Winter Solstice, 2008

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Today is the Winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. At 3:30 am Eastern Standard Time there was a live webcast of the Solstice sunrise at the megalithic tomb of Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland. This tomb is over 5000 years old, older than Stonehenge or the pyramids of Egypt. Barring a cloudy sky, at sunrise a shaft of light will have stabbed through an opening above the tomb entrance, down a 19 meter stone passageway, and onto the floor at the base of a richly decorated stone. 5000 years ago it would have illuminated the stone itself. To see today’s webcast prepared by The Office of Public Works of Heritage Ireland (58 minutes long altogether) go here: http://www.servecast.com/opw/211208/archive300.html

Our season of Advent owes much to the Winter Solstice, that time in the northern hemisphere when the world gets colder and darker; the night grows longer and food more scarce; when our ancestors’ very survival became less certain and the sun had moved far away. No wonder that the Druids very carefully noticed that on this day the sun stopped moving away and started to return.

The Solstice became a sacred time, promising that life would be renewed. It became a time of celebration, too; not only because the sun was returning but, as my seminary liturgics professor said, “Because nothing beats back the chill of a cold winter night in northern climes like generous amounts of feasting and singing and drinking, and other forms of carrying-on!” To make a long story short Christians, in order to enjoy the fun but also to take the guilt out of behaving like the pagans, layered the celebration of the birth of the Incarnate Son of God over the pagan celebration of the rebirth of the immortal sun. And Saturnalia became Nativity.

Today we don’t fear the dark, we flip a switch. We don’t freeze from the cold, we bump up the heat. We don’t hunger for food, even if we do pay a bit more for strawberries! And because we so strive to control our world and environment, we forget that ultimately we do depend on God for our very existence. As a result the short season of Advent, with its encouragement to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ nativity as well as for the ultimate consummation of God’s will on earth, is easily overpowered by so-called “Christmas” parties, “Christmas” programs, “Christmas” shopping, and other cold-weather carryings-on.

In my parish we tried to help folks be a bit more intentional about Advent during these past few weeks. Using that hauntingly beautiful medieval hymn, O come, O come, Emmanuel, one of the clergy offered a brief meditation on one of the verses at the beginning of each Sunday Eucharist, inviting folks to read and pray – not sing – the words throughout the week – words of hope and joy, of wonder, of promise and strength. We wait for feedback to see how it worked.

Today is December 21, 2008: the 4th Sunday of Advent; the Feast of Thomas the Apostle (my anniversary of ordination to the priesthood) is transferred to tomorrow. But today is also the Winter Solstice. And if it takes a Druid to notice that and remind us moderns about the promise of returning life, then certainly the Christian can and should assert that that promise is transformed by the reality of and meaning we find in the birth and life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I would fail to make a good Druid because you have to get up too early. But I can be more intentional about living out my faith in Christ. And so can we all.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!