The Twelve Days

The culture and economy may move on with "post-Christmas" sales and plans for New Year's parties, but we began our new year with the First Sunday of Advent and are only now in the Christmas season. Wondrous, stark holy days filled with mysteries await. Today is St. Stephen's Day, deacon and first martyr of the church, a good day to give to the poor as did "Good King Wenceslaus" of the old carol. St. John's Day follows on the 27th (Mass here at 9:30 AM), a day to luxuriate in the light of the incarnate Word and to drink a glass of red wine (or red juice!) and toast one another with "God is love" or "I drink you the love of Saint John." Friday the 28th is Holy Innocents Day (Mass here at 12:00 Noon), when the slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem by a paranoid King Herod recounted in the Gospel of Matthew is recounted. A good day to pray for the overthrow of all "unclean tyrants" and perhaps check the websites of Sojourners or the Episcopal Public Policy Network for places in the world where the abuses of the powerless require the church's prayers and actions.

In all these Twelve Days keep the uncreated Light before you, and give thanks for the Word made flesh. In daily prayers make use of the Book of Common Prayer Collects of the season (pages 213-214 and 237-238 for saints' days). Also Canticles 20 and 21 (pages 94-95), the "Gloria" and the "Te Deum", are particularly appropriate for daily use.

Below is the text of the parish's Christmas Eve sermon...

Christmas Eve 2007
(Isaiah 9: 2-7; Ps 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14)


Take back the night.

Once each summer neighborhoods celebrate both an ongoing struggle and a victory over fear. We head outside late, well after dark, and sing and barbecue and party. We do this because we have let the night become a time of fear, fear that makes us feel alone. One night does not eliminate fear or make the crime that causes fear to entirely go away. But one night makes real a victory over fear and shows us how things are meant to be. And so the night is transformed, from a realm of fear to a realm of hope.

Tonight believers take back the night.

There is more than enough darkness to spare in the world, and more than enough fear. Fear drives us into isolation, fear makes our worlds small. Some of us may have lived relatively comfortable lives. Others of us have plenty of real reasons to fear the darkness of loss, disease, or violence. And this personal darkness strikes a note of resonance in the larger world.

But here’s the good news of Christmas. The night belongs to God. The mystery that we celebrate took place quietly in the depths of darkness, in the darkness of a violent time and in a violently occupied land. Our peaceful manger scenes do not reflect the exhaustion, anxiety, and tension in the “O Little Town of Bethlehem” that night. The peaceful manger scenes rather convey the hope and gift of that long-ago night, that in this world where darkness and fear go hand-in-hand the love and peace of God took flesh and bone. It’s not that light drove away the darkness. The light re-claimed the darkness as God’s. In the deep darkness of a stable the Hope of all first saw the light of his parents’ eyes. The cries of a woman in labor in the dark were mightier than the war-cries of the armies of Rome. A lamp’s fragile flame shone brighter than all the gold in all the crowns of the world. Sleepy animals and tired shepherds stared and saw more wisdom in the straw than was ever taught by all the clever thinkers ever born. The night of fear and tension was tamed and became the dark womb of Life itself, and Light burst forth for ever illuming the darkest corners of our lives and our world.

Tonight, know no sadness. Tonight, know no fear. I don’t say forget, I don’t say ignore or pretend your burdens don’t exist. But know this: the most fragile of moments, the birth of a poor woman’s baby in a borrowed shed, is more powerful than all the fear and disease and violence of a beautiful but broken and wounded world. Fear is disarmed, hope is kindled. And tonight this gift is for you. Believe it, stretch out your hands and take it. It is “good news of great joy”, for “those who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” “For the grace of God has come”, and “a child has been born for us.” No matter who we are and what has brought us here tonight, this night is for us. Said one early preacher , “No one is shut out from this joy…Let the saint rejoice…Let the sinner be glad…Let the pagan take courage…”

Take back the night. Take back faith. Take back hope. Take back both darkness and light. Take back the Christ, born humble and poor, born strong to love and to set us free.