This time of year, many Christians say things like, "Remember the reason for the season." The point, of course, is that the real meaning of Christmas must not get lost amidst the presents, the parties, and everything else that typically goes with the Advent/Christmas season. I agree and disagree.
On the one had, yes, we must remember what this is cycle in the church year is fundamentally about -- and, frankly, many of the same Christians who will tell us to "remember the reason for the season" actually come up short in their explanation of what we are celebrating. Yes, it's all about the birth of a child, the Messiah, the Savior. But there is so much more to unpack, so much that cuts through an unhealthy sentimentalism that can easily attach to a mother, a baby, and a manger if they're divorced from the wider biblical context. Christmas is about Christology. It's about Emmanuel, God with us. It's about the incarnation, the arrival of the God-man in human history. It's about the miracle of the Virgin Birth, and the fulfillment of the promise made in Genesis 3:15. It's about Mary becoming Theotokos, the God-bearer. It's about understanding who Christ is -- the one who is God and man, with two distinct but inseparable natures in his one person. It's about understanding that everything Christ does, he does as the God-man. This is a great time of year to brush up on our understanding of the person of Christ so we can be clear about who and what we are celebrating: He is fully God and fully man, the Son of God and the son of Mary; in the incarnation, the Divine Son took to himself a complete human nature, becoming what theologians call the theanthropic person, a term that captures the fact that his divine and human natures are combined in one person, but without mixture, change, division, or separation, as the Formula of Chalcedon puts it. All that means this is a great time of year to not only check our shopping lists, but check ourselves to make sure we are not falling into any of the Christological heresies the early church fought against: contrary to Arius, we assert the full deity of Christ; contrary to Apollanrius and the Docetists, we assert the full humanity of Christ; contrary to Nestorius, we assert the unity of Christ's natures in his person; and contrary to Eutyches, we assert Christ's humanity and deity remain distinct even as they are inseparable. Historically, the church settled the question of Christ's deity at the Council of Nicea in 325 (the council where St. Nicholas is reputed to have punched Arius in the nose) and settled the question of the relationship of his deity to his humanity at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. If Christ is not who the early Christian creeds claim him to be -- very God of very God, very man of very man -- then we really have nothing to celebrate. But if he is -- well then, no celebration could be grand or glorious enough to do this fact justice.
And that brings me to this point: there is a ditch on the other side of the slogan "remember the reason for the season." There is no reason to downplay the things we have come to associate with this season, including the parties and the presents. This really is to be a season of celebration -- a very physical celebration. We are not gnostics, seeking to escape material reality into some ethereal spiritual realm. We do not apologize for being creatures with bodies -- after all, God himself has a body now! Precisely because we know the reason for the season, we should celebrate with great joy and festivity. We are celebrating the incarnation after all -- the Son of God coming to us in "carne," a term that means "flesh," or more literally, "meat." For example, the term "carnival" comes from the word "carne." If we are going to celebrate the incarnation, God becoming "carne," it must be a carnival! Nothing less will do justice to what this season is all about. There should be feasting, because the Son of Man came eating and drinking so freely he was accused (falsely, but plausibly) of being a glutton and a drunkard. Everywhere he went, he threw a party, and he was always the life of the party. There should be presents because God has given us the greatest gift of all in sending his Son into the world. Our presents to one another are small tokens of love, pointing to the greatest love of all, the love embodied in the incarnation. This is truly a season for merry-making, for partying, for giving. There should be lights because the Light of the World has arrived. There should be trees with ornaments because the Tree of Life has come, and his ministry to us bears fruit. Advent is the warm up, the opening act, a four week time of planning for the party. Once Christmas arrives, we should release the pent up joy and make merry because the Son of God has come. The countdown is underway....