'It's Only Just Beginning'

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is usually a quiet one around Sojourners magazine and community. Nearly everyone is present for our Christmas Eve celebration, which begins with a joyous and fun-filled time with our children and ends with a quiet candlelight eucharistic service for the adults. During the latter part of our evening, each person steps forward when ready to take the bread and wine and, if she or he desires, to offer up to the Christ-child and the rest of us a scripture passage, a story, or a song.

Christmas Eve is one of our favorite times together in the year. But on Christmas morning, after gifts and warm greetings and expressions of love are exchanged, many of us leave town to spend a few days or a week with other family and friends.

Last year I was one of the few who stayed around. While I missed those who were gone that week, the relative quietness also made it possible to get more work done than when everyone is around. So on the day after Christmas, I rose early to catch a bus to the magazine office, anticipating a productive day.

My mind was already in a distinctly post-Christmas modus operandi. My Christmas gifts had been put away the night before, the news on National Public Radio that morning was back to its normal routine, and, on the other stations, regular pop music had replaced the Christmas carols that had been playing just 12 hours earlier. Christmas was over, and it was time to start thinking ahead.

As I walked to the bus stop, I recalled that I was scheduled to preach the next Sunday. I decided to spend a little time thinking about what I might say. The gospel passage focused on the wise and aged prophets Anna and Simeon and their responses to the baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple for purification rites. Both prophets gave thanks to God who allowed them, as promised, to see the Christchild before their deaths. Simeon then prophesied that "this child is set for the rise and fall of many," and Anna "spoke of him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem."

I wasn't making much progress on a sermon approach when the 8:18 a.m. H-2 bus arrived right on time, a minor miracle of sorts if you know anything about adherence to bus schedules in the District of Columbia. Since it was the day after Christmas, very few people were on the usually crowded bus. In fact the bus was nearly empty, with the exception of some developmentally disabled people who ride the H-2 line on their way to jobs elsewhere in the city. A young woman and a couple of older women sat near the front while three younger men were seated toward the rear. They were busily and happily talking with each other. As the bus moved along its rush-hour route, I continued to think about Simeon and Anna against the backdrop of their chatter.

Since my thinking about the sermon was not bearing much fruit, I decided to set the passage aside until another time and listen to the conversations going on between the front and back of the bus. The passengers were very excited and animated as they told each other about their Christmas experiences, what they had given each other, what gifts they had received, what they ate for Christmas dinner, and so on.

As the conversation died down, one of the young men in the back started to softly sing "Silent Night." He had just finished the first verse when one of the women in the front turned to him and harshly scolded him, saying, "Shhh! Shhh! No, no, stop singing that. That's for Christmas. That was yesterday. It's over with now." I was somewhat reluctantly agreeing with her logic when the young man ever so gently, but firmly, replied, "No, no, that's not true. It's only just beginning. It's only just beginning."

In the silence that followed, I suspected that each of us on the bus was acknowledging in our hearts the profound truth in that young man's words. At least I knew I was. One of God's children had put me to shame and taught me that Christmas wasn't over simply because it was now Dec. 26. It was only just beginning. And as I stepped off the bus, I realized that was what Anna and Simeon were trying to say, too. These two prophets of hope, coming to the little babe just days after that first Christmas, were promising that it's only just beginning, that the birth of this child is only the beginning of joy and hope, of redemption and salvation, of expectation and promise, of light breaking into darkness.

It is one of the mysteries of our faith that what was true 2,000 years ago is also true for us now. That vulnerable little babe, who still causes the rise and fall of many, can also still rekindle hope and joy for all who are looking for it and want to receive it. It's only just beginning.

As I walked the half block from the bus stop to our magazine office, I was very thankful to God for that young man's words to me. He touched my heart with some hope and joy that I really needed. And besides that, he gave me my sermon, too.

Joe Roos was publisher of Sojourners when this article appeared.