Growing up my favorite time of year was Christmas. It wasn’t just the presents (though honestly that was a big part of it). It was all the activities of the season, including those that took place at church. In those days Grace had an 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service. In one magical year it was snowing heavily as the service began. Snow or not, I loved the music, the family gatherings, the decorations, the colors and of course, the food.
But for all that, December 26 was my least favorite day of the year. Christmas was over always too fast, it seemed. You had to wait a full year for it to come again.
It was not until I was in seminary that I began to learn about the church year. The four Sundays prior to Christmas were the Advent season. Advent was not about celebrating. It was about spiritual preparation. It included waiting, waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled, both the first and second comings of Christ. Rather than taking anything away from Christmas, Advent made the Christmas season more special.
Then I learned about the Twelve Days of Christmas. As a kid I never understood the song. I didn’t know what a partridge was. It was a major discovery to learn that the twelve days of Christmas were December 25 through January 5. Several of those days had special significance. The first day the shepherds came. The second day focused on Stephen, the first martyr. December 28 commemorated the death of the infants in Bethlehem. The eighth day, New Year’s, celebrated Jesus’ circumcision in the temple and the official giving of his name. The twelve days were followed by Epiphany, which celebrated the coming of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus.
The twelve days brought a richer and deeper sense to the whole meaning of Christmas. It wasn’t all joy and celebration. There was also darkness. The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8). All of this comes out in J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. His cantata for the second day of Christmas focuses on the peace the shepherds have. He expresses this in his tranquil Sinfonia.
December 26 is hardly the end of Christmas. It is barely the beginning. In the figure of Stephen, it reminds us of the cost of discipleship. In Bach’s Sinfonia it assures us that, in spite of all the tragedy in the world, the Savior has come.
Pastor Paul Leggett, November 2020