The Bedford Citizen asked clergy from Bedford’s churches to share excerpts from their Christmas sermons, their messages to congregants and guests. Following are the responses The Citizen received. Some have been edited for length:
The Rev. Chris Wendell, rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
“How are you managing Christmas this year?” someone asked me a few weeks ago. I had no idea what to say. Between the shopping and the traveling and the wrapping and the Covid and church services and the general state of chaos in the world, I think it’s hard for many of us to imagine how we’re going to manage Christmas this year.
And for those of us who are grieving, or ill, or in despair, or on the outs, or out of hope, trying to manage a Christmas this year might seem like a burden not even worth shouldering.
But in truth, we don’t need to manage Christmas. What we need is to let Christmas manage us.
Because Christmas is bigger than anything that Santa (or Amazon) could ever bring us. Christmas is the mystery of the Word made flesh. Of the God who’s got the whole world in his hands, putting himself into our hands. Of Love made real in the world.
We don’t need to manage the chaos of Christmas. We need to let Love manage the chaos of our lives. When we let Love manage us, we stop worrying about the trivial and we stop being complacent about the urgent. When we let Love manage us, we accept the fragility and vulnerability of our own lives, and become more empathetic towards the fragility and vulnerability of all life. When we let Love manage us we start to measure our life’s work not by how much chaos we can control, but by how much compassion we can create.
What would your life look like if instead of trying to manage Christmas, you just let Christmas manage you? And not just today, but every day.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Haley, interim pastor, First Baptist Church
Perhaps you are familiar with the young-adult fantasy fiction novel The Never-ending Story originally published in German in 1979. Eventually part of the story was adapted for film. It concerns a boy from a troubled life named Bastian Balthazar Bux who winds up in a world called Fantastica where he battles the evil “Nothing” which seeks to destroy people’s imagination and memories. Of course, in the long run Bastian is victorious and the story is “never-ending” because it is thought that Bastian will keep returning to Fantastica to help bring even more realized hope back into the real world.
But there is an even older never-ending story and most people, regardless of religious traditions, are familiar with it. Like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga it is very mysterious, but it does not involve a non-existent fantasy land, wizards or magic rings. It is the “Jesus saga” and the first thing I hope we notice about this familiar story is that this is really an affirmation about God’s fidelity to God’s people. Right from the very beginning of the oldest parts of the holy never-ending story, God never gave up on God’s people. Despite the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, despite the story of the flood and Noah’s ark, despite King David’s less than perfect life, despite the sometimes reluctance of God’s people to listen to the prophets, God never gave up on people and the Christmas story is another affirmation of God’s faithfulness.
The story is never ending because God never gave it an ending – the world, God’s people will be “saved,” preserved, rescued. Strange thing about this story, though — its setting is not among the rich and powerful, or the mighty or the world of celebrities. It involves an unwed, but soon-to-be-married pregnant teenager giving birth in what is basically a barn. Rather counterintuitive since it involves God and angels and holiness!
Were this part of the story to be described in contemporary idioms, Mary would probably have been an undocumented immigrant teenager from El Salvador or Haiti giving birth in the back stairwell of a rooming house in the poorest section of Lawrence because all the rooms were full.
If that image disturbs you or gets your attention, it ought to because that is the way Jesus came into this world and that crudeness ought to disturb us, grab us, and cause us to sit up and take notice. It is precisely because of such circumstances that we are part of the never-ending story of hope — it brings that which is great and holy right into the midst of humanity
Sure, not all who read this may be part of the Christian tradition, but there is a universality to the Christmas message of hope. I can’t adequately explain what it all means and there are many theological debates about the story of Jesus, but a manger with a baby at Christmas and that same baby’s story that culminates years later at Easter tell me of hope’s reality.
And given the state of the world today — a seemingly never-ending pandemic, continuing economic uncertainty, way too much political gridlock in Washington, and the looming threat of international conflict rearing its head in the Ukraine and elsewhere — hope is a much-needed Christmas gift. My prayer is that it becomes a much-needed reality. To that end may we all have a merry, hopeful Christmas!
Clifford McCabe, pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church
The wise men had seen a star in the east that symbolized the arrival of Israel’s new ruler. According to Matthew chapter two, they entered Jerusalem demanding to know, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews?” King Herod and all Jerusalem went into a panic. After some consultation and research, Herod was able to tell the wise men to go to Bethlehem.
The star that appeared to the wise men in the east guided them to Bethlehem and hovered over the place where Mary and the young child were located. When the wise men arrived at their destination, the Bible says that they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
Now that they were in the presence of the King, Jesus the messiah, the wise men had great joy. It may well have been the happiest day of their life. Why wouldn’t they be exhilarated and jubilant? They may have travelled hundreds of miles to fulfill their goal. And their goal was to find the new King and worship him. Mission accomplished!
But why so much joy? The wise men had exceedingly great joy because of Jesus. They understood something of the importance of Jesus. Evidently there is great joy to be had in Jesus.
I share this joy the wise men possessed because of our present circumstances. We have experienced a pandemic that has raged on for almost two years and we are entering another surge. When will it ever end? We are tired and weary from Covid. Many have suffered loss, hardship and great difficulty, not to mention fear and anxiety.
We can try to find joy in our circumstances. But the problem is that circumstances change and can change for the worse. Our circumstances can change overnight and without warning. But Jesus never changes!
So how can Jesus be a source of joy? Jesus is the eternal Son of God and the supreme revelation of God’s love. He shows us God’s love in that he died for us and for our sins on the cross. All who believe in him receive the gift of eternal life, forgiveness and peace with God. Jesus conquered our worst enemy — death. He is alive forever and is coming to rule the world as the King of kings and Lord of lords and to usher in an unprecedented era of justice and peace.
So I invite you to find joy — a lasting and permanent joy — in Jesus.
The Rev. John Castricum, pastor, First Church of Christ, Congregational
Did you read in The Bedford Citizen that a baby was born on Great Road a couple weeks ago? It was a wonderful story. Although I think the mother would definitely rather be in the hospital, and giving birth in a bathroom on the second floor of a house with a EMT as a midwife is not the ideal, condition, the baby was born, thanks to a well-trained first responder.
I thought of this as I was reading the Christmas story, The birth of Jesus was in a messy stable with cows and donkeys – far from sanitary. Mary’s midwife certainly was not there, and it seems the only other person there was Joseph. These things go through my head as I think of the story. Questions about how the birth of Jesus really looked like, when you take away the beautiful nativity scenes and Christmas card paintings. There is something so “earthy” about the story. This poor couple living on the edge, giving birth in the worst of conditions.
But there is also lots of divine things happening here: the angel of the Lord comes upon the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shines round about them. There are the heavenly hosts breaking forth in song! The totally human part of the story and total divine part of the story mixed together.
This is what I hear when I think of the most beloved Christmas carol, Silent Night. Joseph Mohr had a really good feel for this combination of human and divine. His original hymn, got beautifully translated by an Anglican priest named John Freeman Young. Translating poetry or lyrics from one language to another is very tricky. You really can’t do a literal translation: that doesn’t work. You really need to get the overall feel the original and place it in poetry that is beautiful and relevant to your own language.
Young’s translation is beautiful, and in many ways, better than the original, in my humble opinion. I’d never want to sing it any other way. but there are a few differences that struck me, and I’d like to share them with you tonight.
The first verse literally translates “Silent night, holy night, all are sleeping – the only ones awake is the intimate holy couple, looking at the lovely boy with curly hair.” It reminds me of the baby shower that people threw for Sarah and me, when we were told, “you will never sleep again.” I thought, “really? Never again!?” It only took a few nights to figure out what they were talking about. Babies do wake you up at all hours of the night and need attention.
Sleep deprivation is part of being a new parent. But then, you look down at that beautiful child: that lovely body with curly hair, and somehow sleep deprivation is not what this is about. It’s that little miracle that you’re rocking in your arms. And this is what I imagine happening for Mary and Joseph in the stable. Except this is not just a baby. All babies are miracles, no doubt, but this is a baby that has been promised for 600 years! In your arms….
Rob Bell once said that despair is the belief that tomorrow is going to be the same as today. In other words, you cannot expect anything new to happen. You’re stuck in the mess and there is no way to get out of it. There was no possible hope that Israel was going to be freed from the most powerful nation in the world. Caesar Augustus’ power seemed hopelessly eternal.
And really, don’t we feel the same way – many of us. With a new Omicron Variant going around there is a weary sense that the pandemic is not going to end as hoped. Climate change is so out of control, we fear for our children and grandchildren’s lives. And the political divide in this world seems to be getting worse.
To all this hopelessness, despair and ‘stuckness’ a savior is born. God is with us. This baby is choosing to be born in the worst of it all. God with us – Emmanuel. But this is a savior who will grow to teach and preach and live, die and rise to prove to us that we are not stuck. That in the times of deepest darkness, a light comes to shine and grown and show us there is hope. There is a way out of the muck and mess we’re in.
As we behold this child, laughing love at us, we can rejoice that hope never dies. We can be like those shepherds, leaving their same-old, same-old jobs to go out and joyfully spread the Good News and joyfully spread the Good News to all people. Christ the savior is born, Christ the savior is born!
The Rev. Wendy L. Bell, interim senior minister, The First Parish in Bedford, Unitarian Universalist
On Dec. 25, 1863, Longfellow sat at his table, penning his poem in despair. And then he heard the church bells ringing, and his hope was renewed. Tonight, as we listen to carols about bells and poems about bells and prepare to hear the bells of First Parish in Bedford peal once again, we pray for the renewal of our own hope this Christmastime.
And what might be the source of our hope? I can only tell you what it is for me.
That as long as there are those who still believe in equity and justice and in the inherent worth of every single person…
As long as there are those who are willing to make sacrifices in order to help take care of their neighbors and communities…
As long as there are those who still feed the hungry, heal the sick, protect the vulnerable…
As long as there are those who work for justice and for the release of those imprisoned unjustly…
As long as there are those who believe in the peaceful resolution of conflict, who will resist tyranny and resist it nonviolently…
In other words, as long as there are still those who are still willing to follow the teachings of the man who was born a baby on that night 2,000 years ago…whether they be “Christians” or not, whatever theology they espouse…
As long as there are people still willing to do these things, then my hope is reborn…it lives anew!
Hate may, indeed, be strong, as Longfellow said. And there is no guarantee that “wrong shall fail” and “right prevail.”
But as long as there is still love alive in this world, there is hope.
May you, too, find that your hope is renewed at the sound of this year’s Christmas bells!
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
Loading ...
