Christmas Column

This column was titled Adult Christmas in my files, but I thought too many minds may go a slightly different way than what I intended. In the early days of computer protections I could never type adult education into a document.It is difficult for ministers not to don the role of Ebenezer Scrooge as a pastor. Too many conflicting pressures pile up in too short a time, too many pleas for help rush in. . Plus we fight the Advent v. Christmas hymn issue every Sunday.

Many churches will read John 1 on Christmas Eve and perhaps Christmas Day as well. John has no manger scene but a sophisticated notion that the logos, the communication, the logic, the vision of God took residence in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. It is the first account in the gospels that undertakes to wonder how the divine and the human can be joined when such a gulf exists between them. So, a christmas question asks, where do we see signs of the Incarnation, where do we find the Incarnation hidden, in the everyday?

I find the presence of the divine in family ritual. The first time I ate at my in-laws they had an enormous, heavy lasagna for Christmas that required a crane to remove from the oven. I enjoy seeing a two year old as entranced with the empty boxes as the sophisticated toy. When I was two, my father bought me an enormous blue tricycle for Christmas. It looked like a 56 Chevy and weighed about as much. He had to place blocks on the pedals for me to ride it. He would die that year, and my mother wondered if he saw me as bigger than I was, if he were being a glimpse into the future.

Our divorce was finalized around Christmas time years ago. The girls were always with their mother on Christmas, so I volunteered to give a chaplain a break at the local hospital. It is difficult to find God’s presence for a child hooked to a chemotherapy drip in a hospital on Christmas.(It even melts the heart of Steve Sallas in Bloom County).  I envision the Holy Family in a hospital room as they keep vigil in the harsh light.

I picture the Holy Family on the way to Egypt stopping by a  place such as St  John’s serving a meal today on Christmas Day.

To help capture the spirit of the season, I often turn to children’s books as a guide.The stories capture me first, but I often admire the stunning illustrations that accompany the bits of text.  I just came across The Third Gift, on myrrh as the last gift of the Magi. An Orange for Frankie is great to read for the elderly who recall getting citrus fruit only at Christmas. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey has been made into a movie. Angela and the Baby Jesus. People like Christmas Tapestry and Gift of the Traveler.

For older readers, I still love Truman Capote’s Christmas Memory, O Henry’s Gift of the Magi. For the more cynical, go to  David Sedaris’s Christmas  collection.

In music, Tom Waits Christmas Card reminds me of human struggle at any time of year, but  its poignance now. The video of Dylan’s Must Be Santa makes me laugh. Hymns, of course, echo within. I like a really big voice for O Holy Night Hear the one  by Jussi Bjorling, or Jonas Kaufman,  or one of the Three Tenors.

Dickens grasped  the linkage of Christmas and redemption in Christmas Carol. We just went to the Wildey to see a 1938 version of its tale. May your heart grow four sizes too large. May you greet the season with an enthusiasm that  would rival that of tiny tim and the reformed Scrooge himself.