Christmas gets billed as a time of nostalgia with pictures from Currier and Ives, old images of Santa Claus, little children squeezing with delight as grandparents and parents smile at each other. But Christmas is more than looking back; it is looking forward with the expectation that we can truly build a new world of peace and justice for all.
The glow of Christmas Eve candlelight services is now over, and we look out at the sun, just breaking over the horizon, and we wonder how do we build this new world? It’s certainly not easy; in fact, it’s really difficult. It means putting our own interest second to the interests of those around us, the people for whom this child was born.
It’s easy to talk about love; it’s another thing to practice it. Throughout the Christmas Season, from now through Epiphany, we will continue to sing the carols, so familiar to us, but we need to take their meaning to heart. Luke’s gospel tells us that the birth was first announced to poor shepherds, not to kings. Thus, we are to live as if the poor really count and erase the societal cause that makes them poor.
Prayer for the Day
You come to us, O God, through a baby born into poverty;
Let us do more than remember that so many children are so born.
You come to us, O God, through a woman struggling in labor;
Let us do more than remember that so many mothers struggle.
Do more than engage us, galvanize us and empower us,
So we truly do more than pray but transform this world.
In the name of the One who is our soured of strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
“Truly He taught us to love one another; / His law is Love and His gospel is Peace; / Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, / And in his name all oppression shall cease, / Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we; / Let all within us praise his Holy name!
- Placide Cappeau, author of the lyrics (1808-1877)
I am that living feeling essence of the divine substance that glows in the beauty of the fields. I shine in the water.. I shine in the sun and the moon and the stars
- Hildegard of Bingen, poet, mystic (1098-1179)
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who herd it were amazed
Luke 2:15-18