What to do after Christmas Day…

What do we do with the days after Christmas? We’ve eaten too much and we clergy people are still absolutely done in. The Archdruid Eileen had it right in a post especially as my head is spinning and I’ve picked up an annoying cough from somewhere…

You've done 3 lots of carolling, umpteen assemblies, Christingles, Nativities, Advent Study Groups, crib Services, and written next month's "Thought" for the parish magazine.

You've eaten your own weight in mince pies and stollen. Drunk more coffee and mulled wine than would comfortably fit in Willen Lake.

You fitted in two weddings and six funerals.

Now you’ve just got three Midnight Masses, a dawn service, and a mid-morning service to go.

(And, quite likely, Christmas and Boxing Day meals to cook).

Then it's "you time". Time to relax. Let all the adrenaline go.

It's time to  go down with the 'flu.

Enjoy it. You've earned it.

We went out for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day which was a new experience and much enjoyed then we blobbed in front of Christmas telly. Gavin and Stacey gave us the happy ending we hoped for. Then I slept twelve and a half hours into Boxing Day and in the afternoon caught up with Wallace and Gromit and the evil Feathers McGraw. Superb!

There comes a point where the excess of Christmas becomes too much. I think this year more so because it’s been going on since mid November. We had lunch in Harrogate today and on the menu were chocolate orange pancakes. I was tempted, but I couldn’t do it! A lot of people will in these days have begun to take Christmas decorations down. There are crème eggs in the shops! 

But!!

We had a minister at home who came for a year from the Uniting Church of Australia. His name was Brian Whitlock. He was a very loud and lively Australian! He made us learn Advance Australia Fair and sing it at church socials. But what I remember most about Brian was that he tried to ban Christmas carols until the arrival of Christmas Day. There had to be a small compromise with the choir but I saw his point. This is now the Christmas season and it lasts at least until Epiphany on 6 January and actually until Candlemas, 2 February, 40 days after Jesus’ birth when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple. I’ll be thinking about that on Sunday. 

These days after Christmas are filled with a number of minor festivals, days which we seldom observe unless they happen to fall upon a Sunday. These festivals help us understand just what this birth in a manger means. 

The 26th, yesterday, was the feast of St. John the Apostle. He of course wrote the Gospel and other books in our New Testament. His life was one of lengthy and devoted service. He is the Apostle of Incarnation, struggling to get his people of his day to see that the enfleshment of God in Christmas was vital to the Christian faith. God really does love this physical world and by taking up the flesh of a broken humanity he has redeemed the whole of this physical world. The prologue to his Gospel is perhaps the most beautiful part of Scripture when read in the King James Version. 

The 27th, today, is the feast of St. Stephen, the traditional end of the big party that was Christmas. And when Advent was penitential and the celebration did not start until Christmas Eve, that party would go for several days. Of course, this festival really seems out of place for the fuzzy sentimentality which marks commercial Christmas. This is the tragic death of an innocent man, stoned outside the walls of Jerusalem. Yet, this baby who lies in a manger will come to a cross, and he calls all his followers to take up a cross and follow him on that dusty and dreary road to Calvary. Stephen did. 

The 28th is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the children who were murdered by Herod in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus birth. One commentator estimates that this was about 24 children considering the size of the community. This dark day also stands in stark contrast to the bright cheerfulness of Christmas but is quite necessary. The Saviour came because the world in which we live is so dark. The darkness has not overcome it, but the darkness can be very dark. By insisting that the world is bright and cheery, we often cause people whose lives are darkened by sin to despair. We need in this time of Christmas to remember that Jesus came because our lives are indeed in need of the very salvation which he wrought. 

So we travel through the season of Christmas, and we pray it be real. The froth and excess food cannot go on for ever but these days remind us of the implication of God coming. That coming has to be enough to get us through whatever we have to face ahead. And it will if we remember the gift abides in us when the decorations and excitement have long ended. 

This hymn, lost from our current book expresses to me what Christmas that is deep and pastoral really means… 

And art Thou come with us to dwell,
Our Prince, our Guide, our Love, our Lord?
And is Thy Name Emmanuel,
God present with His world restored?

The world is glad for Thee! the rude
Wild moor, the city's crowded pen;
Each waste, each peopled solitude,
Becomes a home for happy men.

Thou bringest all again; with Thee
Is light, is space, is breadth and room
For each thing fair, beloved, and free
To have its hour of life and bloom.

Thy reign eternal will not cease;
Thy years are sure, and glad, and slow;
Within thy mighty world of peac
The humblest flower hath leave to blow.

Then come to heal thy people's smart,
And with Thee bring thy captive train;
Come, Saviour of the world and heart,
Come, mighty Victor over pain,

And let our earth's wild story cease
Its broken tale of wrong and tears;
Come, Lord of Salem, Prince of Peace,
And bring again our vanished years.

The world is glad for Thee! the heart
Is glad for Thee! and all is well,
And fixed and sure, because Thou art,
Whose Name is called Emmanuel.