A Calendar, A Dream, A Child, And A Donkey
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
December 26, 2004
First Sunday after Christmas / Cycle A
Dear Fellow Preachers,
You don't have to be a fundamentalist to feel some irritation when the downtown "Holidazzle" parade in December makes no reference to Christmas -- or when you are given that banal greeting "Happy Holidays" once too often. Celebrating our distinctive religious affirmations in a multi-cultural context can be a delicate balancing act (and now sometimes a legal hassle as well). We at The Immediate Word have therefore asked team member Julia Ross Strope to reflect on this issue, using the lectionary texts for the 26th as a basis.
December 26 has more than one significance in this church year. It is the Sunday after Christmas, the commemoration of the death of St. Stephen (Acts 7), and now -- for many churchgoers -- a day for the service of the blessing of animals. Team members therefore offer their reflections not only on the secularization of Christmas but also on these other themes (as well as Holy Innocents, December 28). As usual, included here are illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
A Calendar, a Dream, a Child, and a Donkey
Matthew 2:13-23; Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18
By Julia Ross Strope
A Calendar
Messages from God come to us in a variety of ways. Throughout the Christmas season, we hear about angels and dreams. In today's episode of the sacred story, surrogate father Joseph had a dream that directed him to take Mary and the child to Egypt to avoid the brutality of Herod. Artists have depicted Mary sitting on a donkey holding a baby while Joseph led the way. Our secular calendar tells us when to celebrate sacred stories. How we celebrate is both appreciated and challenged. This year, as in years past, lawyers have been hired to interpret the American Constitution's First Amendment: individuals and institutions can display their religious stories.
It's December 26! Twelve days till Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate God's coming in human form (January 6)! "Merry Christmas!" for twelve more days without the drone of "buy the perfect gift." Your calendar and mine is moving toward New Year's Day, usually seen as a secular holiday with its parties. In fact, we each operate with three calendars.
A calendar allows us to remember what occurred in the past and enables us to anticipate events in the future. There's the religious calendar, which keeps us alert to Christmases past and all the other holy days that have become vital to us; likewise, we look ahead to Easter. We have a civic or secular calendar, developed by Pope Gregory XIII and adopted in 1582; it's based on the earth's orbiting the sun. This calendar facilitates interactions throughout the global village. It allows coaches and employees to document times for salaries and games.
Then there's our personal calendar. We hold it in our hands, hang it on our walls, look at it, listen for its ding, and feel it nudge us when an important engagement is about to occur. All our calendars are circular -- the events that are valuable to us come around again and again: birthdays, anniversaries, and holy days (holidays).
A Dream
Since recorded history, humans have longed for relief from oppression and pain, personally and communally. We have dreamed of joyful living. An external Savior has often stepped forward to lead the way from bondage to some kind of freedom. Ancient peoples looked for a victorious leader. Europeans, too, dreamed of a country where religious freedom was the norm. The story they used for cultural values and governmental emphases was the Christian saga, an epic story -- a story offering goodness to the individual and to the culture.
Some segments of contemporary American culture resent religious people expressing their stories in public places. For the last fifty years or so in my memory, cinema has given more time and clever images to Frosty and Rudolph, "Jingle Bells," and "White Christmas" than to the story of Jesus. Wishing to be a melting pot, we've invited other religions to tell their stories, too. And now we find the dreams of freedom in conflict.
The Christian epic begins with an angel announcing God's coming to a young woman. It continues with additional heavenly messages to wise men -- a dream to Joseph to protect the baby and to sages who watch the heavens for fulfillment of scriptures and human hopes. The wise ones give gifts to aid the God-Man in life on earth.
Oral tradition has embellished the original story, whatever the historical details. This religious story has been combined with other culturally important activities (economic/merchandizing plus Hanukkah, Kwanza, and sometimes Ramadan) till we have a civic winter holiday season. While the religious right wants everyone to say "Merry Christmas," non-Christians say we are a multi-religious nation, not a Christian one and they are offended by our Christmas greetings. In some places, schools and businesses have been denied the option of displaying images of Christmas, and so legal battles have ensued around images that are meant to promote peace and belonging.
It seems to me that there is individual and cultural ignorance around images. When the nativity scene with its symbols of new life and hope is removed from courthouse lawns and the wearing of bright colors (red and green) in public schools is denied (Plano, Texas), our public squares are stripped of visual images of hospitality, graciousness, and societal celebration. How else shall we ourselves affirm our living? Without multiple images of life and peace, how shall we pass values along to the next generation? The big dream of God among us and the freedom to express this dream in various ways are crucial to sane humanness.
We See Freedom/Salvation in the Christ Child
We seek freedom and salvation for the real live children around the globe. No more child soldiers; no more families expelled to be nomads and refugees! We experience the sacredness of life within our inner-child. Without the baby safely nurtured, there is no compassionate next generation. Without the symbols of God in Christ -- the nativity scene and bright star for the wise -- our hearts as well as our yards would be bare. Each of us chooses how to make visible, tangible, and audible the symbols that keep alive hope and joy on our personal and secular calendars. What images are on your Christmas tree? On your ears? Around your neck? On your shoes?
And the Donkey
You know the character traits of a donkey. Most of us have some of those characteristics! I love the watercolor donkey of Australian artist Julie Vivas; it resolutely accepts and facilitates the burden of mother and child. We don't know whether Joseph owned a donkey or a horse, a camel or a llama. We do know that a child and safety are burdens we need help carrying -- whether on our own shoulders, in a machine, or in the companionship of a pet.
When the blizzards of economic injustice, ecological ruin, and spiritual violence swirl around us (cf. Palmer, p. 1), we look for something to help carry our burdens -- physical and psychological. After a sad divorce, my friend bought a poodle. During his wife's illness, my neighbor got a Malaysian cat. When swirls of fear and frenzy, greed and deceit (cf. Palmer, p. 1) threaten to overcome us, we find pets that help settle the chaos. I'm glad artists often depict Joseph leading a donkey bearing Mary and baby to safety in another country. They were homeless on a continent that still produces many refugees.
Conclusion
The Christian calendar, like the civic one, is cyclical. Symbols vary with the chapter in the religious story and in the national one. Parts of the story coincide: winter -- pregnancy and birth, spring -- empty caves and new life. Our culture needs the Christian story expressed in as many ways as we can imagine -- verbally, visually, ethically. The next generation needs a religious/spiritual calendar as well as the civic one with all its images of peace and compassion, hope, and joy. Let no one dictate how we express our experience of the God who frequently shows up in unexpected places. May our songs not need to hide the truths of faith as the "Twelve Days of Christmas" did in the 1500s for Roman Catholic children in England. At every stage of our lives, we need calendars, dreams, a child, and a donkey.
I am glad for the First Amendment, which allows for religious interpretations of the momentous spiritual aspects of our lives as well as for secular ones. We have a story to tell and symbols to help tell it: angel messages, divinity in a child, rest in a manger, wise people following stars, animals to help carry our burdens. Show and tell it!
Resources
Books
Collins, A. Stories behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas (Zondervan, 2001). "Twelve Days of Christmas" is described as a teaching tool during persecution in England in the 1500s.
Guillen, M. Can a Smart Person Believe in God? (Nelson Books, 2004). A scientist looks at religion alongside science and says yes.
Palmer, P. J. A Hidden Wholeness (Jossey-Bass, 2004). Quaker Parker Palmer looks for wholeness in a global culture of injustice and violence.
Smith, H. The World's Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991). Helpful resource for the various symbols and values of religions.
Internet websites and search topics
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) frequently challenges Christian display of symbols.
"Twelve Rules of Christmas," The Rutherford Institute (J. W. Whitehead, 12/6/04), lists twelve freedoms that the First Amendment allows: religious slogans on T-shirts and jewelry, distribution of greeting cards, carols, creches, lights, trees, work attendance.
"Merry Christmas" cites groups demanding that "Merry Christmas" be the official social and business greeting in the days prior to December 25
Christmas Symbols
Religious Christmas
Secular Christmas
Happy Epiphany; Christian Post
donkey
camel
animal blessings
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: "Does Christmas need to be saved?" demanded Sunday's New York Times headline ("The Week in Review," December 19, 2004). There are certainly differing answers to that contentious question! And there seems to be a new stridency to the debate. Notes the Times: "The debate over how to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion is as perennial as a poinsettia. This year, however, conservatives, who have long pushed to "put the Christ back in Christmas," say they have been emboldened by election results that they took as affirmation that most Americans share not only their faith but also their belief that the nation has lost bearings.... Of course, for many conservatives, this controversy is not just about Christmas; it's a way to talk about a whole float of issues. Bill O'Reilly warned viewers that store clerks no longer saying "Merry Christmas" foretold the imminence of "a brave new progressive world" where gay marriage, partial-birth abortion, and legalized drugs run rampant."
Without wanting to share the alarmism of the Bill O'Reilly's of this world, it can still be affirmed that, yes, the secularization of Christmas is part, if not of a "brave new progressive world," at least of a rapidly shrinking and consequently anxious and complicated world. What do we do about the fact that a significant proportion of our neighbours and fellow citizens may have very different traditions and beliefs?
This is a global issue with many different faces around the world. The European Union has recently decided to enter into negotiations with Turkey, with a view to having that country join the Union in about ten years. This was not an easy or obvious decision: The EU has been very skittish about having an officially Muslim state under its banner. We can expect the membership talks to be protracted and difficult, with no guarantee of success, for the politics of ethnicity and religion are perhaps the most difficult on the planet. How can people of profoundly different identities and formative beliefs live peacefully and productively together? As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, how can we actually do peace with our neighbours who have no allegiance to Jesus and who may have experienced his followers as destructive of their peace?
In Canada, there is currently intense discussion, both within and beyond the Muslim community, about whether Muslims should have the right to have family matters tried by Sharia law. While most Canadians are believers in religious freedom, there is widespread concern about some of the values underpinning Islamic law, particularly with regard to the status of women. There is tension between women who had hoped that coming to Canada would afford them more rights, and families who are frightened by their loss of what seems to them appropriate control. In a multi-cultural, multi-faith society, what are the limits of accommodation? What is the necessary minimum of conformity to shared standards?
Broadly put, there have been two general tendencies in responding to the reality of religious and cultural diversity. The course chosen by the United States has been that of the "melting pot," where until recently it was assumed that anyone coming to America would take on an American identity, forged of the best that many different nations have to offer. The melting pot has certainly not produced homogeneity, as strong regional identities (Yankee, Midwestern and Southern, for instance) and the ethnic quarters of large cities make abundantly clear. But the ideal of the melting pot remains.
Across the border in Canada, conversely, the espoused ideal, particularly since the Trudeau era of the 1970's, has been the "mosaic." In this vision, everyone retains their distinctiveness; multi-culturalism is celebrated and creatively accommodated -- at least in theory. In practice, we struggle with this just as much as our neighbours to the south. The fact is, it is not easy for very different people to forge an equitable and comfortable common life. The average married couple finds it challenging; small wonder that different cultures and religions do!
Secularism has been one way of attempting to level the playing field and make room for everybody. If we all keep our religious identities out of sight, and meet on the ground we can agree on, that of freedom and opportunity, then things should work out, right?
Well, maybe. The trouble is that our religious identities tend to keep popping into view, and properly so. A religious heritage that did not profoundly shape how we view the world and the way we act in it would not be much of a heritage. And an important feature of every religion is the communal practices and periodic celebrations that strengthen identity and recall shared history and values. Secularism has struggled with how to deal with these.
The attempt to repress them, to insist that they be carried on away from public view, has been problematic, for these things are by their very nature public. The wearing of religious symbols, the observance of feast days, the singing of songs, and so on are the means by which community is built and identity and values fostered. They are public acts. It has been easier for us as a secular society, at least until recently, to allow minority groups to do these things: there is no danger that everyone will be expected to do them, and they are often colourful and interesting. However, when the majority population in all its massive numbers engages in its celebrations, it can be felt as very oppressive by those who do not belong to the majority.
We have experimented with two different ways of responding, neither one very satisfactory. Recognizing that, simply by weight of numbers, the majority is far more oppressive of the minority than vice versa, and also responding to minority voices of protest, we have often placed considerably more restriction on majority (i.e., Christian) religious expression than on others. When this is done as an intentional act of courtesy, as hospitable self-restraint, it can be admirable. However, many Christians experience it as an unfair imposition from a hostile outside force; and even for those who do not, the year-in, year-out obligation of it erodes willingness.
In response to the apparent unfairness of selective repression, then, we have tried cracking down on all religious expression. This has led to ridiculous excess -- witness the school in France that banned the wearing of bright colours such as red and green, or the Maine community that has a literacy parade in December instead of a Christmas or Santa Claus parade. The effort to forbid all public religious expression has not created a climate of equality and respect, still less of mutual comfort; instead, it has exacerbated suspicion and ill will.
Nobody wants to turn North America into a Sarajevo, Belfast, or Darfur where Herodian massacres follow upon the perception of difference as danger. Nobody even wants their neighbour to feel uncomfortable or put-upon by alien celebrations. I would venture that most of us would like to see both Christians and their non-Christian neighbours free to celebrate their faiths and their festivals, be they Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, or what-have-you. I would further venture that many of us would genuinely like to learn more about our neighbours' faiths and festivals, and that, so far from banning public religious expression, we should be taking -- and creating -- opportunities for mutual learning. This, by the way, is very different from proselytizing, which has no place in public institutions such as schools and marketplaces. Creating a climate where we all have opportunities to learn about one another could go a long way toward reducing resentment, fear, and hostility.
The numbers problem, however, remains a thorny one. How we Christians deal with being an overwhelming majority who need to foster our own identity and strengthen our own faith while still respecting the need of other groups to do likewise is a difficult question. We are unlikely to come up with a solution that satisfies everybody anytime soon. But we could do worse than to emulate the one who came to us in shared vulnerability, and who grew up to both welcome others as who they were and to be clear and unafraid about who he, in his turn, was.
George Murphy responds: A good carol for the Sunday after Christmas -- one especially fitting this year -- is "Good King Wenceslas." You remember:
"Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen ..."
Stephen, of course, was the first Christian martyr, and his feast day is 26 December, the day after Christmas. And that might be enough to give some people pause. We've just finished happily celebrating the birth of Christ and then suddenly -- a man getting stoned to death. Our attention gets turned abruptly to all of those who have been killed "for hatred of the faith" through twenty centuries.
It doesn't end there. December 28 is Holy Innocents, the commemoration of the massacre of children by King Herod in Matthew 2:16-18, just following this Sunday's Gospel. (Unless your congregation will be observing Holy Innocents this year, I recommend including those verses in the Sunday reading.) It's a time to remember all innocent victims, from the first century to those being killed by suicide bombers in Iraq today.
Does commemoration of martyrdom seem like an incongruous way to continue the observance of the twelve days of Christmas? Only if we forget what the birth of Christ was in preparation for. We should have heeded the call of the old Anglo-Saxon poet:
"Now look around you, across the wide world
And above you, at oceans and the great hanging
Arch of the sky -- and see how Heaven's
King comes to you, longing for His death.... "
(Advent Lyric 3 in Poems from the Old English; trans. Burton Raffel [2d ed.; University of Nebraska, 1964], p. 67)
Few of our familiar Christmas carols (and especially those heard on the radio or in malls) say anything about the passion and death of Christ. ("What Child Is This?" is one exception.) Even fewer (I can't think of any) have anything about taking up our crosses and following him. Religious carols are "offensive" to some people in our pluralistic society, but maybe we need to be more offensive in the right way. Perhaps our Christmas celebrations need a touch of the scandal of the cross. Actually they already have it if attention is called to the humiliation of God that the manger scene really involved.
"Ah Lord! The maker of us all!
How hast thou grown so poor and small,
That there thou liest on withered grass,
The supper of the ox and ass?"
(Verse 9 of "From Heaven on High I Come to You" in Luther's Works, vol. 53 [Fortress Press, 1965], p. 291)
This would mean first of all calling the Christian community to a more profound celebration of Christmas -- more profound, not more grim! If we realize that Christmas points to God's victory over sin and death on our behalf, we have a reason to celebrate that is deeper than a mere opportunity to reflect on a cute baby and sing "Silent Night" at the end of the Christmas Eve service.
But this is also an important part of the church's witness in a pluralistic society.
If we're really going to let a thousand flowers bloom, then by all means Christians should let their brightest flowers be seen. We should speak and sing of the Christmas festival in a way that announces clearly that we are celebrating the historical birth of God in the flesh for the salvation of the world rather than a generic theism.
What about all the other religious, ethnic, and cultural festivals that are celebrated at this time of year? By all means let them be celebrated by their adherents. That could even turn out to be an advantage for Christian evangelism if those observances are viewed in the light of Christ. There is excellent precedent for that.
December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus, not because we know that he was born on this date but (probably) because that was the date of the pagan celebration of the Natale Sol Invictus, "The birth of the unconquered sun." At the beginning of winter the sun reaches its farthest position south along the ecliptic, and night seems well on its way toward defeating the day -- but then the sun starts back north! Whether the date was deliberately chosen for this reason or not, the Christian symbolism is clear: "The sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:2). We celebrate the real "birth of the unconquered Son."
Critics of Christianity sometimes delight in arguing that the church baptized a pagan festival. Big deal! St. Augustine and other church fathers recognized that the church had taken over some features of pagan culture and justified this with the analogy of the Israelites who were commanded to take "the spoils of the Egyptians" as they prepared for the Exodus. What is really amusing is the way some neo-pagans try to re-mythologize the winter solstice and turn it into a nature festival.
Following that same pattern, Christians should feel free to interpret other festivals in terms of the Christian story -- and not worry about accusations of trying to assimilate other cultures. One of the problems we have is that we've been too willing to let Christmas be assimilated and made into a secular festival.
I return to St. Stephen. T. S. Eliot made good use of the three festivals that follow Christmas -- including St. John the Evangelist on 27 December -- in Murder in the Cathedral. The Christmas morning sermon he wrote for Archbishop Thomas Beckett in that play might be worth some attention by preachers. Take a chance and do something different this Sunday: We all know that attendance will be relatively low then anyway!
Carlos Wilton responds: The flight to Egypt is a strange sidebar to the nativity story. Matthew provides scant detail about this episode, which was surely a harrowing experience for the young Savior's family. Symbolically, it may have functioned for the early church as a revisiting of the Passover -- particularly in conjunction with Herod's brutal massacre of the innocents, which recalls the death of the Egyptian firstborns. As Mary, Joseph, and Jesus return home at last, following the tyrant's death (Matthew 1:15), it is as though a new Exodus has taken place. It's no surprise that Matthew, ever alert to Jewish antecedents to the Christian story, is the sole Gospel writer to include these events.
A possible link to this week's news stories about secular vs. sacred Christmas celebrations is the symbolic role of Egypt. As the holy family crosses the border, they move from the land of Israel into a largely Gentile culture. Yes, first-century Egypt was home to a large community of diaspora Jews (it was with this community that Joseph undoubtedly found refuge for his wife and child). Yet even so, the cosmopolitan setting of Hellenistic Egypt must have seemed strange to this provincial carpenter and his young family.
It's significant that the Messiah spends the first months, and possibly years, of his life dwelling in a foreign, Gentile land. In a certain sense, Christians must always dwell more in Egypt than in the promised land. This theme is explored by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in their much-quoted Resident Aliens: Life In the Christian Colony (Abingdon, 1989). "A colony," they write, "is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed on to the young, a place where the distinctive language and life-style of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and enforced. The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another. In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another, and we become, in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens" (p. 12). That's what Mary and Joseph were during their sojourn in Egypt: resident aliens. That's what Christians are today, in the midst of the vast, secular Christmas celebrations.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton
The following article was published in the New York Times, December 19, 2004:
HOLIDAY WARS
Does Christmas Need to Be Saved?
By Kate Zernike
A pastor in Raleigh, N.C., took out a full-page newspaper ad in November exhorting Christians to shop only at stores that included "Merry Christmas" in their promotions.
In Mustang, Okla., parents last week voted against an $11 million bond for schools, after the superintendent excised a nativity scene at the end of the annual Christmas play. They then erected their own manger outside the auditorium, with signs saying "No Christ. No Christmas. Know Christ. Know Christmas."
And in Kansas, The Wichita Eagle published a correction this month, noting that the tree lighted at Winterfest was the "Community Tree," not a "Christmas tree." After protests, the mayor last week declared himself "not a politically correct person" and announced that next year there would be a Christmas tree.
If the demands to "Bring Back Christmas" -- or, in the words of one group in California, "Save Merry Christmas" -- seem louder and more insistent this year, they are. The debate over how to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion is as perennial as a poinsettia. This year, however, conservatives, who have long pushed to "put the Christ back in Christmas," say they have been emboldened by election results that they took as affirmation that most Americans share not only their faith but also their belief that the nation has lost bearings.
But the demands to bring back Christmas are not simply part of an age-old culture war, with the A.C.L.U. in one corner and evangelicals in the other. There is also a more moderate force, asking whether the country has gone too far in its quest to be inclusive of all faiths. Why, they ask, must a Christmas tree become a holiday tree? And is singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in a school performance more offensive than singing "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel"? "It's political correctness run amok," said Lynn Mistretta, who with another mother in Scarborough, Me., started BringBackChristmas.org. "I'm not for offending anyone, but we're excluding everyone, and everyone feels rotten about it."
The full article may be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/weekinreview/19zern.html?adxnnl=1&oref...
***
In one of his books, Ron Rolheiser tells a story of an old church building in the Netherlands. For many years, everyone entering the church would stop and bow in the direction of a certain plain, whitewashed wall. Nobody knew why, but everyone had been doing it for so long that nobody questioned it. It was tradition. As the members of the parish undertook a building renovation, they began to strip the whitewash off this particular wall. There they discovered traces of a painting. As they carefully removed more and more layers of paint, there gradually emerged a beautiful, centuries-old painting of Christ.
Nobody then living was old enough to have seen the painting before. It had been whitewashed over for a century or two. Yet everyone had been bowing to that wall, not knowing why, but sensing there was good reason for the reverence.
Is this not like the secular celebration of Christmas? People of our culture bow to some tradition at the center of the holiday that is now indistinct to them. Still they bow toward the manger of Bethlehem. Is it a problem that, once a year, the secular culture offers such allegiance -- fleeting as it may be? Or is it, perhaps, an evangelical opportunity like none other?
Our task is not to question the mindless bowing. It is, rather, to help peel off the whitewash, to help restore the Savior's image beneath. As Hauerwas and Willimon remark in Resident Aliens, "The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel."
***
The story is told of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, attending worship at a small Anglican parish one Easter. The Prime Minister was not a frequent churchgoer, and the rector could not resist the opportunity to get in a little dig on this occasion. Greeting Churchill at the church door after the service, he said, "You're not quite a pillar of the church, Prime Minister." To which Churchill is said to have responded, "I'm not a pillar, but a buttress. I support it from the outside."
How like the attitude of many who worship at Christmas and Easter, but at few other times!
***
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son's school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as "Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman" and -- this is a real song -- "Suzy Snowflake," all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.
-- Newspaper humor columnist Dave Barry, in a 1991 column
***
The best things in life aren't things.
-- Art Buchwald
***
Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide-open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years.... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
-- George Matthew Adams, quoted in the Ministry of Money e-newsletter, 11/04
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
CSS liturgy for December 26, 2004
At Church of the Covenant (PCUSA) in Greensboro, N.C., the Sunday after Christmas used to be a low attendance day. Three years ago, we began "blessing of the animals," and our attendance no longer dips. If people do not have "real pets," they bring their favorite stuffed animals. The pets arrive and leave with their owners. During the sermon time, pets and owners come to the chancel for a blessing from both ministers. Hence today's theme: a calendar, a dream, a child and a donkey.
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Isaiah 63:7-10)
Leader: What a wonderful day! We celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, God's coming to earth as a child, a human being!
People: We are grateful for God's dependable and continuing love.
Leader: God's love and compassion sustain us day by day.
People: God has cared for us in the past even when we have rebelled.
Leader: We have turned from the wrongs of yesterday and we now tell of God's unfailing love for us and all humankind!
People: Hallelujah!
PRAYER OF ADORATION
Living God, we acknowledge today that you come to us again and again. We delight in celebrating your coming as a baby to Mary and to us. With all our senses, we are aware of your presence: the smell of evergreens and candles, the colors of banners and flowers, the manger filled with straw and our pets close at our sides.... Thank you for your bountiful imagination compelling us to be caregivers to this earth and its creatures. How we adore you! With words and silence, with songs and prayers we express our love for you. Amen.
SUGGESTED CAROLS
"Go, Tell It On The Mountain"
"'Twas In The Moon Of Wintertime." Tune: UNE JEUNE PUCELLE; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, page 61.
"All My Heart Today Rejoices." Tune: WARUM SOLLT' ICH.
"Good Christian Friends, Rejoice." Tune: IN DULCI JUBILO.
"Born In The Night, Mary's Child." Tune: Mary's Child; Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, page 30.
"O Come, All Ye Faithful."
"On This Day Earth Shall Ring." Tune: PERSONENT HODIE.
Note: Interesting details on carols are provided by Ace Collins, Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, by Ace Collins (Zondervan, 2001).
CALL TO CONFESSION (based on Psalm 148)
All the universe demonstrates divine creativity. We are challenged to praise God along with the sun and moon, angels and mountains. Psalm 148 cites many elements of Creation that honor God. When we name the attitudes and behaviors that keep us from being our best selves, God will change our thinking and set us in a new way that proclaims holy goodness and grace.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION
God of all creation, as an infant you surprise us and invite us to grow with you in compassion and wisdom. Look deep into us and remove any cynicism, stinginess, and prejudices that make us inadequate mentors of your love. Open our ears to dreams and angels; open our eyes to hopeful words. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
God, the Holy One who comes to us in winter, spring, summer, and fall offers us wholeness from our heads to our toes. Receive this gift of life. See it in Jesus the baby; know it in Jesus the adult; feel it in the living Christ.
CONGREGATIONAL CHORAL RESPONSE
"O Little Town Of Bethlehem," stanza 4:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
There are many ways we express appreciation for our blessings. One way is to provide resources for a dynamic witness to the Christ Child here in this very place.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING (from the carol In Bethlehem A Babe Was Born; tune: DISCOVERY stanza 3, modified)
Living God,
We know the mystery of Bethlehem was long ago;
And we thank you for the miracle of that baby today --
The baby which lives in our hearts
And enables us to hear love
In laughter and in tears.
The Child of peace is with us, and we give our all. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Holy One,
We've waited all year for the excitement of Christmas -- a baby, gifts, cozy moments, comfort foods.... Help us sustain the joy for many days. Thank you for coming in Jesus. Merry Christmas, God.
Creating God,
We enjoy the beauty around us. Thank you for the variety of species on this planet. We are grateful for the animals that become our companions -- donkeys, dogs, cats, horses, birds, llamas, lizards.... Help us to be their good shepherds.
God of Christmas,
"Peace and good will on earth," the scriptures say. We keep waiting and still war kills and maims American sons and daughters. Still, weapons and violence maim and kill sons and daughters of other mothers and fathers. God, we pray for peace, peace for people of every language and every religion.
God of all Creation,
In some ways the earth is so strong; in other ways its systems are fragile. Help us make our garbage biodegradable; help us alter our leisure and luxury so that it does not tamper with the habitats of other creatures. We are aware that as humans we sustain ourselves by eating the flesh of animals, fowl, and fish. Help us not to be more brutal than necessary.
God of babies, youth, and adults,
Our calendars seem too full. Our helpful dreams seem too few. Each of us has sore spots. Each of us wants to avoid suffering. Hold us close to your heart and breathe comfort and healing into our bodies and psyches. Free us from hurtful habits; erase our need for addictive substances. Calm our fears. Give us good words of hope and peace to share. Thank you for Christmas inside us. Amen.
BENEDICTION / CHARGE
Christmas is here! The baby has been born.
Sing. Celebrate.
Journey this week as a wise person following a star!
Go with love in your eyes, gentle words on your tongue,
and Holy Spirit energy in your steps.
Children's Sermon
Follow God's directions
Object: a Bible and a Christmas package with candy inside (hidden somewhere)
Based on Matthew 2:13-23
Good morning, boys and girls! In the Gospel reading today, we heard about Joseph following God's directions. First, God sent an angel to tell Joseph to take his wife and the baby Jesus to Egypt. There was this mean old king named Herod who wanted to kill Jesus, so they had to get out of there. After Herod died, God sent another angel to tell Joseph that it was okay to come back, and again he followed God's directions.
Of course, it would be easier to follow God's directions if he sent an angel to tell all of us what to do, but he doesn't do that. Where can we find God's directions today? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we can find God's directions right here. (show the Bible) The Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong, and as long as we are willing to follow it, we will be following God's directions. If we have a problem, we can look in the Bible and see what God has to say about that kind of problem. So, do you think it's a good idea to follow God's directions? (let them answer)
Well, how about following my directions? Who thinks they could follow my directions today? (let someone volunteer) Okay, here's what I want you to do. I brought a Christmas present for you children today and I hid it here in the church. If ___________ can follow my directions, we will get to share in the present. (give directions to find the package and let him or her open it when it is found)
Dear God in heaven: We know that we don't always follow your directions as well as Joseph did. Please help us find the answers to our problems in the Bible and continue to do what you tell us to do. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 26, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
First Sunday after Christmas / Cycle A
Dear Fellow Preachers,
You don't have to be a fundamentalist to feel some irritation when the downtown "Holidazzle" parade in December makes no reference to Christmas -- or when you are given that banal greeting "Happy Holidays" once too often. Celebrating our distinctive religious affirmations in a multi-cultural context can be a delicate balancing act (and now sometimes a legal hassle as well). We at The Immediate Word have therefore asked team member Julia Ross Strope to reflect on this issue, using the lectionary texts for the 26th as a basis.
December 26 has more than one significance in this church year. It is the Sunday after Christmas, the commemoration of the death of St. Stephen (Acts 7), and now -- for many churchgoers -- a day for the service of the blessing of animals. Team members therefore offer their reflections not only on the secularization of Christmas but also on these other themes (as well as Holy Innocents, December 28). As usual, included here are illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.
A Calendar, a Dream, a Child, and a Donkey
Matthew 2:13-23; Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148; Hebrews 2:10-18
By Julia Ross Strope
A Calendar
Messages from God come to us in a variety of ways. Throughout the Christmas season, we hear about angels and dreams. In today's episode of the sacred story, surrogate father Joseph had a dream that directed him to take Mary and the child to Egypt to avoid the brutality of Herod. Artists have depicted Mary sitting on a donkey holding a baby while Joseph led the way. Our secular calendar tells us when to celebrate sacred stories. How we celebrate is both appreciated and challenged. This year, as in years past, lawyers have been hired to interpret the American Constitution's First Amendment: individuals and institutions can display their religious stories.
It's December 26! Twelve days till Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate God's coming in human form (January 6)! "Merry Christmas!" for twelve more days without the drone of "buy the perfect gift." Your calendar and mine is moving toward New Year's Day, usually seen as a secular holiday with its parties. In fact, we each operate with three calendars.
A calendar allows us to remember what occurred in the past and enables us to anticipate events in the future. There's the religious calendar, which keeps us alert to Christmases past and all the other holy days that have become vital to us; likewise, we look ahead to Easter. We have a civic or secular calendar, developed by Pope Gregory XIII and adopted in 1582; it's based on the earth's orbiting the sun. This calendar facilitates interactions throughout the global village. It allows coaches and employees to document times for salaries and games.
Then there's our personal calendar. We hold it in our hands, hang it on our walls, look at it, listen for its ding, and feel it nudge us when an important engagement is about to occur. All our calendars are circular -- the events that are valuable to us come around again and again: birthdays, anniversaries, and holy days (holidays).
A Dream
Since recorded history, humans have longed for relief from oppression and pain, personally and communally. We have dreamed of joyful living. An external Savior has often stepped forward to lead the way from bondage to some kind of freedom. Ancient peoples looked for a victorious leader. Europeans, too, dreamed of a country where religious freedom was the norm. The story they used for cultural values and governmental emphases was the Christian saga, an epic story -- a story offering goodness to the individual and to the culture.
Some segments of contemporary American culture resent religious people expressing their stories in public places. For the last fifty years or so in my memory, cinema has given more time and clever images to Frosty and Rudolph, "Jingle Bells," and "White Christmas" than to the story of Jesus. Wishing to be a melting pot, we've invited other religions to tell their stories, too. And now we find the dreams of freedom in conflict.
The Christian epic begins with an angel announcing God's coming to a young woman. It continues with additional heavenly messages to wise men -- a dream to Joseph to protect the baby and to sages who watch the heavens for fulfillment of scriptures and human hopes. The wise ones give gifts to aid the God-Man in life on earth.
Oral tradition has embellished the original story, whatever the historical details. This religious story has been combined with other culturally important activities (economic/merchandizing plus Hanukkah, Kwanza, and sometimes Ramadan) till we have a civic winter holiday season. While the religious right wants everyone to say "Merry Christmas," non-Christians say we are a multi-religious nation, not a Christian one and they are offended by our Christmas greetings. In some places, schools and businesses have been denied the option of displaying images of Christmas, and so legal battles have ensued around images that are meant to promote peace and belonging.
It seems to me that there is individual and cultural ignorance around images. When the nativity scene with its symbols of new life and hope is removed from courthouse lawns and the wearing of bright colors (red and green) in public schools is denied (Plano, Texas), our public squares are stripped of visual images of hospitality, graciousness, and societal celebration. How else shall we ourselves affirm our living? Without multiple images of life and peace, how shall we pass values along to the next generation? The big dream of God among us and the freedom to express this dream in various ways are crucial to sane humanness.
We See Freedom/Salvation in the Christ Child
We seek freedom and salvation for the real live children around the globe. No more child soldiers; no more families expelled to be nomads and refugees! We experience the sacredness of life within our inner-child. Without the baby safely nurtured, there is no compassionate next generation. Without the symbols of God in Christ -- the nativity scene and bright star for the wise -- our hearts as well as our yards would be bare. Each of us chooses how to make visible, tangible, and audible the symbols that keep alive hope and joy on our personal and secular calendars. What images are on your Christmas tree? On your ears? Around your neck? On your shoes?
And the Donkey
You know the character traits of a donkey. Most of us have some of those characteristics! I love the watercolor donkey of Australian artist Julie Vivas; it resolutely accepts and facilitates the burden of mother and child. We don't know whether Joseph owned a donkey or a horse, a camel or a llama. We do know that a child and safety are burdens we need help carrying -- whether on our own shoulders, in a machine, or in the companionship of a pet.
When the blizzards of economic injustice, ecological ruin, and spiritual violence swirl around us (cf. Palmer, p. 1), we look for something to help carry our burdens -- physical and psychological. After a sad divorce, my friend bought a poodle. During his wife's illness, my neighbor got a Malaysian cat. When swirls of fear and frenzy, greed and deceit (cf. Palmer, p. 1) threaten to overcome us, we find pets that help settle the chaos. I'm glad artists often depict Joseph leading a donkey bearing Mary and baby to safety in another country. They were homeless on a continent that still produces many refugees.
Conclusion
The Christian calendar, like the civic one, is cyclical. Symbols vary with the chapter in the religious story and in the national one. Parts of the story coincide: winter -- pregnancy and birth, spring -- empty caves and new life. Our culture needs the Christian story expressed in as many ways as we can imagine -- verbally, visually, ethically. The next generation needs a religious/spiritual calendar as well as the civic one with all its images of peace and compassion, hope, and joy. Let no one dictate how we express our experience of the God who frequently shows up in unexpected places. May our songs not need to hide the truths of faith as the "Twelve Days of Christmas" did in the 1500s for Roman Catholic children in England. At every stage of our lives, we need calendars, dreams, a child, and a donkey.
I am glad for the First Amendment, which allows for religious interpretations of the momentous spiritual aspects of our lives as well as for secular ones. We have a story to tell and symbols to help tell it: angel messages, divinity in a child, rest in a manger, wise people following stars, animals to help carry our burdens. Show and tell it!
Resources
Books
Collins, A. Stories behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas (Zondervan, 2001). "Twelve Days of Christmas" is described as a teaching tool during persecution in England in the 1500s.
Guillen, M. Can a Smart Person Believe in God? (Nelson Books, 2004). A scientist looks at religion alongside science and says yes.
Palmer, P. J. A Hidden Wholeness (Jossey-Bass, 2004). Quaker Parker Palmer looks for wholeness in a global culture of injustice and violence.
Smith, H. The World's Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991). Helpful resource for the various symbols and values of religions.
Internet websites and search topics
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) frequently challenges Christian display of symbols.
"Twelve Rules of Christmas," The Rutherford Institute (J. W. Whitehead, 12/6/04), lists twelve freedoms that the First Amendment allows: religious slogans on T-shirts and jewelry, distribution of greeting cards, carols, creches, lights, trees, work attendance.
"Merry Christmas" cites groups demanding that "Merry Christmas" be the official social and business greeting in the days prior to December 25
Christmas Symbols
Religious Christmas
Secular Christmas
Happy Epiphany; Christian Post
donkey
camel
animal blessings
Team Comments
Chris Ewing responds: "Does Christmas need to be saved?" demanded Sunday's New York Times headline ("The Week in Review," December 19, 2004). There are certainly differing answers to that contentious question! And there seems to be a new stridency to the debate. Notes the Times: "The debate over how to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion is as perennial as a poinsettia. This year, however, conservatives, who have long pushed to "put the Christ back in Christmas," say they have been emboldened by election results that they took as affirmation that most Americans share not only their faith but also their belief that the nation has lost bearings.... Of course, for many conservatives, this controversy is not just about Christmas; it's a way to talk about a whole float of issues. Bill O'Reilly warned viewers that store clerks no longer saying "Merry Christmas" foretold the imminence of "a brave new progressive world" where gay marriage, partial-birth abortion, and legalized drugs run rampant."
Without wanting to share the alarmism of the Bill O'Reilly's of this world, it can still be affirmed that, yes, the secularization of Christmas is part, if not of a "brave new progressive world," at least of a rapidly shrinking and consequently anxious and complicated world. What do we do about the fact that a significant proportion of our neighbours and fellow citizens may have very different traditions and beliefs?
This is a global issue with many different faces around the world. The European Union has recently decided to enter into negotiations with Turkey, with a view to having that country join the Union in about ten years. This was not an easy or obvious decision: The EU has been very skittish about having an officially Muslim state under its banner. We can expect the membership talks to be protracted and difficult, with no guarantee of success, for the politics of ethnicity and religion are perhaps the most difficult on the planet. How can people of profoundly different identities and formative beliefs live peacefully and productively together? As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, how can we actually do peace with our neighbours who have no allegiance to Jesus and who may have experienced his followers as destructive of their peace?
In Canada, there is currently intense discussion, both within and beyond the Muslim community, about whether Muslims should have the right to have family matters tried by Sharia law. While most Canadians are believers in religious freedom, there is widespread concern about some of the values underpinning Islamic law, particularly with regard to the status of women. There is tension between women who had hoped that coming to Canada would afford them more rights, and families who are frightened by their loss of what seems to them appropriate control. In a multi-cultural, multi-faith society, what are the limits of accommodation? What is the necessary minimum of conformity to shared standards?
Broadly put, there have been two general tendencies in responding to the reality of religious and cultural diversity. The course chosen by the United States has been that of the "melting pot," where until recently it was assumed that anyone coming to America would take on an American identity, forged of the best that many different nations have to offer. The melting pot has certainly not produced homogeneity, as strong regional identities (Yankee, Midwestern and Southern, for instance) and the ethnic quarters of large cities make abundantly clear. But the ideal of the melting pot remains.
Across the border in Canada, conversely, the espoused ideal, particularly since the Trudeau era of the 1970's, has been the "mosaic." In this vision, everyone retains their distinctiveness; multi-culturalism is celebrated and creatively accommodated -- at least in theory. In practice, we struggle with this just as much as our neighbours to the south. The fact is, it is not easy for very different people to forge an equitable and comfortable common life. The average married couple finds it challenging; small wonder that different cultures and religions do!
Secularism has been one way of attempting to level the playing field and make room for everybody. If we all keep our religious identities out of sight, and meet on the ground we can agree on, that of freedom and opportunity, then things should work out, right?
Well, maybe. The trouble is that our religious identities tend to keep popping into view, and properly so. A religious heritage that did not profoundly shape how we view the world and the way we act in it would not be much of a heritage. And an important feature of every religion is the communal practices and periodic celebrations that strengthen identity and recall shared history and values. Secularism has struggled with how to deal with these.
The attempt to repress them, to insist that they be carried on away from public view, has been problematic, for these things are by their very nature public. The wearing of religious symbols, the observance of feast days, the singing of songs, and so on are the means by which community is built and identity and values fostered. They are public acts. It has been easier for us as a secular society, at least until recently, to allow minority groups to do these things: there is no danger that everyone will be expected to do them, and they are often colourful and interesting. However, when the majority population in all its massive numbers engages in its celebrations, it can be felt as very oppressive by those who do not belong to the majority.
We have experimented with two different ways of responding, neither one very satisfactory. Recognizing that, simply by weight of numbers, the majority is far more oppressive of the minority than vice versa, and also responding to minority voices of protest, we have often placed considerably more restriction on majority (i.e., Christian) religious expression than on others. When this is done as an intentional act of courtesy, as hospitable self-restraint, it can be admirable. However, many Christians experience it as an unfair imposition from a hostile outside force; and even for those who do not, the year-in, year-out obligation of it erodes willingness.
In response to the apparent unfairness of selective repression, then, we have tried cracking down on all religious expression. This has led to ridiculous excess -- witness the school in France that banned the wearing of bright colours such as red and green, or the Maine community that has a literacy parade in December instead of a Christmas or Santa Claus parade. The effort to forbid all public religious expression has not created a climate of equality and respect, still less of mutual comfort; instead, it has exacerbated suspicion and ill will.
Nobody wants to turn North America into a Sarajevo, Belfast, or Darfur where Herodian massacres follow upon the perception of difference as danger. Nobody even wants their neighbour to feel uncomfortable or put-upon by alien celebrations. I would venture that most of us would like to see both Christians and their non-Christian neighbours free to celebrate their faiths and their festivals, be they Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, or what-have-you. I would further venture that many of us would genuinely like to learn more about our neighbours' faiths and festivals, and that, so far from banning public religious expression, we should be taking -- and creating -- opportunities for mutual learning. This, by the way, is very different from proselytizing, which has no place in public institutions such as schools and marketplaces. Creating a climate where we all have opportunities to learn about one another could go a long way toward reducing resentment, fear, and hostility.
The numbers problem, however, remains a thorny one. How we Christians deal with being an overwhelming majority who need to foster our own identity and strengthen our own faith while still respecting the need of other groups to do likewise is a difficult question. We are unlikely to come up with a solution that satisfies everybody anytime soon. But we could do worse than to emulate the one who came to us in shared vulnerability, and who grew up to both welcome others as who they were and to be clear and unafraid about who he, in his turn, was.
George Murphy responds: A good carol for the Sunday after Christmas -- one especially fitting this year -- is "Good King Wenceslas." You remember:
"Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen ..."
Stephen, of course, was the first Christian martyr, and his feast day is 26 December, the day after Christmas. And that might be enough to give some people pause. We've just finished happily celebrating the birth of Christ and then suddenly -- a man getting stoned to death. Our attention gets turned abruptly to all of those who have been killed "for hatred of the faith" through twenty centuries.
It doesn't end there. December 28 is Holy Innocents, the commemoration of the massacre of children by King Herod in Matthew 2:16-18, just following this Sunday's Gospel. (Unless your congregation will be observing Holy Innocents this year, I recommend including those verses in the Sunday reading.) It's a time to remember all innocent victims, from the first century to those being killed by suicide bombers in Iraq today.
Does commemoration of martyrdom seem like an incongruous way to continue the observance of the twelve days of Christmas? Only if we forget what the birth of Christ was in preparation for. We should have heeded the call of the old Anglo-Saxon poet:
"Now look around you, across the wide world
And above you, at oceans and the great hanging
Arch of the sky -- and see how Heaven's
King comes to you, longing for His death.... "
(Advent Lyric 3 in Poems from the Old English; trans. Burton Raffel [2d ed.; University of Nebraska, 1964], p. 67)
Few of our familiar Christmas carols (and especially those heard on the radio or in malls) say anything about the passion and death of Christ. ("What Child Is This?" is one exception.) Even fewer (I can't think of any) have anything about taking up our crosses and following him. Religious carols are "offensive" to some people in our pluralistic society, but maybe we need to be more offensive in the right way. Perhaps our Christmas celebrations need a touch of the scandal of the cross. Actually they already have it if attention is called to the humiliation of God that the manger scene really involved.
"Ah Lord! The maker of us all!
How hast thou grown so poor and small,
That there thou liest on withered grass,
The supper of the ox and ass?"
(Verse 9 of "From Heaven on High I Come to You" in Luther's Works, vol. 53 [Fortress Press, 1965], p. 291)
This would mean first of all calling the Christian community to a more profound celebration of Christmas -- more profound, not more grim! If we realize that Christmas points to God's victory over sin and death on our behalf, we have a reason to celebrate that is deeper than a mere opportunity to reflect on a cute baby and sing "Silent Night" at the end of the Christmas Eve service.
But this is also an important part of the church's witness in a pluralistic society.
If we're really going to let a thousand flowers bloom, then by all means Christians should let their brightest flowers be seen. We should speak and sing of the Christmas festival in a way that announces clearly that we are celebrating the historical birth of God in the flesh for the salvation of the world rather than a generic theism.
What about all the other religious, ethnic, and cultural festivals that are celebrated at this time of year? By all means let them be celebrated by their adherents. That could even turn out to be an advantage for Christian evangelism if those observances are viewed in the light of Christ. There is excellent precedent for that.
December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus, not because we know that he was born on this date but (probably) because that was the date of the pagan celebration of the Natale Sol Invictus, "The birth of the unconquered sun." At the beginning of winter the sun reaches its farthest position south along the ecliptic, and night seems well on its way toward defeating the day -- but then the sun starts back north! Whether the date was deliberately chosen for this reason or not, the Christian symbolism is clear: "The sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:2). We celebrate the real "birth of the unconquered Son."
Critics of Christianity sometimes delight in arguing that the church baptized a pagan festival. Big deal! St. Augustine and other church fathers recognized that the church had taken over some features of pagan culture and justified this with the analogy of the Israelites who were commanded to take "the spoils of the Egyptians" as they prepared for the Exodus. What is really amusing is the way some neo-pagans try to re-mythologize the winter solstice and turn it into a nature festival.
Following that same pattern, Christians should feel free to interpret other festivals in terms of the Christian story -- and not worry about accusations of trying to assimilate other cultures. One of the problems we have is that we've been too willing to let Christmas be assimilated and made into a secular festival.
I return to St. Stephen. T. S. Eliot made good use of the three festivals that follow Christmas -- including St. John the Evangelist on 27 December -- in Murder in the Cathedral. The Christmas morning sermon he wrote for Archbishop Thomas Beckett in that play might be worth some attention by preachers. Take a chance and do something different this Sunday: We all know that attendance will be relatively low then anyway!
Carlos Wilton responds: The flight to Egypt is a strange sidebar to the nativity story. Matthew provides scant detail about this episode, which was surely a harrowing experience for the young Savior's family. Symbolically, it may have functioned for the early church as a revisiting of the Passover -- particularly in conjunction with Herod's brutal massacre of the innocents, which recalls the death of the Egyptian firstborns. As Mary, Joseph, and Jesus return home at last, following the tyrant's death (Matthew 1:15), it is as though a new Exodus has taken place. It's no surprise that Matthew, ever alert to Jewish antecedents to the Christian story, is the sole Gospel writer to include these events.
A possible link to this week's news stories about secular vs. sacred Christmas celebrations is the symbolic role of Egypt. As the holy family crosses the border, they move from the land of Israel into a largely Gentile culture. Yes, first-century Egypt was home to a large community of diaspora Jews (it was with this community that Joseph undoubtedly found refuge for his wife and child). Yet even so, the cosmopolitan setting of Hellenistic Egypt must have seemed strange to this provincial carpenter and his young family.
It's significant that the Messiah spends the first months, and possibly years, of his life dwelling in a foreign, Gentile land. In a certain sense, Christians must always dwell more in Egypt than in the promised land. This theme is explored by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in their much-quoted Resident Aliens: Life In the Christian Colony (Abingdon, 1989). "A colony," they write, "is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed on to the young, a place where the distinctive language and life-style of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and enforced. The church is a colony, an island of one culture in the middle of another. In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another, and we become, in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens" (p. 12). That's what Mary and Joseph were during their sojourn in Egypt: resident aliens. That's what Christians are today, in the midst of the vast, secular Christmas celebrations.
Related Illustrations
From Carlos Wilton
The following article was published in the New York Times, December 19, 2004:
HOLIDAY WARS
Does Christmas Need to Be Saved?
By Kate Zernike
A pastor in Raleigh, N.C., took out a full-page newspaper ad in November exhorting Christians to shop only at stores that included "Merry Christmas" in their promotions.
In Mustang, Okla., parents last week voted against an $11 million bond for schools, after the superintendent excised a nativity scene at the end of the annual Christmas play. They then erected their own manger outside the auditorium, with signs saying "No Christ. No Christmas. Know Christ. Know Christmas."
And in Kansas, The Wichita Eagle published a correction this month, noting that the tree lighted at Winterfest was the "Community Tree," not a "Christmas tree." After protests, the mayor last week declared himself "not a politically correct person" and announced that next year there would be a Christmas tree.
If the demands to "Bring Back Christmas" -- or, in the words of one group in California, "Save Merry Christmas" -- seem louder and more insistent this year, they are. The debate over how to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion is as perennial as a poinsettia. This year, however, conservatives, who have long pushed to "put the Christ back in Christmas," say they have been emboldened by election results that they took as affirmation that most Americans share not only their faith but also their belief that the nation has lost bearings.
But the demands to bring back Christmas are not simply part of an age-old culture war, with the A.C.L.U. in one corner and evangelicals in the other. There is also a more moderate force, asking whether the country has gone too far in its quest to be inclusive of all faiths. Why, they ask, must a Christmas tree become a holiday tree? And is singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in a school performance more offensive than singing "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel"? "It's political correctness run amok," said Lynn Mistretta, who with another mother in Scarborough, Me., started BringBackChristmas.org. "I'm not for offending anyone, but we're excluding everyone, and everyone feels rotten about it."
The full article may be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/weekinreview/19zern.html?adxnnl=1&oref...
***
In one of his books, Ron Rolheiser tells a story of an old church building in the Netherlands. For many years, everyone entering the church would stop and bow in the direction of a certain plain, whitewashed wall. Nobody knew why, but everyone had been doing it for so long that nobody questioned it. It was tradition. As the members of the parish undertook a building renovation, they began to strip the whitewash off this particular wall. There they discovered traces of a painting. As they carefully removed more and more layers of paint, there gradually emerged a beautiful, centuries-old painting of Christ.
Nobody then living was old enough to have seen the painting before. It had been whitewashed over for a century or two. Yet everyone had been bowing to that wall, not knowing why, but sensing there was good reason for the reverence.
Is this not like the secular celebration of Christmas? People of our culture bow to some tradition at the center of the holiday that is now indistinct to them. Still they bow toward the manger of Bethlehem. Is it a problem that, once a year, the secular culture offers such allegiance -- fleeting as it may be? Or is it, perhaps, an evangelical opportunity like none other?
Our task is not to question the mindless bowing. It is, rather, to help peel off the whitewash, to help restore the Savior's image beneath. As Hauerwas and Willimon remark in Resident Aliens, "The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel."
***
The story is told of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, attending worship at a small Anglican parish one Easter. The Prime Minister was not a frequent churchgoer, and the rector could not resist the opportunity to get in a little dig on this occasion. Greeting Churchill at the church door after the service, he said, "You're not quite a pillar of the church, Prime Minister." To which Churchill is said to have responded, "I'm not a pillar, but a buttress. I support it from the outside."
How like the attitude of many who worship at Christmas and Easter, but at few other times!
***
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the weather. At my son's school, they now hold the winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as "Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman" and -- this is a real song -- "Suzy Snowflake," all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of Meteorology.
-- Newspaper humor columnist Dave Barry, in a 1991 column
***
The best things in life aren't things.
-- Art Buchwald
***
Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide-open heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world of the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years.... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
-- George Matthew Adams, quoted in the Ministry of Money e-newsletter, 11/04
Worship Resources
By Julia Ross Strope
CSS liturgy for December 26, 2004
At Church of the Covenant (PCUSA) in Greensboro, N.C., the Sunday after Christmas used to be a low attendance day. Three years ago, we began "blessing of the animals," and our attendance no longer dips. If people do not have "real pets," they bring their favorite stuffed animals. The pets arrive and leave with their owners. During the sermon time, pets and owners come to the chancel for a blessing from both ministers. Hence today's theme: a calendar, a dream, a child and a donkey.
CALL TO WORSHIP (based on Isaiah 63:7-10)
Leader: What a wonderful day! We celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, God's coming to earth as a child, a human being!
People: We are grateful for God's dependable and continuing love.
Leader: God's love and compassion sustain us day by day.
People: God has cared for us in the past even when we have rebelled.
Leader: We have turned from the wrongs of yesterday and we now tell of God's unfailing love for us and all humankind!
People: Hallelujah!
PRAYER OF ADORATION
Living God, we acknowledge today that you come to us again and again. We delight in celebrating your coming as a baby to Mary and to us. With all our senses, we are aware of your presence: the smell of evergreens and candles, the colors of banners and flowers, the manger filled with straw and our pets close at our sides.... Thank you for your bountiful imagination compelling us to be caregivers to this earth and its creatures. How we adore you! With words and silence, with songs and prayers we express our love for you. Amen.
SUGGESTED CAROLS
"Go, Tell It On The Mountain"
"'Twas In The Moon Of Wintertime." Tune: UNE JEUNE PUCELLE; available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, page 61.
"All My Heart Today Rejoices." Tune: WARUM SOLLT' ICH.
"Good Christian Friends, Rejoice." Tune: IN DULCI JUBILO.
"Born In The Night, Mary's Child." Tune: Mary's Child; Available in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990, page 30.
"O Come, All Ye Faithful."
"On This Day Earth Shall Ring." Tune: PERSONENT HODIE.
Note: Interesting details on carols are provided by Ace Collins, Stories behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, by Ace Collins (Zondervan, 2001).
CALL TO CONFESSION (based on Psalm 148)
All the universe demonstrates divine creativity. We are challenged to praise God along with the sun and moon, angels and mountains. Psalm 148 cites many elements of Creation that honor God. When we name the attitudes and behaviors that keep us from being our best selves, God will change our thinking and set us in a new way that proclaims holy goodness and grace.
COMMUNITY CONFESSION
God of all creation, as an infant you surprise us and invite us to grow with you in compassion and wisdom. Look deep into us and remove any cynicism, stinginess, and prejudices that make us inadequate mentors of your love. Open our ears to dreams and angels; open our eyes to hopeful words. Amen.
WORD OF GRACE
God, the Holy One who comes to us in winter, spring, summer, and fall offers us wholeness from our heads to our toes. Receive this gift of life. See it in Jesus the baby; know it in Jesus the adult; feel it in the living Christ.
CONGREGATIONAL CHORAL RESPONSE
"O Little Town Of Bethlehem," stanza 4:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
OFFERTORY STATEMENT
There are many ways we express appreciation for our blessings. One way is to provide resources for a dynamic witness to the Christ Child here in this very place.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING (from the carol In Bethlehem A Babe Was Born; tune: DISCOVERY stanza 3, modified)
Living God,
We know the mystery of Bethlehem was long ago;
And we thank you for the miracle of that baby today --
The baby which lives in our hearts
And enables us to hear love
In laughter and in tears.
The Child of peace is with us, and we give our all. Amen.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Holy One,
We've waited all year for the excitement of Christmas -- a baby, gifts, cozy moments, comfort foods.... Help us sustain the joy for many days. Thank you for coming in Jesus. Merry Christmas, God.
Creating God,
We enjoy the beauty around us. Thank you for the variety of species on this planet. We are grateful for the animals that become our companions -- donkeys, dogs, cats, horses, birds, llamas, lizards.... Help us to be their good shepherds.
God of Christmas,
"Peace and good will on earth," the scriptures say. We keep waiting and still war kills and maims American sons and daughters. Still, weapons and violence maim and kill sons and daughters of other mothers and fathers. God, we pray for peace, peace for people of every language and every religion.
God of all Creation,
In some ways the earth is so strong; in other ways its systems are fragile. Help us make our garbage biodegradable; help us alter our leisure and luxury so that it does not tamper with the habitats of other creatures. We are aware that as humans we sustain ourselves by eating the flesh of animals, fowl, and fish. Help us not to be more brutal than necessary.
God of babies, youth, and adults,
Our calendars seem too full. Our helpful dreams seem too few. Each of us has sore spots. Each of us wants to avoid suffering. Hold us close to your heart and breathe comfort and healing into our bodies and psyches. Free us from hurtful habits; erase our need for addictive substances. Calm our fears. Give us good words of hope and peace to share. Thank you for Christmas inside us. Amen.
BENEDICTION / CHARGE
Christmas is here! The baby has been born.
Sing. Celebrate.
Journey this week as a wise person following a star!
Go with love in your eyes, gentle words on your tongue,
and Holy Spirit energy in your steps.
Children's Sermon
Follow God's directions
Object: a Bible and a Christmas package with candy inside (hidden somewhere)
Based on Matthew 2:13-23
Good morning, boys and girls! In the Gospel reading today, we heard about Joseph following God's directions. First, God sent an angel to tell Joseph to take his wife and the baby Jesus to Egypt. There was this mean old king named Herod who wanted to kill Jesus, so they had to get out of there. After Herod died, God sent another angel to tell Joseph that it was okay to come back, and again he followed God's directions.
Of course, it would be easier to follow God's directions if he sent an angel to tell all of us what to do, but he doesn't do that. Where can we find God's directions today? (let them answer) Yes, of course, we can find God's directions right here. (show the Bible) The Bible tells us what is right and what is wrong, and as long as we are willing to follow it, we will be following God's directions. If we have a problem, we can look in the Bible and see what God has to say about that kind of problem. So, do you think it's a good idea to follow God's directions? (let them answer)
Well, how about following my directions? Who thinks they could follow my directions today? (let someone volunteer) Okay, here's what I want you to do. I brought a Christmas present for you children today and I hid it here in the church. If ___________ can follow my directions, we will get to share in the present. (give directions to find the package and let him or her open it when it is found)
Dear God in heaven: We know that we don't always follow your directions as well as Joseph did. Please help us find the answers to our problems in the Bible and continue to do what you tell us to do. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, December 26, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
