A couple years ago I was in a quite different
Christmas procession. At my pervious
church, we did a double procession, which means we walked down the aisle, then
walked back up around the sides and back down again. I confess I never really understood the
purpose. It was a logistical nightmare
with the choir, 12 acolytes, 2 clergy, and at least 2 Eucharistic
ministers. There was one Christmas where
I was a bit out of sorts. I have no
idea why, but I was standing back and then started talking to someone in the
narthex. The next thing I knew, the
procession was already on its second go around and the clergy portion had
already passed. There was really no
sneaky way to wiggle in, so I booked it down the side aisle and then squeezed
through a pew practically leaping over a few very confused parishioners and then
finally joining the procession. My boss
looked at me like, “Oh there, you are!”
I would like to tell you that was one of my most embarrassing moments,
but I am not sure it makes the top 3.
It seems that almost every year,
Christmas creeps on me. We are moving
our way through Advent, slowly preparing for the coming of Christ and all of a
sudden it’s the week before Christmas and two of the candles on my Advent
wreath still have not been lit. In the
church, we spend so much time trying to be countercultural…not decorating until
after the final service on the 4th Sunday of Advent, not singing Christmas
carols until Christmas itself, it seems as though in my attempt to not
celebrate too soon, I almost miss Christmas itself. Next thing you know, people are putting their
trees on the curbs because they have had them up since Thanksgiving, and here I
am still wondering what happened to Christmas.
I wonder if it felt like that to
Mary and Joseph, if the whole thing kind of took them by surprise. Just this past Sunday we heard about the
angel appearing to Joseph telling him that this child was conceived by the Holy
Spirit. We know that Mary also had been
visited by an angel. But that had been months before, 6 months at least. Now suddenly, they find themselves having to
journey to Bethlehem so they can register for a census that they just learned
about. I doubt this was the way either
Mary or Joseph had imagined the birth of their first child.
After all, they deserved more than
this. They had already been through so
much. After their community discovered
that Mary was pregnant out of wed lock,
they were surely shunned by most of their friends and family and considered to
be sinners. I would think they were
eagerly anticipating the moment when this divine child would be born, with a
halo propped right above his head so there would be no doubt from their family
and friends that this was a child born of God and not their own recklessness.
But when that very important moment
came, they did not find themselves surrounded by family and friends, the people
who could assist them and care for them. No, they were in a stable far from home,
surrounded by animals and a cold dark night.
No this was not the way this was supposed to be at all. They were
supposed to be in Nazareth, with a glowing child who was so clearly divine and
no one would have reason to doubt….they would have no reason to doubt. Yet the child did not come out with a halo
attached. He looked like every other newborn
they had seen before. I imagine they
gazed into the child’s eyes, trying to see the divine spark, the answer to the
prayers that they had been so diligently praying.
Then they were interrupted by those
dirty and strange shepherds babbling about angels, a host of angels, so vast
that they could not count them. The
shepherds were saying that this baby was the Messiah, the savior of all
humanity. Could it be true? This was the very same thing that the angel
had told both Mary and Joseph those many months before. Yet if this was true, why didn’t the host of
angels come and sing to them? Wasn’t
that the appropriate way to welcome the savior of all humanity? Instead they
have shepherds who have left their flocks and wandered far away to the stable
where they are staying. That does not
sound like a very reliable group. Yet
that is who they had. There are no wise
men in Luke’s birth story…just shepherds and shepherds did not have good
reputations.
Unfortunately we do not get to hear
the reaction of Joseph and Mary to the shepherd’s proclamation. All we know is that all who heard were
amazed…which is more accurately translated to mystified, confused or flabbergasted. This was not how it was supposed to be. This was not what their lives, as parents of
the savior of humanity was supposed to look like. Was it?
“But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”
After leaping into the procession
after it was almost completely over I felt like a bit of a fool. I thought,
this is Christmas Eve and I just messed up our double procession…and I am the
priest. This is not how it is supposed to
be. This is not how my life as a priest is supposed to look like. I’m supposed
to be holy, calm and collected….not darting through pews, leaping over
unsuspecting parishioners. After the
service, a parishioner who was really only marginally involved and always
seemed a bit on the margins approached me.
He said, “That was sublime.” I
looked at him confused. Was he talking
about the music…the sermon…the double procession that I had fouled up? He
responded, “That was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in a church service.” He was talking about my little escapade
through the pews. Apparently, he was in
the pew behind the one I had rushed through.
At first I thought he was mocking me, and he kind of was. But he was
also clearly happy to see such a bizarre snag in the service. My embarrassing
moment was the highlight of the service for him. It wasn’t holy. It definitely wasn’t what it was supposed to
be, but it was real.
We can never know what Mary pondered
in her heart, but I would like to think that she was just taking it all
in. Whenever something unfortunate
happens, my mother always says, “Well it will make a good story one day.” I wonder if that was what Mary was pondering. Well this is not the way it was supposed to
happen, but I bet it will make a good story one day, possibly the greatest
story ever told! Sometimes we spend
too much time preparing and not nearly enough time experiencing and living in
the moment. The birth of Christ, the
incarnation is about Christ being with us, in our midst. In our preparation for holiness, in our
striving for beauty and synchronicity, let us never miss the God that comes in
the mistakes, in the wrong turns, in confusion.
Let us instead let go enough to be amazed in the moment. I wish you all
an amazing Christmas.
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