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Rector's
Messages
Advent
and Christmas 2003
“Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy...” --Luke 2:10 (BCP)
A
cheerful sales clerk in a national retail store was extending the familiar
“merry Christmas” to customers as they left the cash register with
their purchase. It was the first time this season that I was wished a
merry Christmas. The sales clerk’s greeting got my attention. Last year
some businesses instructed their sales people not to extend a “merry
Christmas” to customers. When the media made this policy public, the
store cited the desire not to offend those who not celebrate Christmas.
Many Christians, indeed many people in general, thought the decision a
poor one. The offending word in the phrase merry Christmas is, of course,
the word Christmas which comes to us from the old English phrase Christ’s
Mass. Christians, therefore, can be forgiven
in advocating that society “put the Christ back in Christmas”.
When
it comes to Christmas greetings, the oldest one I know of is found in the
Gospel of Luke. It is a distinctively Christian greeting. The angels, at
the birth of Jesus, announce to the shepherds: “... I bring you
good news, news of great joy for the whole nation...” (Luke
2:10b R.E.B.) The greeting heralds great joy that is accompanied by great
substance. The good news is that God pours out his love and commitment to
the world in the person of Jesus who is deliverer, messiah, and Lord. The
love of God is manifested in the simplicity of the stable. God brings
greetings and redemption to the whole nation, including those like the
poor shepherds working in the cold dark hill country of Judea. Those often
forgotten or invisible to the world are remembered first by God. The
greeting of the angels to the shepherds provides an example of the way in
which the Christian community should greet the world. We are called to
greet the world with the message about God’s love in our midst; but we
are called to do so with sincerity and substance. That is the perhaps the
second reason why the sale clerk’s greeting was memorable. I don’t
know what religious conviction, if any, the clerk professed. However, I
found in the greeting a sense of joy about this season. The sales person
both said, and meant, “merry Christmas”.
Christmas,
for Christians, is the celebration of the birth of our Lord. I hope the
Christian community will be able to do at least three things as part of
nativity celebrations. I hope we will act towards both neighbour and
stranger in a manner that is indicative of the good news of Christ; I hope
we will celebrate in eucharistic worship the birth of The Christ child; I
hope our birthday greetings on behalf of The Christ child will be cradled
in the birth of new life within us. May we proclaim a merry Christmas to
all people of good will.
The
Rev. Rod Gillis Advent and Christmas 2003
Source
of light and gladness, accept all we offer you on this joyful feast.
May we grow up in him who unites our lives to
yours;for he is Lord now and forever. -B.A.S. p. 273 |
