Dec. 18, 2016 (full size gallery)
For a generation the Christmas Play on Advent 4 has been one of the unique events during the year for St. Peter’s. We have pictures back to 1998 so it has been going on that long. Here is a flashback to 1999 and then fast forward to 2012 when Jackie played the Angel Gabriel.
Most churches have Christmas plays featuring children which derive from morality plays during the Reformation colored by our current celebrations from the 19th century. However, St. Peter’s play is not just a play for children but the entire congregation. We have featured parts of the Christmas story – the Angel Gabriel in 2012, Mary – with creative touches. For Mary in 2013 we had Marys of successive generations. We have taken the story outside of the geographical location of the Middle East. 2015’s play was different in that it was not set in Bethlehem but 13th century Italy.
This year we returned to the traditional setting and it reflected both major birth stories from Luke and Matthew. Telling the whole story was also done in 2014. You might say is it the "grand sweep" of events. This was appropriate as we are in Year A which features events unique to Matthew – Herod’s attempt to kill the baby Jesus as competitor to "King of the Jews" as well as the arrival of those strange visitors, the Magi. Matthew’s focus is on Joseph. The traditional case of characters from Luke – the Angels and Shepherds – and Mary’s story which dominates Luke was also present. Taking these stories together brings in the whole community which we try to be – the boys who all want to be shepherds and the girls who picture themselves as angels.
Catherine wrote the play using both the NSRV and Message translation and it was in 9 parts- Isaiah, Angel Gabriel speaks to Mary and Mary visits Elizabeth, Joseph, Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the Agnels and Shephereds, Wise men visit Herod, Herod tries to kill the baby Jesus, and finally John the Baptist. Hymns were part of some sections and transitions to other. We had a real baby Jesus during part of the play.
We had 55 in the service on an unseasonably warm day in the 60’s and cloudy. Rain was definitely int he air.
The challenge of Christmas is to be able to bring this past, Christ born long ago, into the present and to keep it present. With the birth of Jesus, God invites us into the mystery and the joy and the wonder of something that happened long ago and yet is happening again for the first time, now and yet paradoxically is already present. Ironically, our mission is not to bring Christ to people, but to help people come to know and embrace Christ already present. That’s the point of our services this week.
David Lose, the president of Luther Seminary, writes of the embrace of Christ for this week – "God is joined to us fully and completely in the flesh of the birth of the Christ child and thereby takes on our life – our hopes and dreams, faults and sins, ups and downs – and gives us Christ’s own righteousness. The sins are ours, but Christ takes them on as if they were his; and while the righteousness is Christ’s, we now can make full use of it."
Today’s readings explore the meaning of Immanuel, God with us. In Isaiah, God gives reluctant Ahaz an astonishing sign of divine sovereignty: Immanuel. Paul, in the opening words of his letter to the Romans, summarizes the rich meaning of Jesus, God among us. In today’s gospel, an angel persuades Joseph to welcome Mary and her holy, unborn Child into his home.
Matthew describes neither the event of Jesus’ conception nor of his birth, but rather the reactions and responses of others to these happenings. For Matthew, the significance of today’s gospel lies first in Jesus’ origin and second in Joseph’s actions.
The child’s name, Jesus, (the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation”) shows that “he will redeem Israel from all its iniquities” (Psalm 130:8). For the first of many times Matthew makes his announcement of fulfillment–the time of fulfillment is now begun in Jesus’ birth. The name “Emmanuel…God with us” (v. 23) is for Matthew a central statement of Jesus’ identity and his relationship to his people, the Church.
Joseph’s response to Jesus’ origin assures Jesus’ Davidic descent and thus his Messiahship. Betrothal was a binding promise to marriage, and although infidelity by the betrothed was punishable by death, the wronged husband could choose to quietly break the marriage by sending the betrothed back to her family. Yet Joseph was obedient to the lord’s command and took the crucial legal step of recognition by naming the child, thus making the necessary connection in the genealogy.