Musings Along Life's Way: Love Came Down at Christmas

Dear Friends,
Christmas is right around the corner. This Sunday we will have two worship services, one at 10:30 AM featuring the Chancel Choir performing a Christmas "mini-cantata", "The Shepherds," by John Ness Beck and our annual Christmas Eve service at 5 pm. The Christmas Eve Service will have something for everyone from 3 to 103, including a candlelighting to the singing of Silent Night.
This morning I sat in our sanctuary to spend some time with myself and with the beautiful space that our liturgical artists have created for the season. As I sat back I noticed the blue wall covering on the front wall of the church. It reminds me of the beautiful, deep blue of twilight that as night falls deepens into darker, blacker shadow. For me the front wall of our church signifies the darkness that will fall over every one of our lives. This brings me, of course, to the meaning of this season.
Christmas tells us that the light comes when the night is darkest. When Jesus was born Mary and Joseph could not even find a place to rest for the night. The people of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem knew the horror of occupation and the ruthlessness of local leaders like King Herod. But, the dark night is the pregnant night, the fecund night -- it is in the darkness that light breaks forth. All Advent we have contemplated the coming of the Holy One, Jesus Christ. Even in the deepening darkness, we have meditated upon the spiritual qualities of hope, peace, love and joy. In our waiting time we have anticipated that time when God is all and in all -- Emmanuel, God with us. And now new life is upon us, the light is come to the world. At the point of deepest darkness the candle is kindled. Jesus Christ is born! It is wonderful that each year we come to this place, this celebration of new life. It is beautiful to be reminded that there is no darkness where hope cannot reach, no shadow where love is absent, no despair so deep that no light flickers.
Please join me in church this Christmas!
Love Came Down at Christmas,
David

Musings Along Life's Way:

Dear Friends,

This Advent season I’ve kept company with the English poet, Christina Rossetti. Her poems have been famously set to music. She is the author of In the Bleak Midwinter and my new favorite Christmas hymn, Love Came Down at Christmas. Christina possesses an artist’s temperament and writes eloquently of soul’s longing and fulfillment, the low and high of life. In her words, we discover the essence of Advent longings and of Christmas’ promise fulfilled.

In 1892, Rossetti published a collection of poems, The Face of the Deep, as a commentary on the Book of Revelation. This collection included the poem, None Other Lamb, a meditation on the heart’s longing for God. The second verse of the poem goes,

My faith burns low, my hope burns low;
Only my heart’s desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to Thee.

Rossetti, indeed, dives deep where she finds her heart crying out, “by the deep thunder of its want and woe.” She is aware that that cry is directed towards none other than the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. She finds “none other hiding place,” “none other hope.” During the Advent season, it is our desire to step right into the glitter and joy of Christmas, our temptation is to embrace the promise without ever having asked the question. Rossetti reminds us that the human heart cries out to be made whole, that we are, as John of the Cross put it, great caverns of desire, caverns that only God can fill. Rossetti reminds us that it is natural for us to long for God.

She also reminds us that our longing hearts find fulfillment. Again, through the beauty of her words and images, Rossetti strikes a chord that lays hold of the other side of human experience, God’s love for humankind found in the birth of Jesus Christ.

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.


Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.



She reminds us that love is God’s gift to us and that the love that “comes down at Christmas” is ours to use as we devote ourselves to God and in service to humanity. The love that “came down at Christmas” is the same love with which we embrace God and one another, friend and stranger. Our longings are met by this love as we are united to God and to one another in community. That is good news, the gospel truth.

I write this wishing you all the best in this season of longing (Advent) and fulfillment (Christmas).

Love, at Christmas,


David

Musings Along Life's Way: You are Welcome to the Party!

This Sunday: Potluck after Morning Worship -- World Premiere Video

After last week's missive on change, I thought something a bit more concrete and down to earth might be in order: How about a party! This Sunday we will join with the First Samoan Congregational Christian Church of Santa Rosa for a potluck lunch. After our meal we will move back into the sanctuary for the "World Premiere" of "Ready, Set, Grow," a video produced by the United Church of Christ in which our two congregations along with three other United Churches of Christ take center stage.

You probably remember last June at our annual congregational/community picnic there was a film crew from Cleveland recording the event. They were working on a DVD film that is to be distributed to every church in the United Church of Christ. Because we are a vital and growing congregation, and because we have such a special relationship with our Samoan brothers and sisters, they chose us. We figure prominently in a section of the film that is entitled, "Listening to the Still-Speaking God." After we eat we will view the video and also sing Christmas carols together. It will be a most wonderful event. I am so happy that we will be enjoying this time with the Samoan Congregation.

Make plans, this is not to be missed.

THIS WILL BE A "RECKLESS" POTLUCK. THAT MEANS THAT YOU CAN BRING WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE AND WE TRUST THAT IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

Blessings,
David