Little Drummer Boy Fiasco (by Peter A. Black)

This morning I’ve taken to wistful reminiscing . . . yep, again. I guess it’s a sign of my times. Numerous and varied events surrounding the Advent and Christmas season have been part of my life from as far back as I can remember. However, from the not-too-distant past was the annual Inter-Church Advent Service in Watford, Ontario. Let me share a memory of one, with you.

Credit: drumcircle_org Google

Typically the service format included a musical item from each of the participating congregations, such as a rendition by a choir, or a group number or solo, or an instrumental. One year (perhaps 2009) the late Rev. Fred Darke, who taught drumming and developed drumming circles, equipped several of the pastors with drums for a clergy contribution. He coached them well; they sounded good. My job was to play the melody and accompaniment on accordion.

Even if I hadn't included the phrase in the title, above, there's no prize for guessing that our piece was The Little Drummer Boy. We practised in a Sunday school room at the United Church and then headed over to Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church for the service. Our big moment came. Christine, Fred, Tom, Richard and I jostled into position with our instruments. We got off to a nice start, but the drums seem to beat ever faster with each line.

You-know-Who, ca 48 years ago in

Aberdeen Scotland. 

Someone’s speeding this up, I thought. Boom, booma, boom-boom – I could hardly hear what I was playing. Faster and faster, I kept trying to keep up. I think it’s Tom. Yep, Tom. I’m sure he’s rushing this. But why? This is crazy . . . That’s how my thoughts ran on until the final parumpa-pum-pum. 

It felt like a dizzying race to the finish. Ehm, but why’s everybody looking at me? In truth, the congregation were not only looking, but laughing! And so were we.

If it seemed to most everyone in the sanctuary that the guy playing the accordion was getting carried away, speeding things up, faster and faster, they’d be correct. What was the likely cause?

I quickly reasoned that, surrounded by the four drums in the spacious, lofty sanctuary (compared with the closeness of the classroom where we’d practised), I was reacting to the reverberation of the drum beats. From where I was situated, my ears were bombarded by both the initial drum sounds and the echoes, so that for every beat, it sounded like multiple beats.

So much for hopes of surprising the congregation with our 'wonderful' rendition of that well-loved Christmas song. We’d have been better rehearsing a verse and chorus in the sanctuary before the start of service.

Fact is, at the moment when I needed to fulfil my task well and with clear thinking,

I’d been deceived by the echoes around me.

Life can be like that.

We really do need to be alert to interpret well the cacophony of voices bouncing around us,

invading our personal world.

We can be so wrong at times; and how wrong I was. It certainly induced a laugh, and the unintended joke was on Yours Truly and truly on my account! 😄 

Credit: Google Free

In the rush and crush of preparing for Christmas and Holiday family gatherings and baking and cooking for them, or for community events, and also in preparing for concerts and cantatas and so on, things don’t always go as hoped and planned.

ClickArt

Let us not allow the glitches to steal the joy of the season and it’s central theme, to celebrate the Birth of the Christ Child – the coming into the world of Jesus, our Saviour-Redeemer.

May the Christ of this season be to all of us a source of joy and peace, bringing a fresh experience of God’s love and life into our hearts.

~~+~~

Peter A. Black is a retired pastor – well, sort of retired – and lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond -- a children's / family book. ~~+~~

Waiting for Christmas - HIRD

By the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

Every year I impatiently wait for Christmas.  I love Christmas, but I don’t like waiting.  The season of Advent (which started this year on Nov 30^th) teaches us a lot about waiting, not just to remember Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem, but also to wait patiently for Jesus’ second coming.  Waiting in an age of instant gratification is hard.  That is why Advent rarely every get commercialized.

Impatience is one of those areas where God has been nudging me lately.  I am one of those people who like things to happen yesterday.  We Hirds are go-getter people who love to see things completed.  I am so often impatient with myself when writing a new book or newspaper article.   In my sequel Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit, I speak about Titus who was a first-century go-getter.  Titus reminds me of my father, Ted Hird, who always gets the job done.  At one of my father’s retirements, his company, Microtel, gave him a statue of a horse in memory of my father’s billing the company for a dead horse.  Working in Newfoundland for three months with the snowy roads sometimes impassible, my father hired a farmer’s horse to drag the telecommunications equipment up the hill. The microwave tower was finally finished, but the horse died.  Titus-like leaders make things happen against impossible odds.

Hidden in our strengths are our greatest weaknesses.  That is why we can’t see them, and often don’t want to change.  Persevering people rarely want to admit their stubbornness, and their need to be more flexible.  Administratively gifted people rarely see how painful they can be when they slip into micromanaging of others’ lives.  We Tituses are great people to have around when you need a job done. But we can be painful to be around when our impatience causes us to be too pushy, too controlling, and too anxious.

I remember impatiently waiting for Christmas as a little child.  I desperately wanted to see the Christmas presents waiting for me.  So we talked our grandmother into going into my parents’ bedroom to show us where they were hidden.  The famous passage 1 Corinthians 13, which is read at many weddings, reminds us that love is patient. True love waits.  Waiting makes Christmas that much better.  It is so hard to wait.  It is so tempting to take the matter into our own hands and prematurely solve things.  Recently doing my doctorate taught me that quick fixes fix nothing.  Genuine lasting transformation takes time.  Lasting change needs to be thoughtful and intentional.  We all want to be better people, especially at Christmas.  Becoming more Christlike however doesn’t happen overnight.   We can’t just wake up on December 25^th and suddenly become the most patient loving person in Canada. 

What motivates me to become more patient this Christmas is realizing that my impatience has often hurt other people whom I care for deeply.  My wife has graciously chosen to forgive my impatience many times during our thirty-seven years of marriage.  I want to be a more gentle and kind person especially to my wife.  My impatience too often gets in the way of this desire.  God keeps telling me to give my impatience back to Him, to put my impatience on the altar, to let go and let God.  When I get out of the way, God often does things far beyond what I can ask or imagine.   God is remarkably patient and kind in a way that most of us don’t fully get.  Rather than pulling the plug on us when we are rebellious, God keeps on loving us, hoping that we will choose to return home.  God wants us to come home for Christmas.   God in a manger welcomes us home for Christmas.  The Christ child is patiently waiting for us this Christmas.  He really does love us beyond our wildest imagination.  

The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, Rector  

BSW, MDiv, DMin

St. Simon's Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in Canada
-previously published in the December 2014 Deep Cove Crier

-The sequel book Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit is available online with Amazon.com in bothpaperback and ebook form. In Canada, Amazon.ca has the book available in paperbackand ebook.

It is also posted on Amazon UK (paperback and ebook ), Amazon France (paperback andebook), and Amazon Germany (paperback and ebook).

Restoring Health is also available online on Barnes and Noble in both paperback and Nook/ebook form.  Nook gives a sample of the book to read online.

Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version.  You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.

To receive a signed copy within North America, just send a $20 cheque (USD/CAN) to ED HIRD, 1008- 555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC, V7N 2J7, Canada.

- In order to obtain a signed copy of the prequel book Battle for the Soul of Canada, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done byPAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of theBattle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

First to Arrive . . . At Last! (Peter Black)

Warm thoughts for you at Christmas and a special way to say, may the festive season bring much happiness your way. That was the greeting on the front of a handcrafted card from Scotland—one amongst the first batch of cards to arrive this season.
 
It was decorated with a golden fabric bow, and the greeting was framed with tastefully applied glitter. Green holly leaves and floral shapes, set against a white background with a dash of red, made for an understated, yet attractive, effect. The interior bore our friends’ personal greeting to us.

This card is special not only because it was hand-crafted, but for several other reasons. First, because of our relationship with the couple who sent it. This was the forty-first Christmas card to come from them since our arrival in Canada, in 1974. The couple, now in their eighties, were our pastors during our time in Aberdeen, Scotland. Alwyne and his wife Mima demonstrated what it was to follow Jesus and live out the life He calls us to live. Alwyne mentored me in pastoral service, even before I knew I would become a pastor!

They had a sizable family of their own, yet were like grandparents to ours. Mima often took care of our boys for a few hours so we could attend to some other matters, and there was always room around the table for one or two—or umpteen—more folks. Servanthood, faith and humility marked their lives.

My poor photography doesn't do justice

The card is also special because it represents a victory for Mima. To explain: When we visited with the couple in 2012 she commented on how May’s card to them from us always arrived at their house first. She said, “One o’ these Christmases I’m going to beat May and get our card over to you in Canada, first.”

Well this was the year. Ours was probably winging over the Atlantic towards the UK, when their card landed in our mailbox. Mima had finally done it – after forty years, she was first!

Here’s an excerpt from the message: “. . . We are both OK. Getting old and a few pains, but thank God we are still able to do the work we have been given to do. Love to the family. . . . From Alwyne and Mima. God bless in 2015.”

That card is particularly special because it arrived here the day before her funeral / memorial service. Little did she know when she wrote and mailed the card that days later she would reach her eternal home before the card reached our earthly one. It’ll be cherished on account of the timing and circumstances surrounding its arrival. As in the case of the previous forty cards Mima sent, this one was sent with warmth and love.

Do you have a Christmas greeting story that holds special meaning for you? Whenever you recall the people and circumstances associated with it, warm longings for them and that special time spring to life deep in your heart?

In our Northern clime, winter’s cold and shorter days lend to the Advent-Christmas season a capacity for wistful longing and quiet reflection. We can ponder about people dear to us—of those still living who reside far away—and stir cherished memories of others who have passed away.

A half-hour withdrawn from things competing for our attention can help us find that quiet space in our thoughts and hearts. Our dear friend Mima’s ‘victory,’ along with her home-call and final Christmas card to May and me, has offered another reason to do just that.

~~+~~

If you care to further the thought:

This reminds me of that first Christmas night—or, perhaps it was in the wee small hours of the

Credit: Print Shop

morning. Once the visiting Bethlehem shepherds left the humble place where the Christ Child lay and their excited chatter and exuberant praises to God faded into the darkness, Mary, the young virgin mother, found that quiet space.

“. . . Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19 NIV).”

 

The verbal message the angel Gabriel delivered to her nine months before (Luke 1:26-38) was now fulfilled. Father God's divinely conceived and fashioned message—the Living Eternal Word, the Message “made flesh” (John 1:1-3)—had been delivered, and lay in a manger.

 

The conclusion of the pregnancy was not so much an end, but a beginning!

 

~~+~~

 

 

Peter's second book is a compilation of inspirational articles from his weekly column—on a variety of themes. These are interspersed with brief expressions intended to encourage.

 

ISBN: 978-0-9920074-2-3

Angel Hope Publishing

Email

Blog 

 

Fact, or Fiction? -- Peter A. Black

In the midst of the flood of seasonal holiday jingles and Christmas carols, sweet lines float in the air, many of them extolling the virtues of the Virgin Mother and Child. They pass though our heads from one ear to the other, but do they engage our thoughts and cause the significance of the words to touch our hearts?

Away from bright mall lights and decorative illuminations of main street, however, thought is given to the Virgin Mother and Child. Christmas inevitably brings the conception and birth of Christ into focus. Whether it happened the way the Bible says is a rather controversial issue in some theological circles.

It is not at all surprising to me that some people who make no claim of being Christian believers, treat as incredulous, the biblical claim that Jesus Christ was conceived in and born of a virgin by a specific act of God, without human sexual relations. What might be considered surprising is that numerous ministers and theologians also disbelieve that account as written. Most often they would hold to a liberal view of the biblical scriptures.

Such a view typically considers that the Scriptures contain creatively written accounts of historical events with elements of fact mixed with myth or legend, which provide allegorical or metaphorical explanations of events.

The approach tends to suggest that God – if He exists – teaches us, through the Scriptures, lessons about the realm of spirituality and the spiritual nature of human beings. The Scriptures certainly do teach those things.                             

Conservative Christians, on the other hand, more often hold the view that the Bible, in its original manuscripts, was completely free from error, and comprised the actual Word of God. And also, that the collective testimony of the large body of ancient manuscript copies still available to us, comprises God’s Word. The Bible, when faithfully translated from the manuscripts and correctly applied, still speaks to us as God’s Word.

Some scholars, holding the first view mentioned, accept the statements from Matthew and Luke’s gospels, about Jesus’s being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a young Jewish virgin, as a myth imported from the mythologies of other cultures.

The other view holds that the teaching is true and that a divine conception was necessary in order for the Christ Child to be born completely untainted by original sin and free of a sin nature.

But why? Because His earthly mission was to live a life of perfect purity and obedience to the will of God, qualifying Him to give His life up to death on the Cross as the perfect sacrifice to redeem us from our sins – the crowning task of His earthly mission.

What a wonderful story! The biblical account of Jesus’ birth is given so beautifully. A transparent purity is naturally fitting – in a supernatural way – to the bringing of the Saviour and Redeemer into the world.

I don’t find it incredulous at all. Why would the Divine Creator not put this significant part of His plan into action in a miraculous way? Don’t you love it?

Here are the first and last verses of Silent Night:

Silent night, holy night,

All is calm, all is bright

‘Round yon Virgin Mother and Child,

Holy infant, so tender and mild,

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night,

Son of God, Love’s pure light,

Radiant beams from Thy holy face,

With the dawn of redeeming grace,

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

~~+~~

© Peter A. Black, 2012.

Peter A. Black is a freelance writer in Southwestern Ontario, and author of “Parables from the Pond” – a children's / family book." Another edition of the above article will be published in his weekly column in the December 13, 2012 issue of The Watford Guide-Advocate. His articles have appeared in 50 Plus Contact and testimony, and several newspapers in Ontario.

~~+~~