A Fresh View of an Old Story: What is in your nativity?

I found them in a stable
Kings and shepherds gathered round
It seemed there was no room 
For the likes of me there to be found

I could not understand it
But I had to see the child
When the mother bade me to come near
I swear I saw him smile

Then I heard what sounded like 
A thousand chains breaking apart
And a door now swinging open
Letting light enter my heart (The Innkeeper L.Gallant)

It’s not hard for Christmas rhythms and rituals to become detached from their significance and meaning. Routine and repetition of the well-known Bethlehem narrative can dull the event down to a cozy, warm story that is more of a hot chocolate memory than the transformational-for-all- time event heralded by a sky full of God’s finest.

I`ve always appreciated songwriters who, like Lennie Gallant above who has the innkeeper recount how the story changed him, move us away from ritual and unrealistic ideas of Christ`s birth toward deeper reflection of what Immanuel – God with us was like for the inhabitants of the chaotic city of Bethlehem, with all of the rough edges included. The innkeeper’s realization above that Christ’s birth was for him too helps us to see God knew of our need of a Saviour that night in Bethlehem so long ago.

Our students will also tell the story of our Saviour`s birth at the Christmas Program on Wednesday.
It will challenge us to see it without the layers we add to it by custom or ritual, but rather for the real
story of love and grace that God`s only son given to us really is.

May God grant our community peace, love, and lasting joy as we recount the best story ever told.

SJ

Raging Nations and "Peace on their lips"

“Why do the nations so furiously rage together
          and the peoples plot in vain?” (Psalm 2)


Our bright LCES hallways and classrooms of relative peace stand out in sharp contrast to the wider world which longs for peace, knowing peace more by its absence than a currently reality.

U Thant, then United Nations secretary general from Burma, addressed 1600 delegates from 42 nations in the late 1960’s with a question. “Why is it for that, for all our professed ideals, our hopes and skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective seen only dimly through the storms and turmoil of our present difficulties?”

Translation: Why haven’t we figured this out already?

The question reads as a lament as much as a real question for us to consider. With Remembrance Day thoughts only a month behind us, the rise of tension internationally, and the violence witnessed last week in California we can find ourselves hard pressed to believe the good news given to the Bethlehem shepherds long ago announcing `peace on earth.‘ We still wait for the world to recognize the authority and follow the pathway to the peace the Christ child made possible. The rage of nations still feels like a forest fire of hatred that leaves behind the scarred remains of hope the world over. Families are torn apart, people are displaced, and suffering and disillusionment saddens our hearts through the images of war we see.

Where do we go with our craving for peace? God’s Word. David’s mention of raging nations isn’t the final word. That is found in the book of Revelation where John proclaims: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.” (Revelation 11:15-18) The nations rage, but they cannot change the final outcome. The battle has already been won. Our task in Christian education is to so capture our student’s hearts with the peace of Christ that they are compelled to speak with "peace on their lips" (Isaiah 57:10) and act with mercy.

May peace abound in the hearts of our students and transform them as they pronounce Christ’s
kingdom that will one day come, and is already here. SJ