Turning the Page from 2021 to 2022

I wrote this last year at this time, and it's still relevant today...


Throwing out the tree and garland on December 26 is probably normal for many people.  It’s even a holiday of its own – Boxing Day – for some.
 
But it troubles me.  And at the end of 2021 it indicates a deeper problem.
 
This year, it seems people want 2021 to be over, more than they want to observe holidays.

It’s a spiritual problem.  We are like the Stoic fatalist who breaks his leg and says, “Well, glad that’s over.”  Hm.  NOT a Christian view of life or God’s providence.
 
In the church’s calendar, Christmas BEGINS on December 25, it does not end then.  The twelve days of Christmas is not just a song, but a steady, festive march to January 6.  That is the holiday (holy day) of Epiphany, when we celebrate the magi coming to worship Jesus, when we recall the light of the world coming to Gentiles and the whole world, not just to Israel.
 
When we call out “Happy Holidays!” today it is often a substitute for the too-Christian “Merry Christmas.”  But Happy Holidays for the thoughtful Christian can pull together Advent, Christmas and Epiphany all in one, and keep our observance balanced, and more helpful than the world’s.
 

The world’s rhythm is very different.
Store decorations come out right after Halloween. 
The hustle and bustle builds to a climax around December 23-24.
Then all goes quiet for time with family December 24-25.
The next day the decorations come down.
The next Monday we go back to work, or away on vacation, and think about a New Year.
 
In 2021, this is even more pronounced.
There has been much talk about wanting 2021 OVER, and little talk of holidays, beyond how to [not] gather.  The hopes and fears of 2021 are on a stupid calendar square and a number: 2022.  Or our hopes and fears [at the end of 2020!] were on January 5 (Georgia elections) or 6 (House vote on the electoral college) or 20 (Biden’s inauguration), depending on your politics.
 
But on Christmas Eve, we sang together as a church a truth that exposes and rejects those hopes as false or fleeting:
 
“The hopes and fears of ALL THE YEARS are met in Thee [in Bethlehem, in Jesus] tonight.”
 

 
How can we live out this truth?  Here are a few ideas.
 
1. Don’t make new year’s eve such a big deal this year.
Resist the urge to celebrate with the world a calendar turn, as if that has any effect at all on events.  “If we just turn the page to 2022, Covid will go away!”  What kind of weird superstition is that?  God’s providence rules the world, not a Julian calendar.  Not a change in the American presidency, not the rollout of a vaccine.  But this year we’re leaning on a new year to give us hope, more than we are on the reality of Christmas.  And this is not just a 2021 phenomenon, but part of the overall growing secularizing of our American culture.  Resist it.  Christians don’t lean on the same things the rest of the world does.
 
 
2. Keep giving gifts.
I’ve reserved a few gifts to give to my family throughout the 12 days of Christmas, leading up to Epiphany.  The world sees this as a faux pas - as if you forgot their birthday.  But that’s the wrong way to look at it.  Jesus is truly the “gift that keeps on giving.”  Forever!  Why not observe His Incarnation, not only in the act of giving gifts at all, but in the WAY we give them?  God gave Jesus on Christmas, but He kept giving in Christ’s earthly life of 30 years, and obedient ministry of 3 years, climaxing in His gift on the cross.  And then God kept giving!  The resurrection.  Pentecost, when the gift spread to the nations.  The ministry of Paul of Tarsus, when the gift spread to the Gentiles, and the world, even to the Roman emperor.  Keep giving to your loved ones, in the same spirit.
 
 
3. Find ways to remember God’s gifts to you.
We tend to use our extra time from December 25 until work restarts to enjoy the gifts we received.  What if we also keep remembering God’s gifts to us?
 
Here’s one way my family has done that.
The song “The 12 days of Christmas” may have started as a code song for persecuted Christians to sing of God’s love to His people.  Even if not, my family has profited from singing this adapted version throughout the 12 days of Christmas.  It mostly fits the meter of the song, so you can sing it.  This is the same pattern as the Jesse Tree of Advent, remembering each day a particular part of God’s redemptive history leading up to Christ.
 
On the x day of Christmas, my True Love [God, Jesus] gave to me:
Jesus Christ our Savior, baby
Two Testaments [Old and New, the Bible]
Faith, Hope and Love
Four Gospel Books
Five Books of the Law
Six Creation Days
Seven Spirit Gifts
Eight Beatitudes
Nine Spirit Fruits
Ten Good Commandments
Eleven Faithful Apostles
Twelve Tribes of Israel
 
And the focus on Israel on Twelfth Night, January 5, can lead naturally into the Epiphany celebration of God’s revelation to the Gentiles, too.
 
 
4. Pray as you consume news – hope in the Lord for good!
To have your hopes and fears of all your years meet in Jesus today, takes work.
It seems to me that the news, from every political bias, has become more aggressive in pressuring its viewers what to trust in, as a result of the bad news they report.  And it's never Jesus.  Science, Trump, not-Trump, Build Back Better, etc.  This all reinforces their audience’s counterfeit “HOPES AND FEARS” thus bringing them back for more viewing and ratings.  (Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods" is good on this.)  One newspaper's Digital Word of the Year in 2020 was “Doomscrolling:” being obsessed with taking in bad news, such that you can’t stop scrolling.  Don’t get sucked into this.  As the media casts cares on you, cast them on the Lord.
 
Use His Word to help in this.  It is a needed counterbalance to consuming news.  If you read through the Bible in a year, a practice I highly recommend, you’re coming to the end of Revelation.  There’s a LOT of bad news in there – far worse than 2021!  But Christ’s power and His return resolve it all into a coming world with no tears, pain or death.  Plan your Scripture reading for 2022, to give God’s news more weight in your heart and mind than the world’s.
 
A fearful populace is an easily controlled populace.  I think 2020 shows this to be true.  So don’t let the news drive all your emotions and thoughts.  Reject fear, shame and guilt, casting them all on Christ for your atonement and vindication.  Then stand free before the Lord, even in a world of bad news, knowing Christ has triumphed and will redeem this world.  We will live forever where truth, goodness and beauty are unhindered by any evil.  The kingdoms of this world will have become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ.  And He shall reign forever and ever.  Amen!