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What's so "Merry" about Christmas?

"And the angel said to them, 'Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord'" (Luke 2:10-11 ESV).

Do you ever wonder why we say "Merry Christmas?" Why not say, “Happy Christmas" or some other thing? 

The 16th century English carol, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," probably promoted the greeting and the commercial printing of Christmas cards in 1843 in London may have spread its usage. But most credit the continuing popularity of Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol, and the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies with really popularizing the phrase. First published in 1843, ironically the same year as the first commercial Christmas cards, it became the preferred Christmas greeting in the English speaking world even until this day.

Of course, not everyone believes in saying, "Merry Christmas."  Some prefer "Happy Christmas" because of the unwholesome stigma they attach to the word "merry." At least that seems to be where the change in preference began, as the word "merry" was understood to include the idea of public insobriety, as in "making merry." The strong Methodist influence in the United Kingdom during the 19th century probably made "Happy Christmas" the UK preference. Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer the "Happy" version.

Today in America, there doesn't seem to be as much resistance to the word "merry" as to the word "Christmas." As our culture becomes more and more secular, there is a kind of cultural war against saying anything religious in the public square. The generic sounding "Happy Holidays" is preferred by today's politically correct. They would no doubt have no trouble with sayng "merry," but I suppose it doesn't have the alliterative ring that "happy" does.

So we can see that Dicken's Ebenezer Scrooge isn't the only one who has had trouble with saying "Merry Christmas." The cynical Scrooge rudely deflected the friendly greeting and brooded on the foolishness of those who uttered it. 

"If I could work my will," said Scrooge, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding." 

If you’re suffering from the spirit of Scrooge this Christmas, you aren't alone. According to psychologists, Americans miss more work, and complain of a myriad of more health problems that really relate to clinical depression. America, the land where the “pursuit of happiness” is guaranteed by our Constitution, is filled with depressed people. Americans are increasingly unhappy, especially at Christmas. Why are so many Americans "un-merry?"

Perhaps it's because we've misunderstood the message of Christmas. It's not about whether we say "merry" or "happy." The angel who announced the very first Christmas said that it was news of "great joy!"

And joy is better than happiness. Happiness depends upon happenings. It comes from the word "hap" which means "luck, happenstance." Happiness is based on circumstances and when they change we're not happy anymore.

But this "great joy" that the angel promised is based on knowing and receiving the true gift of Christmas which is Christ Himself. Happiness is based on chance, but joy is based on choice. As Christian, we can choose joy.

Fortunately, after the Spirits of Christmas effected his transformation, Scrooge was able to heartily exchange the wish with all he met, saying, “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody!”

After which Scrooge learned to laugh again. As Dickens described it, “It was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!”

When was the last time that you laughed like that? 

Stop worrying about being merry or happy. Decide to have a "Joyful Christmas!"

No more empty seats at the table

“'O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?'

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:55-58).

For the past 21 years, we've had a special service on the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving that we call our Thanksgiving Praise Service. It has become a tradition at WCC.

We sing worship songs, we hear Scripture readings, we watch video highlights of the year's events and these past few years we've been finishing the service by preparing gift boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It's a powerful look back on what God has done in our lives during the year, as well as a hopeful look forward to what He will do next.

I can get pretty emotional at these services. Worshiping together with my fellow Christ followers, I look around to notice the new members, those who came to Christ that year and were baptized. Also, I notice all the new babies in the arms of our young mothers. I'm filled with overwhelming joy as I consider all the new life that God is bringing into our church family.

I also take note of the empty seats. Who are the ones that we have lost this year? We've had some wonderful births and baptisms, yet how many failures and funerals have we experienced in the last year? How many have stumbled and fallen into sin? How many loved ones have passed away?

This mixture of emotion follows me home from church and into my own house. As we celebrate Thanksgiving at our house this year, we're thankful for our new baby granddaughter, Addison. But we're also still grieving the loss of our grandson, Conner.

Sitting at the table on Thanksgiving Day, I know I'll be looking at all the young and beautiful faces of my kids and grandkids. I know that I will swell with gratitude. Yet, I also know that I will think about all the previous Thanksgiving Day meals that I have enjoyed in the past and all the loved ones that are no longer sitting at the table with us.

How can we be truly thankful with this mixture of life and death in our lives?

The apostle Paul says that we can give thanks to God because He has given us the victory over death and sin through Christ! He says that we can "abound" in doing good because nothing we do for Christ is in vain. We can be thankful, because in Christ, nothing good is ever lost!

We can remain "steadfast" and "immovable" in our thanks to God because there's a Day of thanksgiving coming someday soon when there will be no empty seats at the table!

You can't say "Thanks" without "Giving!"

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" (Psalm 100:4 ESV).

You can't say "thanks" without "giving." The two go together. Yet many Americans have forgotten this secret to a thriving life of giving and gratitude. The result is a grumbling and greedy society that is growing increasingly unhappy.

Perhaps it is our focus on money and possessions that keeps us so discontent (Have you noticed that "miser" and "miserable" have the same root?). We make it our life's goal to accumulate money and more stuff, then we discover that we never have enough. We always need a little more to make us happy.

What's the answer?

Simple. "Thanks-giving." The cure for grumbling is gratitude. And the antidote for greed is giving.

The Psalmist encourages us to "enter" God's house with "thanksgiving." We shouldn't come empty-handed. We should come bringing our gifts of thanks. The people of the Bible understood the connection between thanks and giving.

Listen to these words from Judah's King Hezekiah:

"'You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.' So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings... Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people..." (2 Chronicles 29:31, 36 NIV).

This coming Sunday is the Sunday before our national holiday of Thanksgiving Day. I can't think of a more appropriate day to bring in our "Thrive Drive" pledges and offerings. That's why we're asking our WCCers to give their "thank offerings" by turning in their 36-month Thrive Pledge cards and one-time Thrive gifts on this coming Sunday.

Prepare your hearts and wallets now. So that on Sunday you'll be able to "enter" God's house with a heart full of gratitude and hands full of giving!

Are you like the chicken or the pig?

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV84).

Have you heard the story about the trip that the chicken and pig took together? No? Well...

...Once upon a time, a chicken and a pig took a trip together. And after many miles and hours on the road, they got hungry. Finally, the sharp‑eyed chicken spotted a restaurant. Approaching the door they saw a sign which read, "Ham and Eggs: Our Specialty!" 

"Hold it!" shouted the pig. 

"What's the matter?" asked the chicken. 

"Plenty. All they want from you is a little compromise, but they're asking me for a total commitment!"

That's a silly little story, yet many of us are like the chicken when it comes to our commitment to God. We want to offer a "little compromise," but God wants our "total commitment." As the Scripture above says, God is looking for "those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."

Perhaps the reason that many in our world today aren’t thriving is that they are afraid of commitment. They don't want to be committed to anything. They don't want to commit to a job, to a long term investment, to joining a church or even to a life-long marriage. Americans have become commitment adverse.

If there is any operational attitude today it's "I want to keep my options open. I don't want to be tied down!”  It seems that the only thing we’re committed to is being uncommitted!

That's tragic because you can't thrive without making commitments. You can't buy a house, you can't get married, you can't even get a credit card without making a commitment. Nothing great happens without making a commitment.  If we go through life without making any commitments, we just drift without focus.

This lack of commitment for Christians in America usually crops up most noticably in how we manage our possessions and money. Like the Christian knights of old who held their sword hands up out of the water when baptized, Christians in America hold up their wallets! Sure, we've committed everything to God, except for our stuff of course.

Essentially, we are saying to God, “It’s my money and I’ll do what I want with it!”

If we want to do more than just survive, if we want to really thrive, we must commit our finances, our stuff, and our very lives fully to God!

Stop holding back. Commit yourself fully and thrive!

Will we leave them as orphans?

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:18-20 ESV).

 This Sunday we will join churches around the country to shine a light on the plight of orphans. As we continue our "Time to Thrive" sermon series, we want to focus on how we want to be a giving church and a giving people. We want our giving to be led by God and to be spiritually strategic, so we're asking some questions before we give of ourselves sacrificially.

Questions like:

• Where is the greatest need in the world?
• If Jesus is found with "the least of these," then where are they found?

It seems to me that both of these questions might be answered by really seeing the plight of the world's orphans. Listen to these disturbing statistics:

• It is estimated that there are 210 million orphans worldwide.
• 8 million orphans live in institutions
• 5,760 become orphans every day.
• 250,000 are adopted annually, but 14.5 million orphans age out of the system every year without being adopted.
• 2 million orphans, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion-dollar sex industry.

God spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying, "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow" (Isaiah 1:17 NIV84). Yet, many in the church sit comfortably, while the fatherless are left alone and defenseless.

I want you to come to WCC this Sunday prayed up and ready to give sacrificially. We're going to give you opportunities to take action. Actions like:

• Praying for the 210 orphans in our world.
• Adopting a child or helping someone else adopt.
• Visiting the fatherless (We're planning a trip to a Ugandan orphanage in June 2013).
• Sponsoring a child.
• Fostering a child.
• Giving sacrificially.

We're going to have representatives from Amazing Grace Adoptions, Caroline's Promise, the Kennedy Home, Wilson County DSS, and our own WCC Ophan Care Ministry in the foyer this Sunday, available to answer questions and to help you take action for the sake of the fatherless.

Jesus has not left us as orphans. We will leave them?