Merry or By Another Road

Text: Matthew 2:1-12

Merry Christmas! I have more to say to you but before I do, there is nothing I wish to say more than “Merry Christmas!”

         In one sense, it goes without saying that I would wish you a “Merry Christmas.” For Christians in America, “Merry Christmas” is the greeting of the season. And yet, the greeting itself is just a bit odd, especially for people who focus so much on the Bible. For search as long as you like, you will still not find one “Merry Christmas” in all the Bible. In fact, you will not find anyone wishing someone else a “Merry Christmas” until the 16th century when John Fisher, the English Catholic Bishop, wished Thomas Cromwell that “our Lord God send you a merry Christmas.” And, it was not until the 19th century that “Merry Christmas” came into frequent use upon the publication of Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol, where the phrase “Merry Christmas” appears 21 times.

         Even though “Merry Christmas” is the common greeting of the season, I wonder if you and I should pay more attention to Scripture here. Because, in reality, we do not always feel merry at this time of year. Maybe, then we should find an altogether different greeting for the season. I suspect Matthew would agree. For hang as much mistletoe as you like in your house and there is nothing “merry” about Matthew’s Christmas story. His story has no lowly shepherds minding their flocks by night. No, in his story, the sly ole fox, Herod, tries to outsmart the wise ones and then sends in troops to kill every firstborn child. Barbara Brown Taylor remarks that tonight’s “text from Matthew offers the rare opportunity to rescue the magi from their fixed places in the annual Christmas pageant and to restore them to their biblical roles as key witnesses to both the threat and promise of the Christ child” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1, p. 213.).   

          For the past forty-five years I have stood in pulpits from North Carolina to Virginia, from Georgia and back to Virginia and on every Christmas Eve night I have wished everyone a “Merry Christmas.” And after tonight, I will join the faithful who gather in church pews on Christmas Eve to hear others read the Christmas story and hear others announce a hearty and heartfelt, “Merry Christmas.” And, that is just fine because when all is said and done, Christmas is not about the fickle and sometimes failing announcement that “Gary is with us,” no, Christmas is about the bold and never-failing announcement of Emmanuel, that God is with us.  

         So, “Merry Christmas” to you tonight even though this is not a greeting coming straight out of Scripture. “Merry Christmas” to you even if your life is at a major turning point. “Merry Christmas” to you even if your life is in shambles. “Merry Christmas” to you even if your heart is breaking and your faith is as fragile as a china cup. “Merry Christmas,” because the “merry” in that greeting is not asking us to feel chipper and spry when we feel anything but. No, the “merry” comes from God’s promise to be with us, from God’s grace that meets us where we are and never leaves us where it found us. And, that is not a cheap cliché or a passing religious whim; it is the solid rock upon which you and I can build our lives. We will not open a present tomorrow that comes anywhere close to that divine promise.

           At the end of their visit, Matthew writes: “Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.” It is my hope that long before they left, thewise ones discovered that feeling merry is not the result of evening libations or opening brightly colored packages, but of staring God’s Christmas gift in the face, taking a long look at Emmanuel and knowing that no matter how uncertain the road ahead, all will be well, because they do not travel the road alone.

         As I begin to travel this life of faith by another road, I do so with more gratitude than I have words to say for my time traveling with you. So, I want you to give you what you have given me year after year at Cove, a “merry” Christmas and so much more, a “merry” life of joy and gladness led by the One who never retires, who is now and always our Emmanuel, our “Christmas gift.”

         So, goodnight dear friends and Merry Christmas!

                           AMEN