Still Christmas

 

As we celebrate the New Year, in the church we are still in the season of Christmas.  We are still harking with the angels, hasting with the shepherds, lowing with the cattle, and traversing a-faring with the Wise Ones.  I know all the decorations are on clearance at the store, if not completely gone to make way for Valentine’s Day.  I know the world is now pushing forward forgetting the smell of the dusty, drafty, dirty barn.  But as people of faith, we keep singing and showing up and sharing the good news of great joy for all the people.  Too often we forget that in John 3, Jesus says, “For God so loves the world!”  Not just the humans you like, but all people and all creatures (great and small) and the world.  So may these words bless you and guide you ~ inspire and infuse you and me and we in the coming days.  From Howard Thurman, ‘When the Song of the Angels is Stilled’

 

When the carols have been stilled,

When the star-topped tree is taken down,

When family and friends are gone home,

When we are back to our schedules

The work of Christmas begins:

   To welcome the refugee,

   To heal a broken planet,

   To feed the hungry,

   To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear,

   To share our gifts,

   To seek justice and peace for all people,

   To bring Christ’s light to the world.