December 26, 2024
At our exquisite Christmas Eve service, as service of dark and light, love and grace, concern and care, Reverend Pam recalled the words of Howard Thurman, minister of, and to, the disinherited: “When the song of the angel is still, when the star in the sky is gone, when kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their sheep, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.”
Thurman was one of several religious intellectuals who firmly believed in ecumenism and care for the vulnerable. With other preachers, teachers, and mentors at Howard and other universities (among them Benjamin Mays and Mordechai Johnson), Thurman focused on creating a church of the future that embodied non-violence as an active force against oppression. His vision was to “create the first real community of black scholars”.
Thurman also reflected upon Advent and Christmas themes of darkness and light. In The Luminous Darkness: A Personal Interpretation of the Anatomy of Segregation and the Ground of Hope (1965), he finds hope and light in coming to terms with the racial issues of his time, knowing that God is also God in the dark. Bishop Julia Whitworth also called upon Thurman in a coda in her Christmas message this year. His poem entitled “I will light candles for Christmas…” is all-encompassing, opening us up to joy despite sadness, hope amid despair, courage in the face of fear, citing “… Candles of love to inspire all my living, Candles that will burn all the year long.”
May we embrace the Work of Christmas as prompted by Presiding Bishop Sean’s missive: “…[committing] our lives to creating a world that is more just and more loving, in which the grace and truth that came down to us at Christmas is kindled all year long.”
We wish you a blessed New Year,
–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church December 26, 2024