Isaiah 62:1-5,10-12; Revelation 19:11-16; Matthew 1:18-25; Psalms 103, 148

The Feast of The Holy Name   

When I was growing up, New Year's Day was always the time when we dismantled the house from all of its Christmas decorations. The ornaments on the tree were packed away, the tree was tossed to the curb, all the wreaths and festive candles were carefully wrapped up, and everything was carried to the basement to quietly reside on the shelves designated for them until a few weeks before Christmas 12 months hence. When I was young, I always found it a rather sad and melancholy time, although I couldn't articulate those emotions at that time: those decorations that can evoke, and are symbols of, so much joy and promise and excitement are put away seemingly putting away the joy as well. Taking down the Christmas decorations always seemed to mark for me a return to reality, which as a younger person wasn't as special as the time surrounding Christmas.

On the church calendar, today is the Feast of The Holy Name. In the ancient church, this day was known as the Feast of the Circumcision (yikes....ow!) We are eight days out from Christmas, which under rabbinic law is the number of days after birth when a male baby was to be circumcised. And five days from now (January 6^th) we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, otherwise known as "Little Christmas": when we are told that the three wise men (kings) arrive to visit Jesus. So it is a short season, this Christmastide, filled with feasts and remembrances.

Many traditions have their elaborate Christmas celebrations on the 6^th of January. Others wait to take down the Christmas decorations until after Little Christmas. Whatever tradition we come from, today, January 1^st,  is a day of new beginnings: the start of a new secular and calendar year (and trying to remember to write an 8 instead of a 7 on those checks); it is a celebration of the circumcision of God Incarnate; it is a remembrance of the naming of Jesus, the savior, the deliverer, come on earth for each and every one of us; it is a half-way point of the kings moving toward the infant Jesus; and it can be a taking down of the Christmas decorations and a start of a new year, clean, with everything put to rights.

Perhaps it is important to reflect on why those joyful feelings evoked by Christmas decorations cannot be carried through the year, in particular when those symbols are no longer physically present. Perhaps when we think about God Incarnate being named today, at the start of a new year, resolutions about carrying that spark of joy Christmas puts in us can be fanned into a flame to warm us and those we meet throughout the coming year. That flame can light our way and be a beacon for those who are lost and need to be found. Now that is a spark worth fanning and a flame worth carrying.

Happy New Year.

Copyright: The Rev. John F. Dwyer, 2008