Pageant Recap

This morning was our Christmas Pageant. Normally I am not a big fan of pageants. I think I have seen too many troops of angels with tinsel halos and shepherds wearing bathrobes and towels. But this year was different.

A couple months ago two of the children (ages 9 and 11) in the congregation announced that they would write the pageant this year. Always willing to encourage activity and excitement such as that I said "go ahead" and the rest of the adults involved agreed (I wasn't sure on that one--it might not be a traditional pageant and that might have been an issue). The parents of the children involved helped finalize the script--and add a bit of the "Christian, meaning of Christmas" part to it. And this morning was the day.

The plot was more or less a take off on "How the Grinch..." with an angel appearing to help the lead character understand what she was feeling. Many of the children we have to draw from are pre-readers so it was good that most of the speaking was done by narrators with a few bits of dialogue. Yesterday at rehearsal things were, to say the least, chaotic. But this morning went without a hitch, or at least with no major hitches. It was well-received and it was different--and that is a selling point in my opinion.

However, we seem to have forgotten the offering. Actually, there was a point in the story where the congregation was invited to bring their white gifts forward and that was meant to be the offering time as well (bring it forward at the same time). Unfortunately that isn't how the line was written (it only referred to white gifts) and of course the line was read as written. I had a number of people afterward ask why the offering-or "collection", I hate that way of referring to it-was missed.

The odd thing is that this is how offering has been done during the pageant for the last 4 years--and the people who asked were regular attenders. But those who were worried got their envelope to the counters, and really, is it a terrible thing to have a worship service without passing the plate for a change??

PS: I hoped to have a picture from the show to post but got so busy helping move/cue the players that I didn't get the camera out.

Friday Five

1. Have you ever gotten a really good kiss under the mistletoe? Tell the truth. Spare no details. Was the mistletoe real, because kisses under the fake stuff do. not. count. Ummmm that would be a no. And I don't think I have ever seen real mistletoe. Although at high school dances there were always some people wandering around ready to hold bits of plastic over couples heads. Mind you you would have to find someone willing to dance with you to take advantage of that so that left me out. :(
2. Do you know anyone who makes real eggnog, not the stuff from the carton? And if so, do you actually like it? Nope. Only remember drinking it from the carton.
3. What's your favorite Christmas party album/CD ever? One of my favourites is one of my father's. It is called (I think) "Gold, Incense, and Myrhh" and it is by the Medical Mission Sisters. A newer favourite is one the local cable tech made for me. An eclectic mixture of things on that one.
4. Does your office/workplace have a party? Do the people there ever behave the way people in movies behave at office parties, which is to say, badly? Current workplace, no. But at Kids Kottage we had great fun at dry parties. The best part was always the gift exchange. We brought un-named gifts and then drew numbers for choosing gifts. The sticking point was that no gift could be opened until all gifts were taken. This was important because a gift could be "stolen" from the original chooser. First year we did that there were no limits and the gift exchange took at least 45 minutes (for about 20 people). One gift was in every person's hands at least once--we all liked the gift bag. After that we had a rule where each gift could only be stolen a maximum of 3 times.
5. If you have to bring something to a party, what is it likely to be? Do people like it? I was always asked/told/ordered to bring home made buns or chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. They were favourites of my co-workers (who placed such requests at random intervals party or no party).

A CHallenge Update

A couple weeks ago I made myself a challenge. THe challenge was to make a special donation to charity equal to at least 50% of the amount we spent on presents for the girls.

Well I have decided where I will make the donation. It will go to the crisis nursery where I used to work, Kids Kottage. TOday is their annual radiothon. Each year it is held thanks to the support of a Christian Radio station in Edmonton. They are also webcasting. Find it here or here.

What is Being Born? Here. Now.

Last Sunday I preached about my ambiguous feeling around Christmas. These thoughts arose out of that

One of my many quibbles with the whole Christmas thing is the romanticism of it. Or more accurately the way the church has romanticized (and sanitized) the story.

As Luke tells the story (and that is the version most of us use on Christmas Eve) it is a story about a young woman making an incredibly difficult journey in the ninth month of pregnancy and then giving birth in "less than ideal" circumstances. Remember that this is a time and place where death of mother and/or child in childbirth is hardly rare, it may not happen every day but it happens. Remember that babies are babies. They cry, puke, belch, pee, and poop.

Now think of how we talk about the story. We sing carols about but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. We talk about how calm and serene a scene it was. To watch Christmas pageants and listen to Christmas carols one would get the picture of a painless, calm and quiet event. How many parents out there would describe childbirth as a soothing, calm, painless event? Joyful in many cases, even wonderful for many, but painless and quiet?

ISTM that the childbirth, the labour pains, the messiness and pain, is important to remember. The Incarnation is about the God who says "behold, I am doing a new thing". The Incarnation is a time when something new is being born. And with birth comes change. Life after a child is born is wholly and irrevocably different than it was pre-child.

So the question I have to ask is "what is being born now?" What are the labour pains of the world in December of 2005, for what do we wait with that mix of joyous/anxious/uncertain expectation? And when the birth takes place how will we react? How will our lives be changed?

Change is scary, stressful, worrisome. Change is downright hard. And if Christmas is about the coming of change, about the birth of God's newness, then maybe we should be ambiguous about liking it.

NEw Game for wasting time

Found over at Friday Mom's

Try out Smack-a-Penguin

I got as far as 329 once. Many times I either miss the penguin or get the angles wrong so he lands head first rather than skipping along for more distance.

SOmehow I Don't know....

You Are Comet

A total daredevil, you're the reindeer with an edge! Why You're Naughty: You almost gave Santa a heart attack when you took him sky diving Why You're Nice: You always make sure the sleigh is going warp speed

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Got this via the Round up on RGBP.

Honestly, not sure that I would count as a daredevil--other than this whole being crazy enough to go into ministry thing :)

Amen!

THis is worth a read.

Carol Quiz Answers

HEre are the answers from the Quiz posted on Sunday:

1. O Come, All Ye Faithful
2. Silent Night, Holy Night
3. Joy To The World
4. Deck the Halls
5. Little Drummer Boy
6. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
7. We Three Kings
8. Silver Bells
9. Away in a Manger
10. Go Tell It On The Mountain
11. Frosty the Snowman
12. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Well done everybody!

A CHristmas Story

The wind gusted, sending the fresh snow swirling around the lamp post. Miriam shivered, pulling the thin coat tighter around her chest. “Gonna be a cold one tonight,” she muttered, squinting through the darkness.

A little further down the block was the big old church. Miriam remembered going there as a child, remembered the beautiful stained glass windows. Suddenly a friendly voice boomed in her ear. “Merry Christmas! Please come and join us for worship!”

Miriam looked around, wondering who the cheerful man was talking to. Surely it couldn’t be her. Christmas Eve was a special service, someone wearing an old coat and wrapped in a hand-me-down blanket didn’t fit in with the fancy dresses and bright lights. But there was nobody else around. “Ar-are you talking to m-m-me?” she asked.

“Of course my dear,” the greeter replied. “Come in and warm up at least.” Miriam could hardly believe her ears; certainly a chance to get out of the wind was welcome. Gratefully she made her way up the old stone stairs and snuck into a pew way at the back of the sanctuary, just as the opening notes of the first hymn were being played.

As she listened to the familiar old carols Miriam couldn’t help remembering the Christmases of her childhood. Things were so much happier, so much simpler then. “What had gone wrong?” she muttered to herself. Then the pageant started. Watching Mary and Joseph get turned away from the inn Miriam felt her heart reach out to them. She knew what it meant to have nowhere to go.

After the service, Miriam started to wrap herself in the blanket again and sneak out without being seen. No luck. The greeter was right there beside her again. “Where will you sleep tonight?” he asked. Miriam said nothing, just looked away.

Finally she looked up, “I don’t know, there was no room at the shelter.”

“Well that will never do” the young man said. He paused for a moment then a smile came back to his face. “You will come to my parent’s house with me,” he said. The story we just heard reminds us that there should always be room at the inn somewhere.

It might have been a trick of the light and wind. But at that moment Miriam was sure that the greeter’s face was shining, just like the angel in the window behind her. And somewhere she heard voices singing “Hallelujah!”…

A CArol Quiz...

"Here are some sesquipedalian verbosities based on Christmas carols, some sacred, some secular. Guess what carol each bit of gobbledygook refers to. Makes a great ice-breaker game for Christmas parties.

1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs.
2. Nocturnal time span of unbroken quietness.
3. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere.
4. Embellish the interior passageways.
5. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders.
6. Omnipotent Supreme Being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.
7. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of near eastern heads of state.
8. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonant cups.
9. In a distant location, the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture.
10. Proceed forth, declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.
11. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.
12. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural, by us."

"From Ralph Milton's RUMORS, a free Internet 'e-zine' for Christians with a sense of humor." To Subscribe: Send a blank e-mail to: rumors-subscribe@joinhands.com * Don't put anything else in that e-mail*

Answers will be posted on Tuesday. LEt the guessing begin!