TOO MUCH WORRY

 

 

Too much worry!

Have I ticked everything on the 'to do' list?

It's just too much pressure

just to make one day special.

What if there is black ice or a snow drift

and I can't pick mother up

or get to church ?

What if we need some urgent help

and everyone has closed for the holiday?

Have I got enough food / presents in?

What will we do with the visitors

on Boxing Day?

All this rushing and fussing, worn out with worry.

At the end of the noisy busy service

I stay behind whilst sacristans and churchwardens

are clearing up.

I sit in front of the crib

and at last God has a moment to speak.

The event meets me as I am,

tired, relieved, but full of joy,

and God with us comes to lift me up

so that I can be united

not with the messengers

nor with just the message

but with God-made-present.

There is nothing left to say

but embrace the sacred presence

in the silence of the night

and know that God is mine and I am God's.

 

C.S.

 

CHRISTMAS COMES AND CHRISTMAS GOES

 

 

Christmas comes, and Christmas goes

so what abides for ever?

 

Strip away the tinsel and the baubles,

the madly flashing lights,

the bulging shops for bulging shoppers,

the just so pretty stable scene

all mixed up with Santa and singing snowmen

and well-behaved robins perched on

last year’s dusted holly wreath.

 

Strip away the sugary romances

all with white Christmas scenes,

mixed in with a touch of traditional carols

washed down with adverts for indigestion,

all wrapped up in worry about cards not sent

and presents not bought,

all tied together in a stressful sentimental

bow and some angel dust(with see through wings)

 

Strip it all away

and who or what is at the heart of

Christ – Mass?

 

God descends but in an uncondescending way.

He comes humbly and vulnerable

dependent on people.

And some will tell us that this birth

speaks of a new way of living.

But we don’t want that heavy stuff

all that incarnational speak

to spoil our frothy escape from the

dullness of December.

 

Keep on ding dong merrily on high,

with shepherds in tea-towel hats

and angels with clip-on fairy wings,

and with a stage-struck Mary

and a yawning Joseph.

Christmas magic is really for the children –

it is only meant for adults to cheer up

winter’s lowest ebb.

 

We don’t really want to unwrap

any deep meanings thank you.

Sermons are a good time to mentally

run through check lists – did I buy

the stuffing for the turkey?

Have I caught the scout post in time?

 

But there are clues throughout the story.

A child, whether pampered in Herod’s palace

or roughing it in a stabling cave

is only the start of a life.

It is the people who peer into the crib

who want to be Peter Pan.

Meek and mild as in child

is undemanding.

A passive God is best – a distant God is safe,

a sentimental God is cosy;

Until things go wrong

and then we sing:

“If there is a God in heaven

what’s he waiting for.”

 

So welcome the child who opens his divine life,

his human heart,

welcome and reflect on the challenging

words of the teacher – the Master.

For this child’s arms will grow

to be stretched out on a cross –

this life cannot be sealed up

in a stone cold tomb.

For from the start love was God’s meaning.

Not the sentimental love that is centred on feelings,

but the transforming sacrificial love

that cannot be tamed or contained,

but is forever breaking out

in people’s lives –

That’s the good news that’s worth

Living and dying for ….  not wrapping up!

 

 

C. S.

 

INCARNATION (not just for Christmas)

 

 

When God revealed himself

through the incarnation of his Son,

he filled the world with immense joy.

There are announcements,

promises, and miracles;

a remarkable process of events

in which the main participants

are astonished by the touch of God.

They all received infinitely more

than they had either expected

or believed possible:

sterile Elizabeth bears a child;

incredulous Zechariah prophesies;

the virgin becomes a mother;

shepherds speak with

‘angelic messengers’;

the Magi bring the best they can offer,

and return with much more

than they had brought;

Joseph is affirmed

in his blind faith in God;

and Simeon is ready to embrace death

now that he has seen

the light to enlighten all nations.

Rejoice! that you are able to celebrate

Christmas once a year.

 

Rejoice! that you are able to celebrate

the Incarnation daily,

by turning away from sin and

being faithful to the Gospel,

by being taken from birth

to death and resurrection,

by being sent out to share the Good News

in the power of the Pentecostal  Spirit.

 

C.S.

This reflection is based on the Glastonbury Pilgrimage sermon of Brother Angelo SSF

 

REVEALING EPIPHANY

 

A favourite Feast.

Spices perfume the air,

incense ascends and disappears,

the glint of real gold,

the bitter release of ground myrrh,

the rustle of eastern robes,

the unforgettable smell of camels;

and all covered with layers

of fine dust from the night fire.

And all coming to rest,

not in a lush palatial oasis-

a place with servants

running for jugs of scented water,

and for fruit and spicy meats,

and dancers to entertain.

But a place full of hay and rotting wood,

smelling of sweaty animals

and left-over food begged from a nearby inn.

No haloes glowing,

no cherubs floating,

not a flap of distant angel-wings,

and no retinue of constant visitors.

Just a few gawping shepherds

plodding back to work.

Nothing said, no great speeches,

but bowing low

and silently offering gifts

that seem so out of place.

 

And what was understood?

What inner message shone through

the outward sign?

What was shown forth?

Only God knows.

So rather than place more words into the scene,

come and enter the silence,

Bow low with the whole of your life

and let the mystery speak and shape you

and invite you in

to a mystery as new as it is old.

 

C.S.