This week Pastor Margo offers a Christmas devotion from Donna Frischknecht Jackson, editor of Presbyterian Today, based on Howard Thurman’s poem, I Will Light Candles This Christmas.” Keep your candles lit!
I will light Candles this Christmas,
Candles of joy despite all the sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all year long.
Colossians 2:6–12
I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions. I used to, but it always seemed by January 31 I lost my resolve to do any of the things that I vowed I would see through. If I were to revisit this tradition, though, I cannot think of a better resolution than the one Paul writes in Colossians: “continue to live your lives in him.” This is exactly what Howard Thurman has been encouraging us to do all throughout Advent and now Christmastide when he penned, “I will light candles.” Through these last few weeks, we have been reflecting on how to live our lives in Christ by lighting candles of joy, hope, courage, peace, grace and love. But the challenge is coming for us to continue being candles of light in the world, long after this devotional is over, and the new year gets into full swing. Will we remember what we have been reading through, reflecting on and praying over? Will we remember that the most beautiful light that can shine from us is the light that seeks to illumine another’s darkness? Will this be the year in which we live not for ourselves, but we live to serve others?
And I think there lies the problem I have with most New Year’s resolutions. They tend to be focused on self: to get fit, look better and make more money. Howard Thurman, though, reminds us that there is something “very important that belongs in the New Year.” That is, the chance to “relate to something beyond our families, our cares and our responsibilities.” Thurman suggests selecting one thing outside your own needs to focus on. “Give a part of yourself” to some cause, some purpose or even someone. God gave a part of God’s self to the hurting world, by taking on human flesh and blood. It’s a Christmas gift that ultimately saved us from ourselves. If I am to live my life in Christ this year, that means looking beyond my own comfort to help another.
I have a friend who is a pastor of a struggling church. In the winter, they often meet in a small fellowship hall to save on the oil bill for heating a large, mostly empty sanctuary. Her church is still meeting in person, with masks, in spite of rising COVID-19 infections. In order to keep meeting in person, they would have to use the large sanctuary, which allows sitting six feet from one another, but they worried about paying the heating bill. The pastor had hoped this would be the very thing to open her congregation to try virtual worship. It didn’t, though. Rather, a member made a generous donation to heat the sanctuary. My friend saw the goodness of the member’s heart, but it didn’t stop her from feeling sad. While the church is filled with wealthy retired people, the congregation doesn’t reflect the just-scraping-by reality of the community they are in. There are many who will not be able to afford heat for their homes, but the church’s mostly empty sanctuary will be heated. I think this is the year I will invite everyone to make a resolution: Live in Christ.
Pray
God, I thank you for my daily bread, for a bed to sleep in and for the ability to heat my home. But I want 2021 to be a year in which I live in your Son, Jesus Christ. I want to commit to comforting others. I want something more beyond my own comforts. Show me the way. Work through me. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Go deeper
List all the comforts you have. Now take an honest assessment of those in your community who are struggling. What do they need the most? What can you do to help? Could the money to heat one sanctuary be used to heat more than one home instead?