The Christmas Star Still Shines Bright -HIRD

By Rev. Ed Hird

Every Christmas the Star gets our attention year in and year out.  What is it about the Bethlehem Star that never fails to shine?  What is it about the Bethlehem story that captures the imagination of billions of people throughout Canada and the entire globe? 

Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, we are still bearing gifts, following that star.  If it was not for the wise men, none of us would be doing our Christmas shopping.  It is amazing how much energy we can put into Christmas, buying gifts, cooking turkeys, throwing parties.  Sometimes we can in our busyness forget that we are called to follow that star. As that Christmas Carol put it, “O star of wonder, star of night, Star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, Guide us to thy perfect light.”

There is something very moving about perfect light, royal beauty bright light in the midst of a people living in great darkness.  December can be a time of great hopes and great stress.  No wonder that it is the high holiday of many alcoholics.  December is that time when fragmented families try once again to reconnect, however painfully.  Why do so many families watch the classic movie It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas?  Perhaps it is because this movie captures the darkness and struggle that so many families experience at Christmas, and yet how the Christmas Star can still break in with unimaginable light and hope. 

Each of us, as the Carol puts it, may choose to look up and see a star, that to the earth it gives great light.  Each of us can choose to see the Christmas Star, Whose glory shines so far day and night.  Each of us can find great delight in the beauty of the Christmas Star that led the wise men to Jesus’ manger.  How many of us are willing to follow that star wheresover it goes?

Wise men and women even in 2016 still seek him.  As the Christmas Carol put it, “Sages, leave your contemplations, Brighter visions beam afar; Seek the great Desire of nations, Ye have seen his natal star: Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ, the newborn King.”  The Christmas Star causes us to celebrate a very unique birth, a baby boy who has become the Great Desire of Billions among the nations of the earth.  The Christmas Star leads us to come and worship, to come and adore him among the cattle and the sheep in a lowly manger. 

This Christmas on Sunday Dec 18^th at 10am, there will be a presentation of the Christmas Cantata Behold The Star.  May we all have eyes to see the Bethlehem Star and let this star touch your life this Christmas.

Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, Rector

St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in Canada

-an article for the December 2016 Deep Cove Crier

-author of Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit

Unwrapping Christmas - HIRD

By Rev. Dr. Ed and Mark Hird

-an article for the December 2015 Deep Cove Crier

If the wise men at Christmas had been wise women, they might have brought Jesus practical Christmas gifts like baby toys, food or clothes (not myrrh, frankincense and gold).  These wise men had no idea how their initial gift-giving at Christmas would eventually fuel the world economy, helping many businesses go from red into the black in December.  Why is it that gift-giving at Christmas has become so entrenched in most people’s lives?  Why is it that many of us struggle to unwrap the gift of Christmas?  Why is it that Christmas, the most joyful time of year, is also the most depressing time of year for many? 

As a child, I loved looking forward to opening Christmas presents waiting under the Christmas tree.  Our public school still had actual Christmas pageants in which I took my part as a Christmas shepherd.  As a teenager, opening Christmas presents was still fun, but it started to lose its Christmas wonder.  I still unwrapped the Christmas presents each December, but I never stopped to unwrap Christmas itself.  I never stopped to ask why we were making such a fuss about the Christmas season.  I will never forget when my mother had me go to church on Christmas day.  It felt like a radical intrusion into an important holiday time.   Why would someone go to church at Christmas?  Even though I had been raised in church, I had no idea that God came to earth at Christmas, that God became a little baby in manger.  I never rejected the meaning of Jesus’ birth at Christmas.  I just never thought about it.  It was so familiar to me that I was blind to Christmas.

Home blindness, the tendency to become oblivious to what is in front of us, is a phenomena recognized by social scientists.   People often say with regret that they never really appreciated what they had until they lost it.  Each Christmas, there are a myriad of Christmas movies that express the theme of loss at Christmas, and rediscovering the joy of Christmas.  The Christmas blockbuster ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ [originally called the Greatest Gift] went unnoticed at its 1946 release, so much so that the copyright license in the late 1970s was not even renewed.  This meant that television studios could show the movie for free at Christmas.  After a few years of this, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ became a cult classic.  Who can forget the conflict around the Christmas tree as Jimmy Stewart/George Bailey was close to committing suicide?  Who can forget the final scene around the Christmas tree when all his friends come together and unite in support?  Who can forget the joyful Christmas Carols sung by Jimmy Stewart, friends and family as they thanked the baby Jesus for the true meaning of Christmas? This Christmas, let not forget to unwrap the true gift of Christmas, the Christ Child come to earth to save us.

 

The Rev. Dr. Ed and Mark Hird, 

St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in Canada  

-an article for the December 2015 Deep Cove Crier

-author of Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit