“Christmas 365.25 Days a Year” – Christmas 2, Year C Trinity Episcopal Church, Demopolis Luke 2:‐41‐52 J.D. Barnes+ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say – even as early as the day after Christmas Day – something a bit like this. “Well, now that Christmas is over with for the year, our lives can start getting back to normal.” Yes, let’s hurry up and take down the Christmas tree, put away all of those lights we spent so long stringing up everywhere – making sure the bulbs worked – and pack all of the decorations and haul everything back up to the attic ASAP. I’ve even heard people talk about there being a Southern Tradition of needing to have all of these chores completed before New Year’s Day, as though it is bad luck if this stuff is still up when everyone is vegetating in front of the TV, watching bowl games, or the Barney Miller marathon on WGN. I think this could be part of the very same Southern Tradition that says you absolutely must eat black‐eyed peas and greens on New Year’s Day – and wash your hands with a silver dollar – or you won’t be blessed, but I digress. Now, I should point out that I do understand this feeling of “getting on with” or “moving on from” the holidays all too well. I can remember when I was between the ages of 14 and 16 years old, I happened to work at the Chick‐fil‐A in the Gadsden Mall. Anybody familiar with the food service industry knows that after hours and hours of taking orders, running a cash register, standing in front of and cleaning greasy fryers, bagging food, taking out mountains of garbage and simply standing on your feet, you can’t help but want to get done with “holiday season.” But from Black Friday on to close‐of‐business Christmas Eve, the onslaught of hungry people just keeps coming and coming and coming. And truthfully, when people are hungry and stressed from the rush of the holidays – moreso than any other time – they aren’t too patient or friendly. But my days of working in food service are (hopefully) behind me permanently and now I am a priest in the church. I’ve quickly learned that being a priest means I am supposed to encourage people to do and think things which really aren’t that intuitive at all: e.g. like not being “so ready to get done with holidays” or at least re‐evaluating how we deal with a time like the Christmas season. And since we have arrived at the Second Sunday after Christmas Day – the 10th day of Christmas – I suppose there’s no better occasion to do this. It’s pretty obvious to me that our attitudes and behavior towards Christmas is heavily influenced by secular society rather than by the church. If you don’t believe this, then please tell me which one of the following 2 definitions of Christmas sounds like the one we actually subscribe to. (Definition #1) Christmas is a 2+ month festival, now beginning sometime in October, but getting earlier every year. It is about the buying, giving and receiving of gifts and the festival promptly ends on December 25th. If you had to name the season which comes after December 25th, you might refer to it as the Return and Exchange Season – the time when people take back all of the stuff that does not fit – because they had too much ham, turkey or in some cases, whiskey – or the stuff they really, really do not want. (Definition #2) Christmas is a 12 day festival, beginning, not ending on Christmas Day and lasting all the way through January 5th. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus – and what this should mean to this broken and fearful world we live in. If you had to name the season which comes after Christmas, your definition would have to include the strange word Epiphany. You would be sure to mention the magi (or wise men) coming to be witnesses to the birth of Jesus. You’d know that the Bible never actually tells us how many wise men there ‐ 1 ‐ “Christmas 365.25 Days a Year” – Christmas 2, Year C Trinity Episcopal Church, Demopolis Luke 2:‐41‐52 J.D. Barnes+ were, but that they brought 3 gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – and that’s why we like to sing the hymn “We Three Kings.” Doesn’t the first definition sound like the one closest to what we believe about Christmas? Sure, we could protest and say that, in reality, our celebration of the season tends to be sort of a combination of the two – but shouldn’t it still be closer to the latter, rather than the former? And maybe, just maybe, couldn’t the way we approach the holiday season be the very reason why we are we so relieved to get Christmas “over with?” Of course it is! When our expectations are primarily driven by tasks we must check off a list for everything to be absolutely perfect, we are bound to be held in the grip of pressure and anxiety – and those are places we can only dwell for so long. Contrast this with re‐visioning… really re‐capturing… the essence of truly living into the spirit of Christmas for what it is: living a life that is modeled after the Christ‐child. In living this life, we are sure to find that our expectations are primarily driven by a state of peace and contentedness in which we yearn to spend life eternal. In other words, if Christmas is “being done the right way” then it shouldn’t be something we are trying to get done with at all. No, it is a season we want to last not 1 day, or even 12 days, but 365¼ days a year. This brings me to our Gospel lesson for the day. I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about it a little, and it does (strangely) seem to fit into what I am talking about. I have always said this section from the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel is one of the most interesting passages in our Bible, if only for one little reason. This is a day where we catch a glimpse of the pre‐teen or “Tween Jesus,” and this is the only place in our Bible where we see Jesus in this way. Look around and you’ll see that everywhere else, Jesus is either a grown man or an infant. Talk about living in an uncomfortable state you just want to get done with! Even the term “tween” implies that you are in the liminal place between childhood and adulthood – and what could be more awkward than that? Well, like any good Jewish people of the time, Jesus’ parents had gone to Jerusalem in order to celebrate a festival… the festival of the Passover. As you know, the Passover was the commemoration that originated with the story in Exodus about the plagues that God had sent upon the Egyptians to encourage them to free the Israelites from bondage. There could be a little sad irony present in a story where the firstborn boy Jesus celebrates the Passover. Of course, the final plague, the one that accomplishes the goal of getting the Egyptians to free the Israelites is the death of their firstborn male children – and even animals or livestock. The irony is that, at the end of his life, it is the firstborn son of God who dies to free everyone from bondage to sin, but that’s another sermon for another day. The Passover festival lasted 7 days and after all of the celebration, Mary and Joseph were naturally ready to get on with life. They had to travel back home and let everything get back to normal. There was work to be done – do you know how I know? – because there is always work to be done! Although Mary and Joseph didn’t realize it at the time, their son Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem. Maybe it took them some ‐ 2 ‐ “Christmas 365.25 Days a Year” – Christmas 2, Year C Trinity Episcopal Church, Demopolis Luke 2:‐41‐52 J.D. Barnes+ time to realize that he wasn’t in the traveling party, but they returned to the city to look for him and after searching 3 days, they were astonished to find him in the temple among the teachers. From their reaction, it seems as if they did take Jesus’ actions a little personally. Mary tells her boy: "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." As parents, you do have to sympathize a little with Mary and Joseph. Jesus does seem to be a little precocious – which should make us all a little more patient and friendly, knowing we all have had our moments. But what’s the point of this? While there are plenty of interpretations to the story of the Tween Jesus, let me offer this one today. Jesus tells us that he was going to be found in his Father’s house because he wasn’t ready for the festival to be over and done with. No, it’s far more important that it go on. The tree may have to be put away – if you have a real one, it will eventually dry out anyway. The lights may have to be taken down and decorations put away – and no, it doesn’t make you a bad person if you’ve already done these things – but the spirit of Christmas should never, ever be put up for the year in the attic. It needs to remain a part of our lives and even then, never be left to gather dust. It needs to be exercised, just like the 12 year old boy right there in the temple in Jerusalem. Increasing in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. Want a New Year’s Resolution that is really worthwhile? Resolve to keep Christmas in your heart throughout 2010. Happy New Year! ‐ 3 ‐