Loading...Merry Christmas! I am so happy to say that to you and happy to celebrate my first Christmas at St James. Since arriving here in March, I feel reborn in many ways. One of my favorite things about St James Church is the St. James Preschool. The sheer vitality and innocence of the 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s classrooms permeates the entire building. The children made beautiful music with their tiny enthusiastic voices and jingle bells at the Christmas concert last week. I always look forward to school chapel especially. I never get tired of seeing the children’s faces and hearing their prayers. The students on the other hand do get tired.
Recently at the end of the long list of the ‘God blesses’ — God bless our parents, God bless our pets, God bless our teachers, — 3-year old Clark spoke up and said, “Can we be done now?”
Yes, let’s be done now.
You might be feeling done right about now. Has Christmas been work for you? If you are like me, December 25th feels like a deadline by which all kinds of good deeds must be completed, gifts delivered, comfort and joy achieved. Phew!
In my upbringing, the holiness of Christmas must be tidied quickly in preparation for the next event, either work, or company coming again, or New Year’s Eve, or 12th night party. Double Phew! As a child, I watched adults operate as if you don’t get everything done for December 25th it certainly cannot ever be done.
Newly reborn to the joy of Christmas. I no longer treat December 25th as a finish line. I haven’t baked all the baking or wrapped all the wrapping or visited all the visits and Christmas has come anyway. Christmas is all about the baby. Is there one thing you can do to tell a baby being born, ‘just wait until I am ready.’ The baby will always come when he comes.
Baby-timing is why Clark’s question rings true for holy nights like tonight: “Can we be done, now?” Yes, Clark, we can be done now. The baby has arrived and all the preparations that happen for a baby — the nursery, the car seat, the adorable outfits — do any of those things matter to the baby. What matters to the baby? The only thing that matters is that we are done with all that and we are there for one thing and one thing only: to hold the baby close.
No matter how many schools we have attended, or how many prayers we pray, nothing can match that feeling just holding the baby close. In order to hold the baby I must be done with all the fussing over the baby. If you are looking for the final vision for being done for all time in Holy Scripture look mostly in the Book of Revelation, especially chapter 21. You might want to read that after a cup of strong coffee. Revelation 21, the ultimate answer to Clark’s question, when God says, we are done; it is finished. Chapter 21 describes how that which we need no longer be shall no longer be and that which is most important is all that is celebrated forever and forever.
In the meantime we still have schools to attend and prayers to pray and time to fill with holding the baby close. Some of us don’t have actual babies or have babies anymore. For us the world is our baby. God gives the world to us to hold close as if it is a brand new gift. You might be saying, “does this preacher know that the world is not a vital and innocent baby like the kids in this Preschool?” I agree, indeed the world is old and weary and very very dark. Into a weary dark world comes the Light of the World, known only to others through our hands and hearts and voices, beautiful voices lifted in song.
So from the lips of someone who understands the healing power of vitality and innocence in a world of death and sin, I give you Howard Thurman describing the work of Christmas:
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 the people,
to make music in the heart.
“The Work of Christmas” composed by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader.
