The First Sunday after Christmas Day

Life Goes On

Quite a few of the holy days of the church have complex titles with headings and subheadings. For example: The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Colon. Christmas Day. The Epiphany, or, The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. The First Sunday after the Epiphany. Colon. The Baptism of Our Lord.

Today could be called The First Sunday after Christmas Day. Colon. Life Goes On. Officially, of course, it is only the First Sunday after Christmas Day, which this year also happens to be the day after Christmas. Life Goes On.

For those of us who work in the church, it’s not as auspicious arrangement of the calendar when December 26 is a Sunday. The very next day after Christmas, I have to get up early, be “on” again? After all the energy put into three very different Christmas Services—two of which had their own homilies. Even for people not employed in the church, being a Christian is always work. It is much more than that, but it is also work. Life goes on.

Everyone today is surrounded by the aftermath of Christmas. Maybe that’s a warm glow, a lingering feeling of the best of human life and relationships. Maybe it’s pent up tension, the stress of human expectations, fulfilled and unfulfilled. Undoubtedly the aftermath of Christmas includes fatigue. But life goes on.

In England and some other parts of the former British Empire, December 26 is Boxing Day. Technically, I understand that this year the legal holiday will be tomorrow, December 27, because today is a Sunday, but I associate Boxing Day with December 26. A prominent custom of boxing day is for the wealthy, the privileged, to “box up” left over’s from their Christmas feast, or unwanted presents, and pass them along to tradespeople and servants. The “less fortunate.” More generally, Boxing Day is a time to give alms. The day after Christmas, poor are still with us. Life goes on. Life’s injustices go on.

Today is also St. Stephen’s Day. The day we commemorate the church’s first martyr. The day after Christmas, the day we remember and celebrate Christ’s birth, we remember Stephen, stoned to death for being a Christian. The ugliness of life goes on.

I understand that the retail industry in America has very high hopes for today. One headline I saw said, “Stars are aligned for a super Sunday.” Never mind the Magi’s star. Today is all about the post Christmas sale and exchange shopping extravaganza. And it’s a weekend! Yippee. American life goes on.

Life goes on.

For us today is the First Sunday after Christmas Day. It is the second Day of Christmas season. We are still celebrating the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. Life goes on with Jesus in it. This is the life Jesus was born to share, to transform and to redeem.

Life goes on with Jesus in it. I hope that makes a difference. For you. For the world.

Life goes on—with Jesus in it.