With the exception of Holy Week, Christmas is the shortest season in the church year. Thankfully the hustle and bustle of the season of shopping ends on Christmas Day, leaving us with twelve days to reflect on what we celebrate in this season.Hymns from the Advent and Christmas seasons remind us that Jesus came to a particular place and in a particular time. One beloved Christmas hymn summons us to the particular town in which Jesus was born: "O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye to Bethlehem." In others, we sing of the night of Jesus's birth, of the stars that filled the skies, and of the season of the year in which he came. Our hymns for Christmas remind us that our faith is rooted in a particular time in history and in a particular place.
Lectionary readings during the Christmas season also highlight the particularity of Jesus's Jewish upbringing. On the first Sunday in the Christmas season, we hear either the story of Jesus's flight to Egypt when Herod sought out the king of the Jews (Matthew 2:13-23), or Jesus's presentation in the temple according to the law of Moses (Luke 2:22-38), or Jesus's teaching in the temple during Passover (Luke 2:41-52). These readings from Matthew and Luke remind us of Jesus's particular mission to the people of Israel.
The readings for the second Sunday in Christmas remind us that the particularity of Jesus's mission would embrace all people. On this Sunday, the church reads from the beginning of John's Gospel every year. John is unlike Matthew or Luke in that it has no narrative of Jesus's birth. John does not skip over Jesus's birth but immediately tells how his particular mission to Israel spread to all people: "He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God" (John 1:12-13). The second Sunday of Christmas, today, points to the expansion of Jesus's mission to Israel to embrace all nations.
The season of Christmas is a season in which we are challenged to hold together the particularity of Jesus's mission to Israel and his embracing of all people. As we seek to hold these two key elements of our faith together, Christmas hymns can help. While we start "O Little Town of Bethlehem" by singing of the particular place of Jesus's birth, by the end we pray for Jesus's presence in our lives: "O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today." "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" also starts with a reminder that "Christ is born in Bethlehem" but then ends on a universal note: "born to raise each child of earth, born to give us second birth." These hymns embrace the tension that no other season in the church year celebrates as Christmas: Jesus' particular mission to the people of Israel and his embracing of all people.