Did you know that the 12 Days of Christmas start on Christmas, not before? And did you know that The Twelfth Night isn't just a Shakespearean comedy, but the feast on the Eve of Epiphany?
It is still Christmas!
Even though the radio stations have stopped playing the music. Even though the stores have replaced the green and red and gold with pink and red and heart-shaped things. Even though half the gifts given on December 25th are broken or used up or exchanged.
Is is still Christmas!
We have chosen to celebrate our own birth on the anniversary of the day we entered into the world. But with Jesus' birth, we set aside nearly 2 full weeks to celebrate and remember. And we don't quibble about the date, either. Regardless of if his actual birth happened in the spring, the church has chosen December 25th for our commemoration to begin!
And yes, there is a ton of discussion about the motives for choosing this date.
I'm not planning on getting into that debate here.
Each year, throughout the year, we mark the milestones of Jesus' life. Surely we can all agree that he lived 33 years (approximately), not just one. So even to condense the commemorations of his life into a single year is illogical. Our celebrations are not about logic. This is about pausing in our current lives to remember the life of the One.
Christmastide is when we look at the events surrounding His birth - since God choosing to enter this life and take on the skin of humanity is rather significant. There is too much story - too much history - to squish into one day's celebration. So we have 12 days of Christmastide. Twelve days where we slowly retell the stories and reflect on the impact those events from 2000 years ago have on our lives today. So therefore...
It is still Christmas!
In the days since Christmas, there have been days of celebration remembering Saint Stephen the martyr, John the Evangelist, and Thomas Becket. Today we celebrate Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus as a family - first-time parents (and young ones, at that) with all the trials and joys that come with working out how to be three people together as one unit.
More notable for the majority of believers (and recognizable to all, not just believers) is the remembrance during this past week of the Massacre of the Innocents. King Herod was so incensed to hear of a new King born in his kingdom that he ordered all young boys to be slaughtered - in order to protect his throne for himself and his sons.
There is nothing warm and fuzzy about that part of the Christmas story. There really is no way to romanticize this part of the story into something sweet and angelic. And yet - it is part of the story we are revisiting. We can't skip this part. We can't pretend that there weren't parents in mourning all throughout the land. While we may want to imagine Mary and Joseph and Jesus tucked away somewhere warm and sweet and protected, their reality was much more harsh. They were poor, unmarried, young, and temporarily living in a strange city. They were first-time parents struggling to figure out feeding schedules and diapers and sleeping (or... not sleeping). There were strange people stopping by to see the baby - from the lowliest of shepherds to the richest of Wise Ones (scholars for sure, and possibly even kings). And they were under a direct threat from the current king - Herod.
The threat was so real, an angel was sent to warn Joseph to take his little family into hiding. Run further away from family and friends and everything that they knew, and hide away in a land and country that they did not know. And because of this little family, baby boys were murdered... simply because Herod felt threatened. Yes, Herod was a nasty (and crazy) guy - but the pain he inflicted was real. Mothers and fathers all throughout Bethlehem were in mourning, while Mary and Joseph were hiding their little one far away.
That's the icky part of the Christmas history. The part we tend to gloss over while we remember the good stuff (or at least the "better than that" stuff). But...
Is it still Christmas!
Christ was born. Christ lived. Christ suffered. Christ was here - so that Easter could happen. So that hope could come into our lives. So that redemption could be offered. So that life could win over death.
Remember those who came before us in faith. Remember the pain of lives lost - both then and now. And look forward to the Easter part of the story - the redemption, the salvation, the life.
