The Simplicity of Christmas Luke 2:1-20 When you take a good look at the way the story of the birth of Christ is told in Luke's Gospel, it is quite simple. What we see are two peasant people with a newborn bedded down in a stable, or a cave, as some people call it. What we hear in the silence of the night is the cry of a newborn. They are in an obscure village far from Rome or any other important centers of the empire.  There is no military parade or pageantry.  There were no important dignitaries giving their respects. A few shepherds working close by showed up.  We can suppose that there were animals in the stable.  It's basically an ordinary event.  I suppose the only thing that was extraordinary and heightens the importance of this event was the part where the Gospel writer adds the bit about angels appearing to the Shepherds and a heavenly host singing hymns of praise. All the rest is pretty commonplace like it's told in the country song There's a New Kid in Town: There's a new kid in town And he's lying in a manger down the road There's a new kid in town But he's just another baby I suppose Heaven knows There's a new kid in town Here in Bethlehem * Of course, through the years the celebration of the birth of the Christ child have become more elaborate.  Special music and wonderful hymns have been written about it. Pageants and plays have been performed.  Manger scenes of all kinds have appeared.  Weeks before Christmas Day the nights are aglow with many colored light displays. More and more colorful and sophisticated decorations have been designed.  Gift giving and receiving have taken on immense importance in this season.  Special gatherings and the preparations of food etc. mark the occasion. There is a flurry of activity.  Advertizing and promotions reach momentous proportions.  We have almost made happiness into a law at this time of the year. "Thou shalt be happy!" is the watchword.  Someone has described the frenzy of activity that people get into like "bats moving about in all directions without their normal radar." We can do all these things at Christmas but cannot make what we might call the "miracle of Christmas" happen. I think the true miracle is in recognizing the presence of God in the everyday activities of our lives, in the simplicity of our lives.   I think of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th Century American philosopher and poet saying "the true mark of genius is to see the miraculous in the common." * On this theme there are a few Christmas' that stand out in my memory.  One in particular was the first year that Paula and I were married ( 31 years ago) and we moved into a new parish in a small community of Killarney Manitoba on the 14th of December having left my position at the national office of our church in Toronto. We didn't know whether our furniture would arrive before Christmas because snowstorms held up the moving van some place in Northern Ontario. We were invited to stay in the home of one of the parishioner for a few days.   Through their great generosity they had invited us to stay with them until our furniture arrived but we were determined to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our new home even if our house goods did not arrive in time.  We put up a tree and decorated it with some Christmas lights and ornaments borrowed from our hosts. All that was in the house for awhile was this decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the living room.  Our furniture did finally arrive on December 23rd but needless to say we were still surrounded by unpacked boxes on Christmas Day.  We didn't have time to shop in the weeks before Christmas so we spent two hours on the day before Christmas in the city of Brandon doing our Christmas shopping. We bought a few simple little things for each other. The parish had been without a rector for several months so had just planned the simplest schedule -- one service Christmas Eve. So Paula and I were alone for Christmas Day with no family or close friends around us. The people of the parish were kind and we were invited out for Christmas dinner but we chose to spend our first Christmas as a married couple together by ourselves. The people had brought over all kinds of home baking and preserves with the recipes attached to every item.  They had everything in the box that we needed for a Christmas dinner. We opened our gifts from one another on Christmas morning and then spend some time quietly enjoying one another's company.  In the late morning we went for a walk in the fresh fallen snow and then we decided to visit the hospital. There weren't very many people there but we did visit all of those who were there including two people from our parish with whom we celebrated communion. One person I was to visit frequently in the hospital for the next four years. We prepared and ate our Christmas dinner together and then went out to some parishioners for dessert. I remember that day so vividly because I experienced God's presence so significantly.  Certainly God became real through the generosity of the people in that community but it was more than that.  It was in the mere simplicity of that day that I experienced Christ so very close.  A sense of peace enveloped us throughout the whole day, through the quiet time in the morning, the walk in the snow, the visit to the hospital, the quiet supper together, and the sharing of time with another family after supper.  It was the peace of Christ that can only be described as "the peace that passes all understanding" .  It was a peace that cannot be engineered.  You can't make it happen.  No matter how hard you try through the multiplicity of things you do during the Christmas season you cannot capture it. It comes like Christ came into the world at his birth as a pure act of God's Grace. That sense of peace that was given that day was to carry me through many days, weeks, and months to follow. This experience can be considered ordinary...but for both of us it was deep experience of God breaking into our lives with presence and power. * God often is experienced in the "ordinary".  It could be the midst of worship, at the communion rail, in the singing of a certain hymn, or in listening to some music at home.  It could be in our silence. It could be at the supper table. It could be in some common event that opens our hearts.  It could be in sickness. I have known some people who after a heart attack or some other illness or a "near death experience" has a totally difference view of life. Sometimes it takes place in the midst of a conversation, watching TV or at the kitchen sink.  We can know the presence of God through certain practices, like journaling, a quiet day or retreat. Sometimes we experience the coming of the God just in the way that other people touch our lives. It can be quite simple. We don't always recognize God in our midst but God is always ready to be made known to us. God is always ready to seize us, impel us, embrace us and challenge us.  We just have to be open to it. We have to have the open heart to receive the experience of God's presence. 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