With so many in the world thinking of this time of year as being symbolic of Jesus’ birth, churches have to make decisions about how they’re going to approach the situation. We know that it’s highly probable that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th, and we know the Bible discredits a number of other commonly held beliefs about Christmas. But those truths still leave us with the questions as to how we’re going to deal with the religiosity (or lack thereof) of the holiday in each church. One such question asks whether we should sing the hymns in our books that are traditionally known as Christmas songs.
For many churches, the answer is an unequivocal “no,” because the December 25th date isn’t biblical and therefore it shouldn’t be observed. Others decide that they should sing those songs, because they see value in celebrating the holiday religiously. While both sides make interesting (and far more nuanced) cases for what they believe, it seems like the answer should be pretty obvious.
Absolutely, we should sing songs about Christ’s birth. Why? We’re talking about the event in which God the Son fulfilled prophecy by taking on human flesh. That’s a big deal! If the angels thought it was worth proclaiming with great fanfare (Luke 2:13-14), it’s worth singing about.
Here’s the qualifier, though. In so many of the churches that choose to sing those songs in December, they can quickly be put on the shelf until the holiday season comes around again. And, among those who don’t sing the songs in December, the songs can almost be blacklisted, never to be heard within the auditorium doors. There’s no reason we shouldn’t sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” in April or “Joy to the World” in July. With all of the joy surrounding Jesus’ birth in the Bible, and with just the concept of what it was, it would be a mistake to relegate it to a week or two in December or completely pass over it. It seems reasonable to assume that most of the controversy over singing a couple of these songs in December would disappear if we sang about it the rest of the year as we should.
The average congregation sings over 500 songs throughout the year. It only makes sense that a few of those would address one of the most incredible happenings in the entire Bible. So yes, please go ahead and sing about the joy that Jesus’ birth brought to the earth this month. But let’s be sure that we don’t lose that joyful thought throughout the rest of the year.
By Jack Wilkie