1st Sunday after Christmas
Dec 27, 2020
Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 147:13-21; John 1:1-18
We gather together on this Sunday morning…just three short days into the season of Christmas…For many people, Christmas has come and gone already…..and everything has gone back to “normal”…the tree is down, the Christmas music put away for another year…the cookies have been eaten, and the presents unwrapped and in the toybox now, or on the shelf with the other new books, or hanging in the closet with other warm winter clothing, to wear in the cold days ahead….
So, it is with much gratitude in my heart this morning, that in the church, the celebration of Christmas is just beginning…the good news proclaimed to the world on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day…Joy to the world…the Lord is come…is still with us….the light of Christmas, and the afterglow of the candles and the light and the life that came into the world, is still lingering among us…
Emmanuel…God is with us…
Not just in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations… but in the hope and abiding faith, that this love, this light, this joy, this peace of God is poured out for us, day after day, night after night….and for all our days to come…
In the three short days, into the Christmas season, we’ve all probably experienced a roller coaster of emotions…tears of sorrow and joy in the quiet of Christmas Eve…tears of sorrow and joy in the Christmas Day celebrations, and tears of sorrow and joy, in the tiredness of the day after Christmas…
For me, that brings us gently back to the beginning again, on this first Sunday after Christmas… reminding us to pause once again, at the start of this new day…to take a deep breath…to breath in the gift of the fullness of God’s grace upon grace, as we gather to remember the God of love who has come so very near to us, shining light into the darkness from the very beginning, as we are reminded in our gospel reading from John today…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
In a time when nothing seems to fit the description of “normal” anymore, and perhaps as our emotions continue to fluctuate between sorrow and joy, in reflecting on our Christmas celebrations this year…and as we begin to imagine what’s next in the unfolding days of our current pandemic…and what is to come in 2021….
Take heart…the good news of Christmas is that God is with us from the very beginning, and the life and the light, that has come into the world for us, in the birth of Jesus, will be the light that can guide us and comfort us in the midst of our darkest moments, in the midst of our roller coaster of emotions that are very “normal” part of what it means to be a living and breathing human being…striving to navigate a world that can be scary and full of uncertainties at times, striving to love one another in times when we just don’t know how we can, striving to remain hopeful when we feel like we just can’t breathe anymore, we just can’t see the light ahead anymore….
Take heart….good care of your heart….Emmanuel…God is with us… God has been with us from the beginning, God is with us now…God will be with us for all our days to come…
The good news proclaimed to the world in this Christmas season…and especially on this day…. reminds us of one of God’s gift to us… the gift of grace upon grace…..God’s gift of grace that is given to us, again and again on every new day, in every new beginning, with every new breath we take…and breathe in the love and the light and the hope and the joy and the peace of God….
…. the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. …From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
It is in the hope and abiding faith, that this grace, this grace upon grace, this love, this light, this joy, this peace of God is poured out for us, day after day, night after night….and for all our days to come…
Joy to the World! The Lord is come….
Let’s celebrate this good news this morning, on the third day of Christmas, with the song of the angels….Hark! the herald angels sing glory to the newborn King!
1 Hark! the herald angels sing
glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with the angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Hark! the herald angels sing
glory to the newborn King!
2 Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate Deity.
Pleased as man with man to dwell;
Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! the herald angels sing
glory to the newborn King!
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church