Midnight Mass 24 December, 2007

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Christmas, the feast of the Christ Mass.....a.k.a...God, circumstance and mud.

God, circumstance and mud? I’ll explain later; I promise.

Merry Christmas...It’s finally here and I can look forward to the next

twelve days of celebration .....and I do intend to celebrate, and you should

too.

You know, it all really started last Wednesday; I emerged from the mall (the

Mall, that’s the mud mentioned above); last Wednesday, I emerged from the mall

with very little “ shopping ” left to do. This in itself is a miracle; normally I’m

going around and saying to my family, “ you know, Christmas lasts ‘till Jan sixth;

I promise I’ll get your present by then!

The circumstance, however, still remained in the form of many, yet to be completed

gifts, yet to be written sermons and bulletins. Nonetheless, I began to feel human

again, and actually experienced the positive side of anticipation. The day of fulfillment

was at hand, and for once, the preparation, anticipation and waiting could be

appreciated. Beyond that, I had the time to reflect and appreciate, prior to

the event of unfolding and fulfillment.....a truly novel concept. God here in

our circumstances, continually.

God, circumstance and mud. The story is almost too much to believe. Heaven

and earth merged. God becoming human so we could more fully experience

The divine. ...A new and improved form of royalty, there \ here in the mud.

Is there anything else comparable in our lives; can we see the miracle in the ordinary,

or will we have to wait another two thousand years to realize just this?

God, circumstance and mud, God here in our time and place.

speaking about that, a friend of mine once offered an illustration of this genetic co-

mingling, and he cleverly dressed it in a story starring his four children

The children were so excited and entered just as Dad settled down to watch

a football game. They came to demand his attention.

He knew it was about the pageant, because the children paraded in

with a flashlight wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a shoebox. His six

year old, a boy named John...his six year old appeared in his dad’s bathrobe.

The ten year old paraded in with a dish towel on her head and

announced, “ I’m Mary; he’s Joseph ”. The youngest, Cymbaline, swooped in

with pillow cases on her arms, flapped them incessantly, and declared

she was an angel. Finally, eight-year-old Sarah appeared. You could tell

she was one of the wise men, because she walked as if she were riding a

camel. She also had a large towel, wrapped “turban style on her head,

decorated with the cameo that was the family heirloom. She wore all

the rest of the jewelry in the house as well, and on the dog’s pillow, she

carried three items.

She paraded in royally, bowed to the shoe box, bowed to Mary and

Joseph, bowed to the, still flapping, angel and finally, she bowed to her

father. Then she announce that she was all three wise men...(probably why all

the jewelry was necessary).....Then she stated, “ I am all three

wise men and I bring precious gifts of gold, circumstance and mud ”. AMEN

______________________

God, circumstance and mud. Sometimes that’s what it really seems

like, the story of a historical figure named Jesus. A name

to be remembered from Religion 101, and, perhaps left there by some. Left there,

never to acquire a deeper meaning than can be bought at the shopping mall.

Or... it can be so much more.

In our mud puddles, like those of ancient Bethlehem, it can

provide the light and ground of deeper meaning. It, if we allow the

merging of the human and divine, the Lord can give a span and purpose

to our lives that transcends circumstance, mud and our mortal time

here.

So, we come here on Christmas Eve, to celebrate all that is; we

come here to listen to the words of the Gospel, as it has been heard for

two millennia.

We come here this Christmas Eve to celebrate the transcendent in our

midst, to be comfortable in the strangeness of it all. We approach the

awesome and recognize the gift as the hope of our lives and the ages.

And....with but a bit of blessing and a heart opened and prepared,

we see the sacred story; once again, ...we see it clearly in flashlights

wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here towels become vales and crowns, and

the flapping of pillowcases so clearly ringing out the sound of angel’s wings.

Here, once again, amidst all our circumstance and all the mud, into

our overcrowded hearts, the songs of angels can be heard and the light

of the world can be clearly seen in a stable, a shoe box, and in the faces

of all who live in that light.

May your twelve days of Christmas be filled with the awesome that

is recognizable, the divine that is related and the Love that can be found

at the source of it all.

Merry Christmas and Amen!!!
The Rev. Denise P. Mantell, Rector

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