A Christmas Story

With a heavy sigh Morgan put down their phone. December 15th and it looked like another disappointing Christmas was just around the corner.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. They had such high hopes just a couple of months ago. This year they would get to go home and visit with family. True, home was not always perfect but at least it was home. This year they could travel. This year families could gather together. This year would be different. Or at least that had been the plan.

It had been a hard year. Well really it had been a hard couple of years now.

Back at the beginning of the pandemic Morgan had lost their job. Taylor had to shut down their catering business for a good 6 months. Morgan got CERB payments but those were not quite enough to cover basic expenses, so the debts started to pile up. Finally Taylor felt able to start catering again. Morgan found a new, and better, job. Things were looking up.

Because there were no big meals and office parties to cater Taylor tried something different. They rediscovered the joy of baking, of making fancy desserts – and found out how wonderfully enjoyable that was. It opened a whole new window as the holiday season approached. Orders for dessert platters came flooding in. Add in a few orders for family turkey dinners and business was going great. Things were looking good.

Still Christmas that year felt off somehow. Even though Taylor’s family all lived in the city there was, of course, no way to gather all together. Christmas greetings with family and friends were limited to standing at opposite ends of the driveway shouting greetings across the distance as gifts were dropped at the door. Or maybe a few video chats with people more distant. They were nice, but it wasn’t the same. Even the local church was only having services online.

On Christmas Eve Morgan and Taylor gathered in front of the TV and watched worship service. They sang along with the choir. They listened to the story again. It was nice to see familiar faces in a familiar space but still something was missing. Later that evening they went out for a walk along the river. The air was crisp. The moon was bright. There were church bells ringing. Other people were out for a walk and singing carols. Something special was in the air. With a smile Taylor realized Morgan was softly singing “Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays Welcome Christmas, bring your light Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays Welcome in the cold of night” By the time they got back home they were cold but refreshed.

Christmas Day everybody was up bright and early and piled into the kitchen. Food was prepared and portioned all morning. Then driving around town and delivering meals to family and some close family-like friends – all the people who would normally have been coming over for dinner that night. Later they all gathered together over video chat to eat dinner together. Stories were told. Laughter rang out over the web. Dinner deliveries had included Christmas crackers so everyone was wearing their paper crowns. After dinner, just before logging off, everyone talked about what they missed the most this year, and what was the best part of Christmas this year.

Later that night, as they were preparing for bed, Morgan and Taylor both commented what a good day it had been even though it was not exactly what they wanted. As Morgan put it “Covid did not stop Christmas from coming, it came. Somehow or other it came just the same”. Taylor laughed and said “yes but next year I want us to all play zoozittacarzay and carve the roast beast together”. They both looked at the Grinch ornament on their tree and laughed heartily.

Now here it was, a whole year later. And it looked like Christmas would be pretty much the same. It had been a hard year. Sure Morgan loved the new job, they had even gotten used to working from home. And Taylor’s business was growing steadily, though missing out on a second wedding season had been a bitter pill to swallow. But Morgan’s family were all ranchers. The heat and drought over the summer had taken a real toll on the ranching business. Then their mother and brother had both tested positive for Covid. Neither had to be hospitalized but full recovery was taking a long time. It had just seemed so important to be able to go home for Christmas, even with the inevitable disagreements about so many things – this year including pandemic restrictions and vaccines. Just as Taylor walked in Morgan dropped their head to the table and began to cry.

“Hey!”, What’s with that?” asked Taylor, moving over to rub Morgan’s back.
“I just called mom to tell her we wouldn’t be coming out next week.” Morgan replied. “It just feels like Christmas is going to be terrible again.”
“What do you mean again?”
“Well like last year, when nothing was the way we wanted it.”
“But last year was great. Well maybe not great, but it wasn’t terrible – just different”
“I guess so” Morgan sobbed, “I just had so many hopes for this year”
“So we have to adapt again this year, we can do that”

Morgan stopped and looked at Taylor for a moment. Then Morgan thought about everything that made last Christmas so special. Was it what they had wanted? No. Was it perfect? No. Was it a disaster? Also no. Maybe this Christmas could be special too.

“Oh by the way.” said Taylor, I signed us up to help out at the Community dinner on Boxing Day. And I put our names on the list for the late service on Christmas Eve.”

Taylor reached out and took Morgan’s hand. Morgan looked up into Taylor’s eyes and realized that just like last year they could still do Christmas. Even if it was video chats and not dining room visits. Even if it was masks and social distancing at church. Even if it wasn’t the same as it had always been. Christmas would still be there. They could still sing some carols, tell the story, and listen for angel song. And, not for the first or the last time, Morgan realized how blessed and lucky they were to have this life they shared with Taylor.

“You’re right,” said Morgan, drying their eyes. “Now let’s go finish that last batch of baking so we can do our deliveries tomorrow” 

 

** Quotes from the classic animated Grinch special taken from here

Book 10 of 2021 Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision

 This is one of the books that was suggested for a course I have been taking this fall (and an excellent series of lectures it has been I might add).

It is an wonderful book. It appears it is based on the work Woodley did for his dissertation where he talked to people from a variety of North American Indigenous communities about what he terms the Harmony Way. Actually Woodley suggests that some version of the harmony way exists in indigenous communities around the globe. His suggestion is that it appears in the image of a community of true shalom as envisioned in Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

As I read my way through the book I found it truly compelling. The logic fits well. The linkages across cultures work. There are at least two sermons in the past month that have been, in part, informed by what I found in this book.

What would life look like in the Kingdom of God? What would it look like if we practiced the spirit of the jubilee year as prescribed in Leviticus? What would it look like if shalom, with all its multi-layered depth of meaning, was the guiding principle of our life together? This book helped me explore those questions from a new perspective. And it reminded me of the words of Dame Julian of Norwich (words I used in prayer this morning) "All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing be well".

Book 9 of 2021 -- God and the Pandemic

 There seem to have been a number of books published last year looking at the Covid-19 pandemic and issues of faith. I sort of expect there will be a whole bunch more as time goes by. At any rate this is the third such book I have read this year.

This book is very aware it is speaking early in the pandemic process. It spends more time talking about how to respond at that point than trying to prescribe how to come out. I appreciate that. Wright has a clear sense that there is much that is not yet known (and more than a year later there is still much that is not yet known).

I do not always follow the same theological lines as Wright does but I always appreciate the way he writes, the way he does theology. He takes a close look at the ways some faith writers have responded to the pandemic and finds them wanting. Instead he invites us to look at our Scriptural witness and ask how it leads us to respond. Much of what he said resonated in my soul as I was reading.

I would love to see a follow up volume as we indeed start to rebuild a "new normal" (I really find that I dislike that overused phrase), something that builds on the last section of the last chapter in this book.

Book 8 of 2021 -- Inspired

 I have read other pieces by the late Rachel Held Evans and so when I saw this one while browsing I decided it was worth getting.

What I have always liked about Evans' writing is the way she takes Scripture so seriously while talking about her own journey and relationship with it. In this book she looks at the various types of stories she finds in the Bible. Each type of story is introduced by a piece of fiction inspired by a Scriptural story.

Evans does a great job of opening a broader picture of what Scripture is and could be in our lives. This is well worth a read,

Book 7 of 2021 Time Now For The Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange

Last Monday Patty and the girls came back from the library and announced "we got you a book". And so I had a chance to read a book I am not sure I ever knew existed.

For years I would try to have CBC radio on Sundays to listen to the Vinyl Cafe. Like many others I especially took care to listen in December for the Christmas episodes. By far my favourite part of the series was the story telling. Stuart McLean was a masterful story teller, and I could not wait to hear the latest adventures of Dave and Morley.

But McLean also liked other people's stories. I remember listening to him tell the stories that had been submitted for the story exchange portion of the show. "Have to be short, have to be true." This book is a collection of some of the stories submitted. As I read them I could almost hear Stuart's voice, his timing, his inflection, in my head sharing these tales.

The stories moved me to chuckles, or choked me up. They were a great read.

Book 6 of 2021 Virus as a Summons to Faith: Biblical Reflections in a Time of Loss, Grief, and Uncertainty

 I seem to have missed this one when it came out last year. But I am glad I happened upon it now. In this collection of Scriptural Reflections Brueggemann pushes us to use Scripture (particularly Hebrew Scripture in this case) as a tool to reflect on where God is and how God is leading us in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It strikes me that many of these reflections would have wisdom in the midst of other crises as well.

There are parts or this little book that I will need to reread. The reflection on Psalm 77 and the move from self to God I should probably read annually.  In fact I am tempted to read it as a sermon some Sunday (or at least preach  sermon that is heavily informed by what Brueggemann has to say).

The last couple of reflections on the new thing God is doing and the process of birthing a new world are what we need to hear over and over again as we live in this world where God has created and is Creating and is constantly re-creating.  There is a big push in the province where I live to declare the crisis over so we can get back to the way things were before. As a species and as communities we can be very good at avoiding the new thing that is being created and birthed in our midst. We want to avoid the labour pains and loss that come with the birth. Whether it is driven by the pandemic, or by climate change, or by work for racial/sexual/gender equality, or by economic justice concerns (and some of those may interlink) the world is groaning, the pains are beginning. We may be able to ignore or avoid them for a while longer, but the newness is coming eventually.

Book 5 of 2021 China

 

As vacation time approached I was wanting a light mindless read. As I often do, I went looking in the historical fiction genre. I have appreciated Edward Rutherfurd's other books so I decided I would get this one as well.  

It was an engaging read.  2500 "pages" on my Kobo settings and just over a week to read it. Despite what the synopsis on the page linked above says, the book really only covers a brief part of the LONG history of China. It starts as the First Opium War is looming and closes with a brief notation about the fall of the Qing Dynasty in the early 20th century. 

It is a good read. And just what I needed to start vacation.

Book 4 of 2021 Queer Virtue

 

One of the members of our congregational Affirming Team led a book study on this one back in April/May. I managed to get to about half of the sessions....

I appreciated what Edman had to say, and how she said it. Over the last 20 years I have become more aware that we in the mainline churches especially have to pay attention to what people at the margins are saying. WE have to listen not only to hear what their experience of the church is/has been but also we have to listen to hear the wisdom they have to share about what the church could be. This book does just that with a queer lens.

One of the things I liked about the book was that there is a mirroring in the structure.  A chapter in Part 1 has a counterpart in Part 2.  In fact the study guide had us reading those pairs together rather than simply going through the book from front to back.

This is a book I need to re-read.

Book 3 of 2021 -- Hope Beyond Pandemic

 A colleague posted that they had just read this one a while back and the title jumped out at me. A year in to the COVID-19 pandemic we are starting to think and talk about what life will look like on the other side. How will it be different? What will go "back to normal"? What will we have learned?

THere was a lot of good stuff in this book. NOt necessarily things that had not come up in the last 12 months but good questions, good reflections on what it means to be the church in these days.

The one flaw is that the book appears to have been written too soon. I did wonder how a book with the words "beyond pandemic" in the title could have come out already. Turns out it was written last spring. At that point there were still so many unanswered questions. There was so much we know now that we did not know then. Still, despite being written too early, in the midst of pandemic, in the early stages in fact, Epperly brings out goo issues for discussion. Many people need to read this book as we discuss how we will be the church in the years to come.

Book 2 of 2021 -- Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal

 This is another recommendation from a congregation member. And another good recommendation it was.

This book is, at base level, a collection of short stories. All are from or based on the author's career as a physician and from her own life. But what a collection of stories it is.

These stories touch the heart and the soul. They point to what is truly important in life. They are grouped thematically but the overall theme of the whole book is, as the subtitle suggests, healing. Not curing but healing. Some of them are stories of patients who died, but in the story of their illness and death something else is healed. There are books that should be very widely read. This is one of them. It is not a book of theology, but is deeply theological, deeply spiritual, it is about the real things of life.