Rector's Message for December

This time of year can be profoundly disorienting for Christians. Even as the world not only takes notice (for once) of a Christian festival, but even seems for a short while to revolve around its celebration, yet the world mostly gets Christmas wrong, focusing on what is sentimental, banal, and mundane, rather than grasping the astounding fact that Time has been intersected by Eternity, that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Just as we enter the Advent season, with all its austere beauty, to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord, the world has already started celebrating something it does not understand, a celebration of which it will have grown weary by Christmas Day. But it is only in keeping Advent that can we know the true joy and wonder of Christmas.

To be “oriented” is, literally, to be turned towards the east. From Christianity’s very earliest days, east has been the direction of prayer, priest and people facing the altar together, turned towards the rising of the sun that symbolized the coming of Christ. That is why the sanctuary of the church building is referred to as the “east end” (no matter what the actual direction of the compass). Christians are to be oriented—turned towards the Lord. So don’t let the absurd “holiday season” disorient you. As a wonderful contemporary carol puts it:

People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the Guest is on the way.

This comes with every blessing and good wish for Christmas and the New Year.