The longest night.

    This is my reflection from our Longest Night service.  I am sharing as one who knows that sometimes we just don't feel like celebrating, sometimes the joy and lights are hard to take.  Christ arrived under difficult circumstances, Christ showed up amid the chaos and noise, the smell and the fear and that promise is no less ours today than it was then.  

Luke 1:26-38 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Birth of Jesus Foretold

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”^[a]29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³ He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”^[b] 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born^[c] will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶ And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

For Nothing is impossible with God, even when we are left sitting alone, even when the angel’s presence is no longer sensed.

You can do this, whatever this is—you can do it.

Love from afar, pray, walk away, walk back in, no guilt or failure in that.

You can say no and then say yes or say yes and then no.

U turns are allowed, no 1 way roads, no left or right turns only.

You can take the high way or the long winding road.

You can cry and laugh, moan and scream.

With God all things are possible.

Be selfish, waste time, then take time to be fully human, fully cared for, fully loved, and then you can fully love.

When the sun sets --embrace the dark and embrace the offering of rest, set free the dusty troubles of the day that have clung to your clothes, rinse away the aroma of worry, the ache of unfinished business.

When the sun rises- stay in bed one minute longer, slowly release your arms and legs, release yourself to walking and doing. 

When you feel assaulted by all the day has to offer know that the sun will set, that dusk and dawn can be your friend and that with God all things are possible.

You can do this—even when you don’t want to.

No one wants to grieve, divorce, lose, lose friends, family, lose the sense of hope that comes with Christmas, no one chooses that.

With God all things are possible--even when we don't believe it.

Mary surely couldn’t quite believe it, couldn’t fully know, on a night like this we are a bit like Mary—we are the bearers of Christ, in our weaknesses, in our questions, in our being driven out, in the violence, in the noise, the chaos, in desperation and in love—we are a bit like Mary. 

Hear these words from Jan Richardson

"Blessed are you who bear light in unbearable times, 

who testify to its endurance amid the unendurable, 

who bear witness to its persistence 

when everything seems in shadow and grief.

Blessed are you in whom the light lives, 

in whom the brightness blazes-

Your heart a chapel, an altar, 

where in the deepest night can be seen a fire that shines forth in you 

in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope,

 in love that illumines every broken thing it finds."