“The Day After”
1 Christmas A – December 26, 2004
Christmas Lessons and Carols
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Merry Christmas. Christ is born. Alleluia.
Twas the day after Christmas and all through the church
The people were stirring and starting to search
For the reason they’d come here. It couldn’t be lunch
with tummies still stuffed with egg nog and candy,
Lefse and ham and a drop of plum brandy.
So they sat in the pews with puzzled expression.
“Hey, weren’t we here just the day before last
I remember communion and maybe confession.”
Then who should arrive but the sleep-deprived pastor
Preaching Christmas good news, but on the day after.
What is there to say with the presents unwrapped
and everyone’s bank account totally tapped?
The aunties and kiddies gone back to the Cities
And leftovers filling the freezers and the fridg-ies
Will the message of Christmas be lost in the laughter?
Can the gospel break through on this, the day after?
It’s a good question, isn’t it? I don’t know about you. But I’m feeling it. And not just the effects of the food. Christmas is an emotionally and relationally powerful time. It affects individuals and families differently depending on their circumstances.
Small defects and flaws in a relationships become magnified in the busy-ness and expectation of the season. Changes, often dramatic changes, in attitudes and situations between friends and family suddenly pop into focus with stunning impact. “Old Aunt Judy has really gone downhill since last Christmas,” someone says. And in the midst of the Christmas festivities we are suddenly confronted with a powerful reminder of our own mortality.
And not only that, but we realize that great changes are going on beneath the placid surface of our family. Like those huge continental plates that move and shift far beneath the surface of the earth. And like those huge plates, the effect on us can be earth-shaking or even shattering.
So I hope that this service of Christmas lessons and carols will help you see the bigger, the real-er picture of this day after Christmas. I hope it will put today in a context, not only of family and friends, but of faith.
And that context is found in the Bible. Specifically in the content of the eight readings today. I don’t know if the folks who select these readings had this in mind, but there is a powerful and undeniable structure when these eight texts come together. This three-fold or triune (father son holy spirit) structure, I believe, proclaims the past, present and future, the is, was and ever shall be, of Jesus Christ.
· The first three readings foretell and proclaim the coming of the savior, the incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth as the Word made Flesh.
· The next two readings tell the story of the savior’s birth. The night the global plates of faith moved decisively and finally toward your salvation.
· The final three readings are about today: the day after -- and all the days after really -- when the earth moved and the heavens sang and filled with light.
The reading you will hear next is about common people, Anna and Simeon, bearing witness to the truth about Jesus, proclaiming that things have changed forever, so much so, that Simeon can finally die in peace.
The reading from Matthew shows the impact of Christ’s birth in the larger world of social and political power and the universal scope of the gospel -- for all nations and the creation. The impact of the Word made flesh is not a local event, but a cosmic one.
The prologue to John’s gospel expands the cosmic dimensions of Jesus’ birth beyond space and into time. Remember is, was and ever shall be? Because, through faith, we live in Christ, and his Spirit dwells in us, we are part of everything these readings proclaim. They are about us, our relationships, our hurts and joys, the society and worlds in which we live. Each event of our life occurs not only in us, but in Christ. And there they can be transformed: your sorrows become joy, your suffering becomes peace, and your death becomes life.
In a very real and true sense, there is no “day after” these readings tell us. Because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, there is only today, which one writer described as being, the closest we ever come to eternity, this side of the resurrection. After Jesus’ birth, today has a different meaning, It is today in the sense Jesus used when he prayed, . . . give us this day our daily bread . . .”
As long as we feel the immediacy, the daily presence and wonder of the birth of Christ in our hearts, there is no day after. Only a holy present, just as Jesus was a Holy Present from God to us. Amen and Merry Christmas.
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