Tomorrow many of us will be sitting at a table laden with traditional Thanksgiving foods and offering up ways we are grateful. Perhaps it is only one thing we can be thankful for, perhaps many. But, some of us will not have a place to go, or a table spread for us. Some of us will be alone, and some of us will be left hungry, in our bellies, in our hearts, or perhaps both. If you know of someone who might not have a Thanksgiving meal to enjoy, I hope you will be able, in some way, to give a blessing they can savor, whether that is with a card, an invitation, or something good to eat. Your Thanksgiving will be all the richer for it.
Then, on Friday we transition into what we call the “Christmas Season,” though already carols are being piped into public places, Christmas decorations are festooning the stores, and Santas are setting up their chairs at the local malls. It is to Christmas that I now turn.
Blue Christmas
The guest writer for the next seven weeks is Mari Hagemeyer, my middle child. She approached me last year to lead what some call a Blue Christmas, a time of worship that remembers the the thrum of heartache underneath the Christmas story. Mari did the research and writing, together we chose the hymns and arranged the service, then a few of our friends and family joined us to worship in candlelight, in the soft velvety darkness of night, the birth of Emmanuel, God with Us.
This year, Mari and I will be joined by my oldest child Natasha to lead a Blue Christmas at a friend’s retreat center. In preparation for that time of quiet reflection, we invite you to join us in meditating on the scriptures and songs that honor the sorrow in Christ’s Advent.
Singing with a Heavy Heart
From Mari:
“When we talk about Christmas – both in secular spaces and in the church – we are almost always centering on the concept of joy. We proclaim the words of the angels, singing, “Joy to the world!” But for many people, the Christmas season doesn’t feel very joyful. Instead, this is a time of stress, struggle, and grief.”
He who sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on a wound.
Proverbs 25:20, RSV
“Unadulterated joy can feel alienating to people who are suffering. This painful disconnect can then leave those suffering people feeling even more alone than they were before. However, Jesus is not unable to sympathize with people who are in pain. The prophet Isaiah says,”
For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.Isaiah 53:2-3 (NRSVUE)
“It may seem as if all of Jesus’ suffering took place during His ministry, at the end of His life. Certainly, we mostly talk about the suffering He experienced during the Easter season, when we celebrate His resurrection from death. However, there are many aspects of the Christmas story that show that Jesus’ birth was not all ‘sunshine and rainbows’ for His family, either.”
Six Sources of Sorrow
There are aspects of the Christmas story that often get glossed over in the desire to depict a happy family posed cozily around a glowing manger containing the tiny, newborn Lord. Ox and ass contentedly munch on fresh hay as shepherds gather in wonder and magi kneel in splendor.
What is not portrayed is a marriage that was in jeopardy, an unexpected pregnancy that sent a young wife away to have her first baby without her mother by her side. The Jews were a people under the heavy burden of occupation in their own land, and Mary and Joseph were a family in poverty. The first person to spread the news of Jesus’s birth was a widow, a woman without a family, and soon after His birth, an entire community was plunged into mourning … because of him. And the first person to speak to Mary and Joseph about their newborn Son told them He was a Child destined to die.
Resituating the Christmas Story
From Mari:
“In order to help us all recontextualize these passages, we’re going to preface each aspect with verses from other parts of the Bible, which will explore the themes found in Luke and Matthew’s accounts of Jesus’ birth. After talking briefly about each passage, we’ll sing a song to meditate on what it says.
“There’s heavy material here. We’re going to be addressing sexual violence, oppression, poverty, and death, including the deaths of children … we want to honor the pain that Jesus and His family experienced, as a way to understand and honor our own grief and suffering. That can be an intense experience. The prophet Isaiah promises,”
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Cush and Seba in exchange for you.Isaiah 43:1-3 (NRSVUE)
“Christmas is a time when people are told to rejoice – but in the Christmas story, we see that it is also a time for people who are hurting. Jesus honors and includes people who are suffering and grieving in His story and in His family.”
A Blue Holiday
If you are feeling blue this Thanksgiving, and facing Christmas seems almost more than you can bear, you are not alone. I hope you will join with us as we enter into the quiet darkness with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. May God hold us close.
(The button above will bring you to Amazon.com to get “Songs for a Savior.”)
In Preparation for Advent
Advent, one of the earliest traditions in Christian practice, begins the Sunday right after our Thanksgiving holiday.
So, I have prepared an Advent Devotional that will take the reader through each of the four weeks of Advent, beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with a special reading for Christmas day. I wrote it this way so this devotional could be read in any given year.
The first part of this devotional pairs Hannah’s Prayer with Zechariah’s Prophecy, and the names of the Son of God that come out of their prayers.
Hannah’s Prayer
Hannah was the mother of the prophet Samuel, who was the last of the Hebrew Judges and the first prophet to anoint a king of Israel. It was Samuel who anointed King David, recognizing in the young shepherd boy that God does not judge by what the world sees, or by the world’s standards, but rather God looks in the heart. The heart and soul are what matter to God for eternity.
Zechariah’s Prophecy
Zechariah was the father of John the Baptist, who was the last of the Hebrew Prophets, and the Hebrew prophet who heralded and baptized Messiah Jesus, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. John the Baptist was able to identify the Messiah in the unassuming carpenter and stonemason by God’s direct revelation in the form of a dove resting above Jesus’s head. Israel was looking for a royal king but God intended to save the world for eternity.
The second part of this devotional pairs Mary’s Magnificat with Jesus’s Beatitudes, and the names of God the Son which arise.
Mary’s Magnificat
Mary was the birth mother of Jesus, the first to experience the extraordinary reality of God’s very life growing within her. As any mother might do, Mary surely sang lullabies to her baby, and taught Him the scriptures and stories of His people as He grew. It was Mary who heard her Son’s first word, and rejoiced over His first step. It is no wonder she “pondered these things in her heart.”
Jesus’s Beatitudes
As His ministry grew, Jesus’s teaching became famous, and His Beatitudes continue to engage us thousands of years later with the wonder of the Lord’s wisdom.
As you and I meditate on these words, let us think about the names all heaven and earth gave to this tiny, vulnerable baby Who is God the Son. From eternity into our world and then returned to the glory from whence He came, Jesus now opens the way for you and me to be with him in glory forever.
Lamp photographs from the Getty Museum (Menorah lamp) and the Metropolitan Museum (Chi-rho lamp), public domain.
