Advent Star

“Where is the new-born King of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” 

Matthew 2:2

The star hangs in silent suspension in the clear night sky. So far away and yet so bright, so beautiful, piercing the darkness of space. It wheels its course in a soundless orbit, set in motion long ago by the One who generously spangles the black depths of the universe with an abundance of starry glitter. Earth is nightly invested with a regal crown of breath-taking coruscated beauty and yet how often we miss this nocturnal ceremony

Advent

A determined seven year old lifted the three red wooden ornaments out of a drawer and declared that these would take their place on the mantelpiece despite the fact that it was still only mid-November. Perfectly aware of the general household rule that all things Christmas do not make an appearance until the month of December, he announced this with a fair amount of rebelliousness and attitude, no doubt expecting an argument. I hesitated only briefly before allowing him victory. The garish and gaudy colours of commercial Christmas have been filling our peripheral vision since October, reminding us in the usual not so subtle way, that the end of year season is just around the corner and after all, it takes very little to stoke the fires of festive excitement in our little people.

So there the wooden figures sit, waiting to be joined by cards and candles, a look of stoic resignation on their painted faces. Three wise men bearing gifts yet all dressed as Santa in red, with white fur trim and long white beards. One holds a wrapped present with a bow, one a star and one a Christmas tree. A strange and curious mixture of traditional fable and Bible story. It occurred to me that these funny wooden Christmas mantel decorations are quite emblematic of what we see around us. Myth and truth intertwined, all the elements of what Christmas is to us mixed together in an incongruous collection.

Sometimes it almost seems as if we pull up outside the stable in Bethlehem having caught a ride on a sleigh. As we raced along we didn’t notice the guiding star fall out of the sky and land atop an elegant spruce tree, covered with tinsel and twinkling fairy lights. We weren’t paying any attention, being preoccupied by our to-do and to-get lists but somehow we still arrive at a nativity scene albeit one where reindeer feed on hay alongside the donkeys and cattle.

As John Betjeman says in his poem, ‘Advent 1955’,

‘Some ways indeed are very odd

By which we hail the birth of God.'

In through the doorway of the stable we duck, bringing the whole fused jumble in with us. As we stand in the stable, we might suddenly remember where we are, feel guilty, mumble sorry and then try to shove all the unchristian stuff back out the door as if we can successfully segregate the godly from the worldly but before we set out on a self-righteous campaign to purge Christmas of all those ‘odd ways’ and put the three wise Santa’s back in the drawer, are we ourselves really much different? Maybe those ornaments are not just symbolic of the world around us but of our own inner worlds too. Each of us a more intricate, complicated blend of reality and fantasy, truth and falsehood.

In the stable, we become aware of our unworthiness for here lies God himself. Religion may tell us to leave all our messy, confused, mixed up stuff in the porch but belief walks in with it all and does what seems like the least appropriate thing to do – hands it over to a new born baby boy. The stable is the place where eternity and time touch, the place where divinity and humanity are fused. This is a place full of apparent contradiction that doesn’t make sense unless seen through the lens of faith. Immanuel, God with us, holiness living in the midst of sin. We ask the same question as Mary did, how can this be? The answer? Love.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

John 3:16 The Message

And so we behold the One in the manger. Come, let us adore him. Christ the Lord.

Thanksgiving Table

Shauna Niequist writes at the beginning of her book ‘Bread and Wine’,

‘I hope that when you put this book down, you’ll gather the people you love around your table to eat and drink, to tell stories, to be heard and fed and nourished on every level.’

It’s a book about friendship and food. It’s full of personal stories and recipes. It’s all about the importance of gathering around the table. The table is a place where the ordinary and the every-day can meet with the sacred and the divine. Sometimes, we gather around it specifically for communion and sometimes we gather around the table for turkey and ham but God is always present and always working amongst us.

It can be hard to come to the table sometimes. As Shauna writes, ‘we come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity…..The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need.’

The women of our church gathered for Thanksgiving dinner recently. We ate, we drank, stories were told and heard and we were nourished. This is our collective prayer of thanksgiving written that evening, based on Psalm 136.

Come to the table. Give thanks.

Psalm136

"Give thanks to the Lord for he is good

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to the Lord of lords

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to lord for he is merciful

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for the strength he gives each day

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for his outstretched arm

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for allowing us to come to church

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for the friends he gives us who pray for us when we are anxious

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for his rod and staff which comfort us

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for continual forgiveness

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for he is king

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for his provision every day

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for he is faithful

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for being nearby in this amazing world that he has made

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for his unconditional love

His love endures for ever

Give thanks to The Lord for our church family

His love endures for ever.”