We had a very nice Christmas Eve at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Services started at five and I decided to treat it as an advent and Christmas Day service. My sermon was different in that I asked the congregation to look deeper into the personalities who were part of the Christmas story. I asked women to put themselves in the position of Mary. She is a fourteen year old girl who finds herself pregnant without ever having relations. How does she explain this to her parents and her friends. How does she explain it to Joseph. Who is going to believe her.
I asked the men to put themselves in Joseph's shoes. Joseph must have been devastated when he found out his betrothed was pregnant. It would have been a shameful experience for him. He probably had little doubt that people would suspect that he was the cause of Mary's situation.
It was an interesting exercise and when we had finished we sang Christmas Hymns to the wonderful accompaniment of Daniel Scheets. We celebrated the Eucharist and our closing hymn was Silent Night by candlelight.
We had a potluck afterward with some great conversation. It had been a long busy week and I was tired when we got home. Tired in a good way.
Blessings,
Fr. Fred
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