Stain Glass Lens of the 21st Century

Tag: Christmas

  • A Beautiful Mess

    A Beautiful Mess

    I hadn’t been the minister long, only five months when the Sunday School Superintendent approached saying, “You don’t have to lift a finger for the third Sunday of Advent, I will take care of everything.”   It was White Gift Sunday; the Sunday of Joy and she would tell the organist and choir which hymns were chosen and she would pass the order of worship to the secretary.  She assured me everything would be taken care of and all I had to do was show up.

    My husband, daughter and I arrived that Sunday to utter chaos!  There were children everywhere, we usually only had five arrive on any regular Sunday, but this Sunday there were at least five times that many.   There were three Marys, two Josephs, one Wiseman, five angels, three sheep, countless shepherds (all in their bathrobes and towels), four elves, two reindeers, one Santa and a pink and white unicorn.   I was a bit confused by the pink and white unicorn but later was told that was Ashley and she wore her Halloween costume everywhere.  

    I became nervous when the service began with Santa entering the sanctuary and taking the seat at the front.  Soon a few elves and reindeers followed as they entered and sat by Santa’s feet; but I relaxed when Santa picked up his Bible and began to read out loud the story of Jesus’ birth. 

    And, on cue, the children came down the aisle as their character appeared in the story.  That is, until a wrestling match started somewhere by aisles five and six between one of the Marys and her brother, a shepherd!  While they were duking it out in the aisle two of the lambs began a bleating contest to see who could bleat the loudest, three of the angels discovered they could climb over the front pew, down it’s back, under it and back up over the pew again and again, two of the shepherds began sword fighting with their shepherd’s hooks and a Joseph found the piano keys and began to pluck away!

    It was a mess; a beautiful mess!

    Santa just kept reading, louder and louder, as the characters piled into the sanctuary stepping over the wrestling shepherd and Mary, around the dizzy angels and despite the bleating sheep.  The story continued until the Wiseman presented his gifts to Jesus.  He then turned and galloped away on his broom stick camel and Santa sat silently, the angels stopped playing, the sheep stopped bleating, and all the fighting ceased.  The sanctuary fell quiet.      

    The story was complete.

    Or, was it?

    Two 12 year old elves quietly came down the centre aisle and as they did so one of the Senior youth went to the pulpit and carefully said, “Wise people still search for Jesus to this very day.”  As the two elves approached the manger, they knelt, and while looking down into the face of Jesus they touched a switch on their hats making the top of their elf hats swirl up and down in a comical gesture of awe!

    It was the most powerful rendition of the birth of Jesus I had ever witnessed.  The joyful, unexpected, uncontrollable and messy presence of God was dancing throughout the sanctuary filling us with joy and laughter.

    But, before I could make the mistake of over thinking this service, I was handed a piece of paper.  The children and the Sunday School Superintendent were now all lined up at the front of the sanctuary and pre-recorded music was playing.  I looked down to the “hymn” sheet and couldn’t believe my eyes.  I looked straight at the Sunday School Superintendent as she winked at me and with a huge smile she began to lead us all in the final song of the service, “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”!

    It was a Sunday I will never forget!

    May God’s joyful presence dance through everyone’s Christmas celebrations and may we all be so filled with hope, peace, joy and love that they last for the entire New Year!

    Merry Christmas Everyone,

    Rev. Heather McCarrel

    Phot by Emma Leigh/Unsplash

  • A Pursuing Love

    A Pursuing Love

    Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton/Unsplash “Book of Love”

    Richard Francis Xavier Manning (April 27, 1934 – April 12, 2013), known as Brennan Manning, was a prolific American author, defrocked Priest and public speaker who summed up the Advent journey colourfully when he wrote, “You could more easily catch a hurricane in a shrimp net that you can understand the wild, relentless, passionate, uncompromising, pursuing love of God made present in the manger.”

    The last sign post before arriving to the destination of the Advent Journey is the last blue candle, the candle of love.  We pass through the doors of love as we draw ever closer to God among us, in the form of a wee baby born in a feeding trough.

    This love surrounds us from birth to the life beyond this life; a love so perfect we know not life without it and yet, so often fail to recognize its presence. As it is written, “In this life we have three great lasting qualities-faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.”(1 Cor 13:13)  

    This last week of Advent I offer a poem by Margaret Matthews to accompany you on the journey:    

  • Contented Christmas

    Contented Christmas

    Photo by Taryn Elliott/Pexels

    Do you recall the children’s game Snakes & Ladders?  It is a square game board with 100 squares on it with the first one starting in the lower left corner and ending with 100th square in the upper left corner. The game is easy, just roll the dice and move your game piece that many spaces.  If you are lucky you land on a square with a ladder and it moves you upwards but if you are not so lucky you land on a square with a snake and you slither downward losing the ground you had gained.

    On our board there was a long snake on the 97th square that slide all the way down to the 13th square.  If you landed on it you were sent back to almost the beginning of the game.  It was that snake that came to my mind last week when the COVID case count went above 4000 cases daily in Ontario.  We began  December with wonderful plans and why not?  We had gone weeks with little to no new COVID cases in Grey-Bruce Counties; we had every reason to be excited.  Then we landed on the 97th square and slid all the way back down to the beginning. Now there are Government restrictions on how many can gather inside, outside and in stores. Theatres are canceling their shows and those who had travel plans are now staying put.   

     And yet, it isn’t exactly the same as last December because we’ve been down this road before and we know more than we did a year ago.  For example we know that to end the spread we have to do some simple things like wash our hands, distance ourselves and wear a 3 ply mask.  We also know this won’t last forever; this 5th wave will flatten out just like the 3rd and 4th waves did.  Like Maya  Angelou writes, “Every storm runs out of rain.”  

     I did despair for a few days; the days we returned many of the Christmas gifts, downsized the menu and began to figure out ways to ZOOM with family members.  Then I decided to try another approach to this Christmas; the approach the Apostle Paul teaches, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation…”(Philippians 4:12). So, I am calling this my Contented Christmas.

    This Christmas I am disciplining myself to be contented with whatever may be.  And, once I settled into this contented mindset some amazing things began to happen.  First, we went for a lovely evening walk through the woods under a star filled sky.  We slowed to enjoy the silhouetted trees against the moonlit sky and to count the stars; the peacefulness of that walk seeped in and left me soulfully grateful.

    Then, Sunday evening the kitchen filled with this otherworldly light, I went to the window and witnessed the most incredible full moon!  It appeared like a perfectly round balloon hovering just above the tree line spreading an iridescent yellow and orange light through my backyard.  We stepped onto the deck to bask in its glow. And, today, as I post this BLOG, it is the longest night of the year; we are at the tipping point.  The winter solstice tips us towards gathering light daily. 

    So, yes, it is true, this isn’t the Christmas most of us had hoped for but despite COVID and its variants the Christ Child will arrive.  The divine mystery of God’s enduring light will continue to shine in the darkness; a darkness that cannot extinguish its glow.  

    May you find a way to enjoy this holy season making the most of Christmas 2021 for it will never come around again!  And may the love of the Creator, the joy of the Spirit and the peace of the Christ child be with you this Christmas and evermore.   

    Rev. Heather McCarrel