Are you getting a bit weary of these old, cliché statements like, “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Christmas”, “Merry X-Mas”, “Happy Holidays”? Doesn’t it seem like we could come up with something a little more appropriate?
I’ve been thinking . . . wouldn’t it be wonderful for those of us who believe in and worship the Baby born in Bethlehem to use a greeting that both conveys the meaning of the season, as well as identifies us by who we are in Christ?
During the days of the early Church, almost 2,000 years ago, believers in Jesus Christ, would often greet one another with the safe, obscure words, “He is risen”; if the person being greeted was also a believer, the response would usually be, “He is risen indeed!” Those early Christ-ones had good reason for being discrete, even veiled, in the event that they might bring attention to themselves & others as “enemies of the State.” Death, or at the least, imprisonment was the frequent result in such exposure.
In some Christian groups, It has become common for believers in Christ’s resurrection, upon greeting one another on Easter Sunday, to repeat those aged words, “He is risen . . . He is risen indeed!” to each other. Possibly those early shepherds could offer us a timely ID catch-phrase we could use to remind us of what our response should be at Christmas time.
Luke’s gospel (Luke 2:8-20), the only one to document this delightful part of the Christmas story, illustrates some important responses:
- Upon being frightened by the sudden appearance of the angels with the news of Jesus’ birth, they followed the angel’s directions, and went…
- Having witnessed the actual Christ child, their immediate response was to return, “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” In other words, they again went and this time, they told!
Those early shepherds set a high standard of response for us to follow today. Can you imagine the world’s reaction to us being as excited over His coming as we can get about presents, food, trees, decorations, etc.? It seems that there could be no more appropriate greeting for us each Christmas than to give one another a gentle prod, by saying, “Go Tell!” What do YOU think? —submitted by Terry and Pat Lampel, US
