Dec. 30th Sermon Notes Lk. 2 and Col 3:12-17

Dec. 30 Lk. 2, Col.3:12-17
Less than a week after Christmas Day, and here we are reading of Jesus at 12. Those of us with children can attest that years do fly by, but this is remarkable speed. We have ancient documents that tell stories of the young Jesus, but this is the only account we have in our four gospels.We hold to the adult work of Jesus, but our imaginations crave to fill in the gaps of his youth.We get a hint of his end, notice he is lost for three days; it presages three days in the tomb.

We say Christmas is for children.The first thing that enters my mind is a squeal from a small child ripping through the wrapping paper to see what lies beneath. Part of post-Christmas sadness is realizing that they are growing up, and that this particular moment of presents will never be recaptured.

Our daughters went to a conservative Christian high school in Indianapolis, and our passage was their mission statement for their young charges. It gives alovely summary of our hopes for our children. In a christian church, we do well to be reminded that jesus was born a real baby, and that the was a child,and he grew up. He was not like what we used to say about Richard Nixon, born in a blue suit and black wing tip shoes.

Many of us received clothes or a gift certificate for clothes for christmas. i usually scour ebay for penny silk ties from Hong Kong as one of the presents to myself. Drawing on baptismal imagery of wearing a fresh new robe, Colossians speaks of clothing ourselves with virtues. we often use this passage as part of the Presbyterian wedding service. If you’d like to stick with christmas images, consider the virtues as decorations suited for this time of year and every day after. with the calendar year closing, consider, please casting off vices as if they were clothes you were getting rid of.Christmas is a time for clothing ourselves in compassion, it seems. I know of no other holiday that evokes such an outpouring of generosity as does this season.The poor become not only a visible annoyance but they are seen, for a while, as human beings.As a new year dawns, we get a series of resoulutions:to live in harmony with one another. Harmony is a watchword with all of the christmas music that we have heard. It is rarely a watchword in family gatherings.

As the calendar year draws to a close, it is a good idea to look back at where we need to be forgiven and where we need to forgive. I mean it at its basic level;to let go, to release.We need not go into 2013 carrying resentments, especially the petty ones that mar our Christmas life.Maybe instead of speaking of resolutions, we could speak of goals, if you are more business minded, or futurecasting if on the more poetic end of the spectrum.Already the commercials have started for us to make our physical health a priority for the new year. Please consider making spiritual health, vitality, wellness aas at least part of your hopes for the new year. Prayer is the soul’s true home, and we wander if we neglect it. This house of prayer is home for us.the truth is that we often leave Jesus behind at the temple. I was alerted to these words in a Bach cantata 124 by Grindal in the latest christian Century. “I shall not let my jesus go....I should cling like a burr to him/He is the light of my life/I shall not let my Jesus go.”