Happy Monday! Or should I say Joyful Monday! Yesterday was the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday with the lighting of the pink candle, our priest and deacons wearing rose-colored vestments and insisting they’re rose, not pink, and the theme for this week of joy. I’ve often wondered who came up with these themes and their placement. Joy is to heighten our excitement as the celebration of Jesus’ birth nears (only 10 days away!), but could it be a reminder of something else? We’re in the throes of preparing for the holiday with gift-buying, decorating, baking, visiting, partying, … and it can sometimes get a bit busy and we get a bit tired and stressed. As our window closes for getting things done and some of our plans don’t go as planned, maybe this candle is a reminder to consciously seek the joy of the season.

It’s been a busy week with a Christmas concert and the annual Greenway Lighting with the Grands–and the tree finally has lights! Still no balls, baubles or tinsel but at least lights. And other than wreaths on the windows and front door, not a Santa, candy cane, or snowman in the house. Instead, I’ve been hunkered down writing poetry for the Poet Sisters collection. Each of us is contributing 20 poems. As of Thanksgiving I had 15 finished–meaning critiqued and tweaked–and the last five were in pieces parts. I took those to Washington over Thanksgiving and finished another. Of the remaining four, two are ‘finished’ and the others are better than pieces parts. Today is the deadline for getting at least rough drafts to my Poet Sisters. I’ll send them this afternoon and this evening is the transition to focusing on Christmas. The tree and house will be decorated and gingerbread houses baked by Saturday when family comes to celebrate.

And speaking of family …

This is a sculpture titled, Flight into Egypt, depicting the Holy Family on their journey away from Herod’s slaughter. It’s by Anna Hyatt Huntington, if you’ve ever been to Brookgreen Gardens in Murrell’s Inlet, SC, you’ve seen some of her work. This particular sculpture is in the National Shrine in Washington, DC and is one of my favorites because it shows the weariness, the honesty, of what Mary and Joseph endured. I immediately thought of this piece while watching Kevin Costner’s First Christmas this past week. Did you see it?

I was skeptical at first and had the remote handy if it didn’t go well, but I was greatly surprised and pleased with the film. Costner told the narrative of the traditional Bible story with actors doing a fine job and seamlessly blended that story with interviews with theologians and historians to give an historically and culturally accurate depiction of what else most plausibly was happening.

We often have this image of Mary and Joseph with the donkey crossing the desert all alone but that might not have been the case. They weren’t the only ones forced to go to Bethlehem for the census. Chances are they were traveling with others who were headed there for the same reason. And they probably didn’t just wander into the village without a place to go. Only the Gospel of Luke mentions ‘no place for them at the inn’, almost as a throwaway line. According to the research in the film, if Joseph was returning to the land of his ancestors, family probably still lived there and that’s where they would’ve headed. According to Jewish laws and customs of the time, the family would’ve taken them in and provided food and shelter. So how did they end up in the stable? Or the ‘Jesus barn’ as one of my Grands call it.

With Mary so close to delivery, she would’ve had to be sequestered from the children, and especially the men, again, according to the laws and customs of the time. If the house was already crowded, the logical place would’ve been the stable, or rather a cave beneath the house where the animals were kept. I used to question the actual birth of Jesus. Did Mary fall into a deep sleep and wake up with her son nestled at her breast? Or did she have to go through the birthing like the rest of us? Jesus is divine and human, Mary was fully human. I think she–and Jesus–experienced the full birthing process.

The women would not have let Mary deliver alone. Have you ever heard of the red tent, the tent where the Hebrew women would tend to each other during menses and childbirth? There were strict laws about cleanliness and rituals pertaining to birth. In the film, Mary is attended by the matron of the house and another cousin. Mary and Joseph were devout Jews, they would’ve followed all the laws and customs of the time. It wasn’t until Jesus began his ministry that he challenged some of those laws.

After the movie, I wondered if people would think this telling of the first Christmas would dilute or tarnish the cute image we’re used to seeing. For me, it was the opposite. When Gabriel told Mary she was to bear a son, some of his first words were, Do not be afraid, for God is with you. God would not abandon Mary, the chosen mother for his son, or Joseph, the chosen earthly father at this crucial time. He would be present in the people around them. This assures me God will provide when I’m called to say ‘yes’, often times through people around me.

In my Advent meditation based on Wendell Berry’s poetry, one of the poems is To a Siberian Woodsman, written in the 1960s, but timely for today. The final line is the perfect transition from last week’s theme of peace and next week’s theme of love.

As we head into the final days toward Christmas, may joy fill your home. May you find the time to sit in front of your tree and listen to your favorite carols. To my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah as you also celebrate. See you next Monday!