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Merry Christmas! It is a greeting which feels common, and yet holds so much meaning. In it we celebrate the joy that comes in the birth of Christ – not just a baby born in humble beginnings, but God incarnate, sent to free the oppressed; fill the hungry; bring the low, high. In Christ we find God’s abundant, expansive love for all.

As we move through the season of the church we call “Christmastide,” extending from December 25 to January 5, we are invited to reflect on the ways that God’s message of hope extends from the holy night when Christ was born, to all the world across all time. The celebration of the birth of Christ continues.

In 1855, Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight rewrote the third verse of the 1847 hymn, O Holy Night (originally written by poet Placide Cappeau), when he translated it to English from its original French. He made the words to say, “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother; And in his name all oppression shall cease.”

It was written inspired by the commitment to express that God’s inbreaking in Christ is to extend an understanding of God’s love to and for all humanity, and the words resonated with those who were fighting for the dignity and humanity of those enslaved in America – a conviction that God’s love bridges and covers and connects us all; an understanding that on that one holy night, love was born.

The author, an abolitionist himself, saw God’s work and presence among the oppressed. In context of his place and time, he saw the one who was forgotten, set aside, abused, and without resources, and from that place of compassionate mercy, insisted on sharing the truth of the freedom in Christ that is for all people. This is the Good News shared.

Dwight’s words from 175 years ago still resonate. We still hold Christian hope that one day all chains are broken and every beloved child of God knows freedom. We are called to find ways to extend God’s love in us, to be moved by compassionate love for our neighbors, to not only reflect God’s light but also to make room for it to shine in the darkest of places until there is no darkness at all.

May you hold onto the renewal that Christmas brings as we remember and celebrate the story of God’s inbreaking into the world, and may you know the gift of hope given in Christ for you and for all. Love is born! Merry Christmas.

For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6, NRSV

Cassidy Salter is the Pastor at Ware’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Washington.