He told me to tell you that
Christmas is over. Now what?
I saw on Twitter last week that Matt Smethurst of the Gospel Coalition tweeted, “If we don’t connect Bethlehem to Calvary, we will forever have a mere baby Christianity.”
Last week I sat in a great Christmas Eve service that included a children’s sermon.
As they wrapped up the Christmas story the teacher emphasized that Jesus was the real reason for the season.
The trouble with that is what is under the tree at home does not reflect the emphasis and we send a contradictory message.
Do as I say, not as I do has never been a good way to parent (or preach).
We all have great theology but very few have a resume that supports their belief system.
One of my Baptist sisters mentioned the work of Christmas begins: “When the carols have been stilled, when the star-topped tree is taken down, when family and friends have gone home, when we are back to our schedules.”
The work of Christmas is this: “To welcome the refugee, to heal a broken planet, to feed the hungry, to build bridges of trust, not walls of fear, to share our gifts, to seek justice and peace for all people, to bring Christ’s light to the world.”
A woman called me yesterday and told me how painful Christmas was for her.
She has no family and she was alone as others celebrated the birth of Christ.
She asked me what to do. I was kind about it but I told her others felt her pain and they sat in their empty houses by themselves too.
We have to be the change we want in the world. We have to be the catalysts for good. I told this dear lady start now, the work of Christmas begins today.
I shared be intentional and build relationships with people now so that next Christmas no one in her community would be alone on Jesus’ birthday.
Jesus did not die so we would sit at home alone during times of celebration. God operates in community with the Son and the Spirit and He wants us to live out our lives in community as well.
We can’t keep Jesus in the crib, we have to connect Christmas to the cross, to purpose and action.
He is the light of the world (John 8:12) and He told us if we walk in His light we will enjoy fellowship with others (community).
He also told us we are light too (Matthew 5:14) and we should let our light shine before others, so that they would see us and see Jesus (Matthew 5:16).
It starts now, let your light shine—Christmas is over.
He told me to tell you that.
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