It is perhaps a bit cliché to speak of “grasping the moment,” but like all good clichés, there’s some truth and wisdom at the bottom of this one. Especially right now, as we enter the third week of advent, we are reminded that “now” is our time. We may be “waiting” for Christmas, but God and Jesus are here and available to be experienced right now — no waiting required.
And so it goes with the moments that come and go in our lives, waiting to be truly recognized and experienced by us. This is perhaps especially true of the difficult times when we feel lost, broken, abandoned or alone. The Christmas season is a time of joy for many, but for others, it can be a tougher period. As some struggle to get by, as they see what so many others have (and buy, buy, buy…) and as they cope with the memories of those no longer with them, advent can be a time of just waiting for it all to be over. Advent can be a season of sensing our brokenness.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite Christmas stories — the tale of how that most beloved of all Christmas carols came to be written. By some accounts — we can’t be sure of the truth here, however — “Silent Night” was created out of brokenness. The story goes that a young priest, Fr. Joseph Mohr of Oberndorf, Austria, wrote the lyrics to “Stille Nacht” in 1818 and gave it to a friend and local musician, Franz Gruber, asking him to compose a simple melody to be played on guitar, as the organ in St. Nicholas Church was broken. The song was first performed on Christmas Eve and the rest, as they always say, is history. From brokenness springs beauty.
Here’s a simple guitar and voice recording that my daughter Jenny and I made a few years ago:
As we near Christmas, we recall both the woundedness of our lives and the joy of the birth of the Christ, who came to bind up our wounds, heal our brokenness and fill the empty spaces. This is the Christ who heals, who forgives, who makes whole. A child in a manger, yes, but more importantly the Word of God set in the midst of us not just 2000 years ago but even today. Especially today. This is ours to grasp, this is our moment to seize. This is heavenly peace for our lives right here.
Ask yourself in silence: Where am I broken? What beauty can spring from it? Where is my peace?
We were involved in a project to deliver food parcels to the elderly needy living in the district. We loaded up the car and map in hand off we went. Most accepted their parcels gratefully although one said that it wasn’t as big as last year whilst another complained of “all that rich food”. One couple indignantly said they didn’t need charity hand outs. They had worked hard all their lives for what that had – which apart from two spotlessly clean if a little shabby rooms was not very much. The one who stays in my mind was the old chap who took his parcel gratefully but said” I am never going to eat all this will you stay for a bit, we can have a chat and you can share it with me.There is no one else now Elsie’s gone.” Of course we couldn’t as we had 50 more parcels to deliver and it was the week before Christmas and you know how busy that gets. Anyway we didn’t really know him did we? So we made our apologies and left to continue our charitable deliveries. That was 43 years ago but the story still remains in my memory. I wonder why.