Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas! Today, as strands of Christmas lights twinkle around me, I’m thinking about one of those delightful lightbulb moments of children’s ministry, especially as it takes place with the support of Godly Play. I’m thinking about the revelation of the Twelve Days of Christmas, about the surprise of Christmastide.
Often, when I’m talking to children, and I’m sure many of you have experienced this as well, they’ll be puzzling out the calendar and being excited about Christmas and I’ll ask them, “You know the song the Twelve Days of Christmas? Well, are those days before or after Christmas?”
Inevitably, the children tell me that those days happen before Christmas. That’s what TV countdowns and other bits of secular media tell them – but twelve days tangled up in the wonder and waiting of Advent just aren’t enough to get ready for such a big mystery. No, no, I explain, moving to the Circle of the Church Year. Those twelve days follow Christmas Day! There is so much more Christmas than we think!
Of course, another part of being present to the Mystery of Christmas revealed in the Christ Child is that’s there’s more waiting. The Magi have not yet arrived. They are still traveling, seeking the Christ Child. (Have you checked in on the Wandering Wisemen recently? They’re a bit snowbound today.) And, we’re often caught in the strange waiting of our own lives. I am writing to you from my in-law’s house, for example, in the pause before the next thing in my life, where everyone is trying to figure out if they’re really back to work or not. If you have kids, they’re still on vacation. The house is full of scattered boxes and scraps of wrapping. It’s a magical time, this in between, or, maybe more accurately, a holy one.
The Work Of Christmas
In the in-between, in the twelve day stretch that is the fullness of Christmas, our family was gathered together this Monday for our official celebration, and as we sat over dinner, my in-laws produced a very important book: A Grateful Heart by M.J. Ryan, which they’ve been praying with since the late 90s. This amalgam of religion and pop culture hovered over the long list of places where they lived, and now it appears when we gather. Last night, it was tasked to my wife to pick a blessing, and paging through the book she chose carefully, settling on Howard Thurman’s “The Work of Christmas” -
The work of Christmas can feel like putting away the messes and wiping up crumbs, and that is part of our work at home, but Thurman tells us the work is much greater than that. In considering what comes next for us, we must remember that the work of Christmas is the work of Christ himself.
I think children understand this work in a special way. As we travel through Christmas, we often ask them what gifts they would bring the infant Jesus in place of the Magi’s peculiar choices.
A bottle.
A blanket.
A stuffed animal.
They offer sustenance, warmth, comfort. They think of what is essential rather than the elegant but impractical gifts that the supposedly wise men bring. Gold is about as useful to a baby as that little drummer boy is to a tired mother. These gifts tell us something about the nature of Jesus (gold for a king, frankincense for holiness, myrrh for anointing the dead), but they don’t make evident sense if we are trying to be of service. Remember Jesus’s lack of concern about the expensive nard he is anointed with? Yes, of course, it could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor, but we can serve the poor in countless ways. The holy ways we honor Jesus are separate from that and sometimes perplexing.
Christmastide overflows with important days: the Feast of St. Stephen, the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and the Feast of the Holy Name, and each gives us a new opportunity to engage in the work of Christmas.
St. John the Evangelist, for example, is the patron saint of friendship. How can we not only be of service to our friends, taking time to pray for them, but also extend the hand of friendship to the outcast? The Feast of the Holy Innocents might be a chance to volunteer at a diaper bank or learn more about an organization that supports those who have experienced pregnancy loss. Preparing for Christmas can be tiring, but now it is here and it is time for us to live into the season and its work.
Updates, Resources, And On To 2023
Here we are, at the end of the last newsletter of 2022 and I never could have predicted how big of a year this would be. There are a lot more of you, so here’s some updates and recaps! Looking ahead:
You’ll find me at Christ Church Needham in the new year. I’m looking forward to joining this wonderful community.
I’ll also be opening my books for consulting projects and remote management needs. Keep an eye out for a new website!
Don’t forget to connect on Mastodon (because it seems like there’s a new phase of Twitter implosion each week) and Facebook.
Do you work with youth? If so, you need to check out the recent report on today’s teens from the Fuller Youth Institute. It’s really useful to all of us who are tangled up in worry about the state of the church, about our work, and about what happens next.
We’ve still got plenty of time for Epiphany prep – I promise! I love this multi-sensory Three Kings activity with scented play-doh!
Last up! Did you catch Jerome Berryman in conversation with Dave Csinos on Faith Forward? It’s always amazing to hear what Dr. Berryman is thinking about as Godly Play continues to grow and change.
Peace to you all as we continue our journey with the Magi and cross over into 2023,
Bird