What are you giving to yourself this Christmas?

Yes, I know. The whole point of Christmas is to let the focus be on the Christ story, on others, and not on ourselves. But I find that taking care of ourselves, emotionally and spiritually this time of year, will create greater openings for God’s story to continue to form us, plus keep us good for those around us. So, here are three lines of advice, straight out of the First Christmas, that I suggest we consider:

1. Praise God with the Heavenly Host. You remember when the angels chose to appear to the poor shepherds that night to tell them the Christ child was born? (see Luke 2:13). Luke, the storyteller, has us picture all the heavens filled with the biggest choir imaginable, singing for all they’re worth. I hope you’ll seek out opportunities to praise God with exuberance this season. Come to Messiah Sing concert. Join carolers on the sidewalk during our Christmas Open House. Laugh out loud at the Christmas Eve live Nativity as a hundred children bring all their innocence and mischief to the Bethlehem story.
2. Ponder these Things in your Heart. Once the shepherds heard all the angels singing at full-tilt, they ran to barge in on the holy family to tell them all they had heard. Mary listened, we are told, but let the power of God’s incarnation sit with her quietly. (see Luke 2:19) She ponders. So I also hope you and I do a bit of pondering in the coming weeks. Light a candle at your dinner table and sit in silence a moment before eating. Accompany someone to the Blue Christmas service who has just come through a hard year. Attend the Winter Solstice gathering December 21st with folks from other churches, and from no church, to anticipate greater light returning to the darkness. Stand under the night sky watching an early snow come down, with the mystery of winter quiet all around.
3. Go Home by Another Way. Those mysterious astrologer sages who came seeking the infant king figure out they need to avoid the corrupt King Herod, so they manage to avoid him on their way home by chang- ing course. (see Matthew 2:12). I see this as a call to take the long view, to let ourselves be changed a little, yet again, by this tale of God’s outrageous love working through a refugee family in the backwaters of the Roman Empire. We have all been through a trying election season just completed, where shallower aspects of human character showed themselves nightly on the news. Now it is time to invest new energy into causes that serve the common good of all God’s people. It is time to humanize all people. It is time to carry out lavish generosity and principled actions to make a difference in someone’s life who needs it. Especially now that the election is behind us, I invite you and me to look into 2017 with an activist faith that serves others with renewed vigor. This Christmas I need to give myself a fresh hearing of God’s call in my life, don’t you? It is the call I find clearest in the poem by Howard Thurman, an African-American theologian and civil rights leader, in his piece, “Now the Work of Christmas Begins” –

Aware of the Presence,

Pastor Chris

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 flocks, 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 the people,
to make music in the heart.

PS – You’ll find more information on more great experiences happening at Central Church this Christmas and beyond, go to Christmas at Central.