Trinity Episcopal Church

December 12, 2010

We each have our own Christmas traditions. Maybe you make it a point to go out in the cold and cut down a fresh pine each year (or better yet, a potted tree). Or maybe you just drag the pink tree with the round purple ornaments up from the basement. Maybe you decorate your house with lights, or maybe you put a few candles in the windows. Perhaps you listen to your 5 holiday CD‘s, watch your 5 favorite holiday movies, drink eggnog or flavored coffee, nibble on cheese balls and peanut butter balls and cookies, cookies, and more cookies, and then you make the yearly trip to Chicken City (Frankenmuth) and have dinner, and you try a dark beer because it’s a festive occasion, and after the 12 course meal of chicken, pickled beets and cranberry salad, they give you a small bowl of ice cream with a cookie in it for dessert, then you get home and crash because you spent the entire evening chasing that little boy around at Bronners while two weeks worth of starch and carbohydrates begin to make their way to the surface and you feel like one of those giant, inflatable snowmen that my neighbor has in her front yard---or perhaps not. Whatever it is, you have your own traditions at Christmas.

I like to read the Nativity story on Christmas eve. Christmas comes to us in the form of a story. It didn’t come by doctrine or a theological treatise, but for us Jesus enters the world through a story told by the gospel writers. Luke is an especially good story teller. He sets the stage in the mighty Roman Empire and then take us to a small village and talks about angels visiting and people like Mary and Joseph trusting that God will work things out for the good even though they don’t understand it yet. And those who don’t understand it try to stop the Christ child from coming, like the Romans, King Herod or some of the Jewish Sadducees

In the story the young expecting couple are on a journey, Mary, nine months pregnant and riding on a donkey, and Joseph---they must be a little scared, a little confused, especially when they hear there‘s no room for them at the inn. But alone, in a stable, on a starry night, Jesus is born. And just a few shepherds know about it. God coming to earth as a helpless baby. Yet this simple story that Luke wrote has powerfully transformed not only the third week in December, but more so, over two billion people. The pen is mightier than the sword! And this time of year, with all the music and food and parties (after all, I am Episcopalian) and decorations and presents under the tree, I find that the story itself is what has changed my life, is what makes me feel warm, hopeful, and loved.

My prayer for you is that you will embrace the story. You will let the Christmas narrative speak to you. Don’t analyze it, just let the story grab you. And then maybe, perhaps, you will be part of it. You’ll know that little baby came for you.

Merry Christmas,

Fr. Rick, Kristi, and “that little boy Sam.”

Trinity Episcopal Church

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December 12, 2010