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Poetry for Bulletin

Sigh softly, lest you break
The bauble that is Christmas:
Within its tender, iridescent walls
Unpierced by fury, prejudice, or scorn,
Bells peal, eyes shine, and children laugh,
While song escorts gold-threaded hours
Into the star-sprayed night.

(Lucille Anderson, from "Sigh Softly")

Call to Worship

Holy and beautiful is our gathering together on this blessed Christmas Eve.
Here we have come to give our thanks,
To face our ideals,
To remember all those who we love and who have loved us from the beginning of time.

Here we gather to deepen our faith,
To renew our hope,
And to express our joy for the gift of Christmas.

Through this hour breathes the worship of all the ages,
The cathedral music of all history,
And blessed are the ears that hear that eternal sound.

Lighting the Chalice (in unison)

We light this chalice this Christmas Eve
for the renewal of faith,
the wonder of hope,
the beauty of love,
and the gift of joy.

Litany for Christmas (Congregational responses sung)

MINISTER: The miracle is now. The place is here.
No angel's wings. No throne. No diadem.
Yet, in this hour locked and rocked with fear
A birth may mark another Bethlehem.

CONGREGATION: O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;

MINISTER: This is a time for wonders. The world cries
For revelation, for another birth.
Dry sticks burst into blossom; dead bones rise;
And prophets whisper to a desperate earth.

CONGREGATION: Yet in the dark streets shineth
The everlasting light,
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

MINISTER: Some child unborn may rescue us, for still
The wise men come with promise of release;
The myrrh of hope, the gold of good will,
The fresh and precious frankincense of peace

CONGREGATION: How silently, how silently
The wonder is made known,
When God imparts to human hearts
The gift that is our own.

MINISTER: Welcome all saints, all saviors of all time.
Welcome the thorns on every martyr's brow.
Welcome the cross. Welcome the long, slow climb.
The place is here. The miracle is now.

CONGREGATION: No ear may hear that coming,
But in this worldly din,
When souls are truly humble,
The dear babe rests within.

Lighting of the Christmas Candle

One of the ways we celebrate the Christmas season is with lights and candles. During this season there are special lights put up all over this town, all over the county, and all over the world. I imagine many if not most of you have put up special lights in your homes as well.

Here at our Fellowship we have also put up special lights for the Christmas season and particularly this evening. And during the Christmas season each Sunday for the last four Sundays we have been lighting Advent candles leading up to Christmas.

Four weeks ago we lit the Candle of Faith, three weeks ago the Candle of Hope, two weeks ago the Candle of Love, last Sunday it was the Candle of Joy. This means there is only one more candle to light, the Candle of Christmas.

Ceremonially, Christmas Eve is the most special evening of the whole year, the most tender time for the human heart. This evening all over the world adults and children alike stop what they are doing and they remember Christmas. They light a candle for Christmas, they think of the Child in the Manger, and they think of how precious and holy human life is.

Please attend now as we light the Christmas Candle.

Reading of the Christmas Story

The Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all."

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."

And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, even as it was told unto them.

Reading

For our second reading this Christmas Eve I have a poem about the relationship of animals and Christmas, for it seems we like to include animals in our Christmas celebration. The poem is titled "Christmas Poem," written by the contemporary American poet Mary Oliver. In this poem the poet remembers an old Christmas legend that says that on Christmas Eve the animals bow down on their knees in reverence and in remembrance of the birth of the Christ-child.

But does this actually happen? Do the animals bow in reverence on Christmas Eve? The poet is not so certain about this and so decides to investigate this legend to see whether or not it is literally true. Thus on Christmas Eve she goes to the barn, she creaks open the barn door and looks in upon the animals there. The poem is a comment on what she discovers.

Says a country legend told every year:
Go to the barn on Christmas Eve and see
what the creatures do as that long night tips over.
Down on their knees they will go, the fire
of an old memory whistling through their minds!

[So] I went. Wrapped to my eyes against the cold
I creaked back the barn door and peered in.
From town the church bells spilled their midnight music,
and the beasts listened -
yet they lay in their stalls like stone.

Oh the heretics!
Not to remember Bethlehem,
or the star as bright as a sun,
or the child born on a bed of straw!
To know only of the dissolving Now!

Still they drowsed on -
citizens of the pure, the physical world,
they loomed in the dark: powerful
of body, peaceful of mind,
innocent of history.

Brothers! I whispered. It is Christmas!
And you are no heretics, but a miracle,
immaculate still as when you thundered forth
on the morning of creation!
As for Bethlehem, that blazing star

still sailed the dark, but only looked for me.
Caught in its light, listening again to its story,
I curled against some sleepy beast, who nuzzled
my hair as though I were a child, and warmed me
the best it could all night.

"O HOLY NIGHT!"

Tonight, this Christmas Eve night, is the holiest of holy nights. Tonight, and here in this place, time not only slows down but it stops altogether. The Christmas Star that we first noticed and began following some weeks ago has now stopped. It has stopped over an ordinary inn, of an ordinary village, at an ordinary place, in an ordinary time.

The star has stopped. That is: a single focus, no scatter at all. Tonight, and here in this place, all things gather, meet, and merge at a single point.

Tonight, O Bethlehem, O Port Townsend, you are the holy city. Tonight the eternal creativity of all being is pouring its fullness into you.

And tonight, O Holy Child of Christmas, you are the only child:

You are the fullness of every child that has ever been born.
You are the essence of every child that is yet to be born.
You are all that has ever been manifested.
And you are all that is yet to be manifested.

And tonight you are here represented by a single candle and surrounded by multitudes of candles.

And tonight, O Holy Child of Christmas, we give our hearts to you completely. If before we have been holding something back, if before we have been hesitant to give ourselves, then tonight all of that is changed, because tonight there can be no holding back.

This is the night for which we have been waiting. This is the holy night.

And tonight we fall upon our knees. We find that inner still point in our own hearts which we always known is there, but from which we may have been distracted, or of which we may have been afraid.

But tonight there can be no holding back. Tonight, on this holiest of holy nights, we enter the holy place.

Having prepared ourselves endlessly for the advent of the fullness of time and for the fullness of being in ourselves and in our world, finally, tonight, we come up to the door. And we knock. And the door is opened unto us. And so we enter. Tonight, we enter the holy place.

And so here we are. This is the time. This is the place. Now we enter that place in the heart of our hearts that is the deepest, the most tender, the sweetest place we can ever know.

And tonight the creative power of all reality does not hold back either. Tonight the creation is centered here. The essence of all that is, was, and ever will be is present in its fullness at this time and in this place.

Not tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow, nor next week, nor in a month, a year, or a score of years, nor in a next life.

And not in the past either. It wasn't yesterday that the creative power of being entered the world, or the day before that, or the week before that, or a month, or a year, or a score of years, or a century, or twenty centuries. It wasn't back then that the Holy Child of Christmas was born.

No more then than now. No more there than here. No more yesterday than today. It's tonight.

All things gather tonight, here, at this time, in this place. This is the holy place. And this is the city. This is Bethlehem of Judaea; this is Port Townsend of Washington. This is the center of all creation. The light shines here, tonight.

We may have come from far away. We may have come from a thousand other cities and villages and hamlets. Our journey to this holy place may have been unbelievably difficult and hard. We may have had tremendous doubts and discouragements upon the way.

And we don't squash those doubts. We don't leave them behind us. But we gather them. We take them with us. We fold them into ourselves. They give greater substance to us as we enter the holy place.

We don't have to leave anything of who we are or of who we have been outside the holy city. We take everything with us into it, even what we would wish we might leave behind.

We take our sorrow and sadness, our shame and our anger, our hardness of heart, our fear, our loneliness, our pettiness, our duplicity. We take all our griefs and regrets and fears and anxieties and stupidities and self-loathings and treacheries - we take all of this with us.

And we take not only our shortcomings, but we take our hopes and dreams and wishes, our loves and joys and reasons for gratitude; we take all of this with us into the holy city.

We leave none of ourselves behind. We bring everything with us - all that belongs to our humanity, all our drive and desire and longing. We bring all of it into this holy city on this holy night.

For here in this place and at this time it will all be accepted and embraced. The hour of acceptance is at hand and the hour of revelation is upon us.

This is the hour of acceptance! This is the hour of revelation!

Ebenezer Scrooge didn't miss it. And we don't have to miss it either.

Nor do we need to wait for it. For tonight is the time. And this is the place.

Tonight all is accepted, all is embraced, all is forgiven, all is redeemed, all is healed, all is made more than it ever was before.

Can you believe it? Can you believe that the fullness of creation, the birth of the Eternal in time, is taking place tonight and here in this holy place.

There are many witnesses: Mary and Joseph and the innkeeper, and the shepherds and the sheep, the oxen and the cattle, the wise ones and the wanderers and the wonderers.

And the angels, too. Let us not forget the angels. Above all, the angels do not want to miss this night.

The angels: those strange creatures of spirit lacking bodies. The angels do not want to miss this joining together of body and spirit, of matter and imagination. They have been waiting for this revelation a long, long time. From the beginning of the dawn of consciousness, they have been waiting, waiting for the recognition that the Eternal is incarnate in physical form, waiting for the revelation that the divine is present here on the earth and in human beings.

Thus, the angels rejoice to find that the Eternal has finally entered time and space, that heaven and earth are one. And so they celebrate that holy birth.

And tonight may we, too, celebrate that holy birth, the birth of the Eternal in time... which is our own birth, the birth of our own awareness.

For the Eternal has always been present in time, but perhaps we didn't know it.

But tonight we know it... again... and for the first time.

And that makes this night a holy night. It makes this the holiest of holy nights.

O Holy Night!

(NOTE: This is a manuscript version of the Christmas Eve service conducted by The Reverend Bruce A. Bode at the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on December 24, 2004. The spoken service, available on audio cassette and CD at the Fellowship, may differ slightly in phrasing and detail from this manuscript version.)