Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, whose very name connects us with joy.
O Come, All ye Faithful.
As I think back through my sixty plus years of Christmas’s this carol holds my most cherished memories. It was the first song we would sing at every Christmas Eve service (isn’t this always the first carol?), with robed choirs majestically processing and trumpets trumpeting, and voices coming together so much better than alone, all accompanied by my squirming-in-the-pew excitement of returning home, all but thirty feet from the church doors, when it was all finished, where I would find my presents under the tree. In our German tradition we opened presents Christmas Eve and my dreams of cowboy boots and racing cars could hardly be contained.
I never quite understood what faithful meant, but I knew the next word, joyful, as I would get caught up in the carols and feeling the warmth and excitement of a darkened, festive sanctuary. It was as magic as a child’s Christmas could be.
But as the years passed, joyful and its partner triumphant (are you humming the tune yet?) became more familiar and perplexing. Joyful faces on Christmas Eve seemed to disappear into the night. Triumphant was even harder to figure out. Over what?
I wish now triumphant meant overcoming sadness, despair, loneliness, and that voice inside that keeps Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places, reminding us of who and what we don’t have anymore. This nameless sorrow (or perhaps it has a real name, and you know it by heart?), comes over most of us as darkness does with winter. Like batteries, Joyful is not included.
This year, then, please know there is help and a listening ear. Starting Tuesday, December 19th (online), and Thursday, December 21st in the Rendon Room, both 6:15-7:30 pm MST, Joy Dyanne Stearns will be holding sacred space with compassion and empathy for those who are grieving during the holiday season. It is the first gathering of many just for members of our beloved community. Please see more information in eNews, including a link to Joy’s website. If this is your hardest time of year, and we hear this often, then this is a place for you that offers safety, calm, and inner peace. [See website post: Grief Nest.]
How strange, is it not, that Christ’s birth can bring such sorrow. Instead of joy, there is grief. Instead of peace, fear. Yet, that is the story of Christ’s birth. It happened in the dark of a darkening world, the cold of Empire, the fear of something else going wrong. There, Jesus is born, in some out of the way place that no one cared about, to parents poor and fearful, so very far from home and family, and comfort and joy.
It is here, then, we start singing. Here we are invited to come. Here with the faithful, the ones who hold out hope that God is still with us and won’t let us go. Here in a place of belonging, not in some cold, uncaring world, where there is family and old friends and dreams of cowboy boots and racing cars under the tree and something amazing, dare I say joyful, is about to happen.
Grace and peace,
Harry