Wait, it's STILL Christmas!
Yes, it is December 26, which simply means we are on day two of the twelve days of Christmas. If we hold to the sacred calendar; which is the calendar that provided us with our historical calendar, then we find ourselves situated on the second day of the Christmas season.
Ok, lets back up. Advent is four weeks of active anticipation of the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ… or what we know as Christmas day. Advent is laced with a heightened awareness that the more of life is situated before us; while simultaneously percolating within us. Advent is a calling, a summons to contemplate the wonder and awe of how the Divine came to us as one of us.
Advent is its own season… which guides us into the season known as Christmas. And Christmas begins on December 25, which is simply… day one. Traditionally, the season of Christmas is twelve days of contemplating the Christ among us… as one of us… who is eternally for us. I know the larger culture often runs itself ragged leading up to Christmas day, accumulating all the things, then crashes from the chaos on Christmas night. Next, the secular calendar turns the page to New Years Eve, where more flurry and hurry add to the equation. No thanks.
Tradition invites us to slow down and ruminate on the radiant Christ; for twelve… full… days. Honestly, the slower pace is my favorite part of the season. The kids are out of school the weather pleads with us to slow down, stay in, and meditate on meaning… not giving in to the incessant demand for more. And no, this is not about religious piety, which might be some peoples hang-up or judging mind at work. The poiunt is to listen to the soul of the season, and honor the depth of a life lived with a sustainable rhythm. A life lived with purpose, on purpose.
The traditional twelve days of Christmas have been rewiring me and reshaping the way I do my work as a pastor. I spent plenty of years cranking up and churning out all sorts of Christmas programs. Activities that called on staff to work, work, work… and volunteers to squeeze every minute and moment into making and baking, then inviting every single person they know to the Winter Wonderland/Christmas Carnival/Grinch Who Stole Jesus Extravaganza… complete with elves rappelling from the ceiling and the drummer situated on a motorized kit designed to look like Santa’s sleigh. It was even more exhausting than that ridiculous description sounds. All to celebrate God with us… in the form of a baby born into poverty… proclaimed by some of societies lowest and least likely folks… shepherds.
Christmas is and has alwasy been about God with us, as one of us, in the form of a first-century peasant named Jesus. The simplicity announces divinity.
This brilliance that has reshaped my faith and replaced the rat race with a contemplative pace. I do not need to fight or compete with the culture of consumerism. I do not fret that we are taking the Christ out of Christmas. No one can take Christ out of Christmas because Christ is our very existence. Of course, people can ignore it, intellectually disagree with it, and choose to live for a self-focused end. But I have yet to meet anyone who makes or sustains life, absent of the gift and mystery of breath. So, I want to move slowly, creating space for reflection and adoration. I have thoroughly appreciated and celebrated the last several years of Christmas, through the paradox of growing in simplicity. Our church gatherings, spanning from the final few years with the Front Porch in Muskegon to the first five years with Walker Harbor, have been rather… simple. We gather on Christmas Eve to share in the wonder of song, listen to the voice of the Biblical narrative, then offer a reflection on the awe of Christ with us, as one of us. And we prefer the simplicity of candlelight over the fanfare of stage lights.
I hope the Christmas season is not something to recover from; but a season that catapults us into the new year… with new life. I find it baffling that we sing, “Silent night, holy night. All is calm, and all is bright,” yet too-often Christmas, is loud, frantic, and crashes into a form of depression.
Friends, may we slow down and enjoy the awe and wonder of this season. We have twelve days, not one, so even if a blizzard were to shift the initial plans… we will be just fine. If it is not Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, then maybe day two or three, six or twelve of the Christmas season. We are just starting the celebration and adoration, which is life-giving rather than life-zapping… because it’s not about buying or giving presents. That can be fun, and I am by no means against the practice of giving. But Christmas is and has always been about basking in Divine Presence. To make it about something else, or get caught up in the frenzy of shopping and the piling on of production, will likely lead to growing anxiety and exhaustion. But that is a choice we can make, or we can say no thank you.
May you choose to celebrate Christmas with Presence. Which, as a reminder, is only in day two.
