The Work of Christmas

The poem “The Work of Christmas” was written by Howard Thurman, a theologian, educator, and prominent leader during the civil rights movement. For him, Christmas is only the beginning of our role as Christians. The poem begins: 

“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 flock, 

The work of Christmas begins:” 

Famed painter Bob Ross once said, “Put light against light – you have nothing. Put dark against dark – you have nothing. It’s the contrast of light and dark that each give the other one meaning.” Every Sunday, we symbolize the presence of God with us by lighting the candles on the Communion table to ensure the darkness we see in the world has a contrasting view. The great reformer Martin Luther of the sixteenth century used candles on his Christmas tree to symbolize the presence of God during the time of Advent for the same purpose. Today, we don’t use candles on our Christmas tree, but we still use lights to brighten an otherwise dull tree. 

Light can bring us comfort on a rainy day, light makes us safe on a dark and lonely night, and light gives us hope when life seems so impossible. It is this gift of light that the gospel of John is talking about. The gospel of John talks of a man who witnessed this true light. Although he was not the light himself, he spread the word of this light so that all who come into the world would believe through him. 

John is telling us of this wonderful gift of light that we as Christians need to spread, a gift that we must accept, a gift we must spread. Darkness can be a very frightening thing. And we have seen our fair share of darkness these days. A sense of fear has gripped us even in this time of celebration. Fear is a reality, but we cannot be held captive to it. We must let our lights shine. For God does not want us to keep it to ourselves. Even as children, we are told of sharing our light. You remember the song “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine…” We are all blessed with the spiritual light of God, what John calls true light, that each of us needs to spread to one another. 

The birth of Jesus was our gift as Christians. The greatest single act of love was a light. A light that came among us in the form of a child. A gift that should not be kept to ourselves but shouted from the mountain tops. 

“The Work of Christmas,” Thurman says, is this:

“To find the lost,

To heal the broken, 

To feed the hungry, 

To release the prisoner, 

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others, 

To make music in the heart”.

Christmas is not over. It’s just beginning. Our call didn’t stop last week. Instead, it has just begun. There are those who are still lost, those who are broken, those who are hungry, those who are in prison. There is war when there should be peace, and sad hearts when there should be music. God is with these people, and so should we in this New Year. Let’s get to work.