Happy Winter Solstice, all. Things get lighter from here, which always seems strange to me since we are just starting Winter where I live. I feel that the darkest day should be in the depths of Winter. Late January. Early February. Something like that. But I’m not in charge. I just live here.
Like many others, my church held a special service last night. Ours is called, “The Longest Night Service.” I heard a story this morning on a local NPR station about a similar service at First Congregational Church in Hadley, MA called the “Blue Christmas Service.” Rev. Sarah Buteux described it as, “Christmas in a minor key.” I like that. And the truth is that a lot of people need it, especially here at the darkest point in our journey around the Sun. Our lives are overloaded. We are asked again and again to do more with less time and less money. We’re surrounded by images and sounds that tell us how happy we’re supposed to be. How holly jolly and magical it all is. But a lot of people struggle more than usual during the holiday season.
It’s important to acknowledge that. To make space for people to express it, whether out loud or not, and to support those who do. It’s not about wallowing. It’s about being honest. And being honest about the challenges we face need not detract from the miracle and wonder of Christmas and this season. Because, when stripped down to the realist details, Christmas tells the story of an unassisted birth in a dirty stable at night. And it’s about a child coming to bring hope to a despairing people.
Meanwhile, the Winter Solstice is a pivot point. Yes, it’s dark. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, many of us in the northern hemisphere have months of bleak winter ahead of us. But things will change. Spring will come again. There’s hope.
But when we’re dangling above despair, our grip on that truth is feeble. And the world keeps stomping on our fingers.
Greg Lake of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer wrote a song called “I Believe in Father Christmas” that evokes the tension between the image of Christmas and what we so often experience. But it ends with resolve that we can do better, that Christmas is not an empty promise, but one which has real power. If we work together to live into it and make it real. Below is the beautiful cover version released by U2 in 2008, followed by the lyrics.
“I Believe in Father Christmas”
Greg Lake
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
But instead, it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winter’s light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell
And that Christmas tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire
They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
And they told me a fairy story
Til I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
Then I woke with a yawn
In the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there’d be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah, Noel, be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get, we deserve
