I’ll be honest — it becomes more and more difficult to hold the Christmas thread as the days between December 25 and today grow in number. And even harder when the world around you is shouting “Happy New Year!” and preparing to go back to their routines of work and whatever tomorrow morning.  I suppose this is where the concept of the great both/and comes into play — for today is indeed still Christmas and it is also the first day of a brand, spanking-new calendar year.  So, Happy New Year, and again, Merry Christmas.

I am not surprised that Bruce Epperly captures this tension in his reflection today in The Work of Christmas.  He begins by recounting the story of Joseph (Matt 1:18-25) in this nativity drama, a story almost forgotten as we focus on the mother and then on the child, but a story that resonates with his chosen quotation from Howard Thurman’s work:

The true meaning of Christmas is expressed in the sharing of one’s graces in a world in which it is so easy to become callous, insensitive, and hard. Once this spirit becomes part of a [person]’s life, every day is Christmas and every night is freighted with the dawning of fresh, and perhaps holy, adventure (62).

Joseph’s reaction in a difficult cultural situation may just be the true meaning of Christmas as defined by Thurman.  And, it may be the highest calling that we can embrace as we move into this new year, in a world that often seems at war with itself in so many ways.  Will we allow the feelings of callousness and insensitivity that seem to dominate the air around us to win, or will we follow words like these, offered by Epperly, and take a different path:

Christmas calls us to follow our highest and best visions of ourselves in our daily lives, occupations and avocations, and citizenship. It asks that we set aside selfishness and reach out, past our differences, offering love, forgiveness, and healing to every situation we encounter (62-63).

Joseph, according to Epperly, show us this “incarnation of graceful relatedness.”  Joseph indeed shows us how to live as if Christmas is every single day of our lives.

And so, on this New Year’s Day, this 8th Day of Christmas, I choose to join with Joseph, and Thurman, and Epperly, and accept God’s invitation to yet another holy adventure.  I will do what I can to be a Christmas light each and every day, to be (to paraphrase Epperly) a large-souled person, making living by grace and through grace my personal goal with everyone.   I will cherish what I do not completely understand, and I will love anyway.  That is what it means to live as if every day is Christmas day.

Amen, and amen again.  Happy New Year, everyone.