Witness. Tell. Ponder. Praise. Name.
Today’s Gospel, seven familiar verses from the second chapter of Luke, feels a bit like an epilogue to the Christmas story, a sort of postscript. We’ve just missed the heavenly host – the angels have gone back home again, their singing is finished. The next visitors to Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus are the shepherds from the fields, much less glamorous than the Magi bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The shepherds go on their way. Mary ponders. And in the very last verse, eight days have passed, and it’s time for that rather uncomfortable traditional ritual in a baby boy’s life at the time – circumcision.
And we are in something of an epilogue today, it feels like – the secular celebrations of Christmas have pretty much ended in the world outside the church; New Year’s Eve has come and gone, with its parties and concerts – many of us are going back to work this week if we haven’t already, or coming back from holiday vacations or trips to see family. It’s the new year, and we’re moving forward, not looking backward. All the gifts are opened, the New Year’s resolutions are freshly made, the stockings are emptied and the decorations are starting to come down. Today at 10:30 we have our traditional Lessons and Carols service, but then the wreaths will come down and the creche will be put away, and next Sunday we will be in a new liturgical season – Epiphany.
But this epilogue – both the Gospel we just read, and the epilogue that it feels like we are living in – holds such beauty, and such significance. These seven verses I would suggest are not so much a postscript as they are a bridge – they are quiet, holy moments following the long journey to Bethlehem, the midnight birth of a child, the glory of angels filling the heavens, a bright new star in the sky – they are a bridge from the festivity and music and excitement of this season into a world that was and is transformed by Christmas, 2,000 years ago in a stable in Bethlehem, and Christmas now, in our present time, in this church, in this city, in this world.
This passage speaks to how we might carry Christmas with us into Epiphany and the seasons to follow, how we might move into the new year with the song of angels still in our ears. It gives us five practices, five ways of thinking about our work as Christians, and our work as a church, beyond the angels, the Christmas tree and the holiday celebrations. Witness. Tell. Ponder. Praise. Name.
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.
First: Witness. In Luke’s telling of Christ’s birth, the shepherds are the first to know. Poor, itinerant, uneducated, low class, the shepherds were the ones the angels opened the heavens for. They went with haste to the stable, the kind of warm, smelly, animal-filled shelter they knew well, and they saw – they witnessed – and they believed – that in the poorest of places and to the poorest of people, God came into the world.
Tell.
When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.
The shepherds didn’t keep the news to themselves. Maybe people listened to them, maybe they didn’t – some might have thought they were making up stories to get attention – a sky full of angels? The son of God born in a barn? Really? The shepherds have been called the first evangelists, regular, ordinary people, spreading the news of hope, of light, of peace, a new world born in a small child.
But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
Ponder.
Mary, after the emotional turmoil of the preceding months – a visit from an angel, an impossible pregnancy, a confrontation with Joseph, a journey to Bethlehem, childbirth – in a barn – she stops, she takes time to reflect. She treasures all these words and ponders them in her heart. Mary, New Testament scholar Raymond Brown points out, is living out the role of disciple, from nearly the moment of giving birth. Her work is not done, and her journey for next 33 years of her son’s life will not be easy. If the shepherds are evangelists, she is the contemplative, seeking an understanding of her son and his purpose, praying, reflecting, spending time with what has happened.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Fourth: Praise. The shepherds are transformed by joy, by the hope of what they have witnessed, the gift of a sky full of angels and a baby born in the darkest of nights. They respond with gratitude and worship, a gift back to God. Praise is no longer something reserved for the temple, but something that is lived.
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Finally: Name. And be named. Today is, in our liturgical calendar, not only the second Sunday of Christmas but also the Feast Day of the Holy Name, when Christ was circumcised and given his name in ritual. We are similarly named in the Christian tradition when we are baptized. Naming is a significant act of community, an act of love.
As Jesus is named at his birth in a community of faith, so are we named. And as God names and loves us, we are to name and love each other – carpenter and emperor, shepherd and magi, the forgotten and the powerful. The gift of Christmas to poor shepherds; to a young mother and father; to a people oppressed by empire, was the gift of love for every person, regardless of anything. That message is wound through the story of Jesus’ birth, and would become the message of his teaching and his death and resurrection.
Witness. Tell. Ponder. Praise. Name. At the risk of giving you a New Year’s resolution assignment, I would invite you to consider these practices, these calls to Christian work. Where can we do more? Where can we be more intentional? And what do we do with the hope of Christmas – “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace” – what is our role in that peace? Where are the angels singing in our lives beyond Christmas?
[Witness. Tell. Ponder. Praise. Name. What do those practices look like in action? How do they fit into a world transformed by the birth of Christ? What is our role in that transformation?]
I’ll close with one perspective, the words of theologian Howard Thurman – “The Work of Christmas.”
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.
Amen.
