Matthew 2:13-23
The Sunday after Christmas.
"'Twas the Day After Christmas"
-by Rev. Ken Goodrich, Buchanan, Va.
Twas the day after Christmas, when all through the town
Every creature was stirring, taking ornaments down.
The lights were extinguished, the candles all burned,
Empty boxes abounded wherever you turned.
The children were cranky, they'd been good for so long
That their innards were bursting to do something wrong;
The toys of which visions had danced in their heads
Lay abandoned in corners, their batteries dead.
When you sprang to the window and threw open the sash,
Your eyes were assaulted by mountains of trash.
So it's back to the office, to the matters at hand,
As relief, like an aspirin, spread through the land,
And the windows, in outlines of colors once bright,
Now returned to dark shadows, as black as the night.
The fires of warm feelings were beginning to wane,
Like the hard, icy touch of a cold windowpane
As the world, like the dread of an overcast day,
Reverted to form, to its patterns of gray,
When what in our wondering ears should we hear,
But the Word of the Father to be of good cheer;
To take hold of the light that will never go out,
And carry it high, and spread it about.
Throw the holly and ivy out if you will,
But the star is before you. Follow it still.
The wonder of Christmas, of God coming here,
Cannot be confined to the end of the year,
For the light of the manger, which is now packed away,
Continues to shine and glows brighter each day
As the people of God respond to his call,
And take this, the true meaning of Christmas to all:
Friends, the glory of God neither falters nor ends,
For the gift of the presence comes again...and again.
There are an awful lot of people for whom today is Christmas. I was talking to one person last week whose dad is a paramedic in a small county. There are only three EMTs in the rotation, so every three years, dad's on call, down at the firehouse. Their family celebrates Christmas one day late. And that's OK.
There are an awful lot of nurses, doctors, police, firefighters, and, of course, a tremendous number of people in the military, for whom Christmas comes a day late, and they're lucky if it lasts a whole day. We need to remember them and thank them. If you happen to be one of those late-Christmas workers, first, Thank you; and second, Merry Christmas.
I don't think we have any garbage collectors in our congregation, at least not the professional kind. For most of us, it's just a hobby. I'm pretty sure the professional trash collectors get a premium this week, and they deserve every penny. There's no recession in the number of boxes and impossible-to-open plastic toy packaging. Just getting everything to the curb takes a donkey and three wise men.
There's also an awful lot of people for whom Christmas is just hard. The presents, or the hope, peace, joy and love don't show up. They're more melancholy than jolly. And anyone who listens enough times to, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," needs an IV of Prozac. I started listening to our local Hispanic radio station, "Noventa y tres punto cinco, La Lider." It's physically impossible not to smile at carols done Mariachi style.
"Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt...."
Christmas went by horribly quickly for Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus. The joy of Christmas turned to tragic sadness for the people of Israel. It turned terribly confusing for the Holy Family, three non-kings who couldn't find a safe place to rest, who ended up in a foreign country, hearing voices and sounds beyond their understanding. The manger must have looked pretty comfortable at that point. Christmas left more suddenly than it had come, and looked as though it might never come back.
If you Google the phrase, "...who saved Christmas" you can find an amazing number of entries. There's "The MAN Who Saved Christmas," "The DOG Who Saved Christmas," and its sequel, "The DOG who saved Christmas VACATION," (which stars BOTH Mario Lopez AND Paris Hilton), "The LITTLE GIRL who saved Christmas," "The TOY who saved Christmas," (that's the Veggie Tales version), "The GOBLIN who saved Christmas," (Okayyyy??), and even, "The MUSLIM CABBIE who saved Christmas" (which is actually a very heartwarming story about a New York cab driver who returned over $20,000 in cash to its clueless owners who carried $20,000 cash in New York City, for non-drug-related purposes).
There's so much of this idea that Christmas has to be saved. Ironically, that's exactly what the scripture's about today. Mary and Joseph had to run hide in Egypt, the place of Israel's enslavement to Pharaoh (which is the last place anyone would look), in order to protect all the future Christmases to come. Even the first Christmas went from the heights of joy to the depths of sadness and fear. Christmas was here; and then it was gone. Just like that. Except that it wasn't gone. It was just hiding for awhile. Until it was safe to come back out again.
The wonder of Christmas, of God coming here,
Cannot be confined to the end of the year,
For the light of the manger, which is now packed away,
Continues to shine and glows brighter each day
As the people of God respond to his call,
And take this, the true meaning of Christmas to all:
Friends, the glory of God neither falters nor ends,
For the gift of the presence comes again... and again.
We're reminded by those workers who have to modify their Christmas calendars that Christmas can be celebrated any day. It's not over and done. In fact, Christmas is never over and done. It might be hidden away in a dark corner of your heart, but it's there. It might be disguised as random acts of kindness done any old day that seem to have no grounding in reason or purpose. The secret is, oh, yes they do. Any act of hope, peace, joy or love is quietly, invisibly tied back to Christmas, to the birth of goodness, the coming of God, Emmanuel, who is with us every minute of every day.
You know, people would think you're either crazy or a Presbyterian minister if you went around all year saying, "Merry Christmas!" At the Dogwood Festival: "Merry Christmas!" At the beach in summer, "Merry Christmas!" At opening day of football season, "Merry Christmas!" Yes, you would be odd. But you wouldn't be wrong. You'd be right. Christmas can be any old day. And in fact, it is. The gift of God's presence comes again... and again... and again.
So, we begin the day after Christmas by saying, "Merry Christmas." O come, let us adore him. All year long.
James McTyre
Pastor, Lake Hills PCUSA
Stated Clerk, Presbytery of East TN
Office: 865-577-8510
Cell & SMS: 865-268-9628
Skype: jamesmctyre
