"...with..."

After dropping off P.V. George on my way home from the Advent Gathering of the "Water for All" mission project of the Oneida Association I suddenly found myself transported to another place and time. The houses in the lovely DeWitt neighborhood through which I was driving were all blazing with lights and yard decorations.

One house caught my eye, however. There was a home made, painted plywood sleigh and cut-out versions of Santa Claus and the reindeer on the front lawn. It was much like the Santa, sleigh and reindeer that my father made and displayed on our front yard in the mid-fifties. I remember "helping" him with the display, placing everything in just the right way, struggling with the lights and fighting off the cold. As the number of Christmases pile up for me I find that neither the memories nor the anticipation of the Day fade.

Christmas is very different these days. Families grow. Our son, Peter, will be with his fiance, Mary, and her family this year. Traditions change. And, we try to adjust. Susan and I decided that we would decorate the bushes and trees out front with colored lights this year. We were informed by Sarah, our daughter, that she was brought up with the notion that colored lights were for inside, white lights were for the outside! Indeed, as a local church pastor I soon learned that it was much easier starting a tradition than changing it!

Christmas has always been very important for me. I learned to "do" Christmas, especially Christmas Eve in my home church in Springfield. Our pastor had been a Moravian minister, and when we came to us he brought with him the beautiful traditions of decorations and worship that he had learned in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (white lights in window boxes, the Moravian Star hanging from the chancel in the church and beeswax candles for the candlelight service on Christmas Eve). Through his influence I went to Moravian College, sang in the choir and received my call to ministry while singing an anthem during one of the Christmas Vespers services.

And so, when I became a pastor in my own church I wanted to recreate and share my experiences of the beauty and grace of God for my parishioners, especially on Christmas Eve. I spent much time creating the service down to the last, written detail of lighting, the choreography of ushers, deacons, choirs, etc. I was so worried that everything went "just so" that I became quite emotionally tied in knots. In other words Sarah didn't fall very far from the tree!

But God continually does a new thing and even I can come to the point of putting colored lights on the bushes outside! This year pastors Joe Blotz and Craig Schaub of Plymouth Church, Syracuse have given me a great gift. They've asked me to offer the Eucharistic prayer during the Family Service this afternoon.

Holy Communion is a central part of the worship of all Christians. One of the declarations at the end of the formal prayers of the Communion liturgy (the Eucharist) states that by partaking of the bread and the cup of the Lord's Supper we proclaim his death until he comes again. I would add that we proclaim the Lord's abundant life as embodied by his first coming also.

Christmas is a celebration of the embodiment of God, the God-Becoming-Flesh, God's grace, love and peace measured in the gurgles, cries, swaddling clothes of the babe in the young mother's warm embrace. Communion is the celebration of relationships turned sacred in the breaking of bread. Holy Day and Holy Meal speak of the "with-ness" of our faith.

What a wonderful word is "with". "You" and "I" become "us". Isolated, lonely, disenfranchised, no more. Welcomed, included, embraced, respected from now on. At Christmas we celebrate that God is with us. In Communion we give thanks that through the fellowship of the Upper Room we are with God.

And so, I wish you a Happy Christmas. I rejoice in the fellowship that we share together through the mission and ministry to which God in Christ calls us. May your worship tonight be filled with peace and joy as if you were hearing the story for the first time.

One last word: you may have heard that Emmanuel UCC, Massena has returned to the church building that was devastated by fire a couple of years ago. Here is a video of the re-dedication service held the first Sunday of Advent. I can't help but think that from now on whenever the congregation worships in that space that the Angel song will burst forth from the very bricks and mortar, feeding and filling worshipers with the glory of God and peace to all whom God favors.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles