Sunday is Christmas Eve and I will dutifully go to church (I have to; I’m the pastor’s wife). The congregation will be thin and if my husband is still preaching past 11:45, I will probably begin looking at my watch and wondering if we will make it to Christmas dinner on time.
It was exactly three-hundred and eighty-six years ago from this Christmas, that something extraordinary happened, something that would move the earth, as it were, on its very axis, and change the history of the world. Something happened that would directly affect my Christmas Eve worship service.
On this day, after months on the sea, about a hundred people that we now call the Pilgrims finally exited the Mayflower and went ashore to a place that is about an hour’s drive south of Boston. The heart of this group was a religious English people who had been living in Leyden, Holland for about ten years. They had left all their lands in England. They had left their means of livelihood, and they had completely left their families, perhaps never to speak with or hear of them again.
One of the young men in that group, one of the first to step ashore, was a brilliant fellow named William Bradford. Though orphaned at a young age, he stood to inherit extensive lands in his hometown in England, land that his family had owned for four hundred years. As a teenager, William had lost face with his surviving family and his entire community by walking several miles to attend a “separatist” church instead of the Anglican church in town, the one of which Queen Elizabeth approved.
When Elizabeth was replaced with King James, the persecution of the non-conformists increased, and the little congregation of which Bradford was a part, made a bold move. They decided to move to Holland, where they could worship freely, in the manner they believed to be in keeping with the Scriptures. The move wasn’t easy. After selling all their lands and houses, they were cheated by a ship captain and left homeless. In a later attempt to leave the country, they were caught and many of them imprisoned. When they finally reached Holland, they faced grinding poverty. Young Bradford, never having had a father, probably worked and learned under his friends and mentors, including William Brewster and John Robinson. In the move to Holland, Bradford had proven himself to be a selfless and courageous leader.
After ten years, the congregation was losing its English identity and war was threatening between the Dutch and Spain. They decided to make another move—this time from a thriving city to a wild, unsettled land, the New World. If it had been difficult to survive in Leyden, it was going to get much worse.
After months of deliberations, hopes, setbacks, and second thoughts, they had a plan to travel to New England on a boat called the Mayflower. Because of the hardships, not everyone could come; even Bradford’s own young son had to stay behind.
Though eager to reach New England before the end of planting season, the trip met with delay after disappointing delay. I can imagine that the women, especially, struggled with not having a clean place for themselves or their children, leaving their families, and not knowing where they were going.
It’s probably a good thing these good folks didn’t know what the future held. When they reached Cape Cod, they had missed planting season and it was cold! Try to imagine two months of smelly clothing and no fresh food, only to arrive in a place with absolutely no shelter, no heat, no clothing or bedding, and no food. There was nothing but cold and hunger.
By the end of that winter, half of them had died, and in Bradford’s own words, the half living were “scarce able to bury the dead.” Perhaps there were those who wished they had never come, but not William Bradford. His remarkable faith kept him ever strong and hopeful. He knew that God had given this new land to them and he was committed to keeping the Pilgrim vision alive.
Before the Pilgrims came ashore, they had drawn up a document, the Mayflower Compact, that directed how the colony would be governed. Though a new idea to the English people, they agreed that the colony would be democratic, and that the people would chose their own leaders. In the Spring, the colony’s first governor died, and they chose another governor—32 yr.-old William Bradford.
Bradford remained governor for the rest of his life, re-elected year after year. His life is a lesson in strong and servant leadership. He held the struggling colony together by rationing food, making treaties with the Indians, training soldiers, leading corporate prayer, guarding again division, and planning for the future. One of the most important principles of Bradford’s vision and governorship was the separation of religious and civil authorities. The religious leaders would not rule the state, and the state would not dictate matters of religion. When the Puritans came to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628, the Pilgrims convinced them that their congregational style of worship was correct. George Schmidt, in William Bradford: Plymouth’s Faithful Pilgrim writes
Within a year the Puritans were embracing the same form of services as the Pilgrims, and, most dramatic of all, were electing their own ministers—something that would never be allowed in the Church of England. They had begun the movement that would lead to the congregationalism—the notion that each church should govern itself—that would dominate new England in the next century.
The Puritan colony did, eventually, swallow up the Pilgrim colony, but, as Schmidt writes, “the Pilgrim vision of the religious life would be the one to survive.”
When William Bradford died, he was full of hope for the next life, but he doubted that he had succeeded in securing his vision for the Pilgrim life in New England. Ironically, he failed to see, or he could not have seen, how unbelievably he had succeeded. The ideas of an independent church and an independent congregation, the idea of a town electing its own officials—it was these ideas that took hold in a budding new nation, a nation that would take the the Scriptures and the gospel all over the earth.
Why did the Pilgrims leave all and travel to a strange land? Because like others before them, they knew they were merely travelers and pilgrims on this earth. They believed in another world, and through faith, they received the promises. G.K. Chesterton observes that “thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world.” Conversely, those who live for another world understand this one quite well.
Though they came ashore on Christmas Day, it’s a little odd to talk about the Pilgrims at Christmas, since they did not celebrate Christmas, and they would have frowned on us for doing so. They would have gone to church, though, for they never missed Sabbath worship for any reason. In fact, Sabbath worship is the whole reason for their coming—their worship was the most important part of their lives, and they valued it above their lives.
They would not have complained about a long sermon, or a long drive, since they would have happily walked several miles in the cold or rain. They would not rush off to Christmas dinner; instead, they would sit and savor the Word of God in their hands. They would give a hearty “amen” to the sermon. They would wonder at the books of hymns and they would beg to sing yet another one. They would rejoice that they had a church building where they could meet openly without threats of imprisonment and they would weep with happiness that their children would not have to live in poverty, that they could receive an education, and that they could worship in freedom.
On Christmas Eve, remember the Pilgrims and their first night ashore. It was a beginning for them and for us. Think of them when you go to church, somber with gratitude for what they suffered for us, hopeful and determined to carry on their vision.
But keep the truth in puriety
and walk in all humility
take heed of pride & contention
for that will bring distruction
Seeke love & peace & unity
and preserve faith, & sanctitie
and God will blesse you with his Grace
and bring you to his resting place.
-William Bradford
[...] Dana Gage wrote a great article reminding us why we should remember the Pilgrims this Sunday. [...]