Preached at Christ Church, Worton and St Mary’s, Potterne
Readings – Ephesians 1. 3-14; John 1. 10-18
“The law was indeed given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Has anyone brought you a present today? A bottle of wine, or a box of chocolates, perhaps? Some left-over mince pies? Or has anyone already today been given the gift of… eleven pipers piping?
You see, today is the eleventh day of Christmas. Christmas isn’t over—not yet, anyway. That’s the point of that old song about the twelve days of Christmas. Tomorrow night is Twelfth Night, when the Christmas decorations traditionally come down. But for now we are definitely in the season of Christmas, and all our readings and hymns today reflect that.
Then on Tuesday the Epiphany comes—when the infant Christ was worshipped by the Wise Men, who were not Jews, therefore demonstrating that He has come to establish His Kingdom over the whole human race, and not just one group of people. That was the start of Christ’s earthly mission, begun when was still in the cot. Is that the end of Christmas? Well, what if I told you that it didn’t need to be? What if I told you it could be Christmas every day?
Now, I know what you’re thinking:
♪♫ Well, I wish it could be Christmas everyday ♫♪
♪♪ When the kids start singing and the band begins to play ♫♫
What a blessed relief it has been to go into supermarkets over the last couple of days without that blasting in your ears. It will be a whole ten months until we get assaulted by Slade and Mariah Carey every time we go to buy a packet of frozen peas – or nine-and-a-half at least. That sort of Christmas everyday would be pretty grim – eternal mince pies, mulled wine, and bigger meals at higher prices than you actually want, all accompanied by forced cheerfulness.