Tonight the wait is over! Tonight all our preparations have been made, or put aside for another year, and we settle into the mystery. We follow the star to Bethlehem, and join the crowd that’s gathering around a manger. We know the carols and the scriptures; we know the whole story so well we can tell it by heart!
“It’s a hallowed time,” writes Frederick Buechner, “a holy time, a time in which life grows still like the surface of a lake, so that we can look down into it and see glimmering there in its depths something timeless, precious, other. It’s a gracious time, a time that we cannot bring about as we can bring about a happy time or a sad time, but a time that comes upon us as grace, as a free and unbidden gift.”
“Christmas Comes” by poet Ann Weems
Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons.
The human and the holy meet in Bethlehem
or in Times Square,
for Christmas comes like a golden storm
on its way to Jerusalem -
determinedly, inevitably.
Even now it comes,
in the face of hatred and warring –
no atrocity too terrible to stop it,
no Herod strong enough,
no hurt deep enough,
no curse shocking enough,
no disaster shattering enough.
For someone on earth will see the star,
someone will hear the angel voices, someone will run to Bethlehem,
someone will know peace and goodwill: the Christ will be born!
Giving thanks that Christmas is always coming, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing. Merry Christmas!
Elizabeth
Each year I get out my tattered Christmas card list and prepare to send greetings to folks who have been important on my life’s journey. Sometimes I’m not even sure they’re still around to receive the greeting, but that doesn’t seem to matter – it’s the remembering and sending that make it all worthwhile.
As I reached for that tattered list once again, the words of J. Barrie Shepherd’s new Christmas poem, “Tidings,” featured in a recent edition of Presbyterians Today, found a place in my heart, and they were tucked inside each card.
Tidings
“This season’s festive cards
that crush and crowd the mails
bear witness to the limits,
all those insistent boundaries
that ever mark and mar our loving.
Time diminishes daily,
the distant miles remain the same.
Lives we have brushed against
and learned to care for
now seem too far removed to reach again,
remember and renew the days we shared.
But still we cherish them,
refuse, despite the years, to let them go,
and want to let them know
that within the promise of the manger child
our hope is yet alive, a hope writ large
across this flimsy, brightly colored card.”
To friends near and far, here and now and all through the years:
“Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord!” Luke 2:10-11 (KJV) So grateful for sharing life’s journey with you, and for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.
Elizabeth
In a recent edition of Presbyterian’s today, I came across an article on a special service - the “Blue Christmas Service.” It’s a service about coping with the holiday blues, acknowledging the loneliness, grief and depression that is the experience of many during the Advent- Christmas season. A special prayer is offered: “God of mercy, hear our prayer in this Advent season for ourselves, and for our families and friends who live with the struggles of illness and the pain of loss. We ask for strength for today, courage for tomorrow, and peace for the past. We ask these things in the name of Christ, who shares our life in joy and sorrow, death and new birth, despair and promise. Amen.”
Intercession is made for healing: “The God of strength moves within us; the God of courage hears our distress. The God of hope reveals wholeness to us; the God of healing touches us when we are broken. When the pain overwhelms us, when the burden it too heavy; we turn to our God, who is sustaining and redeeming. When there is loneliness, when there is isolation; we turn to our God, who is loving and present. For God created us, redeemed us and sustains us, and we are not alone. Lead us in your ways, O God, and bring us your healing touch.”
In my former congregations, we had a Service of Healing and Wholeness the Saturday evening before Christmas, to address such feelings and to share the warmth of Christian community and the comfort of healing grace.
“Not Celebrate?” a poem by Ann Weems, speaks to such feelings as well:
“Not celebrate? Your burden is too great to bear?
Your loneliness is intensified during this Christmas season?
Your tears seems to have no end?
Not celebrate? You should lead the celebration!
You should run through the streets to ring the bells and sing the loudest!
You should fling the tinsel on the tree, and open your house to your neighbors, and call them in to dance!
For it is you above all others who know the joy of Advent.
It is unto you that a Savior is born this day.
One who comes to lift your burden from your shoulders,
One who comes to wipe the tears from your eyes.
You are not alone, for He is born this day to you.”
May we share the “tidings of comfort and joy” of this holy season, ever giving thanks for those streams of mercy, never ceasing.
Elizabeth