It is the second week of traditional Advent, the 4th week of Celtic Advent. On Saturday I facilitated my Advent Quiet Day retreat. I really enjoy the opportunity it provides to interact with participants, to hear their their thoughts on the scriptures, poems and images that I use. It encourages all of us as we hear new perspectives on the story that can so easily become, just that, a story rather than a reality that changes our lives. This year I found some amazing images for us to reflect on and thought that you might enjoy them too. Mary and Eve – Sister Grace – Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance from Dubuque’s Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey; The Visitation of Theotokos to Elizabeth , Byzantine art-Lithography; Kelly Latimore – Refugees: The Holy Family; The Canticle of Mary Jen Norton; Our Lady of Everywhere – Mallory Rentsch. We are all such visually oriented people that it really helps u to have images to concentrating on while we are mediating.
For this 4th week of Advent I had planned to use “unexpected” as my word for the week. Instead I seemed to be focused on the world waiting. Ads I mentioned in my Meditation Monday – How Long Must We Wait? most of us feel that Christmas Day is coming very fast, and yet we know that once Christmas Day has passed, we will still be waiting and it seems so long, this in-between time between the promise and its final fulfillment. The length of the wait is unexpected, stretching and challenging too. Some of us have given up on the promises of God because of it. Others are filled with doubt and despair. All of us pray fervently for the fulfillment of what God promises.
This week we welcome Rev Bill Borror from Manchester Vermont into our writers circle. I was inspired by his words in his post Musings – Practicing Peace “we are Advent people who believe in the dawn of God’s coming kingdom. Because we live in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus, we can navigate the grey of human affairs. Through the “tender mercies” of God, we love all of God’s children, we mourn for all who die, we care for all who suffer, and we serve this world in the hope and the peace of Christ.”
In Freerange Friday: Advent As an Invitation to Community Lilly Lewin asks “Who is your Elizabeth? Who can you run to who understands who you are and where you are? Who is the person or people you don’t have to explain things to, they just know and understand you?” Such important questions to reflect on. June Friesen in The Empty Stocking provided us with another beautiful invitation. One Christmas a friend lost a dear one and June suggested they put up an empty stocking with the others with the name on it. Then each day during the advent season put a note or slip of paper in it of a special memory or short prayer. On Christmas day when other stockings are being emptied and enjoyed empty the notes and if you choose read them together as a family or read them silently. Elaine Breckenridge in St Nicholas – Love in Action, provided us with a rich introduction to the historical St Nicholas and suggested that in honor of St. Nicholas this year, we accept the invitation of Christ to perform some act of loving kindness for another in need, be it a financial gift or some other act of charity.
This morning I uploaded another litany, this one for the third week of Advent. I hope you enjoy it. You might also like to check out some of the Christmas prayers that have been posted on Godspacelight in the last few years – some wonderful prayers from Maya Angelou, John O’Donohue, Howard Thurman, Madeleine L’Engle and many others.
I appreciate your prayers this week as I work to get the details for upcoming podcast: Liturgical Rebels finished so that we can begin recording next week and hopefully make the first podcast episodes available in January. This is a fun project but much more work than I expected.
Lord Jesus Christ
Grant me patience,
as you are patient.
Waiting, hoping, expecting,
Never forcing.
Lord Jesus Christ
Grant me kindness,
as you are kind.
Generous, compassionate, gentle,
always overflowing.
Lord Jesus Christ
Grant me love,
As you are loving.
Trusting, enduring, self sacrificing
Ever delighting in truth.
Lord Jesus Christ
Grant me your life,
As you would have me live
Journeying into wholeness,
Towards your eternal world.
Many blessings
Over the years we have gathered resources – prayers, liturgies, meditations, reflections, books – to help you engage in more meaningful seasonal celebrations. Go to our resources page for Advent, Christmas, New Year & Epiphany.
Today’s litany was written with a deep longing for the fulfillment of God’s promises. It was written several years ago but I have incorporated part of yesterday’s prayer and adapted it for this year. As I mentioned in yesterday’s Meditation Monday, many of us are tired of waiting and we keep asking “How long O’God?
How long should we wait
Before we give up on a dream?
How long should we hope
Before we discard a promise?
How long God Almighty,
Before your dreams and promises
Become reality.
Yet still we believe.
The coming of our Lord is near,
Something new is around the corner,
Love, joy, peace and hope,
We await the promise of your coming.
The coming of our Lord is near,
Something new is appearing,
A child, a saviour, God’s much beloved son,
We await the hope of your coming.
The coming of our Lord is near,
Something new is being birthed,
A new heaven, a new world, a new community,
We await the long expected One.
The coming of our Lord is near,
We wait in joyful expectation for what is emerging,
Love comes down at Christmas,
And we await your coming.
(Pause to light the appropriate Advent candles)
The coming of our Lord is near
and we await the promise of your coming,
Light of the world draw close,
Shine on us with your guiding presence,
Shine in us with your truth and forgiveness,
Shine through us with your mercy and love.
The coming of our Lord is near
and we await the promise of your coming,
Bring light and life and love into our world,
Lead us to the fullness of life,
Where peace and righteousness kiss,
Where truth and justice embrace.
Come Lord Jesus come
You who are love incarnate,
You who give life eternal,
You who are the One in whom all things find completion,
Draw close and teach us the ways of peace.
Come Lord Jesus come,
You who are fully human yet fully God,
Come again into our world,
Come again into our lives,
Draw close, come again and make us whole.
Scripture Readings: read appropriate scriptures for the day.
Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe;
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world;
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings;
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trial too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen. (The Lord’s Prayer: Maori and Polynesia)
God who is justice, come.
Come to refugees and victims of violence throughout the world.
God who is righteousness, come.
Come to all who have been mistreated and abused.
God who is compassion, come.
Come to all who are sick and in need of healing.
God who is love, come.
Come to all who hate and live in fear.
God still waits,
And we wait too,
To fulfill the promises
Begun in Jesus’ birth.
Come soon Prince of Peace
Bring our waiting to an end,
Come into our hurting world,
Give birth to your new world of light and love and wholeness.
Lord Jesus Christ we await your coming,
We wait filled with hope,
Knowing your light will shine in the darkness.
We wait anticipating your peace,
Believing that one day it will fill our world.
Weapons of warfare will be destroyed.
We wait embracing your love,
May we reach out to share it with our neighbours.
Both near and far.
We wait with joy,
Bubbling within us in expectation of your birth.
Lord we wait,
Come soon and fill us with your life.
Light of the world come, draw near,
In this Advent season come into our world afresh,
Draw all the world’s people into your embrace,
Open our hearts to welcome you.
Light of the world come, draw near,
Shine your star that we might follow,
Let angel choruses welcome you,
And proclaim your peace through all the earth.
Light of the world come, draw near,
Birth in us something new,
Fill the emptiness within,
Let your love overflow in us, through us, beyond us.
Amen.
by Christine Sine
How long do we wait before we stop believing in the promises of God to be fulfilled? How long before we turn our backs on God’s seeming lack of response? We know how long it will be from a child’s conception to its birth, and we want that kind of certainty about the promises of God. A timeline that says “this will be the day”.
Waiting is an integral and important part of the Biblical narrative and God does a lot of it. We are now into the 4th week of Celtic Advent and the 2nd week of traditional Advent, and most of us feel that Christmas Day is coming very fast, and yet we know that once Christmas Day has passed, we will still be waiting and it seems so long, this in-between time between the promise and its final fulfillment.
The Eternal One’s preparation for the birth of Jesus goes back before the beginning of time. God, whose very nature is love and life and light knew from the beginning of time that the coming of Jesus was necessary. It is written in the words of the prophets. According to astrologers it was even written in the stars. Our Creator, the ever present, ever loving One, has known the sorrow and the joy of preparation not just for 9 months, but throughout eternity. And the waiting for the fulfillment of the promise for wholeness and flourishing that will mark the return of Christ, is not over.
Are we willing to wait?
Abraham was not willing to wait as long as God wanted him to. He was too impatient for the child he had dreamed of for years. Sarah laughed because she no longer believed the promise of a child was possible. Joseph didn’t think he should wait at all and arrogantly shared his dreams with his brothers.
How many others have dreamed God’s dreams and then tried to fulfill them in their own way and at their own time? We know that it is dangerous for a pregnant woman to give birth before her time. She needs to wait 9 months before her baby is born.
I am sure that Mary became very uncomfortable as the baby grew inside her. I am sure she longed for the birth and wished it would happen soon. However, I am also sure she was willing to wait because she knew that an early birth could mean complications and even death for both her and her child. I bet she did everything she could to keep the child growing within her healthy, in spite of her own discomfort.
How many of us laugh at God’s promises like Sarah did because we feel we have already waited too long and no longer believe?
The garden teaches me important lessons about waiting. Seeds need time to germinate. Fruit and flowers need time to grow and mature. There are no shortcuts to the beauty and abundance that the garden promises, but the wait is worth it.
The Advent story encourages us to wait, to prepare, to hope for the promises yet to come.
How long should we wait
Before we give up on a dream?
How long should we hope
Before we discard a promise?
How long God Almighty,
Before your dreams and promises
Become reality.
Abraham couldn’t wait,
Joseph didn’t want to.
Will we laugh in disbelief like Sarah?
Or will we sing with joy like Mary?
When God says:
Now is the time
For the impossible to be birthed.
God still waits,
To fulfill the promises
Begun in Jesus’ birth.
Come soon Prince of Peace
Bring our waiting to an end,
Come into our hurting world
Give birth to your new world of light and love and wholeness.
(c) Christine Sine 2023.
by The Rev Bill Borror
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
by the forgiveness of their sins.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon* us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:76-79
The Christian nationalism and the Post-modern progressive movements share a pagan confidence in an absolute belief in the emotive relativism “of living my truth”. Whether I am listening to the thinly veiled antisemitic equivocations of the presidents of Harvard and Penn or the anti-immigrant ravings of the governors of several southern states, we are witnessing both the fruits of a godless morality and the abandonment of the belief in shared enlightenment values. The latest versions of identity politics tap into the original sin of collective blame of “the other.” As Rene Girard observed If you scapegoat someone, it’s a third party that will be aware of it. It won’t be you. Because you will believe you are doing the right thing…. More than ever, I am convinced that history has meaning – and that its meaning is terrifying.
But we also believe in the redemptive trajectory of “holy history.” As Christians, we need to be able to hold to multiple narratives and realities at the same time. I am able to be mortified at the atrocities committed by Hamas and grieve the deaths of Palestinian children; I am able to want justice and peace, without embracing an ahistorical prejudicial rhetoric or racist gerrymandering; I am able to support individual rights without sacrificing our children to the modern Moloch of gun violence; I am able to believe in and practice the peace of Christ in a world that finds new ways to kill Jesus every day.
A lot of the world and a significant portion of this country “sits in darkness and under the shadow of death” this Advent, and many of those in power do this by conscious choice. But we are Advent people who believe in the dawn of God’s coming kingdom. Because we live in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus, we can navigate the grey of human affairs. Through the “tender mercies” of God, we love all of God’s children, we mourn for all who die, we care for all who suffer, and we serve this world in the hope and the peace of Christ.
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December 9, An Advent Quiet Day Retreat with Christine Sine.
Join Christine for a virtual retreat celebrating quiet anticipation and focusing on experiencing a meaningful Christmas. She will lead a morning of scripture reading and quiet reflection that will be for many of us a much needed oasis of quiet in the midst of this chaotic season. Register to participate here.
We are considering the Invitations of Advent…In Advent we are :
Invited to Wait and slow down rather than rush ahead to Christmas.
Invited to Believe rather than Be Afraid
Invited into Community rather than being Alone. ( thank you to my friend and thinplace member Anya Almgren for this invitation idea!)
Who do you call when you need some advice, some wise counsel?
When life isn’t working out the way you’d planned, what do you do? Who do you run to when life gets hard, when stuff hits the fan or you get in to trouble?
When you know BIG changes are getting ready to happen, what do you do?
Mary was minding her own business. She was planning a wedding. She wasn’t expecting an angel to change EVERYTHING!
LISTEN TO THE SONG
NOW READ THE SCRIPTURE:
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
LUKE 1: 26-38 NIV
LUKE 1: 26-38 FIRST NATIONS TRANSLATION
When six moons had passed, the Great Spirit sent the same spirit-messenger, Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel), to another small, out-of-the-way place in the hill country called Seed Planter Village (Nazareth). 27There he appeared to a young virgin woman named Bitter Tears (Mary), who was promised in marriage to a man named He Gives Sons (Joseph), a descendant of the great chief Much Loved One (David).
Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel) said to her, “Greetings, highly favored one! You are close to the Great Spirit and greatly honored among women.”
Bitter Tears (Mary) was deeply troubled by this greeting and wondered what the spirit-messenger would say. “Do not fear,” he comforted her, “for you have found goodwill in the eyes of the Great Mystery. 31You will be with child and give birth to a son. You will name him Creator Sets Free (Jesus).”It seemed like time stood still, and all creation stopped to listen as the messenger continued to speak.
“He will be greatly honored, the Son of the One Above Us All. He will be a great chief like his ancestor Much Loved One (David) and will sit in his seat of honor. 33He will always be chief over the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel). His chiefly guidance will never end.”
Bitter Tears’s (Mary’s) voice trembled with emotion, and her eyes grew wide as she looked into the face of the spirit-messenger.
She asked, “How will this be, since I have never been with a man?”
Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel) answered, “The Holy Spirit will spread his wings over you, and his great power from above will overshadow you. This holy child born to you will be the Son of the One Above Us All.”
Then, to encourage her, he said, “Your cousin Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth), who was called barren one, is six moons with child. See! There is nothing too hard for the Great Spirit.”
She looked bravely into the face of the messenger.
“I am Creator’s servant,” she said with boldness. “Let it be for me just as you have said.”
Then Creator’s chief spirit-messenger left her. LUKE 1: 26-38 FIRST NATIONS TRANSLATION
What things have changed or are changing in your life right now ? What things are you expecting to change next year? Talk to God about where you are.
Then the angel left her.
39-45 Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,
You’re so blessed among women,
and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true! LUKE 1:39-45 THE MESSAGEMary and Elizabeth
Who is your Elizabeth?
Who can you run to who understands who you are and where you are? Who is the person or people you don’t have to explain things to, they just know and understand you?
Someone who brings you closer to Jesus?
Spend some time thanking God for these people.
This week, Send them a card, shoot them a text , take them out for coffee if they live near by. Make an old fashioned phone call and connect with them. Share how they have impacted your life.
When big changes come in our lives we need a friend, we need a community to help us make it through. We were not created to do things alone. God knew that Mary would need a trusted friend to help her through this BIG CHANGE. This amazing thing of bringing Jesus into the world.
We too need Friends. We need each other. But sadly we are all out of practice. Thanks to the covid years, we have forgotten how to be together and how much we need each other.
We’ve spent a lot if time alone. In isolation these past few years. We are all out of practice when it comes to community.
What does community look like for you right now?
What would you like it to look like in the new year ( the year ahead) ?
Have you forgotten?
The holidays are a great opportunity to take the time to remember the Invitation to friendship and community. Advent is a time to remember and be grateful for those who are important in our lives, our Elizabeth friends!
Advent is also a time to remember to that we are allowed to ask for help.
What is your invitation to community this Advent?
How are you being invited to love your neighbors? Who do you know who might be feeling lonely or left out this holiday season? Who might need you to be Elizabeth for them?
ASK JESUS TO SHOW YOU!
LISTEN
Encounter the Story through Art:
Artist Henry Ossawa Tanner The Annunciation
Jesus in this Advent season, remind us that we are not alone. Help us to know and experience you as GOD WITH US, Immanuel! Lord Jesus, We admit that we need community. We need Elizabeths in our lives who have gone through pain and adversity and who can help us through our own pain and the changes that happen in our lives. Help us to find them. Remind us of those people who love us just as we are. Help us to ask for help and not be afraid to reach out to others. And Jesus help us to be Elizabeths this Advent to those who are feeling alone and afraid and those who need a friend. In your Name that is above all Names, AMEN
ADVENT Peace Candle
by June Friesen
Why you may ask is there an empty stocking or two here in this photo? As I consider this time of the year and the many great family celebrations in some homes there are empty stockings. Maybe some choose not to display the empty stocking(s) while others do. Years ago as the Christmas season approached one of my friends was in grief over a family member lost. As we talked I suggested that they put up an empty stocking with the others with the name on it. Then each day during the advent season put a note or slip of paper in it of a special memory or short prayer. On Christmas day when other stockings are being emptied and enjoyed empty the notes and if you choose read them together as a family or read them silently.
As I searched for a scripture to share as a comfort I found myself in the book of Philippians.
Philippians 4:10-14
I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.
As I looked for a passage that spoke about joy or peace or hope in the midst of sadness and grief I first started with the resurrection of Christ yet somehow that just left me looking for something more. Paul first verbalizes here about having what he needs but if you notice he also recognized and appreciated the support the Christians were giving him.
Paul embraced a certain contentment in his situation. His contentment was in knowing that His Creator was the Almighty One who had his life in His Hands was always in charge. For you and I here today in this world this is a good reminder for us as well. However, for those who have empty stockings in their homes this year it is more difficult to embrace that contentment. Well, maybe they can embrace a contentment but it is different from others. Sometimes in our lives contentment is understood, expressed and/or defined differently than from another. Each one of us embraces a different set of emotions and different ways of expressing those emotions. It is important for each of us to find that space to express ourselves in a safe place/community. While I wrote a writing years ago, I am choosing to share another fresh from my heart today.
AN EMPTY STOCKING
All around me there are so many memories –
I see your presence as I walk through the house –
I miss your presence when sitting down to dinner –
I long to hear your voice one more time –
I long to hear your footsteps in the hallway –
Sometimes I wait for you to once again join me/us for dinner –
Sometimes I wait for you to change the channel to your favorite TV show –
Sometimes I wonder –
Will I ever not miss you?
Today as I decorated for Christmas there were memories so many –
I remember how you loved the bubble lights when we were first married –
I remember those Christmas parades we saw a few times –
And oh yes the Christmas browsing in the parks
Where there was live Christmas music, beautiful lights
And lots of sweet treats and hand crafted gifts as well.
And then those dinners with all of the related family
As well as often those who no longer had family –
Occasionally we welcomed someone who was going to be alone –
And other times we were the ones entertained by family and/or friends.
But this year it will be different –
Your chuckle, your kiss, your squeeze is absent –
And as I see the stockings hung once again –
Your stocking is also hung –
But as others are collecting special little things –
Your stocking remains empty –
Today I chose to add a few things to the stockings –
And as I stopped in front of yours
A tear – well a few tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes –
I remember the joy of little things I knew you would love
That I tried to sneak into your stocking –
But this year – this year – what can I put in your stocking?
Oh, I just thought of something –
The other day I saw this little note pad with beautiful flowers on it –
I bought it not having a plan for it –
But now I see it – oh yes, I see it –
I will write out my special memories of our lives together –
And I will add them one by one to ‘your stocking’ –
And I am thinking on Christmas when the family is gathered –
We will empty your stocking first and remember –
Yes, some of us might cry a tear or two –
But I am sure that Jesus will let you know
That you are still very much a part of our hearts this Christmas
While you spend your first Christmas in heaven with Jesus!
I love you – we love you –
Thank you for being a part of our lives.
Even as I wrote this fresh and new this year I am reminded of some who are no longer with my family. I am also reminded of some friends who are no longer here – some left this world far too young it seems. May your faith in God, in the Jesus whose birthday we celebrate this season be born in your spirit and may His gift to you be the gift of hope of one day being with your loved one(s) in heaven again.
Writing and photos by June Friesen. Scripture from The Message translation. Please feel free to copy the writing in whole or in part and share with those who need a touch of hope this Christmas. I would appreciate if you credit it with my name.
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December 9, An Advent Quiet Day Retreat with Christine Sine.
Join Christine for a virtual retreat celebrating quiet anticipation and focusing on experiencing a meaningful Christmas. She will lead a morning of scripture reading and quiet reflection that will be for many of us a much needed oasis of quiet in the midst of this chaotic season. Register to participate here.
There are many stories, indeed legends about the beloved and popular St. Nicholas. Most of these stories cannot be verified as very little is known about his life. What we do know is that Nicholas was born sometime in the third century near Myra in modern day Turkey. He became a Bishop of the church and may have been present at the Council of Nicaea in 325. He suffered torture and imprisonment during the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Diocletian and died around 342. Bishop Nicolas gave away much of his inherited wealth and became known for helping people in secret. Subsequently, he was honored as a saint in Constantinople in the sixth century. His feast day is December 6th. He is still celebrated as the patron of children and also seafarers and sailors. St. Nicolas, as a bearer of Christmas gifts to children, was brought to America by Dutch colonists in New York. In The Netherlands his name was Sinter Claus. Sinter Claus soon evolved into the popular name, Santa Claus. (Source: Lesser Feasts and Fasts, Episcopal Church Publishing, 1997) The cover photo is a figurine of The Netherlands’, Sinter Claus from The International Santa Claus Collection.
I was introduced to St. Nicholas by my parents at the age of five. Having learned about Santa Claus in kindergarten, I asked my parents about him. I was told that Santa was a lovely story but that he did not exist. I remember being very disappointed! However, my parents were quick to tell me about St. Nicholas.
On the night of December 5th, my parents began the Dutch tradition of having my brothers and me place a pair of empty shoes in front of our bedroom doors. We were told that St. Nicholas was coming. And, it came to pass! In the morning, on December 6, we found that our empty shoes were filled with gifts. Additionally, we also received a teaching from my father which I have never forgotten. He said, “On St. Nicholas Day we receive secret gifts but on Christmas Day we exchange gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ by loving and sharing with one another.”
No doubt this teaching stemmed from the fact that Bishop Nicholas traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. One of the best-known stories about St. Nicholas is that he provided money for dowries for three poor sisters so that they could be married. Without the dowries, their father might have been forced to sell them into slavery or prostitution. For three nights, Bishop Nicholas left three bags of gold for each of the girls in front of their home. During the winter holidays, you might see little net bags of gold coins which are chocolates, being sold. St. Nicholas inspired this tradition.
From my perspective, delighting in receiving secret gifts on St. Nicholas Day and saving Christmas for Christ, is a good practice. I have handed down the tradition to my children and grandchildren. I enjoyed sharing the tradition of St. Nicholas in the congregations where I served as a priest and pastor before I retired. One year I was gifted with a hand-made St. Nicholas tree-top ornament. Bishop Nicholas in this image appears in the traditional church vestments and Advent colors. He has been placed at the top of my Advent Tree every year since 1988. It gives me great joy!
Perhaps because I did not grow up writing letters to Santa Claus or having my picture taken on his lap in stores, I confess that I was a bit smug about Santa Claus and the cultural hype around his celebration. Most ornaments on my tree are of a religious nature. I have a gift bag that reads, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season.” There are angels, images of Mary and Joseph, Jesus in the manger, even an ornament of St. John the Baptist. I was proud of my allegiance to Christ and the church during the season of Christmas.
However, a few years ago, I was gifted with many figurines from “The International Santa Claus Collection.” I learned that the tradition and celebration of St. Nicholas or Santa Claus at the time of Christmas exists in one form or another throughout the world. All of these cultural figures are devoted to the idea of gift giving, particularly to children. The figurines I own also include those who carry the message of love embodied by both older women and young girls as well as angels. I appreciate the fact that in some cultures, women bring the Spirit of Christmas love into people’s lives!
Perhaps the Spirit of God is more inclusive than we might imagine. Perhaps this same Spirit operates through the signs and symbols of many religious faiths and secular traditions. This is surely something to celebrate and give thanks for. In a world where it is often difficult to see love in action, I pause and pray with my International Santa Claus Collection. I give thanks that people across the globe in different cultures and circumstances might know and experience the transformative power of love through their many symbols of Christmas.
Ironically, the International Santa Claus Collection which I inherited does not include a representation of the traditional Santa Claus of the United States. However, having repented of my bias toward the American Santa Claus, I have purchased one and eagerly await his arrival so that I can add him to the collection.
In the Episcopal Church, a portion of the prayer that is offered for St. Nicolas on his feast day of December 6th, is a call for others to follow his example:
“May we be so inspired by the example of your servant Nicholas of Myra, that we never cease to work for the welfare of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief.”
In honor of St. Nicholas this year, may we accept the invitation of Christ to perform some act of loving kindness for another in need, be it a financial gift or some other act of charity. An act of loving kindness can be as simple as greeting a stranger in a store or in the street with a kind word and a gracious smile. Jesus is indeed the reason for the season. Like St. Nicholas may we embody those words with concrete actions of love.
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December 9, An Advent Quiet Day Retreat with Christine Sine.
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