This is a different Christmas Eve.
I knew it would be, but still…
I retired in June after 40 years of full time ministry. It came a bit sooner than expected brought on by a body that just said enough. MS will do that.
When you are a minister Advent, December has a rhythm. It is one of those frantic times when you really just home on and hope you survive! There are extra services, extra preparations; events that are just mandatory. (OK, they aren’t in your job description, but you are not going to that Sunday School Christmas party??? Really?).
It is a hectic season, but the truth is, it is the hectic that makes it special!
This year we haven’t had any of that. Only one Christmas party invitation. And it has been nice…but also a bit empty.
I miss it.
But tonight…….
Someone asked me once what I liked about being a minister. My answer, “Serving communion on Christmas Eve.”
It started back at First Baptist Lenoir where our senior pastor Fred Barnes went all out for the service! One year we had the sky illuminated in the sanctuary! (Remember this was back before all the AV stuff took over!). I had not grown up with Christmas Eve services, but it quickly became my favorite service. To see the faces of college students home for the first time, it was like homecoming!
That tradition continued at First Baptist Greenville when my self appointed challenge was to see how many people I could all by their first name as they came to receive communion.
Many in Charleston recall the eternal Christmas Eve service that went on FAR FAR too long and almost resulted in a uprising in the nursery. (I made a holy vow that we would never go over an hour!)
In Canada my most memorable one wax the one during Covid when we couldn’t sing inside! Imagine not singing any Christmas Carols! So on Christmas Eve we gathered outside in 20 degree weather and lifted our voices! I had prayed for snow, but alas it didn’t come until the next day.
In Kernersville we had our Candlelight Lovefeast which is just beautiful!
But tonight I am going to sit in the pew. I am not a leader but a participant. I will be on the receiving end of sharing communion.
It is going to be different, and I will confess that today I am, as my daughters say, “all in my feels.”
It will be different, but the story remains. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Even the darkness of a different kind of grief.
Merry Christmas to all!