I don’t know about you, but I always feel a little let down the day or two after Christmas. Christmas Eve is fun and exciting with all the services, and all the music, and all the people! Christmas Day is celebratory and fun with all the food and all the presents and all the family! Then the next day, the scatter of opened presents not put away, the remainder of ribbon sticking to your socks, the slightly bloated feeling of too much rich food and drink the day before. And the world is still what the world was on December 24 – both good and evil hanging out together, good news and bad news on the television, work done and left undone. There is a kind of miasma of unmet expectations hanging around the atmosphere on the days following Christmas.
Perhaps the feast days of the church immediately following Christmas Day will help us. Perhaps they will bring the joy back around again.
Or maybe not. December 26 is the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. You remember Stephen from the Book of Acts. Stephen is one who the apostles name to serve the table and serve the widows and recognized as one of the first deacons of the church. Apparently, Stephen was quite a preacher too, so much so that he is accused of blasphemy. He makes people so mad with his preaching that he is taken outside of the city and stoned to death.
It is doubtful that Hallmark is going to make a movie out of Stephen’s story anytime soon, so maybe we should move to December 27, the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. John and his brother James leave the family fishing business to follow Jesus. He is believed to be the “beloved disciple” in the Gospel of John, and he shows up with Peter in the Book of Acts. Lesser Feasts and Fasts says, “According to tradition, John later went to Asia Minor and settled at Ephesus. Under the Emperor Domitian, he was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he experienced the visions recounted in the Book of Revelation.”
Hmmm. Since the wildly different interpretations of the Book of Revelation have inspired the different theological world views within Christianity, and maybe you are still hooked by the argument you had with Great Uncle Joe after Christmas dinner about whether Jewish folks are a nationality or a religion, and about how to solve the geo-political situation in the Middle East, and what the world is coming to and .… Maybe John’s feast day on the 27th isn’t going to help us feel better after all.
So that brings us to December 28 – another feast day. Surely this day is one that will bring us more joy once again! Wait, no. This is the day we remember the Holy Innocents, the children massacred by Herod in an attempt to protect his reign from the birth of the new king known as Jesus (especially since the men from the East were no help and didn’t stop to see Herod on their way back home). You probably don’t want to read Matthew 2:13-18 as a bedtime story to your kids anytime soon.
So what do we do? What does this mean? Isn’t the Christmas season meant to bring us joy? Actually, it does. These stories just remind us that God was born into an imperfect world, and that imperfect people followed him then, and follow him now. The birth of the Savior of the world is an act of perfect love for an imperfect people. We receive God’s grace no matter how happy or sad our Christmas Eve, our Christmas Day, or any of the days following. For all our work to enjoy Christmas, we can lay down our cares, our exhaustion, our burdens in the arms of the one who said, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
May you continue to feast upon the knowledge of the love of God who came into this world to save us.
To read more about St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, click here.
To read more about St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, click here.
To read more about the Holy Innocents, click here.