This will be my article for the December church newsletter; blog readers get an advance copy. So when the newsletter comes you can get on to the rest of the articles!
Think Small for Christmas.
That would be counter cultural for much of our society and Christmas traditions.
Businesses are hoping for big holiday sales.
Some people are looking for big parties. We like to see the big Christmas decoration light shows or big Christmas trees. We get tricked into thinking that bigger is better and I admit that I would love to have big crowds for church on Christmas eve!
But apparently God is willing to do things small, think small, go small; a baby in a little town with not much of a crowd, a mother, a father, and a few socially small shepherds. For a glimpse there was a “multitude” of the heavenly host. But it was to a small audience. Later on perhaps magi. How many? This chapter, this opening chapter of our gospel story is all about small beginnings. It is central to the message itself.
Joan Chittister, a contemporary Benedictine writer, in her book, Becoming Fully Human, has a chapter: “Do the little Things Matter?” She uses the Christmas story to answer much of that question:
“There is a secret to the spiritual life.... Every spiritual master in every spiritual tradition talks about the significance of small things in a complex world. Small actions in social life, small efforts in the spiritual life, small moments in the personal life. All of them becoming great in the long run, the mystics say, but all of them look like little or nothing in themselves.. .....Christmas itself is the call to recognize the significance of smallness; to realize what each of us can and must become if we ever are to become fully human....maybe we will come to understand the real miracle of Christmas; Jesus came to us as a child so that we might come to understand not only that nothing we do is insignificant but that every small thing we do has within it the power to change the world.” (P.115f)
As part of the Spiritual Life Class we read these words from St. Theresa of Lisieux .“Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe .” Or again from Chittister: Every word, every action, every effort of our lives has a ripple effect. Because of us, others will do more or do less to co-create this world. “Every action of our lives,” Edwin Hubble Chapin wrote, “touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” What do you want to hear played there on your account?
(Maybe it should be Christmas music?”)
This kind of thinking could simplify the business of Christmas! Maybe you can do “Christmas in a small way” but trusting in great, unseen influences. Say a loving and long awaited word, spend a timely moment with someone, hold a hand, write a letter, make a phone call, be in silence, make a donation, take someone new out for coffee, do a kind deed, plant a tree, pass on an heirloom, share a memory. Re-arrange your schedule. Make room for the sacred.
Christmas invites us to believe in “small"...as in mustard seeds or Bethlehem.
Or perhaps small as in, "each of us”...personally and as a church.
I suspect that we all wonder or have doubts about our impact or significance in this great big world. Christmas can answer that concern for us. We can all do something. It doesn’t have to be that big!
So have yourself a "Merry Little Christmas"
And this: separate from the newsletter article, but a nice pairing, from Richard Rohr quoted in today's inward/outward.
(inward/ outward sited this blog once for the Pavarotti story so I can return the favor?)
Think Small for Christmas.
That would be counter cultural for much of our society and Christmas traditions.
Businesses are hoping for big holiday sales.
Some people are looking for big parties. We like to see the big Christmas decoration light shows or big Christmas trees. We get tricked into thinking that bigger is better and I admit that I would love to have big crowds for church on Christmas eve!
But apparently God is willing to do things small, think small, go small; a baby in a little town with not much of a crowd, a mother, a father, and a few socially small shepherds. For a glimpse there was a “multitude” of the heavenly host. But it was to a small audience. Later on perhaps magi. How many? This chapter, this opening chapter of our gospel story is all about small beginnings. It is central to the message itself.
Joan Chittister, a contemporary Benedictine writer, in her book, Becoming Fully Human, has a chapter: “Do the little Things Matter?” She uses the Christmas story to answer much of that question:
“There is a secret to the spiritual life.... Every spiritual master in every spiritual tradition talks about the significance of small things in a complex world. Small actions in social life, small efforts in the spiritual life, small moments in the personal life. All of them becoming great in the long run, the mystics say, but all of them look like little or nothing in themselves.. .....Christmas itself is the call to recognize the significance of smallness; to realize what each of us can and must become if we ever are to become fully human....maybe we will come to understand the real miracle of Christmas; Jesus came to us as a child so that we might come to understand not only that nothing we do is insignificant but that every small thing we do has within it the power to change the world.” (P.115f)
As part of the Spiritual Life Class we read these words from St. Theresa of Lisieux .“Each small task of everyday life is part of the total harmony of the universe .” Or again from Chittister: Every word, every action, every effort of our lives has a ripple effect. Because of us, others will do more or do less to co-create this world. “Every action of our lives,” Edwin Hubble Chapin wrote, “touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” What do you want to hear played there on your account?
(Maybe it should be Christmas music?”)
This kind of thinking could simplify the business of Christmas! Maybe you can do “Christmas in a small way” but trusting in great, unseen influences. Say a loving and long awaited word, spend a timely moment with someone, hold a hand, write a letter, make a phone call, be in silence, make a donation, take someone new out for coffee, do a kind deed, plant a tree, pass on an heirloom, share a memory. Re-arrange your schedule. Make room for the sacred.
Christmas invites us to believe in “small"...as in mustard seeds or Bethlehem.
Or perhaps small as in, "each of us”...personally and as a church.
I suspect that we all wonder or have doubts about our impact or significance in this great big world. Christmas can answer that concern for us. We can all do something. It doesn’t have to be that big!
So have yourself a "Merry Little Christmas"
And this: separate from the newsletter article, but a nice pairing, from Richard Rohr quoted in today's inward/outward.
(inward/ outward sited this blog once for the Pavarotti story so I can return the favor?)
By Richard Rohr
And a picture for fun!
Source: Jesus’ Plan for a New WorldOur ordinary lives are given an extraordinary significance when we accept that our lives are about something much larger, our pain is a participation in the redemptive suffering of God, our creativity is the very passion of God for the world. No longer do we need to self-validate, self-congratulate or self-doubt—our place in the cosmos is assured. I do not need to be the whole play or even understand the full script. It is enough to know that I have been chosen to be one actor on the stage. I need only play my part as well as I can.
And a picture for fun!
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