I was sick last week (stomach bug – my least favorite illness). It cost me a trip to Memphis where we were to spend a few days with family and the joy of watching two of my daughters singing in an Advent Festival. My many years of ministry have put me in some diverse places in the Christmas season. There have been years in store fronts, a warehouse, a warren of offices converted for worship, a borrowed recreation room in a YMCA, as well as churches whose beauty would take your breath away.
The early years of my Orthodoxy were filled with awkwardness (a form of shame), as we had so little guidance, so few resources, so few people, and more than a little interpersonal conflict. I remember in those days wanting to have a Christmas play in the Church (with children as sheep and shepherds, the Holy Family, and such). The tensions in our ragged little community left me frozen, unable to lead effectively. So, the season passed with the little that was “in the book” as I sought to reassure the cradle-born and the over-zealous converts among us that we were being authentically Orthodox and not some ersatz bastard mix. I hated it.
The fault was mine. I was a convert leader with too little Orthodox experience, too little support, and more than my share of shame and confusion. I have a chapter in my book, Face to Face, on the shame of conversion. Thank God that the decades that have followed have changed what is available for life in the Church. I have rarely written this honestly about how hard all of this was.
But in the context of Christmas, it was particularly painful.
This year, in the parish where I am now retired, there was a Christmas concert a week back (my wife sings in the choir) with a very full mix of Christmas hymns from East and West. There will also be a Christmas play – with children as shepherds, sheep, and what-not. It is an unanxious, unashamed, full-throated Orthodox Church where over 400 gather on Sundays for worship. I do not have to make decisions nor referee anyone’s feelings. I just serve.
Christmas permeates our culture like no other Christian feast. The Orthodox know and understand that Pascha (Easter) is the “Queen of Feasts,” the greatest of all days. Indeed, Christmas is understood to be the “Winter Pascha.” But in a culture driven by commercialism, Christmas is king. There are ENORMOUS decorations on the lawns of houses here and there. The South goes “tacky” for Christmas which is saying something.
But I love it.
After I began to recover from my sick bed, I was hungry for some human touch of the holiday. I went for a brief walk in nearby town. People were out shopping, browsing, and generally being happy. A couple of strangers greeted me on the street telling me that I looked “sharp.” These were kind words in that I felt like a “coat on a stick.”
In the culture at large, Christmas tends to change people. Not always. Not everywhere. But it’s noticeable. There is a cheer – a bonhomie. As I walked my few blocks, I suddenly felt that I was in a Christmas play as large as the world itself. Shepherds and children, sheep and angels, a Wise Man here and there, gold and a bit of incense, with cinnamon and peppermint as well. We were traveling to Bethlehem to a Child in the Cave.
The first Christmas was not safe. It took place while a conspiracy that would murder 10,000 innocents was being enacted. The birth was followed by some years as a refugee in Egypt.
There is a television production of a Mexican version of the Christmas play (La Pastorela) with Linda Ronstadt, Cheech and Chong, and a wonderful cast of characters. It is a presentation in which violence and danger and battles with temptations and demons dog every step of the journey. It is a reminder that Christmas is not a shopping spree nor just tinsel and toys. Christmas is spiritual warfare. Without a miracle, there is no Christmas. You might add it to your watchlist this year.
The whole world is a Christmas play because the Christ Child has come among us. The angels have given instructions for us all: “Peace on earth, goodwill among men.” Remember the children everywhere. Pray for the sheep and the shepherds. Venerate the Wise Men and follow their example. May God save us all from wicked King Herod and his minions. May the Mother of God pray for us and give us humble words of praise for the King of Peace.
The Play has begun.
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