Today’s author is Prince of Peace Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.
Last year I was serving two churches about 70 miles north of Prince of Peace. On the fourth Sunday in Advent at the smaller of the two churches in the town of Grasston, we had a baptism. After the opening hymn, little Theodore, held by his father, one of the godfathers and I gathered around the font. Theodore’s mother was at the door to the fellowship hall, awaiting the arrival of the second godparent. Everyone was a little anxious, so I announced to the congregation that we were in no hurry to begin. A few minutes later I asked whether anyone had a joke to share. Knowing it was a rhetorical question, everyone laughed but stayed silent, except for the member who took me seriously and said, “What did the mother buffalo say to her son as she dropped him off at school? Bison.” Everyone laughed, and he proceeded to tell several more jokes. After maybe 10 minutes, the other Godparent arrived, I baptized Theodore—whose name, by the way, means “gift of God”—and worship continued.
Later that afternoon I was sitting in the sanctuary of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Saint Paul, the church my wife Jennifer serves as soprano section leader. The occasion was the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a gathering that I participated in again a few Sundays ago. St. John’s has an excellent choir, with several other paid section leaders. Everything was done exceedingly well, and not just musically. The bulletin, with wide margins all around, was sparsely elegant. The liturgy was perfectly done. The congregation sang effortlessly on key.
It would be easy to make fun of both of these gatherings, the casual bumbling of Hope Lutheran Church in what’s barely a town, the self-conscious perfectionism of St. John’s in the capital city. But they both witness to Jesus taking on our flesh and embracing the full range of what it means to be human. I am grateful that I was able to experience both of those a year ago. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the oddness and the wonder of the incarnation.
I don’t know what your gatherings and traditions look like at this time of year. Some you may be proud of. Others you might choose to say little about. Elegant or embarrassing, however, Jesus is born into all of them. That’s what it means that Jesus “became flesh and lived among us.” As we put Christmas behind us, then, don’t lose that. Don’t lose your awareness that Jesus is born into everything. He redeems all of it. He is truly Salvator Mundi, Savior of the World.