To Ponder, PErchance to Dream --Christmas Eve 2025

(Cross posted to Worship Offerings )

And Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart”
In her heart, not just thinking them over, she pondered them in her heart. The place where dreams and hopes live. The core of our being. That is where these things she had heard and experienced rested. Her heart.

What did Mary ponder that night? As she lay there exhausted in that place where animals usually slept, looking at her newborn child in that manger ,what ran through her mind, heart, and soul. As the baby woke and cried out, as she picked him up and began to nurse, what was she seeing, thinking, feeling, hoping?

Did she wonder what the future would be like? Had she, like many parents before and since, spent the last 9 months dreaming about the life her child would live? Now that the child was here did she listen to the story that the shepherds babbled about angels and a message from God about a Saviour and wonder what that meant for her son? Did it make her hopeful or worried?

Or maybe she thought back to that day back in Nazareth. Was it only 9 months ago? That day when suddenly Gabriel appeared and told her she was favoured. He had told her that this would be a special child, one who would regain the throne of her ancestor David. Mary had not known what to do, this couldn’t be right, she questioned Gabriel and then agreed to the offer. But maybe a seed had been planted in her heart. Is that where the dream began?

Maybe she then thought of the hurried trip to see Elizabeth. She had to get away from the rumours and sideways glances, had to find a place of safety. Elizabeth was family, was married to a priest, and lived far away. That would be a safe place. Did her thoughts drift to the day she arrived and Elizabeth told of her child leaping and dancing with joy at the mere approach of Mary and the baby growing in her belly?

Maybe the pondering landed on the song that came to Mary’s lips that day. The song of power and defiance and hope. The dream of a world renewed and reborn. The dream that her child would bring healing, liberation, and freedom. The dream that God was at work in turning the tables, turning the world upside down through this child that she carried. Somehow Mary just knew it to be true. This little being that was turning and swimming in her womb would do all those things. It was more than a dream or a hope, it was a promise. Now that the child was here did her ears ring with that song once again? Did she sing it to him now, just as she had sung it to him so many times before?

Had she been there when Elizabeth’s son was born? Had she been there that day when John was named and Zechariah found his voice again? Had she listened to his song of hope and promise about John and about another, a saviour who would come? Listening to that song may well have deepened the dreams about the child. The dream wasn’t only hers...

Or maybe there was another side to the pondering. Maybe Mary remembered the dream, the hope, the promise and then compared it to what she knew of the world. Would the dream survive in the midst of imperial power? She knew what that power could do. She had seen the legions in action. Would Rome step aside as the dream came true?

What did Mary ponder as she held her newborn son to her chest, listening to his breathing?

I think she saw the hope. I think that she looked back on all that had happened over those last 9 months and remembered every moment. I am sure that like so many other parents-to-be she had spent many a night dreaming about her child. I think that in those sleepless nights when it was so hard to get comfortable she thought about what Gabriel had said, what she had sung, remembering many long talks with Elizabeth about the future, whispering and singing to her belly, sharing the hope and dream with her unborn child, and now she looked at that child and saw all those hopes and promises reflected in his eyes.

Then she would come to the present. The long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the arrival in a town bursting at the seams, the beginnings of the labour pains even as it became obvious that nobody had any room, the grateful acceptance of a space in the lower level of a house because the guest room was full, the pain of childbirth, and the surprise of shepherds bursting in with their story. And she pondered it all, seeing the dream and the hope, a dream and hope that the shepherd’s story seemed to reinforce. I want to think that Mary held the dream high and pondered how the world could be so much better because of this small child gently nursing in her arms.

And now, 2000 years later we sit and listen to the story again. We too are invited to ponder all these things in our hearts. We too are invited to share the dream.

What do we ponder here tonight? What dreams do we bring with us to this Christmas Eve?

I think our Christmas dreams have much in common with Mary’s. I think that after all these years the dream of God re-ordering the world, of God bringing peace and justice to God’s children still resonates among people of faith. The world sometimes seems like a broken place. There is much that could be better. Christmas invites us to dream of the ‘better’.

The Christmas promise carries with it many dreams. The birth of a child always makes us dream about the future, the birth of this child also makes us dream about the present. At Christmas God breaks into the here and now, the promises are for a Jewish peasant family 2000 years ago, for us here and now, for those who will come after us.

The birth of Jesus awakens hope in our lives. Hope that drives out despair. In a world where bad news and violence and division seems to rule the day Christmas wakes us up to possibility. We are people of hope, we dream of a world where hope is stronger than despair.

One of the titles Jesus is given is the Prince of Peace. Our Christmas dream is of the “time foretold when peace shall over all the earth it’s ancient splendours fling”. We dream of a transformed world where weapons of war are turned into tools of peace, where “they shall not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain”.

A traditional Jewish song says “Joy shall come even to the wilderness...deserts like a garden blossom”. The old carol proclaims “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”. Our Christmas dream involves Joy. In the dry places of our lives, where joy seems distant or impossible Christmas reminds us of the God who shares our lives intimately, the God who is always with us. We sink into deep trust and find Joy in God’s deepest presence. We dream of Joy blossoming in the world like the desert after a rain.

Love came down at Christmas, Christina Rossetti once wrote. Love was born at Christmas. The idea of Emmanuel, God-With-Us taking on human flesh and walking among us sounds like a dream. The idea of Love taking on human form and moving in the world is a dream, a dream of the God who is actively leading us to love each other as we have been loved. Our Christmas Dream includes remembering how deeply we are loved by God.

Mary dreamed that her child would transform the world. Mary dreamed of a time of peace and justice and renewal. All these centuries later we still share her dream. We ponder the promises of the story. We dream a dream, a hopeful dream that leads us to live as renewed people, people of hope, people building peace, people singing for joy, people actively loving our neighbours.

Keep dreaming my friends. As we listen to the angel song ringing through the sky keep dreaming of all that this night promises: Peace on the Earth, Good will to all. Christ is Born, Alleluia! Amen.

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

Good News -- Christmas Eve Meditation 2023

Appearing to the shepherds, and terrifying them in the process, the angel says “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy which shall be for all people”. Over 2000 years later the angel still proclaims good news for all people.

Sometimes it is hard to hear and see the goodness. So often it seems like the bad news threatens to drown out the good.

In her poem Into the Darkest Hour Madeleine L’Engle writes:

It was a time like this,
war & tumult of war,
a horror in the air.
Hungry yawned the abyss –
and yet there came the star
and the child most wonderfully there.

It was a time like this
of fear & lust for power,
license & greed and blight –
and yet the Prince of bliss
came into the darkest hour
in quiet & silent light.

And in a time like this
how celebrate his birth
when all things fall apart?
Ah! Wonderful it is:
with no room on the earth,
the stable is our heart.

L’Engle wrote those lines almost 30 years ago. But don’t they seem to fit the world today? This year churches across Bethlehem are being asked to cancel their Christmas celebrations in light of the continued Israeli offensive in Gaza. One of those churches took a pile of building rubble, broken bricks and dirt, and placed their nativity scene on and amidst the rubble. Then we have the ongoing war in Ukraine. And other places like Yemen that don’t get the same sort of news coverage. War & tumult of war.

Or we could look closer to home. Multiple mornings this week CTV news was sharing the story of homeless encampments in Edmonton that were going to be dismantled, along with questions of whether there were in fact shelter spaces available for all those individuals. Here in Grande Prairie The Salvation Army has said that 20% of the population was served by the Food Bank and Community Kitchen this year. There is an ongoing opiod crisis. What is that if not an abyss, yawning, threatening to swallow us up?

Or we could talk about so many other things. A marked increase in both anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence in the last 2 months. The flurry of anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests and legislation across Canada and the US this past year. Politicians in multiple countries who seem to want to score political points for short term gain at the expense of people at the margins or the long-term well-being of us all. There is an ongoing climate crisis. So much bad news. How do we find Good News in a world that threatens not just to fall apart but to tear itself apart at the seams?

Christmas Good News always comes at what seems like the wrong time, but maybe it is exactly the right time. The angel’s proclamation always comes into a time of war and tumult and horror. The carols are always sung in a world where there are people lusting for power, and others living in fear. The abyss of disorder and violence is always yawning somewhere in the world.

We could always use some Good News. We could always use some starlight and angel song. We could always be reminded to stand and listen for the silence of the Prince of Peace breaking into the world.

We need to hear some Good News this Christmas. Where do we look to find it? Can we be quiet enough to hear it We won’t find it on the front page. It won’t be the top-rated link on Google. It likely won’t come with trumpet fanfares and marching bands. If we aren’t careful we might miss it.

Because the Good News comes to and from people who others might not even see. In our story it comes to a poor peasant girl in a backwater town. It comes to shepherds on a hill side. Later it is shared with fishermen on a seashore. It seems to end in death on a cross only to be revealed again to women weeping by a graveside. God shares the Good News in ways that most of us would usually miss.

We won’t find the Good News coming from any of our major political parties. It won’t come from Hamas or the Israeli Knesset. It won’t come with big flashy marketing campaigns. It will continue to come from the sidelines. The Good News is brought forward by groups like the Mothers of the Disappeared in Latin America a generation ago. It showed up when everyday Irish people pushed for an end to the Troubles. It shows up when people ‘adopt-a-family’ and support Helping Hands here in Grande Prairie. The Good News is made evident when people with little or no power or status quietly share the hope and promise that change is coming – and work in their own small way to make it happen.

Here is the Good News that echoes through the ages: God is creating a world where all live in abundance. God is creating the Peaceable Kingdom. God is bringing healing and liberation to a hurting, chained up world. Love and Joy, Hope and Peace will win in the end. God LOVES the world.

It is Good News for all creation: from the tiniest one-celled organism to the mighty blue whale, from the smallest flower to the mighty Redwood tree, from the newborn baby to the centenarian. It is Good News for the person sleeping in a tent along the Bear Creek and for the CEO of the most profitable corporation. It is Good News for the poorest nations of the world and for the economic powerhouses like the US or China.

Tonight we remember that the Good News is being announced again. Tonight we remember that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in a baby lying in a manger. Tonight we remember that Hope, Peace, Joy and Love will win in the end – and if it looks like they have lost then it is not yet the end. Tonight we remember that birth changes everything.

In the song When A Child is Born Johnny Mathis writes:

A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born
...
It's all a dream, an illusion now
It must come true, sometime soon somehow
All across the land, dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born

This is the Good News that the angel Gabriel shared with Mary. This is the Good News that an angelic host shared with shepherds on a hillside. This is the Good News that we still share today. For unto US a child is born – and our lives will never be the same again.

Throughout the Advent season we have been lighting candles. The flicker of a candle flame reminds us that light shines in the darkness. The candle flame looks so fragile, indeed a well-directed puff of air can put it out, but at the same time a candle flame adds light and heat to a room. With their flickering light these candles have reminded us of the power of Hope for a world that is being renewed and reborn; the promise of Peace based in abundant justice within that renewed world; the Joy of knowing that God is with us as we and the world are being reshaped; and the Love that takes shape in Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh, the Love that provides the guiding principle for this new world.

Tonight we lit our fifth candle, the candle of birth. Tonight we proclaim that with the birth of Jesus that new world is here among us: a ray of hope, a tiny star, possibly an illusion, maybe a dream? Not a dream, not an illusion, It is real. It may seem hidden. It may be out at the edges of our awareness but it is real. There is a lot of bad disheartening news out there. It is loud and flashy and bright. It can fill the center of our lives. But out at the edges, a different light is quietly, dimly flickering.

Hear again the Good News of this day. Jesus is born! God has once again broken into our lives! The world is being changed! Listen for the quiet voices sharing their hope. Watch for the nobodies running in with joy in their eyes. See the places where peace is breaking out. Feel the love that brings us together and leads us to work for a better world. This is Good News for the whole of the world that God loves.

It makes no sense. It may be hard to see We have to look in the right places, with open eyes to find the evidence. But it is there and it is real. Will we focus on the war and tumult? Will we stare into the abyss? OR will we embrace the Good News over at the edges?

In another poem, The Risk of Birth, Madeleine L’Engle says:

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled to scorn—
Yet here did the Savior make His home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn—
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

Indeed it is no time for a child to be born. It is certainly no time to expect hope, peace, joy and love to be born. But still it happens. It has been said that the birth of a baby is God’s way of saying that the world should continue. New life is a sign that there is still hope. There is still love. There is a place for joy. There is the possibility of peace.

God is still taking the risk of sharing Good News in unexpected ways and places. God is still in the business of transforming the world. God still loves the world, God has not given up on us. This is indeed Good News. We just might have to look in odd places to find it.

The angel still proclaims Good News which shall be for all people. For unto us is born this day a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest! And on Earth peace, goodwill among all. Amen.

Looking Forward to December 24, 2023 (evening) -- Christmas Eve

The Call to Worship will be based in this passage from Isaiah.

The Scripture Reading will be Luke 2:1-20

The Meditation title is Good News

Early Thoughts: We could really use some Good News this year.

There is an adage in journalism "if it bleeds it leads". That tends to mean we hear a lot of bad news on a daily basis. But there is always Good News out there. We just have to look and listen carefully.

It strikes me that the good news stories often seem to come in from the sidelines, from the edges of the picture. They don't often seem to be front and center. That may be in part due to the adage I mentioned above. It may also say something about how God works.

In our Scripture stories it often seems that God is using marginal people to share God's Good News with the world.  We have Moses, a man wanted for murder and running for his life, who ends up being the liberator of his people. We have David, the youngest son, out with the sheep, thought to be unimportant, who is anointed as the next king. Multiple prophets were not from the center of society -- and even those who were often found themselves pushed to the side when their message was not welcomed. 

Then there is our Christmas story. We have Mary, a poor unmarried peasant girl who is chosen to bear a son. We have shepherds out on a hillside who are the first to hear this wondrous news. 

God seems to work at the margins, working inward to change the center.

So let us look out to the edges of our world and see what flickers of good news are out there.  In the midst of all the bad news that fills our news media, what Good News is out there? Where is God breaking into the world today?
--Gord

Everyday Miracles – A Christmas Eve Reflection

What miracles have you seen at Christmas?

Christmas is a time for miracles. Sometimes the miracles are big, like the complete personality change we see in the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge. But most often they are small everyday things that we could easily miss. In her poem The Christmas Miracle Angela Morgan writes:

Do you know the marvel of Christmas time,
The miracle meaning of song and chime,
Of hearty love and huge good will,
Of feasts that gladden and gifts that spill?
Do you know what happens to homes and men
When Christmas love is abroad again?
Could you look beneath, you would see the rush
Of a flood as real as a river's gush;
A torrent wonderful, deep and wide,
That sweeps the world in its magic tide.

Oh, it isn't the gift, and it isn't the feast;
Of all the miracles, these are least.
It's the good that flows from the hearts of men
When Christmas love is abroad again.
For wishes are real, and love is a force,
And the tide, which ages ago had source
In the heart of a babe, has grown and gained
Till all humanity, single-veined,
Answers the call of the mighty surge,
Swings to the great resistless urge.

What miracles have you seen at Christmas? What small everyday miracles have been part of your Christmas celebrations?

Christmas is not only a time for miracles, Christmas draws out miracles. As we tell again the story of God breaking into the world, of God becoming one of us, the Word-Made-Flesh we are drawn to look for the miraculous around us. At the same time, the story and the spirit of the season draws the miraculous out of us.

I think of the phenomenal amount of giving that happens this time of year. Salvation Army campaigns, toys for kids, Christmas Hampers, “Adopt-a-family” programs. What is the success of those things if not a miracle? Even when times are tight and everyone expects givings to be down I am often surprised at the amazing generosity of people in the Christmas season. A specific example. As Advent began the St. Paul’s Explorers group asked for help so they could fill “blessing bags” for the Friendship Centre. Three weeks after they asked they had enough donations (and money to buy more supplies) that they were able to fill 52 bags. Which happened to match almost exactly the number of clients the Friendship Centre had who they would give those bags to. Is that a Christmas miracle?

The ghost of Jacob Marley tells his former partner that it is required of every spirit to walk among their neighbours. Too often we fail to let our spirits do that, maybe because we are too busy, or too wrapped up in our own ‘stuff’, or just too tired. But there is something about Christmas that pushes our spirits out and about. That may be an everyday miracle in and of itself, certainly it allows more miracles to happen. When we reach out beyond ourselves and share gifts of love miracles happen.

The next stanza of The Christmas Miracle reads:

Oh, vain is the boast of the hardened one
Who scouts what the centuries have done.
Be he ever so mean, be he ever so cold,
Though his heart be flint and his claim be bold,
His veins will tingle, his pulses thrill,
To the sound of " Peace on earth, good will! "
Why, even the man who grips his purse
With a stingy mouth and a cruel curse
Must yield to the flood and be borne away
To join in the glory of Christmas Day.

So I ask again, what miracles have you seen at Christmas? Were they big and showy or were they everyday miracles? Something like one bored child choosing to entertain another young child and getting a hug in return. Or maybe strangers connecting so that one is not alone and lonely over the holidays. Or maybe the person with just enough still putting a couple of bucks in the Salvation Army Kettle. Or maybe some other gift of love shared with a neighbour, a friend, a family member, a stranger. What miracles might have floated right under our noses without our seeing them? What miracles have we done without thinking it was a big deal?

Christmas is a time for miracles. The miracles of Christmas are expressed in words like hope, peace, joy, love, and birth.

Hope: it is a miracle of Christmas that God breaking into the world gives us hope for what yet may be. Even with all that seems to go wrong in the world Christmas reminds us that God is still active in the world, God still moves us toward God’s vision for the world.

Peace: Christmas marks the birth of the Prince of Peace. A miracle of Christmas occurs when the story moves us closer to living together in peace and justice with all our neighbours. We may have a long way to go, but the miracle is that we keep heading in that direction.

Joy: Christmas Joy is that deep sense that somehow, some day all will be well. Christmas Joy is the miracle that allows us to search for joy even when our hearts are heavy.

Love: Love is always a miracle. Love that moves us to give of ourselves for the benefit of our neighbours is deeply embedded in the Christmas story. The baby in the manger is Love in human form. Love that is shown in grand gestures and gentle everyday kindnesses is the miracle that keeps the world functioning, keeps us hopeful, leads us to peace, and gives us great joy.

Birth: New life, new possibility, birth is a miracle. Birth happens in many ways, many things are born each new day. Each birth opens a door to a new way of being in the world. What is being born in your heart this Christmas time? What new miracles might that birth bring about?

In The Lord of the Rings we find gems of wisdom like “I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” or “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future” or “Such is of the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”. It is wisdom like this that leads me to believe so strongly in the power of everyday miracles, everyday acts of love. Not because they are grand or showy, but because they are loving. We may feel we can not accomplish great things but each of us can do many small things. We are all capable of sharing the love, peace, hope, and joy that shines from the manger on Christmas night. And that might be the greatest miracle of all.

We close with the remainder of The Christmas Miracle:

Have you guessed the secret of Christmas night,
When the whole world loves with all its might,
When the whole world gives with a lavish hand
And joy is awake throughout the land?
Do you know the marvel that happens then
In the glow that goes from the hearts of men?
Have you looked beneath, have you seen the fire
That leaps from the soul of a great desire —
A warmth as real as the heat that springs
From the hearth where the great log laughs and sings?

Oh, it isn't the holly, it isn't the snow,
It isn't the tree or the firelight glow;
It's the flame that goes from the hearts of men
When Christmas love is abroad again.
'Tis the laughter of children, quivering high
In a shower of radiance to the sky
For wishes are real, and love is a force,
And the torch which ages ago had source
In the star that lighted the wise men's way
Burns with a magical fire to-day.

So great the shining, so pure the blaze,
It reaches beyond, through the stellar ways,
Till — listen! A wind voice told it me —
Our globe that swims in ethereal sea
Glows like a lamp whose flame is love
To the other worlds that swing above;
And this the signal that makes them know
We have hearths and homes and cheer below
Why, gods and angels walk by the light
That streams from the earth on Christmas night!

Let us all listen for the laughter of children and words of love. Let us all look for the glow that radiates from the manger and through the hearts of men, women, and non-binary folk alike. Let us all walk with gods and angels this Christmas night,

May we all see the miracles happening right in front of us. May we all take the chance to be miracle-workers in our own right – even if our miracles are of the humdrum, everyday type.
Amen.

An ADvent/Christmas Letter

People, look east. The time is near of the crowning of the year...
Set every peak and valley humming with the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look east and sing today: Love, the Lord, is on the way.
(lines from verses 1 & 5 of People Look East by Eleanor Farjeon, #9 in Voices United)

Friends in Christ, Grace and Peace to you all!
Somehow I look at the calendar and find that Advent is upon us already! The crowning of the year is imminent!
As a community of faith we once again start to prepare for the birth of a child in a stable, a birth proclaimed by angels visiting shepherds, a child who will change the world. As we move into this season of preparation and hope and promise I thought I would take time to share some news about the season and about the life of our community of faith.

Here at St. Paul’s it is customary that we have a special Outreach campaign during Advent. This year we have made cash donations from the Outreach Fund to support the work of our partner agencies. We were able to give $4 000.00 to The Salvation Army, $500.00 to the Elders Caring Shelter, and $500.00 to the St. Lawrence Centre. Donations to the Outreach Fund to build it back up so we can continue to offer food vouchers as needed are welcomed.

The other part of our Advent Outreach Campaign this year is to support the Explorers as they create Blessing Bags. They are looking for things like socks and gloves, toiletries, feminine hygiene products, and portable snack food. These items can be dropped off at the church by December 4^th as the Explorers will fill the bags at their meeting on December 6^th. If you would rather, you can make a donation to St. Paul’s Outreach Fund earmarked for the Blessing Bags and we will pass the money on to the Explorers to cover their costs.

Over the last few years we have had a practice of a Memory Tree, where we hang names of those we remember at Christmas. Without having a Blue Christmas service this has been our way to mark the “blueness” of the Christmas season. This year we will include the hanging of our memories on the 1^st Sunday of Advent (November 27^th) and invite folk to add names throughout the season. If you are currently attending worship online and wish to have a name added to the tree just let the office know and we will make it happen.

As a reminder, all of our worship services are live-streamed on our YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@st.paulsunitedgrandeprairie. This year that will include the CGIT Vesper service at 7:30 on December 4^th. Please join us in person or online as the CGIT girls invite us into the Christmas Season.

Our Christmas Eve service this year will be at 8:00. Again please join us online or in person as we celebrate in story and song the miracle of a baby in a manger. As we are, hopefully, beyond the most active part of the COVID-19 pandemic we are not limited in attendance numbers this year and pre-booking a seat is not required. I would love to see the sanctuary filled with folk on Christmas Eve.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the financial realities of our life together. We continue to struggle to meet our budget, with a year-to-date deficit of around $33 000.00 as of the end of October. So I ask each of us to consider how we might be able to support the ongoing ministry of St. Paul’s this year. We make a difference in the life of Grande Prairie because of your support. Donations can be dropped off at the church during office hours, or they can be brought on a Sunday morning, or a cheque in the mail always works. For electronic giving you can give through CanadaHelps (https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/36020) or through an e-transfer using secretary@stpaulsuc.ca as the receiving e-mail (no security question is required). E-transfer might be preferable as there is no service charge paid by St. Paul’s for that. An ongoing option is to get started on, or adjust your current, PAR. Contact Carla if you want information about PAR.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong;
And warring humankind, hears not the love-song which they bring;
Oh, hush the noise, and cease your strife to hear the angels sing.
(verse 3 of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Edmund Hamilton Sears, #44 in Voices United)

Every year in the Advent/Christmas season we look for signs that God is breaking into the world. Every year we name that the world as it is is not the world as it could (or should) be. So we wait with Hope for the coming of the Prince of Peace who will transform the world. We wait for songs of Joy to spring out of our mouths and the gifts of Love to spread from every corner and hamlet. There is a lot of bad news out there, but once again the angel will bring Good News that shall be for all people. For unto US a child is born, unto US a child is given, God is with us, we are not alone. God will transform the world through the life of a baby born to a peasant family in a backwater part of the Roman Empire. And the world will never be the same again.

May you find time this Christmas season to hush the noise and listen for angel song. May you find God in ways and places you least expect. May you feel the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love of Christ’s presence in your busy-ness. Have a blessed Christmas.

Or, as Tiny Tim might say, “God Bless us, every one!”

Looking Ahead to January 2, 2022

 This being the first Sunday of the month (and of 2022 for that matter) we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion. If you are joining us on-line you are encouraged to have elements ready so that we can all eat and drink together

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Micah 4:5-10
• John 1:1-5

The Sermon title is One God? One Word?

Early Thoughts: I was always led to believe that the stories of Scripture unflinchingly claimed there was only one God. That is not true.

The stories of the Hebrew Scriptures make it clear that other cultures have other gods. At most there is a claim that "our" god is the One True God. There are parts of Isaiah that predict a time when all the nations will worship the God of Israel. But otherwise there is an acceptance that there are other cultures with other gods.

Even Paul preaching in Athens (Acts 17) is dealing with the question of other gods, although Paul gets closer to saying "those aren't actually gods".

What do we do in a pluralistic world with multiple expressions of faith? How do we make a claim to there being one God, known in many different ways, with many different faces and not make a claim that other expressions of faith are unworthy or evil or wrong? I am not sure we have done all that well on that point.

In the end, I think faith language is a love language. I think faithfulness to our understanding of the Divine is a statement of love. Years ago I watched an interview with Rabbi Harold Kushner who used the example of a spouse claiming that their partner was the best partner in the whole world. Obviously that can not be proven or dis-proven but it is still a true statement -- even when multiple people say it about their own partners.

So our challenge, as people of faith, is not to prove that "our god is better than your god" or that our understanding of the Divine is more accurate than someone else's. The challenge is to witness to what we believe about the Divine and why and what difference it makes in our lives.

Reading the Micah passage reminds us not only that other cultures have other gods, other understandings of the Divine, but also that God is with God's people, that we are being redeemed and lifted up. Reading the opening of John's Gospel reminds us that the God we meet in Jesus of Nazareth is the God who was present at the beginning of our faith story.

As Christians we proclaim a particular understanding of God. Like Judaism and Islam Christianity proclaims that there is one God. Unlike them we proclaim that the one God took human form. Our task is to proclaim how we understand God, how we understand God's activity in the world, how we understand God's hopes for God's people. What does it mean to us to name that there is one God, and one Word that takes on human form. How does the Incarnation inform our understanding of how God is redeeming us, how God is building us back up?

--Gord

Looking Forward to January 3, 2021 -- Epiphany Sunday

And now we change the calendar (when I first typed the title of this post I did in fact put 2020 and had to go back and correct it). As this is the first Sunday of January we will be celebrating the Sacrament of Communion. As we are still worshiping on-line only the Communion will be virtual. You are invited to have bread and juice (or some equivalent choice) available as we join together on YouTube for worship.

In the flow of the Church Year Epiphany always falls on January 6 (after the 12 Days of Christmas). That puts it on a Wednesday this year. Many of us often choose to tell the Epiphany story on the Sunday before the 6th since we do not have worship on the feast day itself.  That is what we are doing this year.

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Psalm 72:1-14
• Matthew 2:1-12 (this will be the basis of our Children's Time)
  

The Sermon title is Light Has Come, The World is Changed

Early Thoughts:  Visitors from afar, whose wisdom has lead them to this place. Wise ones who come in search of the King, and whose wisdom helps the look beyond the normal expectations (eventually at least).

Why did they come? What hope was evident in this new king?

I'll be honest, I sincerely doubt that there was an actual historical visit of the Magi. I think the early Christian community developed the story as something that could/should/might have happened based on their experience of Jesus of Nazareth and amplified by their experience of the Risen Christ. They then saw passages like this one from Isaiah and developed a story about visitors from far away. Isaiah was also not talking about the visit of the Magi as we know the story. But it is possible that Isaiah was sharing a vision, a hope, an expectation about what it would be like when God was enthroned on Earth. When the Reign of God is made real than people will flock from all directions to the kingdom.

At my first reading, Psalm 72 appears to be written for a coronation. Certainly it is written to celebrate the King, to pray for what the King will be, sharing hopes about what the kingdom will be like under his reign. It is an easy thing to do to apply many of those verses to the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.

"Joy to the World! The Lord has come! Let earth receive her King!" So says the Christmas Carol. What kind of king will he be? What kind of kingdom will he reign over? Will the nations come from far and wide to celebrate the new king?

--Gord