Here it is. The night before Christmas. 

            Technically, Christmas is a Christian celebration. About the birth of a baby in Bethlehem. Christian worship services – conducted mostly online this Christmas – will tell and re-tell, in story and song, of shepherds and angels and wise men from the east.

            But outside of church, those songs and stories blur into a kind of emotional fog, about good wishes and gifts, a fog that envelops Jews, Muslims, Baha’is, Hindus, everyone.

            So I’m writing not about the celebration of a single religion, but about the generic season.

            It’s going to be a different Christmas this year. Thanks to the second wave of Covid-19 infections, multi-generations will not gather around a fireplace. Or a burdened table. 

            There will be few Norman Rockwell Christmases this year. 

First Christmases

            The late Stan Rogers had a song called “First Christmas Away from Home.” His verses tell of a young man, 3,000 miles away, working the Christmas shift for double overtime. The girl in the Sally Ann hostel; where at least it’s warm, and her father’s not beating her. The older man’s first Christmas in a long-term care facility; his children don’t trust him to live alone since his wife died.

            Each verse repeats, like an echo, “First Christmas, away from home…”

            There will be many of those “first Christmas” experiences this year. 

            For snowbirds accustomed to heading south to Arizona or Florida, a first Christmas back in Canada. My daughter works at Canadian Tire; she says her store has sold out of trees, ornaments… and snow shovels. 

            For many seniors, a first Christmas alone in their own home. They don’t know how to celebrate when there’s no one to celebrate with. 

            And for their children, a first Christmas with no older generation present to reminisce about Christmas before cell phones…

Blue Christmas

            Years ago, Wood Lake Publications began offering a “Blue Christmas” service. No, not based on Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.” 

            The service recognized that for many people, Christmas was not a season of joy and love. They felt no hope for the future. The enforced ho-ho-ho’s and fa-la-la’s reinforced their feelings of loneliness and isolation.

            At such times, emotions run close to the surface. 

            I’ve experienced this in the past. I’m experiencing it again this year. After nine months of “doing fine, thank you,” I find myself occasionally sinking into a sea of tears. 

            For me too, this is a “first Christmas.”

            A retired minister told me, once, about preparing for a Christmas Eve service, in the days when people packed Christmas Eve services because that was what families did. Just before the service, friends who had moved to a distant city called in desperation. Their daughter had left home, had lost touch. They hoped she might attend his Christmas Eve service, for childhood memory’s sake. 

            The minister threw out his carefully prepared sermon. He spoke directly to that one person who might be out there among the anonymous hundreds. “Come home,” he preached. “Whatever separates you, whatever keeps you apart, you are loved.”

            He never knew if she heard his message. 

            But hundreds of others did. They told him that his words seemed to be speaking directly to them. 

            Maybe they still do, in this Covid Christmas. 

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Copyright © 2020 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

“We too have an expanded manger scene,” Marion Kirkwood wrote, after reading last week’s column on my eclectic creche. She continued, “A number of years ago, I thought that there must have been women at the  birth – perhaps the innkeeper’s wife, or neighbouring women who  offered assistance with delivery or brought food! So I began my search for small figures of women, which later expanded to other small figures – for example,  a group of traveling musicians and people of different races. The animals also expanded to include a dog, a horse, a bear, and even a wee mouse! This creche symbolizes for me that Jesus is the light of the world for everyone.”

Tom Watson agreed, “The story is universal. Somebody once said, ‘With the birth of every new child, the world begins all over again’."

Steve Roney’s “nativity scene is more orthodox than yours. Actually, we have several. My favourite is hand-carved in the Philippines from wood. Another was cast in lead by me and the kids one Advent in Qatar.”

Isabel Gibson called the description of my creche, “A lovely extension of the manger scene, which was already pretty great. Yes. We all belong. Easier to say than to live, but maybe the living starts with the saying.”

I thought I had received more letters than that, but they seem to have vanished somewhere into cyber-limbo. Sorry if I missed yours. 

Merry Christmas to all!

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Psalm paraphrase

I could have used paraphrases for Psalms 96, 97, or 98, the recommended readings for Christmas itself. But  because I suspect you’ll be too busy with other things, I’m going with the psalm for this coming Sunday. Psalm 148 seems suitable for the first Sunday after the winter solstice, when the days begin to get longer again. 

1          Come join the joyful dance of life!
Celebrate each moment of increasing light!

2          When the sun comes out after the snow,
when the south wind blows the blizzards away,
all of creation creeps out of its caves
to soak up the welcome warmth.

3          All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small, 

4          All things wise and wonderful...

5          The Lord God made them all. 

6          God created their characteristics and personalities;

8          The rain falls, the wind blows,
the frost forms its delicate traceries,
just as they should.
Rain does not rise, nor frost burst into flames --
they know their form and function;
The Lord God made them all. 

7          So join the joyful dance of life.
The fish of the sea can shimmy;

9          Peaks and ridges march in royal ranks;
trees wave and grasses weave; 

10        Cattle can stomp and marmots can whistle,
Chickens can cheep and porcupines bristle;

11, 12  The whole earth throbs with the pulse of life;
The drums of life pound their passionate rhythm.
Princes and popes, outlaws and outcasts,
all races, all colors, all ages, all species,
swirl together like galaxies glowing in a summer night.

13        In God's great dance of life, there are no wallflowers;
Every piece of creation has a part to play. 

14        We humans live and die; our communities come and go, our empires rise and fall;
But God's great dance of life goes on.
Thank God!

You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalmsavailable from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.

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                  I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

                  And for those of you who like poetry, please check my webpage .https://quixotic.ca/My-Poetry I posted several new poetic works there a few weeks ago. If you’d like to receive notifications about new poems, write me at jimt@quixotic.ca, or subscribe yourself to the list by sending a blank email (no message) to poetry-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca (If it doesn’t work, please let me know.)

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE

                  I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)