In this whole ridiculous war over proper Christmas greetings, I wonder how ludicrous it must all seem to God. There was the logger in Nova Scotia logger, who was so incensed over Boston’s plan to rename the Christmas tree, that he replied, “If I knew they would call it a holiday tree, I would have put it through the chipper.” Various groups have gone all-out with petition drives and the hiring of attorneys. Even comedian Jon Stewart, got into the act warning, “Every time you say Happy Holidays, an angel gets AIDS.”
Perhaps the saddest story was one told by one of my students this week, who, while working at a Christian bookstore, heard a little boy commit the unpardonable sin of greeting a customer with the words “Happy Holiday.” Enraged, the customer went off on the poor kid, scaring him half to death. Political correctness apparently has been replaced with Christian correctness.
You would think Christians might step back, cool off, and realize this: that “Happy Holiday” is actually a greeting every bit as appropriate and timely as “Merry Christmas.” First of all, any dictionary underscores that “holiday” is nothing less than another way of saying “Holy Day”. And Christmas is a holy day, a sacred day. So what is everyone so upset about?
Maybe it is that word “Happy” that gets some so up in arms. It sounds so…so secular. Like fun, it is one of those suspicious words. But I would ask, don’t we own this word as well? Isn’t happiness an essential fruit of faith? For me, a big part of Christmas is summed up in these words of Jesus, explaining why He came to Bethlehem: “I have come, that you might have life, life in abundance” (John 10:10). Life to the full, life with a capital L. Jesus came, not to save us merely from death, but from dullness.
Much of this debate, to me anyway, is led by dull people, majoring on the minors, and missing the really important thing. The far more significant issue is not what should be the appropriate “greeting” anyway, but the appropriate “keeping” of this holiday. Like most sacred days, Christmas must be a day encompassing four essential acts. The first is REST, for sacred days are a divine “stop order” in the midst of work that is never complete, calling us to relinquish our assumption of control. The second essential act is RELATIONSHIP. Holy days were never intended to be days of solitude, nor simply for family gatherings. These are days where we take time to be with the community of the faithful as well, where we relate and impart faith. Apart from this, the day is not sacred. It is merely a day off. Churches taking Sunday off to be with family miss an essential definition of a holy day.
There are two more essential acts. A sacred day is a day to REMEMBER. What Os Guiness refers to as allowing for the “breaking in of the supernatural”, where we stop to ponder, reflect, hear God. For we are all prone to forgetfulness. Life has a way of eroding memory, and forgetfulness can mess us up. We forget who we are - whose we are. On the other hand, when we remember, we are grounded and shaped. Christmas is a sacred moment, a holy day; a holiday, where we are driven back to the most momentous event of human history. God left His neighborhood and came into our neighborhood. God came to earth and tabernacled amongst us - took up temporary residence. Culture may do all it can to get us to forget, focus on other stories. Perhaps it is here we should respond as Cal Thomas; “Let the world get drunk at its office parties. Let it consume material things, pile up credit card debt and embrace other trappings of this counterfeit ‘Christmas’ show. I prefer the original cast.”
Finally, and here’s the cool part. Sacred days are days to REJOICE. If these are days dedicated to celebrating God’s abundant blessings, His love for His people, than Christmas, especially Christmas, is a timeout to be exuberant – yes, high-spirited, cheerful moments to be “carbonated”. A soda-out-of-the nose event. A time to enter what one writer refers to as the subversive work of play, which is designed to subvert all the chronos driven, taskmaster supervised, legalism steeped activities that mark out most of our lives that make us so useful… and so bland and sullen in our usefulness.
So to all who prefer greeting us with “Happy Holiday”, what if we were to say—“Oh gosh, thank you for the reminder! May it be a sacred, holy day to you as well, filled with this great happiness and joy, that God came and entered our world, disarmed the darkness, replaced despair with hope, gloom with joy, offering grace and life eternal.”
Sounds like another great way to say Merry Christmas.
