Christmas Greetings

Christmas Greetings to all:

Written by Dan McDonald

 

2014 – Christmas Tree at the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City

 

            I want this blog to be my Christmas greetings to all, whether you share with me in my Christian beliefs or share with me life in this same world where I believe my beliefs and like a majority of the people in our world you don't. There is a story we Christians think about on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of how on the night Jesus was born an angel spoke to some country shepherds watching their flock. The sight of an angelic heavenly creature, a mighty angel was frightening, but the angel had come to speak assuring words. The angel said to them “Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

            The angel that spoke that night to the shepherds spoke of good tidings to all people; to people of every nation, tribe, and tongue. So for me as I reflect on the words the shepherds heard, I begin to realize that the gifts under the tree of our celebrations remind us of a gift from a heavenly Father long ago, not to be hoarded as our special gift because we are a special people but to be extended because we have heard what was said to the country shepherds - that this is good tidings for all.

            I know that too often we who are Christians have hardly believed what we heard. We heard an angel say "fear not" but we quake when someone says "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas". We fear that all is lost when someone fails to see things the way we do. But sane men and women understand that is life. But the country shepherds were given a message - "Do not fear for unto us a Savior is born." The message was expressed with an immense scope of hope for these were tidings for all, for men and women near and far, for nations where the message is common and for men and women for whom the Christian message is a strange story. I guess you could call the country shepherds who heard the angel's declaration a chosen group of people. But they were chosen to hear and believe the message not to be chosen to receive the message to other's exclusion, but to the other's inclusion. They were a beginning to hearing the angelic message not the last audience to hear the message. They were called to believe as the first who would believe that which was for all men and women everywhere.

            There is a lot of pain in our earth as this Christmas Day 2015 comes our way. There are Christians frightened by terrorism, and there are Muslims frightened in Christian lands by frightening responses to the existence of terrorism. But the angel's first words to each of us from that Christmas night long ago are the simple words “Fear not.” The terrorist and the sinister opportunist who yearns to rule by encouraging fear seeks to enslave each of us in the enslaving chains of fear. But the mighty angel speaks of a different kind of power who says first and foremost to us “Fear not.” I know this day that if I believe the message of the angel to certain shepherds then my words to all humankind on this Christmas must first be an expression of hope for all men and women and children everywhere to "Fear not."

            If only that much of the angel’s words were heard and believed, would our world be changed by the message of Christ’s birth? Would we look at one another differently if we believed we had no reason to fear, no matter whether another was Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, animist, or atheist? If we saw a stranger, as if above his or her head we saw a caption of the angelic message “Fear Not” tagged to their being? Perhaps our faith is never tested more, than when we see a stranger who dresses, looks, and has the characteristics of the other. We see the stranger and think of possibilities we usually think strange. We tense up and are tested. But the angel's words address us - "Fear not." This world caught in its reasonable and insane fears says, "but you have reason to fear." The angel might speak to us and ask which fear is of a temporary possibility and which is of an eternal promise. Should the terrorist be less afraid of death than the kind hearted? Should the terrorist and hatemonger be more in love with hate than the rest of us desire to be merciful? Are not the words addressed to us in regards to faith addressed to unseen realities and to people whose lives reflect that they seek a better city and a better country and desire to share the journey with others in kindness, compassion, and shared love? So weighing the temporary fear and the eternal promise we ought to be able to take risks and believe in hope and refuse to say yes to fear. For we are those who heard the story of an angel that proclaimed "fear not." Perhaps being called to belief is a call to be like the shepherds who believed not only for themselves, but believed as the beginning point of a promise to be extended to men and women everywhere. So I extend my Christmas greetings to you as one who has been given a gift and a promise to be shared with others. Perhaps for those who do not believe I am simply meant to be an echo chamber through whose being the words of an angel reverberate and echo until another can hear the words of an angel pronouncing good news. He says something for us all – “Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

 

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