Christmas’ I remember
John 1 :1-14
Every season of the year evokes memories, certainly no more than the Christmas season. In the last week some radio stations have offered a time in which people have phoned in to talk about their most memorable Christmas. Many of them were most interesting and thought provoking. Some of the magic of Christmas for me is in the memories that Christmas produces. On this Christmas Eve I would like to share with you a few of the Christmas’ that I remember and the significance that they have for me as I reflect upon them .
Christmas as a child
The first on is from my childhood. I can remember waking up very early in the morning and opening gifts before anyone else was awake.One Christmas I remember in particular: We had a two story house and I prepared for my early morning excursion by going up and down the stairs without making a noise. It meant paying particular attention to the stairs that squeaked and avoiding them. As I went up and down the stairs third or fourth time my mother said, “For goodness sake, what are you doing?” I replied, “I’m practicing for Christmas”.
When I think of that, I think of how much anticipation is a part of Christmas. I still enjoy anticipation. O I don’t go up and down the stairs “practicing for Christmas” anymore, (although the I can tell you that the fourth stair is a little squeaky), but I still enjoy the anticipation. I anticipate the gathering of families and friends.I anticipate the singing of familiar carols and Christmas songs. I anticipate the warm and meaningful moments of worship. Sometimes when people before Christmas say they really haven’t got the Christmas spirit this year, what they mean is that they have lost the anticipation. The Advent season of the church (four weeks before Christmas) is one of anticipation and during those weeks we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ. The first reading this evening from Isaiah the prophet was one of anticipation as the people waited for God to fulfill God’s promise of salvation. We have been reading passage similar to that one over the Advent season as we have “prepared for Christmas” not just the first birth of the Christ child that happened 2000 years ago, but the birth that takes place in our hearts every year:
- O holy child of Bethlehem descend on us we pray, cast out our sin and enter in
- be born in us today
Some people say that the greatest difference between people is in what they anticipate. What is it that you anticipate this season?
Early Ministry
Another Christmas that I remember was one in my first parish in northern Saskatchewan. There were a number of poor families that lived in that area – poor materially,- but rich in many other ways. They lived on very marginal farm lands and eked out a living there. We used to get large bales of necessities and gifts from Eastern parishes and we would divide them up and deliver them personally to the families in the area. The first year that I did that we began in the morning and delivered these parcels all day over many roads that were not fit to drive on. I can remember getting stuck in the snow at one point and being pulled out by a team of horses. By 5 o clock in the afternoon, it was dark and I was making my final delivery. I left the car up on the road and trudged through the snow to this house and was welcomed in. There were no lights on in the house except for the flicker of light coming from the woodstove in the kitchen. We sat around in the dark and talked. It was a family that I hadn’t met before and I didn’t see them on that occasion. I just remember the warm feeling and I vowed to go to that house in daylight the next time so that I could finally see them.
What I remember most about that experience was the happiness of those people. They were glad to welcome us into their home and that simply thing was more important to them than the gifts. They gave me much more than I gave them. I have learned since that the greatest joy can be experienced from the simplest things. It could be compliment from someone you appreciate, a greeting card from someone who you least expected, a cup of coffee, a hand on the shoulder, a child born in a manger, bread and wine. They are all simply great.
Life in it’s essence is quite simple and if we want to get to the essence of life we have to cut away an awful lot that distracts us from that simplicity.
Tragedy
The third Christmas that stands out in my memory was a Christmas Eve in which a friend and her little boy were killed. I had gone to college with both her and husband. They were married shortly college and he was ordained and they spent a few years in parishes in Canada and went to Barbados to minister there. They had two children. One was a little boy and the other a baby girl still in crib. He went to take the Christmas Eve midnight service and she stayed home with the children.
Some thieves came to the rectory thinking that no one was home and also suffered under the delusion that there was money in the rectory. Finding Elizabeth and her little boy there, they tied them up and gagged them and they suffocated. It was a tragic scene to come home to. And all of us who had known them were deeply struck. They brought the bodies back to Winnipeg for the funeral just after Christmas, and I was one of the pallbearers. They had a Eucharist, like we are having today, and during the service there was such confidence, such hope, and feeling of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, that we realized that one of the meaning of Christmas is EMMANUEL, God with us, and that God is with us in our joys to be sure, but also in our sorrows, in our suffering, in our brokenness, and in our grief. From the Gospel tonight we read that God, in Christ was born among us, “tented among us” as it can be translated, and shared our humanity completely. We cannot live without tragedy, pain, and torment. The question is: What strength can we draw upon in the midst of it? The Christmas story witnesses to the truth that God’s presence in Christ can be a source of confidence, hope, and strength to whatever is demanded of us.
Conclusion:
Those are three of my stories that I remember vividly at this time. I’m certain that you have many stories that come to mind, that evoke memories, that have had a profound affect on your life.
1. I hope your Christmas is one of anticipation. Anticipate the best that you might receive the best.
2. I hope that your Christmas may be one in which you discover the essence of life, and that all that happens at Christmas (the frills so to speak) does not distract you from the true happiness that comes from simple things.
3. I hope that you will find strength, and confidence, and hope in Christmas story, that God does not leave us comfortless, but is with us through it all. The greatest Christmas present is the Christmas presence.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth
Beyond the Patio 