Image by bunchofpants via FlickrBlue Christmas services are becoming more common, and I think it’s a good idea. They are the honest recognition that this is a very difficult season for many people. Most of us know from our own experience that the jolly party scene is an over rated myth in any case. Yet the nightly television barrage of sentimental holiday stories speaks to the deep seated human desire for something wonderful to happen during the season. In their own way I think they also remind us that the likelihood of it happening is mostly the imaginary creation of script writers.
It gets complicated by the fact that we have two seasons going on at the same time. One is a secularized holiday combining the best of European pagan solstice celebrations, often with a thin veneer of the Christmas story. There is a lot about that that I like, especially the decorations and cookies.
The other is so different. It’s the season in which we remember the shame of a young unmarried pregnant woman, her reluctant and equally shamed husband to be, several hard journeys, a lack of common hospitality, danger, murder and escape in which somehow, and most improbably, God’s presence is made known through choirs of angels that almost no one hears, a handful of shepherds, a couple of loony prophets, and some wayward astrologers who could read the stars but not the politics of the times.
I do love the way we dress it up with children’s pageants, massed choirs, music filled midnight masses and all the rest. I wouldn’t change any of it. But I also know how powerful the story, in its raw form, can be for those who are struggling through this blue time of the year. It is that raw story in which, as John says, a light shines that cannot be defeated by darkness. Here, in the dark and among the least of us, is where God is present, hope is present, and our brokenness, the brokenness of the world, begins to be healed. It’s the raw story that I talked about over a cup of coffee with the victim of a Sunday morning house fire for whom there is nothing merry about this Christmas. Trees, lights, parties, carols and all the rest have become repugnant. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire is a frightening thought. But the raw story of the nativity of our Lord is a story of hope. I wonder how we best offer that gift this year? How can I? How can you?
Yes, a \”Blue Christmas\” service (inspired by the popular country song)was a good idea by the young rector of St Paul's. Many people who have lost loved ones feel deeply sad at this time when \”jolly,jolly\” seems forced upon us! It is somewhat easier to find some comfort in Luke's story of a young couple away from home in a strange town without any hotel reservations than Matthew's version of staid married couple who are already at home being suddenly visited by Iranian astrologers whose very visit signals danger from a paranoid tyrant fearful of an infant rival! Dr B
Praise for CP AND for DR. B's comment! xoxo to both of you