What Will You Do After Christmas?

What Will You Do After Christmas?

Good Morning Friends,

Today is St. Stephen’s Day… commonly known as Boxing Day. It is a day mentioned in the familiar Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas and marks the first day in the Twelve Days of Christmas that ends on the Feast of the Epiphany. Its origins are found in the practice of giving cash or goods to the poor and in some ways were about preserving class lines. Few Americans have any inkling that there is a holiday, on December 26. Despite the lively images suggested by the name, Boxing Day, it has nothing to do with fighting or getting rid of excess boxes, but likely, more closely linked to putting money in the poor box, as a special collection the day following Christmas.   What Will You Do After Christmas?

Scripture: if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

Isaiah 58:10 (NRSV)

But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday on which they send gifts of food to one another. Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. So the Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun to do, as Mordecai had written to them.

Esther 9:18-23 (NRSV)

When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’ When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.

Matthew 2:9-2:16 (NRSV)

Message: Today’s scripture links the spirit of the Jewish Holiday of Purim, the story of Esther and one of my favorite passages in Isaiah with the day after Christmas and the dramatic events of the wise men’s visit to Mary and Joseph, and of Herod and the massacre of infants and Christ’s escape into Egypt. It is about Joseph’s dream and obedience. And God’s provision and plan. It is about crossing class lines….about being a Christian in the larger community. It is about doing something to bring gladness to someone who has few pleasures. It is about challenging authority. It is about doing something to drive off sadness…about making another’s dreams come true. Interestingly, since I have eaten too much over the last few days, I find it appropriate that some of today’s scriptures are also linked to fasting. The message is clear. We can do with a little less. We can experience the pure joy of living in the kindness and peace of giving just a little bit more in the face of a world filled with evil. We can follow our dreams in the protection and plan of God.

Pray we realize that being a Christian does not protect us from the troubles of the world. Pray we realize that in the midst of troubles the safest place to be in is God’s will. Pray we realize that in it all and through it all God is in charge. Pray we realize that it is always a great idea that we answer the call to serve the poor. Pray that our hearts be filled with love and thanksgiving when we are called before the King. Pray that we realize that God is working out the details of our ultimate provision in His mercy and for His ultimate glory. Pray that we continue to celebrate the joy even after Christmas. Pray our post-Christmas blues are turned into praise and purpose. Pray we have faith in the joy of what is to come.

Blessings,

John Lawson