WHEN DOES CHRISTMAS COME?by Bill Love We do not know when Jesus was born. Except for a few shepherds and the magi, the world took no notice of the birth. It is perhaps just as well. That Jesus was born is more important than when he was born. Any date we set to celebrate the birth is contrived. One method for deciding on December 25th as the date is its correspondence with the pagan festival of Sol Invictus, the victory of the light over the darkness with the lengthening of the period of sunlight after the winter solstice. Another method of determining the date arose in the western church (centered in Rome) in the 4th century. The idea was that creation (the birth of the world) occurred on the vernal equinox (the first day of spring). It was thought the rebirth of the world in the Savior would also begin on the vernal equinox. That was understood as the conception by Mary. The actual birth would take place 9 months later on December 25th. Both of these methods of arriving at a date do manage to tell us something of our own salvation. The first uses the natural phenomenon of the shortening and lengthening of the light of day to tell us what is true as a spiritual reality. The Word become flesh in Jesus is the light the darkness cannot overcome (John 1:1-5). Jesus, too, is the light of life, and those who follow Jesus will not walk in darkness (John 8:12). The second connects the coming of Christ into the world with Creation. In the first creation, beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing to you and me, human beings made rather a mess of things, so Jesus came to redeem all of creation, to re-create. His birth began what was completed on the cross and in the resurrection. As Paul says, any one who is in Christ is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our made-up methods of setting the date of Christmas are small fictions, and they tell us great truths of faith about our God and ourselves. Bill Love is interim pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville.
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