Aaron Wolf at Chronicles has a good piece about the mega-churches' decision to shut the doors on Sunday. Excerpt from conclusion:
What we can get at church that we can't get at home is this: the true Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Christmas is about the Incarnation and Holy Birth of the Only Begotten Son of God. What is more incarnational than the gift of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of God? And what sanctifies my family's experience around the table and the Christmas tree more than a trip to a faithful church to receive the very grace that the Babe of the Manger has come to give?
The new sacraments–conduits of grace–in the Age of Willow are the yuppie pastor, the Praise Team, and the Sacred Video Projector. But their superfluous nature is manifest in that even they can be set aside in place of “family time” around the tree. These things are important, but they cannot give what the enfleshed Savior can–which is the whole point of Christmas to begin with.
