I'm weary with my former toil, here I will sit and rest a while

This December, I had a very tough time getting into the "Christmas spirit." There were many reasons for this (having mostly to do with a rough year and working at a mall), but for the first time in my life, I found I didn't really care that Christmas was coming and didn't want to listen to Christmas music, save thinking about Advent. However, I went caroling with some friends in downtown Seattle a couple weekends ago and finally allowed the true message and impact of Christmas to permeate my pessimism and disappointment. There really is a big difference between secular and sacred Christmas music!
I found myself clinging these last two weeks to one of my all-time favorite Christmas CDs that my parents own by the King's College Choir of Cambridge. The beautiful delivery of such meaningful and powerful music was exactly what my weary soul needed this year. I truly pray that your Christmas will not end today, but will continue all year long through the expression of selflessness, love, empathy, humility, passion, friendship and peace. These are the lessons Christ teaches me by example and the reason I celebrate His birth, life and sacrifice. Merry Christmas.
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The tree of life my soul hath seen
Laden with fruit and always green
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
His beauty doth all things excel
By faith I know but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
For happiness I long have sought
And pleasure dearly I have bought
I missed of all but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
I'm weary with my former toil
Here I will sit and rest a while
Under the shadow I will be
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive
It keeps my dying faith alive
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht

Christmas in the Trenches

(an email I received from Sojourners today...I thought I would share it with you)

'It has since become our Christmas tradition, kind of our own Charlie Brown
Christmas special, if you will. With the ongoing conflicts raging during each
passing year, it remains tragically relevant.

Silent Night, by Stanley Weintraub, is the story of Christmas Eve,
1914, on the World War I battlefield in Flanders. As the German, British, and
French troops facing each other were settling in for the night, a young German
soldier began to sing "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht." Others joined in. When they
had finished, the British and French responded with other Christmas
carols.

Eventually, the men from both sides left their trenches and met in the
middle. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their
families. Informal soccer games began in what had been "no-man's-land." And a
joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.The generals, of course,
were not pleased with these events. Men who have come to know each other's names and seen each other's families are much less likely to want to kill each other.
War seems to require a nameless, faceless enemy.

So, following that magical night the men on both sides spent a few days
simply firing aimlessly into the sky. Then the war was back in earnest and
continued for three more bloody years. Yet the story of that Christmas Eve
lingered - a night when the angels really did sing of peace on earth.

Folksinger John McCutcheon wrote a song about that night in Belgium, titled
"Christmas in the Trenches," from the viewpoint of a young British solder.
Several poignant verses are:

"The next they sang was 'Stille Nacht,' 'Tis 'Silent Night'," says I.
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.

We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore."

My prayer for the new year is for a nation and world where people can come
out of their trenches and together sing their hopes for peace. We here at
Sojourners will carry on that mission, and we invite you to continue on the
journey with us.'

I hope that you are with family and friends during the holidays. Join me in praying for peace, understanding, love, acceptance and action in the coming year. A better world is possible, and to prove this, we only need look to the baby born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. He is the reason I celebrate.

Merry Christmas!

Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year

~Charlie Brown (“Christmastime is here”)...i’m listening to The New Frontiers, who do a great cover of it, too!

i’m not feeling it this year.

i can’t put my finger on it, but i have no “Christmas spirit” and it makes me sad. It also necessitates reflection.

It could be that October, November and December have been the three busiest consecutive months of my life and i haven’t had time to even stop and think about the holidays, or more importantly, the “reason for the season” as some like to title it. But, many people use that excuse, and that’s not ample enough for me. It also could be the fact that this is the first time in my life i will only be home for a week surrounding Christmas. The five years i was in college, i was lucky enough to be home for the vast majority of December, so this is a new experience for me. Sure, i threw a white-elephant Christmas party on Friday (it didn’t disappoint with a couple of inappropriate t-shirts, a metal bird sculpture and plastic beaded santa figurines), listen to Christmas music every chance i get (i’m loving Sufjan Stevens’ Christmas albums this year), have made two batches of traditional Klug cookies, and hell, we even have a tree and decorations at our house, thanks to my roommate. But yet it doesn’t feel right. i remember things felt a little off last year, too.

i certainly am disgusted by materialism, and this undoubtedly is a big reason for my lack of yuletide joy. i did my only “day” of shopping on Saturday and couldn’t handle it after about 1.5 hours. i’m pretty sure it’s a good thing to realize that presents don’t matter, just as getting your Christmas cards sent off punctually, having a spotless and perfectly decorated home, throwing the best party and making the tastiest cookies don’t.

Perhaps i’m being too hard on Christmas. After all, what did it ever do to me but land me some (usually) sweet stuff and make me fat every year? i know some Christians who just treat “americanized christmas” as a totally separate entity from the real meaning and enjoy both for different reasons. i think i like that. There’s nothing wrong with giving gifts, having a reason to celebrate and catch up with friends and baking really great food. But, i keep wondering how Christmas ever turned into what it is today. The season of the most important birthday has turned into a stressful, obligatory, finance-stretching, month long period of one-upmanship and materialism. But, then again, folks appear to be happier during the season. In general, they are nicer to one another, and gift-giving is often a fun and positive gesture. That giving and slightly-less-selfish attitude is the “spirit” i’d like to see all year.

It may be obvious that my realism and skepticism is what’s ruining the holiday spirit for me, but possibly, it’ll turn out to be a good thing over time IF i actually take time to ponder advent and what this month truly means to my life and how it can change me. i think i’ve been contemplating these issues more this year because of my yearning to spend time abroad, which will probably land me in another country for some Christmases. i found myself writing a friend who will be spending the holidays in China and telling him i was actually jealous that he wasn’t surrounded with the American insanity that is christmas, because maybe it would be more real.

hopefully when i arrive home in Bellevue on Friday, my mindset will change. Either way, celebrating Christ’s birth is something i want to focus on more. now, if only i didn’t have a party every night this week...