Meditation by Rev. Richard Spalding, Lessons & Carols, Dec. 2007
GREETING (Fr. Caster)
We need this night, we do. We need its sights and sounds and symbols.
We need its songs and sacred stories; we need its solemnity and its celebration.
We need this hallowed space we share and the heavenly feel that flows from angelic voices.
We need to be together here; just as we are, from wherever we have journeyed, by whatever it is that’s guided us.
We need this night, its manger, its message, its Messiah.
We need the noble simplicity, the celestial majesty, the extraordinary intensity of God’s love, a love that seems always to be born on quiet nights, in forgotten places, in the most unimaginable ways.
We need this night; it is a gift that we receive and should freely give to one another.
We need this night, its radiant light, its redeeming life, its restless love.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION (in unison)
Welcome us, eternal God, into the life of this story.
Give us refuge and respite in the shelter of its wings and the wonders of its love.
For the winds of these times are sharp, and the cold of the darkness is full of fear.
We have seen the glow of promise in the window –
and we have followed the strains of songs through the night to this threshold.
Grant us lodging in these tidings of comfort and joy.
Displace our fears with Glorias. Teach us to reimagine our swords as ploughshares.
Send us home by another way.
And let it be with us according to Your Word –
let it be on this earth according to this story of peace and good will among us.
Welcome us in, we pray. For our every heart prepares You room.
Amen.
OFFERTORY INVITATION (Rev. Spalding)
Among our neighbors to the south, in Mexico, one of the traditions that marks the occasion of the birth of the child Jesus is the re-enactment of the almost-fruitless search of his family for hospitality. Las posadas. From door to door they go, knocking, seeking shelter, safety, comfort. Listen for the softened echo of their steps across the village square - and learn that the hollow sound of their knock on the door is worship without words – a prayer for sanctuary.
Our offerings tonight will help to strengthen the ministries of sanctuary that are described in your program inside the last page: internationally, an ecumenical relief effort on behalf of thousands of refugees from the war in Iraq; and, locally, the work of our neighbors at the Berkshire Immigrant Center whose efforts help strangers in our midst to find shelter, safety and comfort as they begin to build a new life. Ushers with baskets will be in the vestibule as you leave. Thank you in advance for your gift – for the sanctuary of your gesture of hospitality.
And may our prayers for the wanderers begin, even before we give our gifts, as now we sing “Silent Night, Holy Night” - may we hear these beloved familiar words afresh, as a prayer not only for the Christ Child but for all who seek the peace and joy of sanctuary.
PRAYER FOR THE WORLD (Fr. Caster)
Good and gracious God, in the splendor of this Holy Night, our prayers naturally turn away from self and toward the world.
Send your Spirit into our still fragile and vulnerable world, giving us, wherever we may be, the courage to be gentle; the strength to be forgiving; the patience to be understanding; and the endurance to accept the consequences of holding fast to all that is good and true and beautiful.
Through the inspiration of your Spirit, may the world put its trust in the power of good to overcome evil and the power of love to overcome hatred.
We pray that we might always have the vision to see and the faith to believe in a world emancipated from violence, a new world where fear shall no longer lead to injustice, or selfishness to the suffering of others.
Help us to devote our whole life, all our thoughts and energy, to the task of making peace, praying always for the encouragement and the power to fulfill the destiny for which we and all men and women were created.
Lord, bless the world with the love of your Son, whose birth we celebrate this night, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen
BENEDICTION (Rev. Spalding)
Even in the dark night, even in the silence, among the vault of stars over our heads,
even now the air is full of the song of the triumph of hope –
Glory to God in the highest!
“Listen! ‘ere the sound be fled!
And here on earth, in the barn, among the silent pines,
in the turning of our days and seasons and years,
a prayer rises up in us and reaches to embrace the song in the sky:
Dona nobis pacem! – on earth peace and good will, our true and only sanctuary.
Let every heart prepare him room!
And on earth peace – and the glory, the glory of everything.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Alleluia!
Amen.
