By David Faust
As a college student, I heard Marshall Leggett preach a sermon called “I’m Dreaming of a Right Christmas.” Years later, the title of his message still challenges me. What does a “right Christmas” look like?
Deep down, most of us don’t long for more presents, bigger light shows, fancier holiday extravaganzas, and more TV ads featuring new cars adorned with red bows. We do yearn, however, for simplicity and mercy.
Simplicity
Why have we made the holidays so complicated? Why does the season generate so much financial pressure, excessive busyness, and relational stress? It’s good to get together with family and friends, and Christmas provides unique opportunities to serve our neighbors and welcome seekers to our churches. Some of my favorite parts of the holiday, though, are the simple things, not the big productions. I enjoy listening to holiday music while driving my car, decorating the little Christmas tree I put in my office every year, and singing “Silent Night” with the congregation while we hold candles in the dark.
When I was a boy, our church didn’t hold services on Christmas Eve. Apparently, our leaders thought it best for families to stay home together. One year my family chopped down a cedar tree and hauled it in from the woods, and the tree looked a lot larger in our living room than it looked outdoors.
Each December, Dad bought a large peppermint candy stick, laid it on the kitchen table, and smashed it with a hammer so we could eat the broken pieces. After all these years, watching Dad pound on that candy stick remains one of my favorite Christmas memories. Simple things create some of childhood’s sweetest joys.
Mercy
I like the cheerful greeting, “Merry Christmas!” but changing one letter in the word merry improves my view of the holiday. What if, at least part of the time, we switch the word “Merry” to “Mercy”?
Our neighbors need more than a casual wish that says, “Have a nice holiday!” Christ didn’t come to earth merely to make us merry. He came “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The lost need salvation. The dying need hope. The lonely need companionship. The fearful need peace. Christ came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), for every generation needs his grace to forgive us and his truth to guide us.
It will be a “right Christmas” if this season enables us to fix our eyes more firmly on Jesus, and to help both the poor and the materially prosperous discover the true riches of God’s grace. It will be a “right Christmas” if it helps skeptics learn there are compelling, logical reasons to believe in the Lord and his Word. It will be a “right Christmas” if we put God’s love into action and serve our neighbors well. Christmas is “right” when it reminds us that we have a higher purpose than merely pursuing our own pleasure and entertainment.
All year long, the Lord’s grace and truth should shape our decisions, guide our relationships, and direct our actions. The holiday serves a useful purpose if it makes us more grateful for God’s undeserved gifts, more merciful toward others, and more determined to serve the Lord in the year ahead.
Mercy Christmas!
Personal Challenge: Take time during the holiday season (maybe over a cup of coffee or hot chocolate) to pause and thank the Lord for his grace and truth. Ask him to help you, in the coming year, apply the teaching of Jesus, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7).
Here’s a saying God gave me:
Grace without truth is Jello; truth without grace is a hammer.