January 2021

Prelude to conversation…

There is no question… Christmas is over…

The day on which we wish everyone peace and good will…seems to be long past.
At some point…the people celebrating Christmas recognized that one day was not enough and they made a season of 12 days for it.
Even the 12 days is now past.   Seemingly long past.

Of course, we also know that the very first Christmas came to an abrupt halt with weeping and much grieving.  We remember that Christmas, whether a day or a season of 12 days, happens in the midst of real life.  After any Christmas time there is still poverty, injustice, discrimination, a lack of peace, a lack of truth, and a lack of good will.   Though the experience of Christmas makes peace and justice possible…it is for us to leave Christmas different people than we were when we found it.  It is for us to leave the manger…but to take Christmas with us wherever we go, so that righteousness, justice, peace and good will have a chance to take root wherever we journey.

When we take Christmas with us…there is the chance that there will be light in the darkness of this world.  Perhaps that is why those who established the seasons of the Christian year followed the 12 days of Christmas with the season of Epiphany…the season of light.  The season of light…visible in those who take Christmas with them… is to be light in the world.  This life style…this light, is to reveal truth, justice, righteousness, people in need, peace.  This life style…this light, brings hope, not despair, and healing, not harm.

It is a gut-wrenching experience, when on the day which ends the 12 days of Christmas and begins the season of light…we come to know despair and not hope and harm and not healing.
And yet there is light!  Christmas happens everyday not just once a year or for only 12 days a year.  We take Christmas with us… as Howard Thurman has said in a modified way…

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,  when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,  to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,  to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,  to bring peace among neighbors,
to make music in the heart.
                                                     
Let us be light!  and  May God’s light light the way!

-Rev. Ted Anderson