SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT IS HAPPENING Matthew 2:1-12   Reflection: It is common around the celebration of a new year to review the significant events the past one. For the last few days in the daily newspapers there have been reports of the most significant event to have happened in 2002, the most important newsmaker, and the most impressive sporting event. Some of the news media even attempt to reflect on the most significant events of the decade or even the century. There seems to be  a natural desire on the part of humankind to review what has gone on in the past and explain how particular events have changed the course of history.  It is one way that we derive meaning to what is happening in the world and what it means for our future. The Gospel writers had the same kind of objective in writing about the events surrounding Christ. They were intent on telling the story in such a way that you can't help but realize how significant the coming of Jesus Christ was, how it affects our lives even now and what it means for the future. Just think of it! The whole idea of a miraculous birth in a stable the poorest of all places, the visit of angels to announce the event, the common people like shepherds coming from their fields to worship the child, as well as magi from another part of the world coming to pay homage, a bright star leading the way,  Herod being scared out of his boots at the idea of a new king being born and then slaying all the young children in order to rid his reign of any opposition. When you read these accounts of the birth of Christ in Matthew and Luke you can't help thinking that this event is one of the most important events to have taken place in the whole history of humankind. Some scholars even point out that in the early carvings of the 2nd and 3rd century that the the infant Jesus is portrayed in the manger surrounded by an ox, an ass and the Magi.  The Magi were presented in such a way that they represented the priests of another religion centered around a god of light which was worshipped by many people at that time.  The ox and the ass were animal symbols representing Egyptians gods. Another words, the carving presented the view that Christ was recognized as the true light by even those considered as other gods.  Whether that information impresses us or not, there is no doubt that the whole story as presented in the Gospels grabs us, shakes us and says to us, "Pay attention! This is the most important story of the year.  This is the most important story of the century.  This is the most important story in history. This is the most important story that you will hear in your life time and not only that but it has the power to change your life as no other that you will ever hear." Something significant is happening. * For me, the awesome message presented here is that God loves us and is found in the midst of our lives.  Just as Christ was born in the most humble surroundings in the midst of the oppression by a foreign power, census taking, political intrigue, rumors of war, murder and all the atrocities that humankind is capable of, so the God of Love is still found in the 2012 in sometimes obscure corners of our lives but in the middle of all the other stories and newsworthy items that are presented to us day after day in the newspapers and TV  that scare the living daylights out of us. There is no message greater than that Love is the true power of the universe and to find that Love active in our lives in the the world in general is to find the meaning of life. There is nothing more significant than that. * The question at this time of Christmas and Epiphany, as we listen to the story unfold and see the Shepherds and the Magi bowed before the infant Christ, always is "How close are we to Christ?" Sometimes we are lulled to sleep by way that this season is celebrated with all the gift giving sometimes motivated by guilt rather than by love, with us trying to please so that we will be thought well of, rushing in a frenzy putting pressure on our selves, trying to meet the expectations of others, having everything in place and everything in order "the way things should be" at Christmas.  Sometimes in the middle of all this we forget the most important part of the celebration, that is our present relationship with Jesus. I personally have tried this year to concentrate on that relationship and have found a series of Advent-Christmas meditations in a little book, Look For the Light written for each day by a number of authors from various times in the history of the Christian faith.  I have found as I have read this day by day, how it has taken me beyond the trappings of the season to just what a revolutionary event it is that we celebrate in the birth of Christ. I have included in the quotes and stories section a few of the the thoughts that I have found meaningful. Something definitely happened to me during this time.  First of all as Jesus was born in the poverty of a stable, I came to realize that he comes to us now in the poverty of our spirit.   I had come to think of myself as rich in spirit, that my faith was strong, that I had grown in my understanding my relationship with Christ.  I had to realize the poverty of my spirit. I came to a point when I realized that no matter how much I thought I had grown, there was still a vast emptiness in my life, a thirst for living water. It was at that point of realizing my emptiness that Christ had a chance to come again.  I came to realize once again the force of those words of Oscar Romero: No one can celebrate  a genuine Christmas  without being truly poor. The self sufficient, the proud,  those who, because they have  everything, look down on others, those who have no need  even of God - for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God. Emmanuel. God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit There can be no abundance of God. (1) Secondly, I began to concentrate on the coming of Christ rather than all the other things that were preoccupying my mind and spirit during the Christmas season.  Oh yes, I still did my Christmas shopping, did my sharing of eating all the "good" things that we have around us at this time of year. I still was involved in putting up special decorations.  But all those things seem to fade into the background as the expectation of Christ's coming  increased.  The Christmas presence was more important to me than Christmas presents. Thirdly, I did worship at my parish church over the Christmas but by far the most significant worship experience I remember was one year in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, my wife Paula conducted a service for the very small children and their parents and I supplied the music on my guitar. We gathered around the creche and told the story of the birth in word and in song.  That was it! The simplicity of it was overpowering,  the effects of which still remain with me Lastly, I didn't feel the let-down from Christmas that I have felt other years.  As I move away from the celebration I realize that the real gift was not the kind of gift that excites for the moment, but the gift of Christ's presence which grows deeper and more meaningful as the days pass. * Something significant happened with the birth of Christ. Something significant happened in my life this season. I have met Jesus again as if for the first time.  Something significant is happening in my life today - and in yours.   (1) Oscar Romero as quoted by William Willimon in Watch For The Light Plough Publishing House of the Bruderhoff Foundation, Farmington PA 15437 USA Quotes and Stories There is a lovely mood about the Christian scene of the Nativity. The first carvings of the nativity scene are found on the sarcophagi of the second and third centuries. One of the earliest shows the little child in the crib, surrounded by the ass, the ox, and the Magi. Originally, Christmas and the visit of the Magi were identical. The Magi, in this particular case, are wearing the hat, shaped somewhat like the French liberty cap, of the god Mithra. They are Magi—that is to say, they are priests of the Lord Mithra. The ass, at that time, was the symbolic animal of Set, and the ox was the symbolic animal of Osiris. We recall the conflict of the Egyptian gods Set and Osiris and that Set killed his brother, Osiris. There we see the animals of Set and Osiris, reconciled in the Christ-child. These two powers, one of the light and one the dark, are united in him. They are giving Him their breath, just as God breathed His spirit. The older hero figures thereby concede their power to the younger, and the Magi, representing Mithra, join them around the new King. In that little Christmas scene, one reads the statement that the older savior figures, Osiris and his brother, Set, as well as Mithra, are recognizing Christ for who He is. In that very earliest depiction, we already find the Catholic idea that the older myths are prefigurements of the new..... Joseph Campbell  in Thou Art That, Transforming Religious Metaphor, New World Library, Novato California, USA, 2001 by the Jospeh Campbell Foundation, p. 65-66 Therefore let us beware of all teaching that does not set forth Christ. What more would you know? What more do you need, if indeed you know Christ, as above set forth, if you walk by faith in God, and by love to your neighbor, doing to him as Christ has done to you. This is indeed the whole Scripture in its briefest form: that no more words or books are necessary, but only life and action. Let everyone examine himself in the light of the Gospel and see how far he is from Christ, and what is the character of his faith and love. There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, and when they hear of the poverty of Christ, they are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem. They denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more kindly service, and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow humans need their help, and which they ignore in J their misery. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sick, erring ones around him? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him? Martin Luther in Watch For The Light Plough Publishing House of the Bruderhoff Foundation, Farmington PA 15437 USA, 2001 (meditation for December 24)   The birth of Christ in our souls is for a purpose beyond ourselves: it is because his manifestation in the world must be through us. Every Christian is, as it were, part of the dust-laden air which shall radiate the glowing epiphany of God, catch and reflect his golden Light. Ye are the light of the world — but only because you are enkindled, made radiant by the one Light of the world. And being kindled, we have got to get on with it, be useful. As Christ said in one of his ironical flashes, "Do not light a candle in order to stick it under the bed!" Some people make a virtue of religious skulking......... The mystics keep telling us that the goal of that prayer and the goal of that hidden life which should itself become more and more of a prayer, is "union with God." We use that phrase often, much too often to preserve the wholesome sense of its awe-full-  ness. For what does union with God mean? It is not a nice feeling we get in devout moments. That may or may not be a by-product of union — probably not. It can never be its substance. Union with God means every bit of our human nature transfigured in Christ, woven up into his creative life and activity, absorbed into his redeeming purpose, heart, soul, mind and strength. Each time it happens it means that one of God s creatures has achieved its destiny. Evelyn Underhill in Watch For The Light Plough Publishing House of  the Bruderhoff Foundation, Farmington PA 15437 USA, 2001 (meditation for December 18)     SORTING THROUGH THE STACK of cards that arrived at our house last Christmas, I note that all kinds of symbols have edged their way into the celebration. Overwhelmingly, the landscape scenes render New England towns buried in snow, usually with the added touch of a horse-drawn sleigh. On other cards, animals frolic: not only reindeer but also chipmunks, raccoons, cardinals and cute gray mice. One card shows an African lion reclining with a foreleg draped affectionately around a lamb. Angels have made a huge comeback in recent years, and Hallmark and American Greetings now feature them prominently, though as demure, cud-dly-looking creatures, not the type who would ever need to announce "Fear not!" The explicitly religious cards (a distinct minority) focus on the holy family, and you can tell at a glance these folk are different. They seem unruffled and serene. Bright gold halos, like crowns from another world, hover just above their heads. Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness, and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with such homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone, and sense mainly disruption at work... Even those who accept the supernatural version of events concede that big trouble will follow: an old uncle prays for "salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us"; Simeon darkly warns the virgin that "a sword will pierce your own soul too"; Mary s hymn of thanksgiving mentions rulers overthrown and proud men scattered. In contrast to what the cards would have us believe, Christmas did not sentimentally simplify life on planet earth. Perhaps this is what I sense when Christmas rolls around and I turn from the cheeriness of the cards to the starkness of the Gospels........ Philip Yancey in Watch For The Light Plough Publishing House of the Bruderhoff Foundation, Farmington PA 15437 USA, 2001 (meditation for December 30)   In Phillips  version,(Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained) a senior angel is showing a very young angel around the splendors of the universe. They view whirling galaxies and blazing suns, and then flit across the infinite distances of space until at last they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars: As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen. "I want you to watch that one particularly," said the senior angel, pointing with his finger. "Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me," said the little angel. "What s special about that one?" When I read Phillips  fantasy, I thought of the pictures beamed back to earth from the Apollo astronauts, who described our planet as "whole and round and beautiful and small," a blue-green-and-tan globe suspended in space. Jim Lovell, reflecting on the scene later, said, "It was just another body, really, about four times bigger than the moon. But it held all the hope and all the life and all the things that the crew of the Apollo 8 knew and loved. It was the most beautiful thing there was to see in all the heavens." That was the viewpoint of a human being. To the little angel, though, earth did not seem so impressive. He listened in stunned disbelief as the senior angel told him that this planet, small and insignificant and not overly clean, was the renowned Visited Planet: "Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince... went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?"... The little angel s face wrinkled in disgust. "Do you mean to tell me," he said, "that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?" "I do, and I don t think He would like you to call them ‘creeping, crawling creatures  in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him." The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension. It is almost beyond my comprehension too, and yet I accept that this notion is the key to understanding Christmas and is, in fact, the touchstone of my faith..... Could it be true, this Bethlehem story of a Creator descending to be born on one small planet? If so, it is a story like no other. Never again need we wonder whether what happens on this dirty little tennis ball of a planet matters to the rest of the universe. Little wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds but the entire universe. Philip Yancey in Watch For The Light Plough Publishing House of the Bruderhoff Foundation, Farmington PA 15437 USA, 2001 (meditation for December 30)   You are visitor number UK Online Casinos This free counter  is supplied by Visible Counter   Connect with Deacon Sils Homelical resource   Also for more sermon and lectionary resources connect to SERMON AND SERMON LECTIONARY RESOURCES Check Out my daughter's web site CARLY'S STRENGTH THE GODDESS WITHIN MUSIC PROJECT Each year, thousands of women and children become homeless as a result of domestic violence.  "The Goddess Within" music project is designed to empower those whose lives have been affected by domestic abuse and to raise awareness of this issue. "The Goddess Within" compilation album will showcase artists and their songs, written for or relating to those escaping the cycle of violence.  The C.D. will be distributed throughout North America and proceeds from the sale of the C.D. will be donated to women's shelters. More information on the CD is available at ARTISTS FOR CHANGE My daughter Carly is featured on the album with her song The Mask.  The art for cover for the CD album is the creation of another daughter, Mary Anne Molcan. Another site to access is Ending Domestic Abuse * Mary Anne is a very talented artist.  She has a new web site called Faerie Artist where she displays her Art.   You can access her site at: Faerie Artist   Megan's Blog You can check out some of Megan's recipes and meal planning on her Blog  Food and Whine, Adventures in making food for my toughest critics, my family.