The Journey

Christmas has power.

We all know about how Christms can soften year-round Scrooges into jovial gift-givers, and how Christmas can bring about cease-fires in family conflicts for at least a day. But the real evidence of Christmas's power may be in this rarely acknowledged fact.

Christmas even has the power to get dudes interested in home decorating. Last year I saw one of my neighbors nearly break his neck on what had to be a 95-year-old ladder as he was hanging up lights on his house--lights he then tied into some sort of magical box of wires and capacitors in order to sync the flashing lights on his house with holiday music from these guys. The result, according to my neighbor, was a Christmas light and music spectacular the likes of which the Southampton Neighborhood had never seen!

Speaking of decorating, if you've been to a service at the Tower Grove campus in the last few weeks, you may have found yourself asking this question: Is it Easter or Christmas in here? And based on some of the new decorations in the sanctuary, it's a pretty fair question to ask, since we don't have a whole lot of the standard red and green decor going on. Here's the scoop.

Few people know it, but the familiar reds and greens we see this time of year are not actually traditional Christmas colors, at least not according to church history. For the last 1600 years or so, the Christian church's primary color for Christmas time is actually purple. Other colors historically used during Christmas are pink and white. So, this begs the question...WHY??

Well, the answer is actually more theological than aesthetic. It's no mistake that the traditional colors for Easter and Christmas are the same. It's very intentional. The reason is that Christmas and Easter are inextricably linked, bound together not just in ornamental colors, but in a person. Jesus came into the world in humble circumstances and left it in humiliating circumstances. And all the while, he was the King of heaven and earth. The humble circumstances of His incarnation can never be separated from the humiliation of his crucifixion. Historically, purple has been used to symbolize both penitence and power, humility and royalty. Who else do we celebrate at Christmas and Easter, but our Humble King Jesus?

So, while we do have some live evergreen trees and wreaths symbolizing that life in Christ is full and never ending, most of the colors decorating the Tower Grove sanctuary are reminiscent of Easter. We have deep blues and purples reminding us of both Jesus' humility and His status as King of all. We have several colors that remind us of Easter because when we think of Jesus, even as a baby, we ought to think of His crucifixion and His resurrection. And we should celebrate His victory over sin and death every time we gather together as His church.