Monday Morning Music Ministry

12-23-24

Merry Christmas!

In contemporary etiquette we seldom use the opening portion of the sentiment (“Have yourself a…”) or the closing portion (“… is my wish for you!”) or whatever. Unless mumbled in desultory fashion, as frequently it is, it suffices as seasonal sincerity. (Hmmm… and is “Happy New Year” actually meant to cover the entire year, or just New Year’s Eve celebrations?)

Well, this borders on inanity, but I have been thinking about the “Merry” part of the phrase. Our culture does generally regard Christmas as merry, happy, jolly, bright, warm, blissful, and full of cheer. Churches generally celebrate the holiday in similar moods. After all, we observe the birth of Jesus! The Lord God incarnate, God-with-us, the Only Begotten Son who became flesh and dwelt among us. After four weeks of Advent, the arrival of the Prince of Peace.

“Merry” can be an understatement!

I am not a party-pooper, but I believe we – the world in general and Christians, surely, in particular – should be aware of, and never forget, the “other side” of Christmas. We are partly seduced and neglectful of the full Christmas story. And I am not going on a curmudgeonly anti-tinsel-and-Hallmark rant. Whatever nudges us toward Merry is a good thing, especially these days.

The “census” obligation that had Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem from Nazareth, could not have been easy for a poor couple, especially young Mary, nine month pregnant. I have often wondered if their rejection from inns had anything to do with opprobrium over her condition – a pregnant unmarried girl (although betrothal was often regarded on a level with marriage among some Jews). I wonder whether an innkeeper said, “You two can go out back if you want.”

No room? Whatever; Scripture foretold of the Messiah’s humble birth. And that should make us grateful if not Merry – He came as one of us, most lowly, and not as the king He was.

Let us go back earlier than the Birth. Jesus’s arrival was not a “Here I come, ready or not!” event. It was not a surprise. It was prophesied in Scripture in many places and many ways. The manner and place. His lineage. And, eventually, even what He looked like and how He would suffer and die and be raised to life. The Wise Men knew how to find Him. And it was not only obscure, observant Jews who knew all this. The Roman authorities knew, and were afraid, and believed – not in the opportunity for their salvation, but believed in the threat that the Messiah might represent.

From that belief, even before Jesus was born, male babies were sought, and killed, in case one of them might be this Messiah. There were “birth pangs” throughout the land: the sighs and screams and crying of many mothers. It is known in history as the “Slaughter of the Innocents.”

The classic, beautiful old lullaby “Lully, Lullay” has a peaceful aspect to its tune. Sometimes we don’t listen to the words, or hear them in the original Old French tongue… but the song is really a lament of a mother whose baby has been slaughtered.

Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny child, Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny child, Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do, For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing, Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Herod, the king, in his raging, Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight, All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor child for Thee! And ever mourn and sigh,
For thy parting neither say nor sing, Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

As Mary had birth pangs, which I believe she did, all of Palestine at that time endured emotional pain and much suffering too. Such social birth pangs, metaphorically, are not again spoken of in the Bible until the End Times.

Those creches and manger scenes we see on lawns and in parks, whether carved wood or plastic, are as colorful and antiseptic as the Baby Jesus’s manger was not. A manger, after all (the word derived from the Latin mandere, to chew, and close to the French and Italian words today, “to eat”) is not a cradle. It is where animals eat, so the Savior of mankind lay on straw likely amid bits of food, bugs, and spittle.

Mary, who was of course visited by an angel (and responded to conception by the Holy Spirit) knew much more than that she would bear the Savior of mankind. She knew her heritage… which included what students call eschatology: the future of the faithful; and End Times. I believe from the moment she rejoiced with her cousin Elizabeth (who carried John the Baptist) she knew that her Son would be the Paschal Lamb, that He would die for mankind’s sins.

And we can pause too at the mention of John the Baptist. When he preached in the wilderness, even he had a message about what would be called Christmas. He did not speak of get-togethers and joy, nor much that would be Merry. He bellowed: “Repent!!!”

Continuing in metaphors, we can imagine that when the Baby Jesus first opened his eyes, He might have beheld his parents and shepherds and various animals. It is plausible that He saw the Cross, too.

The Cross – His ministry, persecution, passion, and death – awaited Jesus. It is why He came to earth.

He came to die. And we, who deserve punishment and death for our sins and our transgressions against a Holy God, will live, for eternity, because of that Babe in the Manger. Let us appreciate more fully the overwhelming presence of God’s love, His plans for us, and the Greatest Present of All, that we should observe and celebrate at Christmastime. So…

Merry Christmas!

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Click: The Coventry Carol