SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2007

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

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Dear Friends in Our Lord Jesus:

The first modern Christmas card, designed by the English artist J.C. Horsley in 1843, depicted a typical Victorian family seated quietly and peacefully around a plentiful Christmas table.

The gentle family members -- father, mother, and children -- were politely toasting the health and the happiness of each other, their friends, and their nation. The table seemed to groan beneath the weight of the food.

It was a quiet and serene Christmas picture.

Or was it?

Most people hated the hand-painted card. Not only did they object to the idea of “toasting” one’s health, but they particularly objected to the bold letters printed just to the side of the pleasant Christmas portrait. The message, you see, was the admonition by the Lord Jesus to clothe the naked, welcome the strangers, feed the hungry and thirsty, and visit the sick and those in prison.

It was a jarring message in those days.

And so it is today.

We are reminded during this Holy Season that our Lord Jesus came into the world as a helpless human baby, born of poor parents who had been displaced from their home by royal edict. He was born, not in a palace, but in a stable. He was clothed, not in imperial robes, but in long strips of linen. He was attended, not by royal admirers, but by animals and frightened shepherds. He was placed, not on a fine feather bed, but in a feeding trough, a manger, filled with straw.

He came to us in simplicity, humility, poverty, and compassion. And He calls us to love Him with all our hearts, and to share His love with others.

-- The Very Rev. Dr. Steve Sellers +