A Christmas Find and Found and a Quotation Shared

Shalom!

There are at least two streams in the flow of this story. Three, perhaps, if one counts my own thought process.

The first is the introduction of the theme of “Christmas found.” One of our pastors shared a story with the children at the family Christmas Eve service. The book is HAVE YOU SEEN CHRISTMAS? by Vicki Howie http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=96782 . It’s the touching story of a homeless boy and his little scruffy dog named Christmas. It’s Christmas Eve, and as the boy wakens from his sleep in an out-of-the-way doorway, he discovers that Christmas has wandered away. Two friends of the homeless boy offer to help, looking in a fancy store and on the city square and here and there, asking “Do you know where we can find Christmas?” Finally, with the help of a friend, they “find” Christmas the dog—and the spirit of Christmas—in a church basement at a meal offered the public.

[Cokesbury is offering the book at a big discount: http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=446355 and one can read more about the book at the author’s site: http://vickihowie.co.uk/picture.htm (scroll to bottom of page).]

The children were pretty good in the telling of the story, though they were caught up in the Christmas thing, and the story may have gotten just a little long. As I listened, I wondered how much we might actually be like the children in the story, who ended up inviting the homeless friend to their home for Christmas Eve. Would we—would I?—and do we? The sentiment makes us feel good though: that folks who really truly have found Christmas would be the kind of people to do something for others. Of course, that “something for” might also be advocacy on behalf of the homeless or participation in the area homeless shelter program.

Surely, though, we must find Christmas each year or, perhaps, be found by it. William Willimon suggests in his book UNDONE BY EASTER: KEEPING PREACHING FRESH (Abingdon 2009) http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=790297 that those who attend worship services may have less a need for novelty than the preachers, that the holyday is found simply in the faithful retelling of the story. Does this simplify the pastor/preacher’s task as that one thinks of Easter at Christmas, Pentecost at Easter, stewardship at Pentecost, Advent in the autumn? Is it important to come up with that snazzy theme or unique twist on the celebration, or is it better to present the story as part of the developing life of the congregation?

Is Christmas found in the story, or maybe in the music, or possibly in the preparation? Is it found in the candlelight, or possibly in the pageant, or maybe in the accompanying cultural ornamentation? Does it help that all around our churches, the stores and the streetlights and the airwaves are filled with reminders of this holyday? Or might we be better off with a sharp counter-cultural stance?

I found Christmas this year—or was found by Christmas—in the story of a little dog and in a piano solo played just before that little candlelighting ceremony that so many have come to anticipate.

Then the next day—Christmas Day, we went to Milwaukee to pick up a daughter flying in from California. Allowing for weather conditions, we arrived at the airport in plenty of time, and I was delighted to discover that the used bookstore at the airport was open for business. I was looking very casually through some of the religion books when I found it. My Christmas find. Many years ago I had found in a small town library a book by Alan Watts titled EASTER: ITS STORY AND MEANING (Henry Schuman 1950). I checked out that little book time after time because I found it so helpful.

My little Christmas find still had its book jacket, now covered with a plastic jacket in addition, and it still had its original price of $2.50 on the flap. But in 2009 it has a new price: $16.50. Having found my find, I found my voice and said “I’ll take it” and proceeded to find enough money to buy it.

Here’s the quotation shared. From the Preface, these two paragraphs:

However, the orthodox Christian need feel no offense if the story of Christ is somewhat uncritically included with tales which are obviously myths. For if the resurrection of Christ is a fact of history it is also a myth. A myth is not a lie; it is not a falsification of history. Myth is a special kind of language, quite distinct from historical or scientific language. The purpose of myth is not to relate concrete facts and events which take place in time and space; it is rather to symbolize certain realities beyond time and space, realities of the divine and eternal order. In this sense of the word, no orthodox Christian will deny that the story of Christ is mythological as well as historical, for he believes that the very events of the life of Jesus differ from other events for the precise reason that, among other things, they reveal the mind of God.

Looked at from this point of view, the study of myth is one of the most exciting and worth-while tasks in the world. It is exciting because, on the surface, it is a realm of fabulous wonders, of story and poetry, comprising much of the most splendid and absorbing literature which the past has handed down to us. It is worth-while because, unlike modern fiction (great as much it of may be), myths are not the deliberate inventions of individuals. They arise in the mind of man as spontaneously and as naturally as his dreams, to represent, as psychoanalysis has shown us, things that are going on in the very depths of his psychic life—depths where, as the Christian would say, the soul has contact with the Holy Spirit of God. (pp. 10-11)

For me, these paragraphs are golden. Though it appears that Alan Watts had his own quite apparent tragic flaws http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts , here he has offered a most helpful insight into “myth” and its power. Perhaps Christmas is like this: a gathering together of event and story and possibility and power in a fashion that creates for us a “truth” about ourselves and our relationship with the transcendent, a truth that provides a vehicle for our hope and health, our present joy and our future wholeness.

My story for Christmas 2009 is told. I’ve found my find this Christmas, and it will sustain me through the cold clear white of Winter and the steaming blaze of Summer. It will offer substance and sustenance for the growth of Spring without and within and for the aging of Autumn. I am grateful!

Shalom!
dave

Everybody! Seeds and Tasks

Shalom!

Michael W. Smith and The African Children’s Choir share "Everybody's Got a Seed to Sow," which seems to me like a good start for the season of Christmas and a new calendar year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUzutYx5r0




Possibilities, gracious possibilities, abound!

Shalom!
dave