The Work of Christmas

Christmas meditation by Carrie Eikler
Colossians 3:12-17

By a show of hands, who got what they wanted for Christmas?

Now--and I don’t mean to get anybody in trouble here--raise your hand if you got what you really wanted for Christmas. Not as many, huh? Maybe you didn’t raise you hand because that’s a trickier question than it sounds. Maybe you had to pause and ask what do I really want?

Maybe, you did want that iPhone you got, but what you really want is your mother to be free of her cancer. Maybe you did want that WVU Sunggie under the tree, but what you really want is to feel happy again. Maybe your child did want that Zhu-zhu pet or Nintendo Wii, but maybe what they really wanted was your understanding. Or maybe you did want to hear from all your family and acquaintances through their family Christmas letters, but what you really wanted was to trade your 142 Facebook friends in for one true friend who you could really confide in.

So, did you get what you really wanted for Christmas?

On Christmas morning it is easy to get what we want under the tree. At least, it’s easy to be satisfied with what someone has guessed we wanted. It is not so easy to wrap up those things that our hearts really yearn for. And there’s the difference: the difference between our wants and our yearnings. Our yearnings seem to take a lot more attention than our simple wants. They seem to come from a different place within us than where our materialistic desires come from.

What do you truly yearn for? Is it to be relieved of your deepest fear? [cloud] Is it to get rid of everything that distracts you from a full and faithful life? [sun] Is it to finally come into balance with God, and God’s deepest yearning for you? [world] Or, as we would have explored last Sunday had the weather not been so bad, is your deepest yearning some illumination of a new path? [star] What is the breaking in and busting out you long for?

I think if we explored those yearnings we’d see they occupy a different level of desire than our wants. We might see a common theme running through our yearnings and the yearnings of others. We’d see a yearning for relationships, for healing, for friendship, for faith, for happiness without all the trappings of the wrappings. Our yearnings come from our soul. If we try to address our yearnings, and the yearnings of this broken and blessed world, we discover that it takes work.

Today, the work of Christmas begins. The anthem today emphasizes this point. Jim Strathdee wrote the song the choir sang, in response to a Christmas poem by Howard Thurman, a civil rights leader and theologian. In case you didn’t catch all the words of this anthem, hear them again: “When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the shepherds have found their way home, the work of Christmas is begun.” [1]

And according to the Thurman, the work of Christmas looks something like this, as the song suggests: “to find the lost and lonely one, To heal the broken soul with love, To feed the hungry children with warmth and good food, to feel the earth below, the sky above! To free the prisn’er from all chains, To make the powerful care, To rebuild the nations With strength of good will, To see God’s children every where! To bring hope to every task you do, To dance at a baby’s new birth, To make music in an old person’s heart, and sing to the colors of the earth.”

Paul, in his letter to the Colossians knew about this work, too. Christmas as we understand it and celebrate it certainly didn’t exist in his time. But if he had words for us, in these days following Christmas 2009, he would likely encourage us to return those sweaters from LL Bean, or those pants from Banana Republic, or pajamas from Target. Trade them in for work clothes, work clothes that help us meet some of those yearnings of our hearts, and the world: clothe yourself with the work clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Strap on a pair of work boots, that prepare you to jump into the dirty work of forgiving those who have hurt you, and for asking for forgiveness yourself. Wrap yourselves in the Snuggie that is big enough for more than just you, and wrap others up in it, in love and warmth.

Today the work of Christmas begins--The work to address the yearnings of our lives and the world, not simply the wants. And it’s not just God’s work. It’s God’s gift to us to be a part of this work. Christ came to the earth, through a lot of hard work, to show us the ways, the tools, the clothes to put on so we can begin to fulfill those deepest yearnings.

The anthem this morning began with that promise: “I am the light of the world! You people come and follow me! If you follow and love You’ll learn the mystery Of what you were meant to do and be.”

What a gift that is. Now, the work of Christmas is begun.





[1] “I am the Light of the World” words and music by Jim Strathdee, in response to a Christmas poem by Howard Thurman entitled “The Work of Christmas”