‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ Luke 2:15
While much of the external evidence points to Christmas being over and done with, many Christians around the world will continue to celebrate Christmas for several more days; the season known as “Christmastide” officially lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. That feast day has had various meanings through the centuries, but today it mostly commemorates the arrival of the Wise Men (or magi, or Three Kings) who brought gifts to Jesus and confirmed his status as a “newborn king.”
One way of entering into the Christmas story is to think about the various journeys the characters make—Mary journeying to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Holy Family journeying to Bethlehem, and soon the lowly shepherds and then the grand Magi following them on that journey.
Those journeys must have been so unlike our modern travel, where we can plan ahead with Mapquest or Google and rely on GPS units to navigate every twist and turn along the way! The Holy Family and those who followed the star to Bethlehem were traveling by faith, guided only by their desire to do God’s will and to be as close as they could possibly be to the Glorious Impossible, the God-With-Us, the newborn Saviour, Jesus.
At some point, most of us grow wise enough to realize that the only real constant in life is change. Life, like the weather, never stands still, but is always moving forward, whether we are ready for it or not. But if we are even wiser, wise like children and shepherds, we know a deeper truth: the only real constant in life is God. God’s presence and God’s love are with us no matter where our journey leads, no matter how uncertain our path.
Six years ago, one week before Christmas, I bundled my two children on a plane and flew away from our beloved home in California. I don’t think there was a single moment during that flight when at least one of us was not in tears. We were leaving behind people and places we loved, and we felt bereft, and unprepared for what lay ahead. My older daughter was seven at the time and was not a big fan of shoes; I hadn’t wanted to fight with her on such an already-difficult day, and thus we arrived on a blustery, sleety, below-freezing night with her little feet shod only in bright red flip-flops. It did not seem an auspicious start.
The only thing that we knew for sure would be awaiting us in St. Louis was my husband. I didn’t know neighborhoods, schools, or churches here; in one sense it was just a journey across country, but in another sense it was a grand leap into the abyss. We were traveling in a modern-day jet plane, but we were traveling by faith. Looking back, I can see that we had a little taste of the Christmas journey that year.
The years have flown by, and our family has been greatly blessed and richly rewarded, not least by my ordination to the priesthood. We have made friends and established a home. And now we are at the beginning of a new journey. Earlier this month, just before Christmas, I began a new job. It is not far away, and this time our family has not had to move. I am now the rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, an Episcopal parish in Town and Country. It’s not exactly a leap into the abyss (!), but it is a big step in a new direction.
As difficult as it was to say goodbye to my wonderful parish family at Emmanuel, I am so grateful, so gladdened to be in this new place and to have this new opportunity to serve. Change is hard, but it is a necessary part of life, and it’s made much easier when we remember what things remain unchanged. Serving in a new place on Christmas Eve actually made it easier for me to keep in mind that God is ever calling us forward, ever offering us new life–which is the ultimate gift of the Christ Child to us all.
As I said to my new congregation: We are all on the journey to Bethlehem, and we are blessed to be journeying together.
Note:
Pamela Dolan serves as rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Town and Country, St Louis. Raised in Hawaii and California, she holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard Divinity School. Pamela is currently working on her D.Min. in preaching at Sewanee, the University of the South School of Theology. She sometimes hangs out in coffee shops and expounds on her unfinished doctoral dissertation on weeping and injustice in medieval poetry, but more often she is found enjoying life with her husband, their two daughters, and their dog Abbey.