| DAY 15 - THE CENTRAL PLOT OF CHRISTMAS |
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Somehow, not only for Christmas but all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing Returns to you glad.
John Greenleaf Whittier
American Writer
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This 16th century melody, from England,
had the words put to it in 1865 by
William Dix, an Englishman.
This version, among the many out there,
comes from the Celtic Christmas vol. II CD,
part of a 3 CD Celtic Collection
on the Compass label.
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There is something slightly "unworldly" about
Gregorian chant - the harmonies are beautiful but
a little spooky too. I use it here to serve as
a counterpoint to the essay below.
Put an intelligent voice barking about
Dr. Phil, and the monks, together,
and it gets rather interesting.
This chant if from the Introit of the
Catholic Mass, by CAPELLA GREGORIANA,
on a CD titled ADVENT...GREGORIAN CHANTS,
from the LASERLIGHT label.
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From Journey with Jesus, a weekly webzine
by Dan Clendenin
On Sundays my wife and I serve in the nursery at our Presbyterian church,
helping with babies under a year old. The week before Thanksgiving
my wife noticed one of our co-workers gently crying as she washed
her hands at the sink. When Patty inquired, Susan explained:
"You have no idea how painful the holidays are for me.
My husband divorced me, and later died. My son was killed by a drunk driver,
and my daughter died of cancer. A few weeks before she died,
my son-in-law, an attorney, stole all the property that she had intended me
to inherit. In fact, as she lay dying, she took great comfort thinking
that I would inherit her condo. I am utterly alone in the world,
without any family."
About a week earlier, Patty had spoken to Ella, an attractive,
single woman in her forties, an interior designer, who cried while
she described her life: "I divorced after five years of marriage,
I take Prozac, I'm in weekly therapy, and I hate my job.
My gay boss with his massive ego is so hard to work with."
The teenage son of my friend's colleague
just committed suicide.
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These people speak for many others who struggle from day to day
and week to week to find some modicum of health and wholeness
in a badly broken world. Television shows like "Dr. Phil" and "The Swan"
suggest that they are not alone. Phil McGraw's show appears on over 200 stations
that cover 99% of the country's market. The show mixes
exhibitionism, voyeurism, and vicarious identification into a sort of
"therapy as entertainment." Eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, financial disaster,
wayward children and the like are regular fare for the 8 million viewers that tune in.
McGraw recently signed a new contract that will keep him on the air
through 2009, insuring that he will profit handsomely from the pain of others.
About 7 million people watch Fox's "The Swan,"
which features women so deeply unhappy with the way they look and feel
that they compete on a show where they are paired with a coach,
a therapist and a cosmetic surgeon for a complete makeover—
physical, mental and emotional. Or so they hope, and would have us believe.
The series culminates in a "pageant" that crowns one woman
"The Swan."
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The central plot of the Christmas story is not one of
glitz, glitter, conspicuous consumption, and superficial makeovers,
but of a God who assumed human flesh and entered our broken world
with all of its hells, both deeply personal and tragically global,
in order to embrace and redeem us. The God of the Christian Christmas,
not to be confused with the cultural Christmas of the shopping malls,
cares deeply for the invisible and the ignored,
the marginal and the vulnerable, the nameless and the forgotten,
all those people whom society pushes to the periphery.
I have tried to read the Bible carefully for thirty years,
but I must say that I was jolted when I read the Advent Scriptures
for this week. In a special way they reveal the center
of the heart of God. Four of the five passages
(every one except the epistle of James) focus on a litany
of the sorts of people whom God goes out of His way to embrace.
These Scriptures describe at least eighteen—eighteen!—
sorts of people who are perhaps forgotten by the world
but who are remembered in God's compassion:
the blind, the lame, the diseased, the deaf, the dead, the poor,
the dumb, the oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the bowed down,
foreigners, orphans, widows, the humble, and then my three favorites,
those with feeble hands, weak knees, and fearful hearts.
The Christmas message to these people is
"do not fear, be patient, have confidence."
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These Scriptures remind us that the Christmas story is essentially
that of a God of tenderness and love who seeks to redeem us
in whatever sort of lostness we find ourselves.
In his book Searching for Home; Spirituality for Restless Souls (2003),
Craig Barnes observes that sooner or later hell and heartbreak
"visit every address and come for a visit."
If we are not careful, in those times it is all too easy,
in the words of Dante's Divine Comedy, to have our vision
"clouded by the mists of hell."
But on that first Christmas night, Jesus was born in a dirty stable
and not a palace. The central characters in this drama were all homeless—
Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men.
No wonder so many people missed the miracle, and yet as Barnes notes,
Christians believe that when God entered our world
with all of its hurts and pains,
"everything between heaven and the chaotic earth
was changed forever."
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The Hebrew prophet Isaiah (8th–7th century BCE) wrote that some day
this coming of God's kingdom will break forth like a highway in the wilderness,
or crocuses blooming in the parched desert.
Some day, he insists, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap,
and the dumb will shout for joy. Water will gush in the desert,
burning sand will transform into a bubbling spring.
For all of those like my wife's two friends who are bent and bowed
by the harsh realities of life, Isaiah prophesies that some day
"gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Isaiah 35:10).
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This was written by Dan Peek,
who was one of the 3 original members of America.
Many of Peek's compositions show a very spiritual and searching side
and "Lonely People," a call for the lonely and despairing to seek God,
is one of those songs and easily his best-known.
Peek left the band in 1977 to focus on his faith, and since leaving America,
he has performed this song live with little doubt left in the chorus as to what he means, singing
"Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup and give your heart to Jesus Christ."
From songfacts.com
A Warner Records label release.
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I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all.
And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone.
Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent.
For this is still the time God chooses.
Taylor Caldwell
Anglo-American Novelist
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Contemporary Christian singer Santi Patty belts this one out.
It's from her CD Another Time...Another Place, released in '04 on the Word label.
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