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A PLACEy FOR THE SINGING OF ANGELS Stucl-<ivgle Spar n. ober 23, 1973

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| | wwthe naay years ago it” became Sudeiamy fashionable to be pococmars critical of the

28cular celebration of Christnas.\ A great hue and cry went up from the pulpits of the land
welf-righteyS e
railing against comgrcialisnrmatgriatisn.\ Religias journals vere filled with polemic essays

regarding the cultural intrusions into a sacred feast. Schojlars dug into the history books
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and reminded us that the early Christians chose December 25 fas the date to celebrate Christ's

birth because the Romans were observing the end of the calenbar year_in a bacchanalian, week-
long bash beginning on that date. | Christians_needed something of their own to celebrate, &

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and the birth of Christ, until that time not assigned a date, was observed simultaneously

with the seven day Roman orgy.| The implication, of course, was that history had cijgmeet
repeated itserf{ that the birth of Jesus was still running a_poor second_to a colorful, pagan

and openly sinful secular festival.

There was authentic resentment in the atv christians felt that something very dear and

‘ sacred was being exploited.\ It seemed terribly wrong that the birth_of the Prince of Peace
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~ should be used as the occasion to present one's own children with real jife machine guns | or
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4 ¥ that the birth of the savior should be the opportuni ty to get drunk and grab a seretary
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* at the office party:jor that the ort erm o— gift, given freely in love, should
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N x somehow come out in the fommof Re Clause whose first question to the childresn is

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F always"Have you been good? y') which, the psychologists remind us, is to say that good things
happen to those who have been good=the precise opposite of the real_message of Christmas’—

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Ys namely, that something good has happened to all men quite apart from their past performance.
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Part of that is autokiographical. \ I used to feel that way - stron ngly.\ And, ina
some. of “Ki crassness

sense, I still doJj Hard as I try, I can't help but be offended by

But, I'm beginning to see it all in a new tight| I coming _to we view

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this cultural upheaval eekred=Ghetetmas as an expression of something very deep in the human

spirit] ca it the universal need for love | cat it a_longing for meaning, - a tragic ¢

groping for hope _in a world that often seems hopeless: |cal1 it a clutching at wonder and

mystery in a world that comes on pretty harshly. | Whatever it is, I'm convinced that
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Christmas tauches everyone rather deeply:\ that it calls out of us emotions and feelings that
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are honestly ours, but that remain undisturbed and unexpressed throughout the rest of the year.

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A PLACE FOR THE SINGING OF ANGELS (2) December 23, 1973

The depth at which SMMeMApeNK Christmas hidé us is reflected also in the fact that the

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holiday season is very difficult for many people. \In an anticle in the December issue of
all

A.D., Janet Harbison Penfield, answers the question iy Sorte People Dread cheistaas') by

quoting T.S. Eliot:
"People change, and smite, but the agony abides

Time the destroyer is time the preserver." (Fhe-Bey~gebrages) a

Time preserves memories, hurts, griefs ~ in a softened |form to be sure, but they are
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there on some back shelf in our minds.\ And Christmas somehdw lays them bare.| Lonliness,

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that is borne stoically eleven HX months of the year, bacomds unbearable in December.
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Fractured relationships that are part @ the status quo suddenly want healing.\ An article

in the Indianapolis Star last week documented the fact that avery counselor knows; namely,

that family problems increase around Christnas.\ The reason jseems to be that at Christmas

we see the ads and commercials showing the serene homestead, complete with grandparents

earth.

sitting in front_of the fire, children decorating the tree, (and mother_happily in the

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kitchen and its just not that way for a lot of peopte.\ Andjso an emotional explosion

oceurs:\trustratiag| guilt feelings of failure and inadequacy come rushing to the surfaee

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and all too often boil over.

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In any case, regardless of the theological freight we Bring to Christmas, it comes at

us fully loaded.\ Regardless of what we believe, we get caught up in a celebration that hits
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us at the point of our deepest needs and sensitivities \Let's reflect on that brefty.

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Theé is, first of ail, a universal response to weed that might be called senti-
mental yea .\ Janes Wharton observes that: Vreven at its hectic werst, the Christm as season

is an attempt by millions of people to protest To protest against dullness and sameness \to

ec -protest against the usual Jjoyless routines as the iast word labout us human beings.\ To

protest that there has to be something more for people than) tife ordinarily offers."| I

think there is something fo that a

celebrate:\ to interupt aes routine with py and laughter\\, Benptaaciebines , | think we have a

need to reaffiriotr love for family and friends:| we need t reaffirm who we are by remen-

Litintaaenameiet we have a need tc

bering and celebrating our own chitdhood.\ and sO we decorate our homes with bright color, and

we invite friends,in, and we are very careful to see that customs and traditions that are

part of our history are maintained unchanged each year.

A PLACE FOR THE SINGING OF ANGELS (#3} af
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feeeeik Christmas is the #RaRX opportunity for that ‘ happen. (And rather than

resenting it as a cultural_intrusion I'm inclined today to be grateful for it, and to believe

|

December 23, 1973

that God is not entirely unhappy with what has trangpiried because of his_son's birth.

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But there is a deeper level at which Chfestmas Eouches us. and although we may not be
able to assign the proper words to define it, it is there - universally - nevertheless \ Call
it psychological, or emotional or spiritual. |

Dr. Thomas Harris, in his best seller "I'm O.k. - You' fe O.K." maintains that what all

a_i ny

of us need most is a feeling of being acceptable to others as we are ~ and the consequent
feeling of seif acceptance.\ To use his few" I'm 0.K." Hattris shows how the human

experience ordinatily works against that basic need, Unint@ntionally we teach our children #

that their acceptability is based on performance \ When they explore the world - and the
antique vase happens to be tn the path of the exploration wa say Cthat's bad ~ don't

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touch!" } At 18 months the child really can't assign different values to an antique vase

as apposed to a toy - and so the message he hears is you avie bad for wanting to explore

and touch - you are not 0.K.") That's not a very good illustration becasse one hopes

that the child will learn to distinguigh betwen vases and tgys | but philosophically,

much of what we do %X to our children - is rooted in the sae base: ("You can be 0.1K. - if
you do what Ivant you to do.")) The result is a whole culture full of adults who feel
inadequate, quilty and not 0.K. because they've never really lived up tothe expectation

level superimposed by arents.\ Life becomes a battle to win |- to succeed and no prize,

no pinnacle of success is ever adguate, because what is really happening is the

struggle for acceptability to others, \and relaxed confident | acceptance of self.
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And here comes Christmas simply and eloquently saying that we are "O.K."4 that God

loves us enough to become one of us:\ that he loves mothers and fathers enough to entrust

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Rarer,

his own son to a fanity:| that all_men are acceptable to him \ there are no strings

tied to his Tove, no conditions attached to his grace.\ Here|comes a baby in a manger

. tL . . Mi : = = ‘ . 1k ; d os
saying "You are 0.K | cod is pleased with you \coa loves yor \ And so we respon to it

out of the depths even when we're not sure why.

Or to come at it from another, but similar direction, Erik Erickson, very RAMZa

" as the

famous writer and teacher of developmental psfchology describes "Basic Trus

necessary component of a healthy personal ity.\New born infants learn it in the .egukums

A PLACE FOR THE SINGING OF ANGELS (4) : December 23, 1973

experience of cursing {there is a world out there that can be tri sted to provide for my hunger.

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That experience, Erikson, taught, must be repeated at each stage along the way of growth when

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a child leaves the home he negds to know that his widening world can be depended on to be

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responsive to his needs.\ If he has that, he will be relaxed, confident and able to function
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appropriately. \ If that is denied him, however, - and battered ¢hildren, or children abandoned

or moved from one foster home to another are the best examples + the world will_beging to look
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nd
frighteneing anddien, full of threatand people who are potential enemies )\ The result is

Damien

the paranoid who can trust nobody and is convinced that everyone is out to get him.

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Now, put that basic psychological theoty in the context of! theology. We need "Basic

Trust" :|and aS we become aware that there is more to reality than we can touch and feet s\as

we begin to think about who we are, and why we are here and where we are going, we need
Tr *

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that same trust.\ To be without it is to be in despair - and that, the philosophers tells

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us, is the particular predicament of modern nan\ That is what the "Death of God" means.\ There
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is no more to life than what comes at us through our senses. he vastness of the universe is
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enpty or to borrow from Shakespear:

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"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player |
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And ther@ js hes€ no more:| it ig.a tale

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Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

————

signifying nothing" \ Naebeth-het-S-Seene-fs-Line-19

I continue to be amazed at the phiksophic_ integrity of chitdren\ I'm convinced that a
basic education in logic and constructive theology is th be had just by listening to children

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and never laughing at their deductions. In any case, one of mine, - during a T.¥. commercial

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hax last week said,j' "Daddy - I must be wierd ~- they way I think"! My antennae went up, and

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always on the alert for sermon material I suggested that we talk about it ~ and I waan't

disappointed. | The lesson continued. [" mean - like - well - fo one will even remember me

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when I'm dead."{ I tried to answer that in terms of being rembered by children and grandchildren:

but that's transparent, and not really the answer - or the question \ Oriental religion
(nimi acaied Canale

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posits immortality in one's offspring, but I don't know a thing about my forebearer And

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so the conversation went to the heart of the issue)\ *Wel] - 1 agan - what's the use in

living if all you do is die?” |

A PLACE FOR THE SINGING OF ANGELS (6) ‘ December 23, 1973
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No philosppher ever said it more etoguentiy.| On that Finch Sugmenel Erikson's "Basic

trust", Harris's "I'm 0.K." - come to a screeching halt.) Our basic need as human beings has

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to do finally with eternity \\ The story is told of the bright young preacher, just oft of

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seminary, having read Paul Tillich, who asked an elderly parishbner\w hat is ultimate concern?)

And the answer came:\ "whether the Uitimate is concerned about me!"

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That's where it is for all ofus. | If our religion is worth anything, it must tell us

—_—_— a me ==.

that we matter, that our lives count for something however modest they turn out to be;\ that

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somehow we are set in a universeJhat is friendly or trustworthy. \ One writer_put it in terms

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that“almost poetic -\"It is the function of religion to affirm that WAXRKXXE the source out

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of which life comes and into which it disappears intends the fulfillment_rather than the

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frustration of those values we hold to be fundamental.\ (S.Keen Apology for Wonder, P.204)

Another writer, Phillips Brooks, in 1868 - thinking about the birth of Jesus Christ

wréte\" Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.\ Above thg deep and dreamless

sleep the silent stars go by.\ Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light. The

hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."
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—[—_
That - finally - is the deepest anddearest_meaning of christmas: ("The hopes and fears

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of all the years are met in thee tonight." \ The birth of Jesus Christ is Bethlehem means that

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God is alive: [that the universe 1% friendly: |that wex we are safe - ultimately and eternally

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safe in the love of God himself. -\% Di oe

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That "best of all news" is for all nen eve for those who don't really know what they're
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celebrating at Christmas. |arter all, a groupof rough shepherds heard it First they weren't

theologians; in a traditional sense they weren't even religious mana nen.\ But in the middie

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of their drab and boring task - they could hear the singing of angels: [singing that filled

them with such wonder xan and excitement that they dropped what they were doing and ran to
Beth] ehem.

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So may it be for you this year.\ In the middle of your holiday - make a place for the

singing of angels. \ For life - your life - can_be saved by that.
AN

Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will come to all the people;

for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, \who is Christ the Lord." WAAMEN

Come to us, Father, in ti€ quiet moments. Come in loud ha bpy moments. Come in love and joys

are ace he of Chirstmases past. Help us to hear - in and through it all - the singing
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