December 10, 2001

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

We arrived in Sharon, Massachusetts, where I first served as pastor, just before Christmas in 1962. Sharon was a town where many Jewish people had settled; at that time they comprised over two-thirds of the population. In a town of 18,000 there were no less than three synagogues (Pasadena has one.). This was our first taste of how it felt to be part of a minority group.

When we came to town, the public schools were going through a major controversy about whether there should be Christmas trees in the schools. Many Jewish families saw this as an important church/state issue, because to them, a Christmas tree was clearly a religious symbol.

This seemed strange to me. I had just left my home church in New Jersey where many people questioned whether it was right for believers to have Christmas trees in their homes, since they were originally objects of pagan worship. The Druids in the British Isles and many other animistic religious traditions saw a tree as containing a spiritual presence. Evergreen trees especially demonstrated the power of that presence to live through the deadness of winter. Some people in my Christian background were arguing that true believers should separate out and reject all the pagan and secular element of Christmas, including the tree, in order to keep the message clear.

The tree is a Christian symbol? The tree is an anti-Christian, pagan symbol? This different way of looking at things stretched my mind and helped me rethink how Christmas traditions can best be used for faith-building.

One interesting historical note seems worth sharing with you. In addition to the obvious pagan precedents, the Christmas tree also had some connection with a medieval custom. In the church calendar of that time, December 24 was celebrated as "Adam and Eve Day." Dramas would be presented to reenact the story of Creation and the Fall into sin. A central prop was the "Paradise Tree," the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. A cut fir tree was hung with apples and paper flowers. On December 25 a second drama would recount the Christmas story, about the coming of Jesus, the "Second Adam," as a Baby to redeem us. The "Paradise Tree" could easily switch over and represent the other tree in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life.

This is a theologically valid connection. Whoever developed the "Adam and Eve Day" drama was onto something. You can see how this graphically prepared people to understand the Christmas story, in a day when most people couldn't read the Bible for themselves.

If you would like to lead your family in a spiritual journey focusing on the Christmas tree, begin by reading the Creation and Fall account in Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17, 3:1-7, 22-24. You may want to visit Ezekiel's vision of heaven (47:6-14), which includes trees that could have been transplanted from Eden. Then jump over to the Book of Revelation, where John describes the place of the tree in his vision of eternal life (22:1-2, 14). The reference to Jesus as the Second Adam is found in 1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 42-49.

You may also want to point out that the cross on which Jesus died is called a "tree" five times in the New Testament (Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29; Galatians 3:13, 1 Peter 2:24).

So, I guess the Jews of Sharon, Massachusetts, were right: the Christmas tree is a Christian symbol. Of course, the Tree of Life was a Jewish symbol first. And, by God's grace, it will be an eternal reality.

Long live the Christmas Tree!

–Pastor George Van Alstine

THANK YOU!
Thanks to all who helped celebrate my birthday last Sunday, with a financial gift, a beautiful cake, and moderately off-key singing. You're a great family!

–Pastor George Van Alstine