Looking Ahead to December 24, 2024 -- Christmas Eve Celebration.

 

Nativity Scene at St. Paul's

This year we are going to reflect on the story of the night.  We will in fact hear it 4 times:

1. As set for children in The First Christmas
2. from the King James Version of the Bible
3. form the First Nations Version of the New Testament
4. from the GenZ Bible

Stained Glass from St. Paul's

The Reflection title is The (N)Ever-changing Story

Early Thoughts: In her Advent song Hope is a Candle United Church musician Linnea Good writes: "For we are a people of a Story. Of stars that sing and love that cries". In his book The Truth About Stories Canadian writer Thomas King says "The truth about stories is that that's all we are". Hearing and telling stories is one of the biggest ways we learn about and find meaning in  life.

At Christmas there are lots of stories we tell -- we have a rather heavy (as I remember each year as I haul them up from the basement) collection of Christmas books in our house. Some of them are stories about a jolly old elf who lives at the North Pole and flies around in a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer. Some of them are stories about families gathering together for song and merriment. And then there is the story that lies under the season...

From Riverview United in Atikokan

In the age-old special A Charlie Brown Christmas Charlie spends most of the episode trying to figure out what Christmas is all about. Finally he lets out an anguished cry "Can anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?!?". At this point his friend Linus steps in, calls for the spotlight and shares an ancient story about shepherds and angels and a baby lying in a manger. That is the story we tell tonight.

I have learned that one of the wonderful things about truly great and timeless stories is that they can be told in a variety of ways. We can change the setting (either in time or in geography). We can tell it from the point of view of different characters. We can tell it in song, in poetry, in narrative, in drama, or through pictures -- maybe even interpretive dance. We might find new and innovative ways to tell the story and yet it remains the same story.

Found on Facebook

This is, I have found, true of the Nativity story as well. We may be used to hearing it in one way [Though I have heard and read it in many different ways over the years to this day there is a part of me that always hears it in Linus' voice using King James language.] but it can and has been retold many different ways. This picture recasts it in a more modern setting (and there are lots of references to the Biblical story hidden in the picture.  How many can you find?). 30+ years ago I was in a musical that set the story in rural Saskatchewan during a farm credit crisis.

My daughter loves Nativity scenes.  We have a living room full of them -- when she eventually sets up her own house and takes them all away we might have to find new Christmas decor. We have sets with South American imagery, or Little People, or one called a Canadian Nativity. But despite the wide variety of art and style they all tell the same story. They all tell about a baby born in a less than ideal place. Most of them include angels and shepherd or Magi, unusual visitors for a newborn child.

I happen to think that the story actual gains meaning when we find new ways to tell it. When we use our imagination to re-tell the story in new ways we might notice something we never have before. Or maybe changing it from 2000 years ago in a far off land to be a story about a young homeless family on our downtown streets will bring it home in a new way, make it more relevant to our lives today. Or maybe using language and slang and idiom of a new generation will open it up to that new generation. The story doesn't change -- how we tell it does.

Found on Facebook

On Christmas night we tell a timeless story. We talk about God breaking into the world in a different, unexpected way. We talk about a baby born long ago and far away. At the same time we tell the story of a God who continues to break into the world and live among us. We tell a story that happened long ago and continues to happen today. God's time works in a cyclical fashion, God's time moves forward by pulling us into a story that keeps flowing.

The story never changes and the story always changes. Join us on Christmas Eve to reflect on the ongoing story.
--Gord