Letter from the Rector, Christmas 2022

Dear Eucharist Church,

In many ways, the Christmas season we are about to enter is like a warm blanket: familiar, cozy, comforting. Many of us have our yearly traditions, favorite carols, and fond memories that we get to pull out at this time of year. I hope that as you do so, you receive these things as blessed gifts from our Father to help you remember the greatest gift of his Son.

At the same time, I pray your Christmas is unexpected and surprising. Not simply that you would unwrap unexpected gifts around the tree, but that the Holy Spirit would shed fresh light upon the wonder of Christ’s incarnation and its meaning for us as his people. 

When we catch Christ in a new light—when he challenges our preconceived notions and refuses to be domesticated in our hearts—we are presented with a choice. We can cling to the ideas we have about Jesus and miss him as he is revealing himself anew; or we can receive the grace of new understanding, bow before him in awe and submission, and receive the blessing he promised in Matthew, 11:6: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

I was surprised into a fresh awareness of Christ this week when I read the following poem by English priest Malcolm Guite. I share it here in hopes that the Spirit casts our Lord’s first coming in fresh perspective for you and leads you into renewed wonder and worship.  

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple, 
Or cosy in a crib beside the font, 
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want. 
For even as we sing our final carol 
His family is up and on that road, 
Fleeing the wrath of someone else's quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load. 
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled, 
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world. 
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.

May your Christmas celebrations be full of the untamable reality of Jesus Himself, and may that reality bring us all to our knees before our Lord and God. 

Much love,
Jeff+