29 Dec. 2013... John 1:1-18
- The Work of Christmas Now Begins
There is an old song (circa 1969) that goes like this:
1. 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!
2. To find the lost and lonely
one, To heal the broken would with love
To feed the hungry
children with warmth and good food, To feel the earth below the sky above!
3. To free the prisoner from all
chains, To make the powerful care
To rebuild the nations
with strength of goodwill, To see God’s
children everywhere!
4. 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!
CHORUS: 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.
The work of Christmas is to believe in Jesus Christ; and to
embrace his purpose by finding the lost and lonely, healing the broken, feeding
the hungry, freeing the prisoner and making the powerful care. While our striving for justice is crucial to
learning to engage the mystery of what we were meant to do and be, it is the
chorus of that song that gets emphasized by being sung five times. Notice that the chorus is about all of us
together, not each of us as an individual.
The work of Christmas is about God appropriating humanity - binding us
together. Doing the justice described
in verses 2-4 has everything to do with seeing through those issues to the real
people who are living those issues and going to them to stand with them person
to person - seeing all persons as neither problems nor issues, but people who
are good creations of God. When we can
choose to stand together, then the force of God's love can bind us as family
and the work of Christmas can begin to bring peace and justice to our world.
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