Saturday, December 21, 2013

Romance and reality

Many years ago i wrote this in a week in which one of the members of my congregation had decided to take her own life. A tough context for Christmas, but one which i know many are in this Christmas.
...The birth stories are at the same time romantic and realistic.
In some ways the birth stories are out of this world and fairy stories. Mysterious and magical, beyond anything most of us have experienced. There are angels and strange messages and lights and a heavenly choir singing praises and predicting peace on earth., and wise men from the east, and a mysterious star.. romantic, unearthly, supernatural.
Yet there is obviously another side to these stories. Something very down-to-earth and realistic. The hard facts of human life also stare us in the face from the time to time. King herod and the massacre of the children. The refugees and no room at the inn. The birth in a stable., a preview of his life which culminates in his ultimate rejection and death on a cross, finding no room in the hearts and minds of many people.
At Christmas we are often faced with just such a strange contrast. We are called upon to behold a marvellous heavenly mystery, but are faced with the hard and often bitter facts of existence. In the Jesus and Christmas story we are faced with eternal truths that transcend time and history, but it is not so easy for us to do so.
But through it all, in this little baby born in a crude stable we have the powerful God become human. We have the message that God knows us and our pains and is one with us in them, but also that God is still God and that the power of love and grace and truth still holds and is somehow made even more powerful by becoming a weak, helpless baby in a manger in Bethlehem.

Perhaps in all of this there is a message. God is with us, and God is bigger than us. I said on Wed that I would find it impossible to sing joy to the world his year. However, maybe Joy to the world is not about being happy in this particular moment, but allowing for the enormous act of Grace and love that is Christmas to still have its life in my sadness.

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