Time and space to tell the full story

Though many protestant Christians have thrown off some practices of our more liturgically-minded sisters and brothers, the urge to tell the full story remains, perhaps subconsciously, in the Protestant mind. Without a format in which to tell this story, the need may turn into an anxiety, in which preachers and laypersons alike attempt to tell at least the full story of Christ’s life during the celebration of Christmas day. We’ve all heard odd sermons on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve in which the pastor rushes right past the birth narrative, through the crucifixion, and on to Jesus’ resurrection. I’ve often wondered for the reasons behind what I affectionately call “crucifying baby Jesus,” because I think it distasteful, if not downright profane, to stand over the cradle and discuss Jesus’ bloody murder, even if God’s primary work of redemption lies in death and resurrection. I picture Mary snatching up her baby and taking him to the next room, where the shepherds and Magi are waiting to ooh and ahh the Christ child. We need the whole story, and if we do not get the chance to tell it, we panic, we condense, we tell spastic tales out of order so we don’t miss the “good news.”

When I talk about sanctuary preparation, the art of decorating sacred space in order to bring subtle awareness of the Christian calendar to people as they worship, I often employ this image of crucifying baby Jesus in order to illustrate the need to practice the Christian year in the church. We need the Truth, the whole Truth. We need space and time to tell the story of God’s redemption.

God did a new thing in Christ, but that “new thing,” when placed alongside the rest of the Christian story, looks a lot like the way God has always worked to save and redeem. God takes nothing and makes something. God takes a nomad and makes him the father of a nation. God takes a nobody and makes him king. God takes the outsider, and puts her in the middle of the divine plan. Then, on a very dark night, God takes a poor, unlikely couple and makes them parents to the Christ. God brings the world to the wilderness to see a baby, to hear a prophet, to obtain new life. God takes death and turns it into never-ending life. God will take someone the world has rejected (indeed, God IS that someone) and sit him on the throne and judgment seat.

Can we tell that story all at once? No. We need a lifetime to fully rehearse this story. The Christian calendar offers something a little less daunting than a lifetime. We tell the story in cycles. We tell the story in terms of Christ’s life each year. The yearly cycle is also meant to reenact the divine narrative from Creation until the Reign of Christ. We are also offered a few times each year to tell the story in one sitting, or in one season. For example, in the liturgy of the Great Easter Vigil, held on Saturday night before Easter Sunday, God’s people hear several of God’s saving acts, including creation, deliverance from Egypt, a story from the Prophets, and then the story of Christ’s resurrection.

During Advent, making the Jesse Tree is another time when over the course of about a month, we tell of God’s savings acts from Creation until the birth of Christ. This blog post is my own preparation to co-write an article about the use of a Jesse Tree during Advent. I found myself needing a less formal setting to write around the topic assigned, so in order to do my work, I needed to set some thoughts out first.

We each have the need to tell and hear the full story. Hearing it in the rhythm of the Christian year feeds that need, teaches us our own place in the narrative, and binds us to the greater Church as we celebrate together what God is doing with the lot of us.

First Post

Okay, so I don't really believe in blogs. Well, I don't really think my life is worth chronicling, and certainly it is not worth following by anyone besides those who follow it the old-fashioned way. But for two reasons I'm doing this:

1) I want to help churches enhance their worship space by introducing colors, symbols, etc. The only way to learn that is to see it done in other places. I have found it very difficult to gather pictures of sanctuaries for this purpose in any other way that will be accessible.

2) Book reviews...okay, I admit that the deeper desire here is for free books. This is the hoop through which I jump for free books. It's not so bad crossing over to the blogosphere (read: dark side) for free books, is it? I think our mother Eve must have said something similar when tempted with knowledge...