What if on Christmas Eve people came and sat in the dim pews, and someone stood up and said, “Something happened here while we were all out at the malls, while we were baking cookies and fretting about whether we bought our brother-in-law the right gift: Christ was born. God is here� We wouldn’t need the glorious choruses and the harp and the bell choir and the organ. We wouldn’t need the tree strung with lights. We wouldn’t have to deny that painful dissonance between the promise and hope of Christmas and a world wracked with sin and evil. There wouldn’t be that embarrassing conflict over the historical truth of the birth stories and whether or not Mary was really a virgin. And no one would have to preach sermons to work up our belief.
All of that would seem gaudy and shallow in comparison to the sanctity of that still sanctuary. And we, hushed and awed by something greater and wiser and kinder than we, would kneel of one accord in the stillness. A peace would settle over the planet like a velvet coverlet drawn over a sleeping child. The world would recollect itself and discover itself held in the womb of the mother of God. We would be filled with all the fullness of God, even as we filled the emptiness of the Saviour’s heart with ours.
{Loretta Ross-Gotta: American Presbyterian author}
I read this in my Advent reading this morning, and it reminded me of our hope for this first Terra Nova Christmas Eve service. We had originally planned for a larger event, but after much talk, decided on a quiet, intimate, casual, family service. I have great expectation of this being a beautiful memory in our history.
Wow-I was about to say “Scott, you’re an amazing writer!”… until I realised the words that were resonating with me were not your own.
Nevertheless, I love that image of Christmas Eve morning.
What time will that service happen on Christmas Eve at Terra, and in what Advent reading/book did you find that wonderful excerpt?
Nope, I can’t write like that. That’s why she writes books and I write blogs…..
The Christmas Eve Service is at 7:00pm on 12.24.05 at the Terra Nova World Headquarters @ 409 River Street in Troy.
The excerpt was taken from WATCH FOR THE LIGHT (Orbis Books, NY). It is daily Advent readings from multiple authors, such as C.S. Lewis, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
That’s Ok scott, you married a writer. It’s a simple division of duties. What a great reading.
pt
I am now a blogger. I have slowly made my way up the tech ladder. Scott said that this is a way to communicate like the early church or early America did as they posted signs on doors or yelled off a horse like George Washington or Daniel Boone. You may be thinking about that crazy guy who said the “the british are coming” Paul Revere is the name. I don’t think he was concerned about community. He was high tailing it and yelled in fear. I digress. I think that my blogs are going to be more like Jack Handy today.
To comment on the advent article. Scott, I was a little worried when I saw the word fretted and thought HMMM… Thats not a word I have heard you say? Then I saw it was written by someone else.(GOTTA) I will miss the first Christmas Eve Service. I am very bummed. To all at Terranova. Enjoy, Worship, Learn, and don’t fret.