Advent/Christmas - December, 2011

Dear friends,

A few weeks ago my daughter, Emma, and I were visiting Applewicks, the local L’Arche Workshop and Store. We were there to get supplies to make candles at our “New Year’s Levée” held in the Parish Hall on the first Sunday of Advent. Emma was struck by a number of flat pieces of melted wax, lying in shapeless blobs on the countertops in the basement. She asked if she could have them. While this wax would normally have been reused (“no wax is wasted,” we were told), the manager allowed Emma to take the pieces home.

     When we got home Emma began to rearrange the pieces of wax. “Mom, come here,” she called out. As I looked to see what she had made, the scene before me was unmistakable: Emma had created a nativity scene out of the pieces of wax. There was clearly a kneeling Mary, a figure which might be a standing Joseph, and an oval shape that could have been a manger. A small piece of wax was the final touch – that was the face of the baby Jesus. Emma later moved a large triangular piece above the figures to create the roof of the stable. The Applewicks manager was right: “no wax was wasted.” Emma had used every piece in her creation.

     I was struck with awe and wonder!

     This experience reminded me that the Christmas story itself is filled with awe and wonder. Yet, it is so familiar to us that we often miss that altogether. Whether we attend Christmas Eve services or watch re-runs of A Charlie Brown Christmas, this year we will again hear about Mary and Joseph heading to Bethlehem for the census. We will hear that there is no room in the inn, and so Mary must give birth to the infant Jesus in a stable. We will hear about a group of shepherds in the fields tending their sheep who hear the voices of angels in the sky announcing the birth of a Saviour. We will hear how they hurry to the scene and go away rejoicing after seeing that all is exactly as the angels said it would be.

      In the midst of these “details” is the story about a God who enters the world in human form in a most surprising way: by being born to an unmarried, teenage girl in a relatively obscure little town, being placed in a feeding trough for a bed, and receiving his first visit from a group of poor shepherds (the Wise Men come bearing gifts in a different version of the story which we celebrate on the Twelfth Day of Christmas known as Epiphany).

     Many years ago I asked a University Chaplain in Alberta whether he thought it was necessary to believe in the virgin birth. He didn’t answer me, but asked me a question something like this: “what do we lose in our understanding of who God is if there is no Mary and there is no stable?” I thought about his point for a long time afterwards. I realized that we can easily get all bent out of shape fussing about the “facts” and miss the truth that this story seeks to convey: that God enters the world in humility, using ordinary people as the bearers of his grace and love, and as witnesses of his glory.

       And that is where the Christmas story touches our own: God still enters the world in humility, using ordinary people as the bearers of his grace and love and as witnesses of his glory. Like a nine-year-old girl playing with some pieces of discarded wax…like you and me.

       So this Christmas, may you experience anew the awe and wonder of this holy story. And remember -- God is still looking for people like Mary (and you and me and Emma) to be bearers of his grace and love. The world needs us!

Blessings and peace this Christmas season,

Sandra

The Reverend Sandra Fyfe       

Rector, Parish of Horton