Merry Christmas
Beloveds,
I am writing this on Christmas Eve Eve, thinking about tomorrow and the fullness of what it will contain. In the morning we will observe the fourth Sunday of Advent at our usual 10 AM Sunday service. After that service, in the brief interlude before the Christmas service later that evening, the liminal space between not-yet-but-soon and now, we will prepare for the transition to the Feast of the Nativity which we will celebrate at 5 PM that same day.
For four Sundays (but, due to the vagaries of the calendar this year, only three weeks!), we have been waiting, anticipating, and preparing for this day with hope in our hearts and yearning in our souls. Jesus is promised but not quite here, and in but a few short hours we will joyfully sing, “O Come All Ye Faithful” and welcome the baby born in humble circumstances over 2000 years ago. Emmanuel, God-With-Us, Savior and Redeemer of the world.
We will remember the silent night that brought joy to the whole cosmos. Wonder at the angels who announced peace on earth to humble shepherds. And thrill to the glory poured out upon the earth. And then what? What will we do with the joy and awe that comes over us at once again hearing the ancient sacred story, the yearning for peace on earth that fills our hearts, and the hope that stirs in our souls that maybe what the angels promise really is possible?
Will we leave church and get so caught up in the trappings of Christmastide we forget how we felt for that moment? After Christmas is over, the presents are unwrapped, the food eaten, and the tree taken down, will we go back to our lives as if nothing has happened? Or will we allow ourselves to be transformed? Take that feeling with us, holding on to it over the next year when the darkness and chaos of our world threatens to overwhelm us and bring us to our knees in despair. Allow it to stir us to compassion and cause us to reflect on what we do in response? Because everything changed on that silent night over 2000 years ago, and the repercussions of that echo down through the centuries and offer the same promises today.
The stories we tell every time we gather together in church, sacred stories of our faith, are not just things that happened many thousands of years ago that we remember as foundational to our faith but not really having anything to do with us. They are a map to guide us in our own journeys through the world. As Eric Elne writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood,
“The power of mythological imagination lies not in its ability to describe historical events that took place in the distant past but to identify contours of human behavior and experience that are encountered repeatedly throughout history on down to our own day.”
Scripture is an account of humankind’s experience of God, and how we respond to that within the context of our experience of the world. That world hasn’t changed much over 2000 years, and the experiences of the people in the stories are still being experienced today. The Christmas story still plays out in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers displaced from their homelands for reasons beyond their control – war, famine, violence, ethnic cleansing, poverty, or, like the Holy Family, the vagaries of those in power to control and disrupt their lives, with nowhere to go and refused a safe place to stay by the people who already live there.
How many of us, when we hear this story, wonder at the callousness of an innkeeper who refuses to help a pregnant girl and her travel-weary husband? We like to think we would have found somewhere for a pregnant Mary to rest, a safe space for her to give birth, and offered her the help she needed. This is a story not just about the birth of the Savior, God Incarnate who came to live among us as a fragile baby, this is also a story about how the world rejects and vilifies those who are forced to leave their homes, and how God sees them and seeks their wellbeing.
Over the twelve days of Christmas, I will be posting each day on Saint Anna’s Facebook page an image and a passage from scripture to reflect the plight of refugee families. We might not be able to help Mary, but we can help those who are in similar predicaments today. This Christmas, if your hearts and souls are stirred by the ancient story of how God came into our world, consider making a donati0n to one of the organizations that help refugees. Links to a few can be found below.
Wherever you are in your life right now, may the Holy Child born at Christmas bring you blessings of peace and hope.
Yours in Christ
Rev. Jane+
Consider donating to one of these nonprofits that helps refugees:
International Rescue Committee https://www.rescue.org/
Mercy Corps https://www.mercycorps.org/donate/
Doctors without borders https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/
Amnesty International https://donate.amnestyusa.org/