Merry Christmas

“Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, that the Lord has told us about.”

–Shepherds after hearing the good Good News. Luke 2:15

May yours be a truly Merry Christmas, enriched by all the blessings that come to us from the God who sent the Incarnate Son to be bedded in a strawlined manger in Bethlehem,  born to poverty and hardship, to persecution and death – for us and our salvation.

But when you say “Merry Christmas” watch your motives.  If it is said because of all the good things you possess, watch out.  Tomorrow may not hold for you the abundance of creature comforts or consumer goods that you possess today.  What will your greeting be then?

There are some who say we should say our “Merry Christmas” defiantly, in a culture of secularism and unbelief.  The greeting becomes a weapon to “prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of ‘Political Correctness.’”

 I have no problem with saying "Merry Christmas"  but I do have a problem in making Merry Christmas a battle cry in the so-called culture war.  Merry Christmas for the Christian is a greeting coming out of a heartfelt joy and gratitude for the Gift at Bethlehem.  It is not a shiboleth to be lifted as we raise our spears and rush into battle with the infidel.

So watch your motives as you offer your greetings.  Use these days leading to Christmas as a time to reflect upon His coming, and to let your heart bathe in the in the warm flow of love the issued forth from the manger into our lives.  And may yours be a Merry, Merry Christmas.

A Merry Christmas to You!

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Greater New Jersey Annual Conference