Christmas Magic

 For better (probably) or for worse...I simply do not use my blog site with any regularity.  Since its beginning so many years ago, there are a mere handful of posts.  I do hope this is a question of quality verses quantity.  ( And yes! ...please look at the archives.)

Regardless, at this time...between Advent IV and Christmas 2022...and more than three years after my retirement as a clergy person in the Episcopal Church...I am moved to write the following. 

I want to write about the "Magic of Christmas."  Christmas is celebrated far and wide, by those who share the Christian faith and by those who do not. It is a time of family, and food, and celebration.   It is a time of light at the darkest part of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.  Christmas was set when it was because the Christian Church was coopting some existing festivals.  Now it seems as if things are moving in reverse and the season has lost its specific character as a Christian festival. 

Regardless, in my experience, Christmas was a religious festival, but it was also a time for gifts and a time for children!  I will never forget the happy tension of waiting for Christmas morning.  As a child, I woke up early on that day, which was unusual.  And we couldn't go into the living room and gather around the tree until everyone... i.e. my parents...were ready.  Then we would rush in and it was simply...magic!  One of my best memories is of receiving the "Cape Canaveral" set that was featured in the Sears Catalogue.  I think that my experience at that time of life is my "base line" for appreciation of Christmas morning.  Never better!

As time moved on, so did my life.  I was fortunate enough to have children of my own and it was a pleasure to be with them and celebrate Christmas with them.  I enjoyed helping to create the magic for them and I am especially grateful to my wife, who made sure that Christmas was all it could be for my children.  For instance, Katherine is responsible for making this photo possible.  It is one for the ages.

But, to all of this, there is a parallel track.  Because, you see, I became a priest in the Episcopal Church.  And that changed the way I experienced the holiday.

I do have lots of good memories of the Church at Christmas, down through my time as a priest.  I enjoyed the warmth of community and lively worship.  There was even time for some quiet moments. I will never forget, when I was an assistant and prior to having any children, sitting in the parking lot of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Durham, NC.  Night had fallen and I had arrived early... the first one there on Christmas Eve.  Mannheim Steamroller's "Silent Night" was on the radio and I sat and listened to the selection all the way through. It was a fine moment and now every time I hear that piece I am transported. 

But it is also true that the season could be stressful. I was pulled in two directions.  On the one hand, there was the pull of family and of tradition for the holidays.   On the other hand, as a clergy person, I was responsible for helping to  "bring the magic."  That is, the services leading up to Christmas and at Christmas needed to express the faith in a powerful way. And so, leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, when many families are hunkered down (as I had been as a child) I went to work.

And this is not to mention the pastoral responsibilities.  Suffice it to say, that the holidays triggered a whole lot of things for a whole lot of people, and the clergy load increases exponentially as a result.  And this does not include dire emergencies. 

I had a professor in Seminary who said that clergy are always talking about the 1:00 a.m. call but in reality they don't come that often.  The implication is that clergy are making a mountain out of a mole hill. (Please note: this professor had never worked full time in a parish.)

I am not sure how many 1:00 a.m. calls I received in 35 years of active ministry, but I will never forget the year that after a lot of family activities and after the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and hitting the bed thoroughly tired...getting a call that a beloved member was dying in the Emergency Room. 

And you know, you can't be in two places at once.  You can't be there for your children and there for the dying parishioner.  And I went, of course I did.  And I was back in time, basically, for Christmas with the family.  I am sure I was not in top form!  These are the trades that get made.

Tragically, one year a parishioner committed suicide on Christmas day by shooting himself with a gun in the back yard.   Many others, through no fault of their own, became seriously ill at the holidays.

Let me be swift to say, there are so many people who make the holidays possible and so many people who make society as a whole work.  Where the Church is concerned there are countless volunteers and musicians and staff members who make it happen. In the world at large, there are police and fire fighters and emergency personnel and hospital staffers, people who staff other vital services and on and on... We should never forget those who work while most of us don't.

But, here is a word of support from a clergy person who is no longer in the front line for all those who are... I SEE YOU...all you clergy working so hard in this season, balancing, to the best of your ability, the demands of work and family.  There is no easy or perfect answer.  Try to make those who will choose your nursing home the happiest.