How do we say it?
How should we say it?
The December Dilemma is now upon us in full force.
Will someone be offended by my greeting?
Should I care?
Should I try to be "politically correct" or throw caution to the wind?
Happy Holidays!
Or should it be Season's Greetings?
And having set those two options out there, I can almost hear the outcry, somewhere in the distance but, oh, so very real.
It's Merry Christmas!
That's what it is!
Christmas!
And don't anyone dare to give the shortened - Xmas - version!
Christmas!
And that is that!
We are celebrating the birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and that is that! So, Merry Christmas!
And please note, I use the word "birth" rather than birthday because, truth be told - and close your ears and, perhaps, even your mind for this one - we really do not know for fact the exact day of the actual birth of Jesus! There are no records to be had, no certificates of birth, nothing of the sort. The Gospels are silent when it comes to giving us even a hint of when this event took place. There is no mention of snow or cold or hint of winter or blossoms of spring or even of a torrid summer day. The actual birthday of Jesus could well have been in July!
We who believe, we people of faith, are called to celebrate the coming of Jesus into our history, Emmanuel, God with us. That is the critical fact not an actual day of birth.
And in our earliest years, our ancestors in faith did not celebrate anything like this at all. They started with a clean slate, an empty calendar. For many years there was no "Christmas" or even Church calendar!
Oh, there was, indeed, a celebration late December. It was a grand and glorious celebration, a feast for which folks really did look forward.
As the days grew shorter and the dark nights longer, people without the modern luxury of electricity, found themselves ever more limited in terms of work, travel, activities of most any sort. The darkness kind of locked them in. The darkness was inhibiting, restricting, even fearful.
And so they prayed as they knew how and they begged and pleaded with the gods as they knew back then. And they knew one great, powerful god who had the power to dispel the darkness.
The Invincible Sun God!
To this god they would feast with song and dance and festivities so powerful as to compel this god to return yet again and drive out this all-encompassing darkness. It was a celebration designed to show that Sun God just how fun it could be in our midst.
And it worked!
Days began to grow longer; times of sunlight began to increase. That Sun God heard the prayers, the invitation of the people and saw the joyfulness with which they would great him. And the celebration brought about results.
And, honestly, the whole thing was a lot of fun, So much so, in fact, that as the Roman World became increasingly Christian, there were some things that the newly minted believers were hesitant to give up.
Like that December Party!
And so we "baptized" it!
We made it to be a celebration of the coming of the true Light into this all too dark world. Early on I suspect many elements of that more ancient feast were folded into this observance but as the centuries passed, this observance became more and more a religious event centering solely around the coming of the Light of the World into our darkness.
But eventually a fellow named Clement Clarke Moore discovered untapped potential in this celebration and his discovery provided encouragement for the likes of Hallmark and then Sears and Neumann Marcus and a whole lot of others who jumped on the gifting, greeting bandwagon.
And then came the big, really big discovery.
We are not all Western Europeans!
We are a richly diverse people with a wondrous array of celebrations. We have things like Hanukkah which is an even more ancient celebration of light and Kwanzaa, a more modern celebration of basic values and a multitude of folk out there who adhere to none of the above traditions but who still feel the need to celebrate something in the midst of so much darkness.
And so we have what we have today - a symphony of feasts!
But if you look at all of them, in one way or other they all speak of a very basic human longing, a deep and often unrecognized hunger.
Those decorations speak of a longing for light in the midst of so much darkness.
Those gifts speak of a longing for the greatest of gifts - the Gift that can set us truly free.
Those gatherings and dinners and parties and phone calls and greeting cards speak of a longing to be connected, community rather than disconnected and disjointed.
So many in their celebrating of so much in this time of the year do not even realize the hunger which they express in their revelry.
Those of us who know, who believe, who proclaim "Merry Christmas!" have found what so very many seek even without admitting their emptiness.
And we do not help them by beating them over the head with, "It's Christmas, dummy!"
To whatever manner in which they choose to greet us, we can respond gently, with courtesy, "Merry Christmas to you too."
And when we hear them say, "Happy Holidays," we might see that as an invitation to speak a silent prayer for them that they find what they do not even admit they seek.
And when we hear them say, "Seasons Greetings," again that invitation.
A whole lot of people are seeking and searching because there is truly a whole lot of darkness these days, a whole lot of darkness.
Prayerfully, respectfully, charitable we can respond to them in a way that invites them to know that we have found the very Gift that they are seeking.
Welcome their "Happy Holidays!" or "Seasons Greetings!"
Then bless them back with "Merry Christmas!"
And a silent prayer!
“Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable,” - Pope Francis
