"Mary" Christmas!

from Lexi Eddings...

Let me start with a little disclaimer. If you do not celebrate Christmas, I want you to know I mean you no disrespect with this post. But since I'm a Christian, this time of year is important to me.
So that's why I'm sharing it.

Most years, our choir sings a cantata for Christmas, a nice neat collection of pre-assembled anthems by one arranger connected by narration. This year our director decided he wanted to pick songs from lots of different composers. He collared me after practice one night. Our conversation went like this:

Director: "Since we've got a published author here, why should I waste time trying to find readings to insert between pieces? You can write something, can't you?"

Me: "Well, yeah..."

The Christmas story has been told & retold countless times, but I've been itching to try my hand. However, when this opportunity presented itself, I had a small attack of the "oh-golly-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into's" until I figured out that I just needed to decide on a point of view character. If I told the Christmas story from behind one set of eyes, that would make it easier.

I settled on Mary. As a Protestant, I feel we often short-change her. She had arguably the deepest relationship with God recorded in scripture. Strong, faithful & humble, she must have been a remarkable person.

So here's my Christmas cantata, complete with links to the musical pieces we'll be doing on Sunday. Hope you enjoy...

Mary's Song   

Mary: “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

That’s what my friend Luke wrote.  What he couldn’t capture with his words was the longing I felt as we waited for the Messiah to come. The whole world groaned under the weight of Rome. But we were taught that all things would be set to rights when Messiah came. He would reign, the rabbis promised us, in the spirit of David and his kingdom would cover the earth with righteousness.

So we prayed. We hoped. We waited.

And God answered our prayers…in a way I never could have expected.

Song:  Oh, Come, Emmanuel

Mary:  Anyone who has ever wished to see an angel has never met one. They are fierce and terrible... and beautiful beyond belief.  When one appeared to me in a blinding flash of light, I could do nothing but fall to my knees.  But even more than his appearance, his words frightened me. I was favored, the angel said. All generations would call me blessed.

For God intended to use me, the lowest of his handmaids, to bring His Son into the world.  

Song:  See, Among the Winter’s Snow (Click to hear this beautiful anthem!)

Mary:  Jesus was with God when the earth and the stars were called into existence from nothing. It is his voice in the thunder, his power in the rolling sea. He made the world and everything in it. Yet in all his creation there was found no room for him.    

He ought to have been born in a palace, swaddled in silk, and warmed by a fire. But God’s ways are not ours. Instead he came into this world in a stable. Straw was his bed. The ox and ass lent their warmth and sweetened the air with their breath.

I remember he cried softly that night. So I reached down…and held God…in my trembling hands.

Song: Away in a Manger

Mary: I knew from the beginning that Jesus was no ordinary child. He belonged to the ages, to all peoples and races. He was chosen as our ransom, the very Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.  

Still, my heart hoped he would be just mine for a season.

Instead, that first night, shepherds came in a rush, babbling of signs and wonders. The host of heaven could not keep silent. The morning stars, who sang at creation, cried aloud that the salvation of God had come to earth.

And the shepherds had come to see my child, my Holy One, with their own eyes.

Song: The First Noel (Be ready to click to skip thru the ad before this piece.)

Mary: Except for those months when I carried him beneath my heart, Jesus was never only mine. Others sought the true king as well. In a distant land, they studied the heavens. They pored over scraps of prophecy. And then a star led them as they traveled far.

Over sand dune and wadi, past ziggurat and temple, their caravan came. The horses and camels were swift to obey their desert-born masters and faithfully bore those seekers to worship at my son’s feet.  Unlike the shepherds who came with empty hands, these visitors brought worthy gifts—gold, as befitted a king; frankincense, to honor Jesus as their high priest; and—

A fist closed around my heart when they revealed their last gift. It was myrrh. 

The spice used to anoint the dead.

Song : Carol for Seekers

Mary: He was my son. My heart. My beloved.

He is the Lion of Judah, and King of kings. He is the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley. He is the love of God made flesh, the willing victim that we might be freed. He is that fragrant essence that lifts the heart of man in the cool of the evening.

If I close my eyes, I can still smell the sweet perfume of grace.

Song: Cold December Flies Away

Mary:  And so He came. Against all expectation. Against all reason.  He left heaven, forsaking that realm of perpetual light to take on our darkness. He gave up the power of God and clothed himself with our dusty weakness.  He was willing to do whatever was necessary to redeem his poor, lost creation.

Even to die in our place.

You see, He couldn’t bear to see us banished from Eden again. He wants us to be with him, not only in this world, but in the one to come. Once death closes my eyes, I believe I will open them again to see only light.

Jesus was born. Not only for Israel. Not simply for eager shepherds or wise seekers. He came for us all.

Let Him show you his love. Let Him surround you with his mercy. Let Him be born in your heart.   

Song: Unto Us a Son isBorn (Click the link to hear this joyous celebration!)

Merry Christmas, dear friends!