The Pastor's Page


December 18,  2005

The Pain of Christmas

  . . . and a sword will pie rc e through your own soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.  (Luke 2:35)

 The bawling of babies, always in a way
Inappropriate—why should the loved and innocent
Greet existence with wails?—is proof that not all
Is well.  Dreams and deliveries never quite mesh.

 Deep hungers go unsatisfied, deep hurts
                Unhealed.  The natural and gay are torn
                By ugly grimace and curse.  A wound appears
                In the place of ecstasy.  Birth is bloody.

 All pain’s a prelude:  to symphony, to sweetness.

“The p earl began as a pain in the oyster’s stomach.”

                 Dogwood, recycled from cradle to cross, enters
                The market again as a yoke for easing burdens.
                 Each sword-opened side is the matrix for God
                 To come to me again through travail for joy.

                 “This child marks both the failure and

                       the recovery of many in Israel ,

                A figure misunderstood and contradicted—

                       The pain of a sword-thrust through you—

                But the rejection will fo rc e honesty,

                    As God reveals who they really are.”

Luke 2:34b-35.

                                (A poem by Eugene Peterson

                                  from Living the Message)

 For all who have experienced loss of any kind and who grieve in this Season of Advent, The Longest Night Service, on Wednesday, December 21st at 7 PM , can be a place of comfort and healing.

                                                                 Pastor George