A
Reflection for Christmas Eve All Saints’ Church,
Southern Shores, NC
December
24, 2016 Thomas
E. Wilson Rector
Genesis 22:15-18 Isaiah
111-4, 6-11 Luke 2:1, 3-7 Luke
2:8-16
Christmas
Eve 2016
We tell this Christmas Story every year. Some of you already know it by heart, so we
only listen to the memories we have of the telling of the story instead. The
task we have is to listen again and hear it as if for the first time.
There is a new translation out of the 2011 Japanese book,
Absolutely On Music, Conversations with
Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Marakami which I bought for my son-in- law for
Christmas. The author, Marakami, is a writer of fiction, and he speaks of how
he developed a kinship with the Symphony Conductor Ozawa. While one’s art is
writing and the other’s music, they shared common traits. They recognized in each other people who kept
the same “hungry heart” that each had as a youth - to keep digging and pushing
further in their art. Their concentration on finding what is there in their art
is why Ozawa will get up early in the morning to read and re-read the score
until he uncovers all of its the nuances, translating the “complex symbols
amassed on a two dimensional printed page” from the past so he can “spin his
own three dimensional music” of the present. The journey from the flat page to
the living space is by the use of what Dimitri Mitropoulos, the 20th
Century Greek composer, pianist, and conductor called the “Sportive element,
that factor of curiosity, adventure and experiment.”
The art of music is not just the matter of hitting
the right notes or, like the art of writing, finding the correct words, but of
capturing the living presence of the deeper meaning. So it is with faith; faith
is not an intellectual encounter with long-ago stories and saying the
prescribed formulas of ritual but of living into the presence of the deeper
spirit in the encounter with the Divine. Each of the readings ends with an invitation
to hear what God’s Spirit is saying to God’s people.
We start with the stories that we have heard today.
We know the story of Abraham and God’s promise to him. But God makes a promise
to each of us, and in your prayers tonight
before you go to bed, try to listen to God’s Spirit to continue the journey of
discerning what’s God’s promise is to you. For Abraham it was about raising a
child to know the God in whom Abraham lived and moved and had his being. God is
speaking to Abraham after God has stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son
Isaac. Isaac was being taught that he was a child beloved by God given to his
father and mother to love not to destroy for their own purposes. Each of our
lives has a purpose when we see that God is walking with us as God was with
Abraham. Each day the sun rises there is
an opportunity to be and do a gift of love. Ask for the Spirit’s power to love,
and give, yourself tomorrow.
In the Second reading we have heard the Song of
Isaiah where he sings of God’s peace intended in this world where what seem to
be natural enemies live in peace. Tonight in your prayer before you go to sleep
listen to the Spirit to remind you of those for whom your heart is hardened and
listen for ways that the chasms of separation might be filled with peace. You
will not be able to change that other person, but you do have the power to ask
for the strength to forgive her or him, and to pray for them to know God’s
peace within themselves. To forgive doesn’t mean to approve, but it does mean
that you don’t have to be a prisoner of your own hate.
The third lesson is from the Gospel of Luke in which
the arbitrary and corrupt government makes Mary and Joseph go way out of their
way. Corrupt and arrogant governments do that to their people because they have
their own agendas in mind and not the welfare of their people. However, even in
the middle of this abuse there in the birth of the Jesus, the Christ is there
as a sign of the redemption of all things. Tonight in your prayers before you
go to bed, pray to be granted the serenity to accept that things you cannot
change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the
difference, and to find the Spirit’s guide to how each day is redeemed. There
is always redemption.
In the fourth lesson, The Spirit, in the form of
angels, God messengers, come to Shepherds, those dwelling in the darkness of
night, and shine a bright light for them to find the way to find the hope of so
many years. Tonight, in your prayers, before you go to sleep, ask God’s angels
to shine a light in the dark recesses of your soul so that you might find to
way to reclaim your hope. Tomorrow morning as soon as you awaken may you write
down part of what you can remember of the dreams given to you in the dark. Then
share them with someone you trust, as the shepherds did with each other on that
Judean hillside, to think about how you may visit your hope. Then share your
hope with those who have lost much and still walk in darkness.
Tonight hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s
people:
Christmas Eve 2016
Old
man helps push old woman up the stairs,
they
don’t think of themselves as really old,
but
they laugh as it shows without being told.
Old
woman takes her man’s hand for prayers,
giving
thanks for all the time they had to spend
over
the days and years to give in love returns.
The
old man holds the old woman in his arms,
as
they sigh and cry about the loss of a friend,
with
tears of thankfulness for chance of loving.
The
old woman puts the ornaments on the tree
the
old man with no good sense of symmetry,
spends
time the old familiar songs humming
volunteers
the snacks and drinks assembling.
The
old couple is laughing and remembering.
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