The work of Christmas

A poem by Howard Thurman:

“When the song of the angels is stilled,

 When the star in the sky is gone,

 When the kings and princes are home,

 When the shepherds are back with their flocks,

 The work of Christmas begins:

      To find the lost,

      To heal the broken,

      To feed the hungry,

      To release the prisoner,

      To rebuild the nations,

      To bring peace among the people,

      To make music in the heart.”

We know that after the birth of Jesus, the real work actually began. Scripture tells us that there was a visit from some wise men from the East after Jesus was born. We do not know how many of them came despite the narrative that three magi came. We know that they were intercepted by Herod, who lied to them in order to find a way to kill the baby born because he was afraid of the child. 

That is why every child born has the potential to be a threat to the power structure because every child born bears the mark of God’s deliverance.

We know that after Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men who were warned in a dream not to return to Herod but went another way home, Herod went on a murderous campaign to kill all the boy babies in Bethlehem two years old and under.

The greed and paranoia of people in power who feel that their power is threatened will sink to horrendous depths to try to maintain that power.

We also know that Joseph was warned in a dream to take the child and Mary to Egypt to hide until Herod’s death. By the way, you cannot hide a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child in Egypt, where the people are dark brown-skinned.

However, the text also teaches us that tyrants and megalomaniacs will all die out sooner or later. There is an expiration date on all, including those who think they can hold people down forever. We also know that after the death of Herod, Joseph brought the baby Jesus and Mary back and settled in the impoverished, resource-deprived, food-desert city of Nazareth. 

It was there that the work began to raise the child, protect the child, and nurture the child to be what that child had been destined to be.

Beloved, as Howard Thurman’s poem states, the work of Christmas begins after the celebrations, after the gifts have been exchanged, after the food has been shared and after the gatherings have been enjoyed. The work of Christmas begins.

We must always be aware that celebrating the birth of Jesus is a starting point or a re-engagement point for doing the work of Christmas. It has been said that the underground railroad was most active between Christmas and New Year’s because the oppressors were busy in their superficial charades of worship like Herod tried to do with the wise men.

The work of Christmas is to reach beyond the walls of the church to restore the lost. That does not mean to persuade them to join your church. It means to let them know that they are not alone in this uneven journey called life. It means to show them that their life has meaning beyond chasing money and keeping up with the accouterments that come with being an ostentatious cripple.

The work of Christmas is to help heal those who have been broken by life and broken in life by careless, self-centered, and judgmental people. The work of Christmas means to feed the hungry who live in food deserts because corporations value profit over people. The work of Christmas is to help release those unjustly incarcerated and to help restore all who have served their time with full rights and dignity back into the community. The work of Christmas is to rebuild the nation by first telling the truth about how the country has destroyed the lives of Indigenous people, wrecked the lives of people that it stole from their homelands, and then restructuring the nation so that it values all people, all religions, all ethnicities, all identities, all genders, and all socio-economic statuses. The work of Christmas is to make peace so that the music of each heart can serenade life in all its magnificence.

The work of Christmas is for you, who claims Jesus, to be more like Jesus.

Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year! Be authentic, and be encouraged! Uhuru Sassa!   

 Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.