WHERE DID CHRISTMAS GO?
Luke 2:20 and 53, Matthew 2:13-23
The Reverend Alex Thomas
Before Christmas there is a lot of preparation, then one short day and it's gone.
People prepare for weeks and sometimes months for the coming of Christmas. There is this great anticipation built up. There is the few swift hours of realization and then Christmas is gone. As the days roll on after Christmas the Christmas tree looks a little more tired each day, and people look a little more tired. For all too short of a time seemed to be enjoying a time of love which chases away all the wrinkles of the year. Human beings are at their best - generous, friendly, kind. Then it is back to earth - with a thud. Where did Christmas go? In one of the newspapers there was a cartoon of a life sized card with the words Peace, Love and Joy written on it and someone breaks through it with shopping cart shouting "And Post Christmas Sales" indicating that the emphasis has shifted suddenly. (cartoon available for viewing at syndicam.com). On Boxing Day I made my way to one of the large shopping malls in our city to have coffee with my daughter who manages one of the stores there. The parking lot full so it took me ages to find a place to park my car. The mall was so full of people that one could hardly move. This mad rush on Boxing Day was described by one person as "guerilla shopping" with every one for themselves and God help the person who gets in the way --they could be stomped on and trampled. I asked myself: Where did Christmas go?
Where did the main characters of the Christmas story go? When we look at the scriptures there is some clues to what happened to the original cast after the birth of Christ.
Where did the Shepherds Go? Luke tells us that "they returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen." (Luke 2:20) Returned where? Probably to sheep tending and their daily chores. "Life is so daily" for most of us, and it was for the shepherds too. For a few hours and supernal revelation had been granted them, and now it was a time to get back to work. There were sheep to be tended, fences to be mended, pastures to be cultivated, lambs to be helped into the world, and guarded. There was wool to be sheared, and sold and other work-a -day jobs to be done. But the question is not where they went but HOW they went. They returned to their jobs, that is common. They returned praising and glorifying God for all that they saw and heard. That's uncommon.
What does it mean for us? We return to the office, to the shop, to the kitchen sink, to school, whatever are our regular tasks and activity may be. But HOW DO WE return? Surely the celebration of Christ birth can have a profound affect on our outlook. What we have just celebrated was that the Eternal God, the God of Creation, the God who is called LOVE , broke through into our history in power, beauty, and simplicity. Can our lives ever be the same? Can we not return from Christmas with what Albert Schweitzer called a new "reverence for life", a new interest in it's possibilities, for the world and for ourselves? Can we not return to our jobs, our homes, our community activity knowing that because God broke into our human lives in Christ and promised that he would not leave us without his presence, that our faith is as active there as in any church or other religious settings.
There used to be a song that I sang with children: "Give God the Glory !Glory !children of the Lord." That is what I'm certain Paul meant when he said, "Whether you therefore eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." We can say as some professional singers do, "I sing to the glory of God", or we can say " I teach to the glory of God" " I farm for the glory of God", "I do business to the glory of God" "I drive a truck for the Glory of God" "I nurse for the Glory of God", "I practice medicine for the glory of God" and so on and so forth. I remember reading of a fine Negro engineer on a Southern River boat who was asked how he kept everything in such a perfect working order and immaculately clean. He put down the bible that he was reading at the time, and answered, "I've got a glory". You and I have to have a glory, if we are to do more than get up, wash up, work , and go to bed - day after day" . To see life as a wonderful gift of God, that life is invested with meaning and dignity, that God has entrusted us with the work of loving kindness and compassion, is to have a Glory.
Where did the central figures go? We had a service of Carols and Lessons on Christmas Eve at 6:30 p.m. It ended with the story of Christ being born in the stable. We know that in the real story did not end that way. Shortly after that they were to become refugees fleeing from their homeland to Egypt because of the fear of Herod's threat to murder young children. (Matthew 2:13-23) They were refugees like many people are today fleeing from violence. They did not return to Nazareth for years later. Then there was the toil and preparation in the carpenters shop for Jesus. the death of Joseph and the helping of a widowed mother and dependent family, there was a brief public ministry of healing and teaching, the inevitable clash with the forces of darkness, the conflict with political and religious authority; the arrest, the trial, and the execution. Luke says that the child Jesus, grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the Grace of God was upon him". (Luke 2:52) That grace did not bestow on him immunity from the slings, and arrows, from the outrageous malevolence and stupidity of human beings, nor from the sting of pain, ache of exhaustion, and a violent death.
That was a tough road for Jesus. This a poem by Eleanor Slater, December 24:
Tomorrow you are born again
Who died so many times
Do you like the candlelight,
Do you like the chimes?
Do you stop to wonder
Why men never see
How very closely Bethlehem
Approaches Calvary
But he did grow in grace and he is still in the world by his spirit. In John Masefield's play, Trial of Jesus, at the scene of Jesus death by crucifixion, the Centurion says to Procula, "He is let loose in the world, lady, where neither Roman or Jew can stop his truth."
In spite of all that discourages, He is still making us more sensitive to human need, more concerned about justice and mercy. He is still a catalytic force, working quietly and steadily in our hearts and in the hearts of human kind.
Here is the question : Where are you going from Bethlehem? The shepherds returned to their work- a-day world glorifying and praising God. They had a Glory. The main characters went from there into hardship. Jesus went all the way to Calvary but with a strength that surpassed any adversity.
Maybe it's not just where are you going but How are you going, and who is going with you?
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