The first Sunday of Christmas - December 30, 2012

As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

• When I lived and ministered in northern Texas, after our Christmas Day meal, a few of us would get in a car and go out to look at the lights and decorations on the houses. It seemed we never had time to do this before Christmas Day. Among all the lights and decorations and inflatable things on people's lawns, we'd often see what we considered to be a sad sight – we'd see Christmas trees already tossed out for the garbage with the torn wrapping paper... and this on Christmas night!
• I have to admit that we found this troubling. First, for the bunch of us, Christmas was a season, not a one day celebration. Christmas extended until Epiphany. My family celebrated Christmas that way as well. Part of that was to honour the tradition of many of our friends who were Christians of the Orthodox or Eastern Catholic churches. Part of it was our own church traditions. And part of it was simply a desire not to let Christmas go.
• For many of us, there's a desire not to let Christmas go, but to carry on the celebration beyond the usual times for such a celebration.
• Well, there is a way and it doesn't involve keeping our houses decorated for Christmas for most of the year. Our reading from Paul's letter to the Colossians tells us a way to live Christmas rather than simply to celebrate it one day or a few days out of the month.
• As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
• Paul is telling us that we are chosen by God to be holy and in that we emulate Christ Jesus – in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. What Paul called “meekness” is not what we'd understand it to be. For us, being “meek” implies the inability to stand up for one's self, or in plain word, to be a doormat. In Paul's understanding, it is related to humility and the willingness to be small. It is the ability to see ourselves as we are.
• Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
• Forgiveness is certainly a way for us to imitate or emulate Jesus, who forgave his executioners and preached forgiveness to all. This flow from the forgiveness we each have received from God. We only know how to forgive because we have first been forgiven. One more modern translation of the Lord's Prayer puts it this way: “forgive us our sins, and in the same way, we forgive those who have sinned against us.”
• Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Indeed there is no better way to follow, learn from, and imitate Jesus than to love. It is what Jesus called his new commandment, given to his disciples at the Last Supper : Love one another.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Being peaceful and thankful are often easier said than done. Still, these are more attitudes and ways of being than emotions or feelings. We need not feel grateful to actually be grateful. In the same way, we need not feel peaceful to believe that Christ's peace is already our's.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.

Here Paul reminds his listeners and readers to make use of the Word of God, to teach, to instruct, to correct and to pray. Again, living in the Word of God is more a matter of attitude and dedication than it is a matter of feeling it.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Lastly, Paul tells the Christians at Colossae (and through them, us) to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Our entire lives, each and every day, can be dedicated to the following of Jesus, making every day a sort of Christmas. There is nothing good or healthy or even joyful that cannot be done in the name of the Lord, not as an act of worship necessarily, but with thanksgiving to God for the ability and the opportunity. I suppose that would also mean that whatever can't be done with gratitude in the name of the Lord, might be something we might not want to do it at all.

So we can be children of the Manger, people of the Incarnation each and every day. I suppose we will take down the decorations when the time comes and I suppose we will look forward to the next year's celebration. I'd hope we would keep the light of the manger, the awe of the shepherds, the gifts of the Magi, and a constant eye to the presence of God within us and among us, each and every day.

Christmas is not just a day; it is a season. Christmas is not just one holiday; it is every day.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.