"Feel led to keep a diary. A sort of spiritual log for the benefit of others in the future. Each new divine insight and experience will shine like a beacon in the darkness!
Can't think of anything to put in today.
Still, tomorrow's Sunday. Must be something on a Sunday, surely?"
_________________________
That's how The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Aged 37 and 3/4 opens. Plass uses the diary entries to show us the earnest-but-often-silly choices of his fictional persona, and the consequences, which are their own hilarity. He skewers the foibles we church goers and God followers can sometimes exhibit, often despite of, and sometimes because of our best efforts.
It is one of the funniest things I've read, and I find myself laughing out loud on almost every page.
I make it a point to re-read the Diary every December. Yes, that's partly because a good rolling guffaw can sometimes be hard to come by. But more importantly, reading it reminds me not to take myself so seriously. It always pulls me back to the main things, the most important parts of my faith journey in this life. That kind of centering readies me for the coming new year.
December is a time when we tend to look forward, organizing for the future. That's what the sacred diarist is doing by starting in December. It is also, perhaps, the time we take stock of the year ending. I say, "perhaps," because we can easily get caught up in our planning for the new year, all the celebrations, our pledges toward improvement, etc. In the midst of all that excitement and forward orientation, we can overlook something important: beginnings imply endings. The "something new" usually replaces "something old." There's a reason we greet the new year with celebration. And it's not just because we're looking forward to all that potential. Truth be told, there's plenty we're happy about letting go.
Sometimes, we're just really ready to have the past behind us, to let the past be past.
And that brings me to the passage from Luke featured in the Lectionary this Christmas. It tells the story we all know: Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem where Jesus is born, the shepherds encountering angelic heralds, and, after coming to see Jesus, those shepherds going all about telling everyone what they saw and heard that night.
It was a celebratory event. And, at least on the surface, it's was all about the new thing that was happening. But, even though it was not part of the announcement, things were also ending. It's likely none of the folks involved in that night of nights actually thought about what was coming to an end.
That's the nature of beginnings: they mark the ending of something, whether anyone recognizes that fact or not. The birth of Jesus marks the end of how God had been relating to humans. The Law was being superseded by grace. The birth ushered in the age where all people who chose to follow the Son would become priests, able to boldly enter God's throne room, no longer having to wait until someone did so on their behalf.
The event is thick with irony: that a baby ---born among the animals, laid in a food trough, worshiped by scruffy shepherds--- ended the old way on His way to actually being the new way.
So as we end this year and look forward to the new one, the events of that holy night teach us to embrace both the endings and beginnings as we transit the calendar. If we find we can laugh at ourselves in the process, that's a good thing. And if things get a little ironic along the way, that's OK, too.
_________________________
CAVEAT: Not everyone appreciates Mr. Plass' humor. While there are millions of folk who have purchased, and cherish, his books, there are a few folks out there who take offense at the fun he pokes at believers. If you think you might be one of those people, then spare yourself the aggravation.
_________________________
Lectionary Readings for Christmas 2016
There are multiple options for Christmas readings in this year's Lectionary. I am using Proper I, but you should read the group that you are drawn to. Here is the link to the table of Christmas Lectionary readings: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Christmas
Proper I
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)
_________________________
I hope you will have opportunity to join us at Lectionary Breakfast. We are still meeting Friday mornings at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant at 8:00 and we still wrap things up around 9:00.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas as we pause to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment