Tidings of Great Joy: An Advent Meditation

 "Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"

He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.

"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?"

"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."

"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."

Scrooge, having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, "Bah!" again; and followed it up with "Humbug!" (from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

It has, it seems, been a year for the history books: rioting in major cities across America, division and rancor across the Union that hasn't been felt in at least a generation, a disputed election, and the flotsam and jetsam of a global pandemic that continues to polarize people into various camps which divide along the virtues of wearing face coverings or not, of worshiping in person or doing the same virtually, of elected officials ordering shut downs or private citizens defying the same. Who is right and who is wrong depends largely upon what circles you run in. But no matter what with the kind of year it's been, it's all too easy for the dormant Scrooge within us (or the Grinch if you prefer) to be decidedly sour and obnoxiously loud as we approach the twenty-fifth of December.

What do we have to be merry about? When the CDC is recommending we all stay put this Christmas and avoid travel, when the President-elect plans to issue a federal mandate to wear a mask “for 100 days only” on the first day of his administration, when Covid continues to creep and crawl all around us now infecting people we know as well as ourselves, its all too easy to shout Scrooge's reply to his nephew's seemingly pollyanish view of the world: “Merry Christmas! What right have I to be merry?...”

Except this: Once upon a time in Bethlehem in Judea, Jesus the Christ was born. God became flesh and blood and “moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message) for one purpose and one purpose only: to save us from our sins.

If we're honest, the world has always been a pretty dark place (I think the last 100 years of history speaks loudly to that fact). There have been wonderful moments to be sure but there seems to be no end to the cruelty and ugliness that we humans can think up or mete out on one another. Despite the fact that there are a lot of nice people in these here parts, the verdict of heaven is that we are utterly and completely lost and cannot fix ourselves (our best efforts to the contrary).

But at Bethlehem, God entered the mess our world is and came near to us in Jesus. Years later Paul the Apostle would describe Christmas in this way: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV). In ways that are difficult to quantify, Jesus imposed limits on his divine nature for a season and became one of us for the purpose that we might become sons and daughters of God through faith in him. His sacrificial death on a Roman cross paid the debt of sin we could not pay off in a million years and he offers us life eternal in exchange for our simple trust in him.

What right have we to be merry? Here are reasons enough! So on the days leading up to Christmas should Scrooge rear his ugly face and scream his sarcastic accusation we have every reason to smile and say back to him what his nephew retorted, "What right have [I] to be dismal? What reason have [I] to be morose? [I'm] rich enough."

No wonder one of the words found in the lexicon of heaven regarding Christmas is “joy”. As the angel spoke to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem that night, “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” (Luke 2:11-12, KJV). That's good news, maybe the best news, and should give us reason enough to rejoice in God's goodness and love for us as we wish all we know or meet Merry Christmas!