Saturday, December 13, 2014

My Christmas Cocoa Message- December 13- to Emma's Friends

Exactly 30 years ago- in December 1984- I was about your age. I grew up in Southern India, Southwestern India, to be exact. Southwestern India is a tropical place, full of coconut palms, beautiful lakes, beaches and cottages. I grew up at a time when neighborhoods celebrated festivals like Christmas together. Each home would have very carefully arranged nativity scenes, lights on trees, huge paper stars hung up everywhere, on trees, rooftops, on strings hung between trees and so on, in different colors, all lit up with bulbs inside, and in some places, made entirely by hand with pieces of wood, string, glue and paper!

Christmas of 1984 was very special to me because the previous year my granddad was diagnosed with cancer and after long treatment in a faraway city, he had come home. Relatives from all over came to visit and in fact stay at my granddad’s house (and in nearby relatives’ homes) for 3-4 days, during Christmas. Uncles, aunts, first and second cousins, my granddad’s closest relatives, all came together to celebrate. I think everyone felt that he had been saved from cancer by God’s grace, but he was very old, so he only had a little more time to live on earth, so they wanted to come and celebrate with him.

As you can imagine I found it a wonderful time. We all played our part in decorating the house, in building a huge nativity scene, playing games with cousins and friends, listening to carolers who were common in our part of the country in those days. Carolers would come and perform small plays, besides singing. One of the songs that was popular in those days went something like this (in translation):

God is being born
As a human being in Bethlehem
In a mountainous valley filling up with snow
Joyful laughter filling hearts in heaven and on earth
From a sweet, angelic melody


I felt very sad when Christmas day came to an end and everyone left the following day. I’d received a toy drum whose skin I’d broken by poking it hard with the end of the drumsticks- it was a cheap drum! Besides that we were done with all the fun! On the evening of the 26th, granddad’s brother saw a crow (raven) which was struggling to fly. It was on the ground and he realized it was wounded someplace. So he took it and placed it in a cage we had and gave it some food. Sadly it died in a couple of days. Everyone thought it looked sad, refusing to eat, probably wanting to be with other crows and not in captivity.

In the years that followed, I’ve tried to remember that Christmas and wondered what made it so special. I’m sure when you grow up you will have lots of memories about Christmases that were the most fun. So what made it really special? Was it because of the kindness shown by family and friends to my granddad? Was it because this was the first time I thought seriously about who Jesus was and why he came to earth to be born into a feeding place for animals, in poverty and squalor, in fact even threatened by a king who wanted him done? Was it because of the gifts? Was it because of the joy I remember on the faces of my family that I have not seen so clearly in the years to come? I’m not sure. But each time I hear that song I remember the joy:

God is being born
As a human being in Bethlehem
In a mountainous valley filling up with snow
Joyful laughter filling hearts in heaven and on earth
From a sweet, angelic melody


Our carols tell the Christmas story clearly, don’t they? We have heard these songs so many times, so we may not spend much time thinking about what they are saying:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.’

Or:

Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled

Or take our readings in the Advent season: ‘The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

Or:

‘Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.’

Why do these songs talk about light, joy, glory, triumph, peace, mercy, a new born king (though he was born in poverty)? You’ve heard the Christmas story many times, about the star that guided wise men to a manger- a feeding place for animals in a stable, angels singing praises to God and guiding shepherds also to this place, about Mary and Joseph who did not find any room to stay in Bethlehem to which they were traveling, and finally giving birth to Jesus in the stable and laying him in the manger in swaddling clothes. I would like you to think about this event and why it was so special that over 2000 years after this event, people around the world are still singing about this and talking about it, some with doubt and anger, others with joy and peace. I’d like to close with the words of a newer song called ‘Welcome to our World’ that captures the meaning of this joy and peace:

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make yourself at home
Please make yourself at home

Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around you
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

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