determination, coping ability, or general optimism.
The world is chaotic right now. There is no denying that. I think that we are going to come to a point, though, when people are going to need joy. The words of the angel are good for everyone, and they are just as true today as they were approximately 2000 years ago. When people come to the end of themselves, they will need this good news, and it will be there for them. We all need a foundation. As a result, even though it is depressing to see one of the two most important events in history reduced to the worship of consumerism and a day off of work, I am not convinced that the joy to the world has an expiration date.