update for 1-09-13 - full pastor's column!

Notes From My Knapsack

[for 1-09-13 "Newark Christian"]

We're barely into the new year of 2013, and what's the parson talking about but: Lent! 

That's right, Lent. The season of prayer and preparation to approach Easter will begin February 13^th, and 40 days plus Sundays, on towards March 31^st.

We have a long-standing tradition at Newark Central of Wednesday night Lenten dinners, following an Ash Wednesday service which will be Feb. 13^th at 6:00 pm, then the dinner programs in Fellowship Hall on Feb. 20 and 27, Mar. 6, 13, and 20. Stay tuned for our guest presenters and meal preparers for these simple soup & sandwich suppers.

During Lent, with those 40 days, I have a proposal. We will have some commitment cards in the bulletin the next couple of Sundays, and they will be for you to make a commitment to yourself, not to the pastor or the church. Mainly between you and God.

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel to John's Revelation, all 27 books. If you were to read seven chapters a day, with Saturdays off and a skip day or two just to give you some flexibility, you could read the whole New Testament (7 chapters a day!) by Easter morning right down to Revelation 22.

To be fair, I know there's a goodly number of you who've read the whole New Testament (hat tip to y'all!), and I also know there's more than a few who really, really have meant to get around to doing that . . . so this is the Lent to get it done!

And even if you're already taken the full tour through what God has to say in the "Apostolic literature," here's a new suggestion. Frank Viola, a Bible teacher & preacher, has proposed a sort of chronological order of the books of the New Testament. As most of you know, we have the library of the NT organized with four gospels, a bunch of letters, most from Paul, a few from others, then the closing prophetic vision of Revelation. It's not chronologically organized, and your reading of it "straight through" can cause a fair amount of back-flipping and flip-backing.

Viola offers this sequence, not in order of events, but in the order they were (possibly) written, to help you feel the development of Christian thought & belief:

Galatians, James, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Corinthians, Romans, Mark, Matthew, and Luke; Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians, I Timothy, Acts, Hebrews, Titus, John; I, II, & III John, I Peter, II Timothy, II Peter, Jude, and finally Revelation.

Or, you could try Marcus Borg's proposed sequence:

I Thessalonians, Galatians, I Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, II Corinthians, Romans, Mark; James, Colossians, Matthew; Hebrews and John; Ephesians, Revelation, Jude, I, II, & III John, Luke; Acts, II Thessalonians, I Peter, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, and finally II Peter.

Either way, it's an experience of the New Testament that might well bless your Lent this year!

In grace and peace, Pastor Jeff

The Newark Christian, Jan. 9, 2013

The Newark Christian

Serving God's Transformation of Licking County

January 9, 2013

Volume LXXIV

Issue 1

 

Summer 2013 Camp Schedule 


Registration for summer programs will be available early in 2013

Grandparents Camp - For Children in grades 1 & 2 and a Grandparent
Held at Camp Christian, May 31 - June 1

 

Otter Junior Camp - For youth in grades 3, 4, & 5
Held at Camp Christian, June 16 - 22


Chi Rho Camps - For youth in grades 6, 7, & 8
All Chi Rho Camps are held at Camp Christian

Hocking June 9 - 15

Portahoga July 7 - 13

Maumee July 14 - 20

Miami August 4 - 10

 

CYF Conferences - For youth in grades 9, 10, 11, & 12
All CYF Conferences are held at Camp Christian

Hiram June 23 - 29

Phyo June 30  - July 6

Lakeside July 21 - 27

Wilmington July 28 - August 3

 

Adult Ministries - For adults of all ages
Held at Northwest Christian Church, Columbus, June 17 – 21

Adventure Camp - For adults of all ages and high school age youth
Location TBA, June 28 – 31

Advance Ministries Summer Conference - For young adults ages 19 - 29
(at least one year out of high school)
Held at Camp Christian, August 11 - 18

 

General Board Meeting

All elders, deacons, deaconesses, trustees, department chairs and fellowship group presidents are reminded of their right and responsibility to attend the board meeting January 16 at 7:00 pm.

 

Caroling was a Success!

Many thanks to all who came out to carol around the neighborhood in December.  We ended up with around 30 people and received good response all the way down Jefferson Road, around the corner to Woods, and back up to the church on Rugg Avenue.  Many folks came out to hear and received an invitation to our Living Nativity and our worship services.  Thanks, also, to Carol Thompson, who provided refreshments for all of us.

Youth Sub Sale 2013
The youth of Central Christian Church will be making subs for Super Bowl Sunday February 3, 2013. All proceeds will go to SCOOP (Special Concerns Ohio Outreach Program). This year the youth will offer Italian and turkey subs (lettuce and mild banana peppers will be offered on the side). Each sub is $5.00 and you can pay cash or write a check to Central Christian Church and write "subs" in the memo line. Please turn in all money and orders by Sunday, Jan. 27 to Harry Cline or Samantha Frizzell. The goal is 175 subs and $800 to send to SCOOP. Thanks again for your continued support!

Youth All Christian Skate Night

On Monday, January 21, all youth should meet at the church from 6:15-8:15pm. Skating admission is free, thanks to Betty Lou and Larry Iden, In line skates are $1.00 and any money needed at the concession stand. We will have devotions at 7:30 at the skating rink. Until then get ready to play the number game!

Planning Event

Christian Education will be having their annual planning meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the church on January 15. Please send any ideas for events to Kim Halter at kmhalter7@hotmail.com

Book Club

On January 20, the Book Club will meet in the parlor after the 10:30 service.  Lunch will be provided.  The book for Jan 20 is That's Why I'm Here, the story of Chris and Stefanie Spielman.  Come join the discussion.

Please Remember

The parking lot on the North side of the church, near the elevator, is intended for handicap parking only.

2013 Board & Program Cabinet schedule

 

(all meetings of the general board are at 7:00 pm on the ground floor)
Wed., Jan. 16

Wed., March 20 (after the Lenten dinner)

Wed. May 15

Wed., July 17

Wed., Sept. 18

Wed., Nov. 20


The meetings of the Program Cabinet, made up of team leaders & committee chairpeople, will be on third Monday nights as follows at 6:30 pm:

Mon., Feb. 18
Mon., Apr. 15
Mon., Aug. 19
Mon., Oct. 21

 

Notes From My Knapsack

We're barely into the new year of 2013, and what's the parson talking about but: Lent! 

That's right, Lent. The season of prayer and preparation to approach Easter will begin February 13^th, and 40 days plus Sundays, on towards March 31^st.

We have a long-standing tradition at Newark Central of Wednesday night Lenten dinners, following an Ash Wednesday service which will be Feb. 13^th at 6:00 pm, then the dinner programs in Fellowship Hall on Feb. 20 and 27, Mar. 6, 13, and 20. Stay tuned for our guest presenters and meal preparers for these simple soup & sandwich suppers.

During Lent, with those 40 days, I have a proposal. We will have some commitment cards in the bulletin the next couple of Sundays, and they will be for you to make a commitment to yourself, not to the pastor or the church. Mainly between you and God.

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, Matthew's Gospel to John's Revelation, all 27 books. If you were to read seven chapters a day, with Saturdays off and a skip day or two just to give you some flexibility, you could read the whole New Testament (7 chapters a day!) by Easter morning right down to Revelation 22.

To be fair, I know there's a goodly number of you who've read the whole New Testament (hat tip to y'all!), and I also know there's more than a few who really, really have meant to get around to doing that . . . so this is the Lent to get it done!

And even if you're already taken the full tour through what God has to say in the "Apostolic literature," here's a new suggestion. Frank Viola, a Bible teacher & preacher, has proposed a sort of chronological order of the books of the New Testament. As most of you know, we have the library of the NT organized with four gospels, a bunch of letters, most from Paul, a few from others, then the closing prophetic vision of Revelation. It's not chronologically organized, and your reading of it "straight through" can cause a fair amount of back-flipping and flip-backing.

Viola offers this sequence, not in order of events, but in the order they were (possibly) written, to help you feel the development of Christian thought & belief:

Joys and Concerns

·        Lucille Peoples, Sue Lynn, Monica Broceus and June Harman Butts  

Daily Scripture Readings

Jan     9       Revelation 21:1-7

         10     Genesis 1:26-28

         11     I Corinthians 3:5-11

         12     I Corinthians 13:1-7

         13     Colossians3:1-4

         14     2 Corin 6:1-2

         15     Matthew 5:38-48

         16     Psalm 103:8-13

         17     Matthew 25:31-46

         18     2 Corin 4:6-12

         19     Psalm 32:6-11

         20     I Corin 12:12-27

         21     Psalm 139:1-18

         22     Matthew 18:10-14

         23     I Corin 9:24-27

         24     Titus 3:3-7

         25     Genesis 39:1-23

 (Taken from The Upper Room)

 

Looking Ahead

January 13 –

 Why we do what we do: Baptism

         Matthew 3:13-17

January 20 –

 WWDWWD: Communion

         I Corinthians 11:23-26

January 27 –

 WWDWWD: Hymns

         Ephesians 5:15-20

February 3 –

WWDWWD: Elders & Deacons

Titus 2:1-15


February 10 –
 

WWDWWD: Discipleship
          

II Timothy 3:10 – 4:5


Wed., February 13
   Ash Wednesday, Lent begins

Thank You and You're Welcome!

First, we would like to thank everyone who came to celebrate Mom's 90^th birthday. It was wonderful to see so many of our church family there to honor her. Second, we would like to thank Linda Hurst, Susie Morris and Jeff Gill for their help with the party. Third, we would like to thank Steve Crothers, Ron Thompson, Earl Stevenson, Dave Engle, Rick Crothers and Cooper Leibas for putting in our ramp. It really makes it easier getting Mom in and out. Thanks to all. The Kohlers

 

Hello my friends at Central Christian Church. You certainly outdid yourselves. Thank you for your more than generous donation for the homeless. Just got another family off the streets and your donation paid for the stove and refrigerator and 2 beds. I praise God for you all and I ask Him to favor you and your church with His mighty blessings! Again, thanks and God will bless. Love, Effie Enman, "My Corner and Beyond"

         

Thank you for all the concern shown to me after my hospital stay in the way of cards, calls and visits from members and Jeff. It is wonderful to have a caring church family. Jean McDonald

           

I just wanted to drop a little note to say thanks for the cards, phones calls, and special visits from Rev. Jeff Gill and a very good friend, Carol Van Winkle, while I spent some time in the hospital. Also would like to thank the elders who filled in for me in church services. For all you have done, we are blessed for a great church and such leadership. There is a God in the mountain and a God in the valley. I have been both places and He is real. He said I will never leave thee or forsake thee. James Green

         

Adrian and I would like to say "Thank You" to our Central family! We have been shown such incredible support through all of our journeys. The generosity we have been shown is overwhelming as well! Thank you for the prayers, diapers, monetary gifts, etc. We are so blessed! Katie Leibas

           

Greetings from First Christian Church, Tuscaloosa, AL!

To my church family, Happy Holidays! Thank you for your thoughtfulness following my recent hip surgery. I so enjoyed the cards and visits at the nursing home. A special thanks for those taking time to bring me communion at home. I still can't drive and am having eye problems but look forward to a speedy recovery so I can get back to church again. A special thanks to the Medical Loan Closet for their hard work. I still use my walker and the shower chair. Hope to be on my own soon. Happy New Year everyone, Margaret Kreager

I hope all is going well with all of you. I want to tell you again how much we appreciate all you did to help restore our community while you were here. I really need to get back to some of the areas that DV worked on, but haven't done a very good job of getting it done.

            I have copied some photos (which are hanging on the narthex bulletin board) of some of the businesses that have been rebuilt and are operational. There is still a lot of new building going on in our city and there is s still a lot of repairing going on as well. There is still a lot to go, though. I hope that you will have an opportunity to come back to see the progress that has been made.

            Merry Christmas! "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory." John 1:14

Kathy Mason, FCC Tuscaloosa

 

[the following from the front page sidebar:]

Church Office Hours:

Monday – Friday

7:00 am – 2:00 pm

 

Phone:  740-366-4961

 

Email:

secretary.newarkcentral@gmail.com

 

We're on the Web!

Visit us at:

newarkcentralchristian.com

 

Our mission is to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit and Scriptures from the Holy Bible.  We seek to grow in knowledge and grace of Christ to strengthen the unity of all Christians toward building the Kingdom of God.

 

Faith Works 1-05

Faith Works 1-05-13

Jeff Gill

 

A film called "The Downtrodden"

___

"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." (1 John 4:12, NLT)

The climactic line of "Les Miserables" is: "Take my hand, and lead me to salvation. Take my love, for love is everlasting. And remember, the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God."

As a Christian and a pastor, these are stirring lines however sung, and they were when I first heard them on Broadway, and they are beautifully delivered in the new film version of the musical. I cannot encourage people of faith enough, who have not experienced this show in some form already, to please go and see this.

For older youth groups, I'll note that there is one scene not graphic but unmistakable when Fantine is forced into prostitution that might be over some folks' lines, and the Thenardier's have potty mouths, even as they are the grim comic relief of the narrative. But I'd take high schoolers without a second thought . . . only if you can also leave time after the two and half hours to debrief, to discuss what they've seen and heard.

For those who've expressed some confusion with the politics & history context of "Les Miserables," try reframing it this way:



"The Downtrodden" is about a poor man named John Johnson, who was convicted in the 1920s South for theft, and ended up on a chain gang. He finally makes parole, skips out of Mississippi, and after an encounter with the abbot of a monastery in Arkansas, decides to change his life, using a grubstake from the abbot to start a business, and in the course of that becomes a mayor in the Central Valley of California during the 30s. One of the state prison officials from Mississippi, Javerts, works his way up the law enforcement career ladder to a federal job, and is assigned to a fraud investigation post checking migrant labor for the INS. He runs into Mayor Madison, who is actually Johnson.



Johnson's manufacturing business gives work to women most of whom have husbands working in the fields around the town; Fantina Martinez is one of them, who ends up out of a job after turning down the foreman's advances. By the time this sequence is over, Mayor Madison is revealed as Johnson, Javerts makes moves in court to have him extradited back South, and as Fantina dies, Johnson takes in her little girl who was staying at a Motor Court and tavern out in the Mojave with a family named Thernstrom who were taking advantage of Fantina while not caring for her child, named Cosette.



Leaping to the dawn of the 1940s, Johnson and Cosette are now in Los Angeles, under an assumed name once more. They live near Long Beach, where labor activism is stirring up again, based on memories of the IWWs just a few decades earlier. The labor organizers have a pub down by the docks where they hang out with each other and the longshoremen. A college grad named Mark is there, whose family made their wealth in the railroads, but he became aware of the injustices done in his family's name during his studies.



The growing move to a war footing makes the more radical union members realize that if they don't get the whole dockyards organized now, they will be forced into paralysis once war is declared. They decide to use an upcoming Fourth of July parade as the occasion for a public demonstration that will likely draw the assault and even gunfire of the LA County sheriff's deputies, which they hope will cause the workers as a whole to rise up and join them in protest and unification. The parade and demonstration go as planned, but the people in general turn their backs on them, and the protest organizers retreat back into the tavern, barricading themselves in, hoping that the national news will pick up the story, and support from around the nation will rise to their defense . . . but the story does not go further, and the National Guard is called in along with the sheriff's deputies, to surround and demand the surrender of the protesters, who will be charged with murder of a deputy killed in the parade protest.



Javerts has infiltrated the pub, and hopes to lead the entire crew out in surrender by convincing them of the hopelessness of their cause, but is frustrated in this by being revealed as a federal agent by Gavin, a teenager who hung about the docks as an orphan and occasional errand-runner for the union leaders. Gavin had seen Javerts working with customs inspectors earlier out on the docks. But all the while, Mark had seen Cosette, Johnson's ward, at a carnival on the boardwalk the week of the Fourth, and couldn't get her out of his mind.



I think you can fill in the rest, but that's my best historic reframing for those trying to "understand" the context. But don't let French history get in the way of this stunning story of faith and choices and redemption.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; yes, he's a fan of "Les Mis." Tell him what you think about faith and musical theatre, or anything else, at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Knapsack 1-03

Notes From My Knapsack 1-03-12
Jeff Gill

Tracks in the snow, traces for a moment
___

One of my favorite parts of a decent layer of fresh snow is to see animal tracks, and to follow them even if for just a little while.

Granted, around here you're most likely to see deer tracks, although they can have their surprises. Ditto dogs, except when they aren't dogs.

When the "dog track" imprint is more elongated than rounded, and the trot is almost perfectly in line from one print to the next, you are likely looking at coyote tracks. They go through my yard with very little variation, just passing through.

Doe and young deer tracks can also be on a virtual straight line; bigger bucks, with wider chests, have a certain stagger to their gait, left to right. The classic paired lobes of the deer hoof may not look terribly different in the snow, size-wise, but the gait can give you a hint. When you see truly large hoof prints, you might even see the spots where they stop to lower their heads to forage a bit, and leave faint swoops of tracery where their antlers brush the snow.

There's a rhythm and look to the quadruple arrangement of rabbit tracks that probably is recognizable to the least outdoorsy of us. Each leap leaves almost more of a tripod of support marks, with the front paws landing in each leap, and the drop of the hind paws if often close together, and actually in front of the side-to-side forefeet - so as you walk along watching a rabbit's trail, the "sets" may not be quite what you think, as we tend to see the forepaws and the big, long hind marks behind as going together.

Squirrels are smaller than rabbits, often leave a fainter mark, and their rear doesn't swing up in a rabbity leap, so you see a sort of parallelogram set of four prints, the wider side at the top, or in the direction the squirrel is going.

A raccoon print is maybe my favorite to find, but harder  so far this winter. They're tucked away, not hibernating as we think of bears, but in a pretty low activity state, much like Uncle Charlie after Thanksgiving dinner. They don't like getting snow between their elegant fingers, anyhow. But the long toe/fingers of raccoon prints are some of the most eloquent to read, in my opinion.

Recently, closer down to Raccoon Creek, I spied . . . nope, not raccoon prints. I saw what I'm fairly certain were mink tracks, little starbursts in the snow, pattering in a wild, almost random pattern, but with a general tendency back to the river bank. No bigger than quarters, with five toes pointing out and around like an echo of stars on a flag. I'd never seen mink tracks before, and am happy to be corrected by anyone who knows.

Haven't seen any opossum tracks, which is fine because they're not one of my favorite wildlife acquaintances. Their tracks hint of raccoon, but with their opposable thumb jutting out at right angles to the rest of the print. Even more indicative is their tail, which tends to drag along, leaving a wandering line to accompany the search for food, which is important to possums given their lack of ability, which bears and raccoons have, to store up body fat. They're more likely to be out during the day this time of year, ironically, even as the days are shortest, on their search for food of any sort . . . and that opposable thumb means they're more likely to have gotten into your garbage cans than the 'coons were.

If you have some down time this winter, and there's been a snow, and you're got a good pair of boots, just go find a set of tracks (there's some not far from your front door, I guarantee) and see where they lead you.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him your tracking adventure at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.

Faith Works 12-29-12

Faith Works 12-29-12

Jeff Gill

Joseph & Mary's Christmas Letter

___

 

Dear friends and family back in Nazareth: season's greetings!

 

Mary reminded me that we really shouldn't get into a new year without sending you all a note to update developments in our little family.

 

Yes, we ran off and went ahead and got hitched. It's a long story, and we look forward to explaining how this all came about when next we're at home. You could say that the Roman announcement of a census forced our hand.

 

I had to go back south to my family homesteads near Bethlehem (as a scion of King David's line and all that). It just, well, made so much sense for Mary to come along. It was sort of a last minute decision, so we apologize for leaving Galilee so quickly and not giving you all a chance to give us a rousing send-off. Stuff happened.

 

It would be nice to tell you that the family down here in Judea made up for the hospitality we missed out on from you, but in fact, between the hordes coming to town for the census and all the off-season travelers, we were almost left entirely out in the cold. Our lodgings are simple but adequate, even if they would never be approved by the Triple-A.

 

In fact, as if things couldn't get more complicated, Mary had her baby here in Bethlehem. My carpenter's guild insurance was no good down here at Ephratha General, and we were quite worried about that, but it became a moot point when the baby was born swiftly and smoothly and really without even a cry. Yes, it was what some call a home birth, and it wasn't what we planned, but all turned out perfectly.

 

My family was of little help, but the kindnesses of strangers have warmed our hearts. A group of sheepherders from out on the edge of town came by our "room" and helped set everything to rights and made us feel like we were right where we were supposed to be.

 

Meanwhile, I'm working on picking up some contractor paying gigs (brought my tools, natch), and word on the street here is that there are some foreign dignitaries floating around the neighborhood, looking at various properties. If one of them wants a vacation home here in Bethlehem, I could make enough to get us back to Nazareth by Passover. I'll be looking to make contact with them (there's a bunch of them traveling together) as soon as I put these letters in the hands of a provincial courier, or pretty much anyone traveling north.

 

Hope to see you soon and tell you more in person – let's just say God has been good to us, and we are thankful! May you be as blessed as we have been, but with better beds!

 

All our love,

Joseph, Mary, and our brand new bundle of joy, Jesus!

A modest proposal, without irony

A modest proposal
12-18-12

Jeff Gill

My concern for young men, and what it means to grow up as a young man in America today, is why outdoor activity, particularly through Scouting, is my biggest personal commitment after my family and my faith (and to be fair, the latter is also my job, a package deal for me as a pastor). What I have long worried about for young men in general is what the recent series of mass shooting events say to me, even more clearly than anything about gun policy or mental health access -- the biggest problem for & with boys today is that their lives are simply too unreal.

Video games, pornography, big screen sports, electronic fantasies with no closer contact to actuality than the rumble function within the hand controller. Over and over I end up talking to young men in trouble whose future plans are literally "uh, game designer, or Navy SEAL." Never mind that they have never tried coding in HTML, nor have they ever run more than a hundred yards in their life, or walked even a mile.

What they need are sunrises. They need to lose a boot in the mud walking through the swamp in a short cut that didn't work out. They need the taste of burnt food that, after long miles and only water to drink has a taste in your mouth which satisfies body & soul. They need to be part of a team, a patrol, a group of friends who build something, start something, finish something that they can step back from and say "We did that" and smile. They need to feel rain in their face and a rope taut in their hand, watching the wind on the shore for hints of a change in direction. They need a rush of concentration as the rock bumps past on one hand and the eddy swirls on your other, as your partner in the bow fends off a submerged boulder hiding behind that bend. And yes, in these contexts, they would benefit from a gentle trigger pull and a mark leaping into view within the black circle.

Shooting sports, exercised in the absence of further realities, can become just a slightly more heavily equipped video game, spraying ammo widely into a hillside or hosing down a propane tank until the requisite "boom." Firearms, understood as precision power tools that can bite if misused -- that is what they are, first and foremost -- need their own setting of reality to make them healthy and safe.

But the degree of alienation and a-socialization I see in more and more young men (and yes, occasionally young women, but I'll leave that question to others) is something that I think is not caused by video games or pornography, but those are the pre-eminent signs and indications and addictions that result from a severe lack of reality and connection to the actual world, alongside of actual people. We can try to trace it out to the beginning of suburbs and the end of sidewalks, to the rise of personal automobiles and telephones replacing handwritten letters, to the hungry void of television, to the cult of safety keeping parents from letting their kids play in the creek or wander through fields, and all our guesses and assumptions would be open to challenge.

The answer, though, I think is unchallengeable. More reality, more sunrises and sunsets and starry nights and campfire cooking and looking at the geese flying overhead as you stamp your feet to keep them warm, more connections and conversations with peers who are experiencing the same realities through their own eyes, and learning how they see it not quite the same as you: these are the cures for more ills than we can name. I'm not certain what laws or policies we need to build a better country, but I know what youth need, and it isn't more of what they're getting right now.

Faith Works 12-22-12

Faith Works 12-22-12

Jeff Gill

Slaughter and the sorrowful season

___

 

 

No one wants to mourn at Christmastime.

 

No one wants to go to a funeral during Advent, least of all for a child.

 

Nobody is interested in sad songs and weeping while the carols are playing and laughter is in the air. Nobody, that is, except for those who must.

 

No death seems well-timed, really, and to say this is the right or the wrong month or week is a sort of non sequitur, a statement without meaning. Death comes as it may, and we respond in faith and hope according to the measure given to us.

 

A massacre, a mass killing during December cannot but feel particularly heinous, even though we know it would be just as appalling in April, or May. The mix of children's excitement over gifts and surprises, combined with our helpless imaginings of events like those just past in Connecticut, creates a nauseating brew of anger and despair in the pit of our collective stomach.

 

That feeling, though, has a place in the Christmas story. It always has. We just tend to gloss over or skip past it, as we try to keep the "joy of Christmas" alive. Death, instead, keeps creeping back into the story.

 

Just after the commemoration of the birth of Christ, marked on Dec. 25^th, is the liturgical feast of what are called "the Holy Innocents" on Dec. 28^th. They remind us of the passage in Matthew's gospel account after the Magi, or "wise men" had met with deceitful, fearful Herod and told him of a Great King who is to be born.

 

Herod said he wanted to meet this infant king, and after getting enough information to go on, he sent his soldiers to kill every male child under two, just to be on the safe side.

 

Just to be on the safe side.

 

The story reminds us of Pharaoh, in the beginning of the book of Exodus, when the death of the firstborn of the Hebrew sons is commanded, leading to little Moses being set adrift in the Nile in a basket. The anguish of the mothers is seen with skillful indirectness when Cecil B. DeMille shows an Egyptian soldier wiping blood off his sword with a swaddling cloth, as the mother sits stunned into silence nearby.

 

Silence is one response we can offer, and it is better than some words that have been shared in recent days. Sorrow can be expressed wordlessly, or in very few. And there are tears.

 

But from tears, there are so very often stories. The stories that explain why we grieve, what we will miss, how we are painfully remembering what we've lost right now. And the stories unfold, and connect, and carry forward, and next thing you know, you're laughing.

 

It's not that you stop crying, but you laugh all the same, tears changing course as your face creases into a smile.

 

Stories have a way of giving birth to the next story, and the next, and given time you find everyone telling stories, and while the tears are never entirely gone, they aren't the whole story.

 

So it is with the Christmas story. There's a heritage in that long-ago act of terror by Pharaoh in Egypt, and the present threat of Herod's uneasy security and ruthless ambition . . . and the shadow of Roman crucifixion leaning across occupied Judea.

 

You do no justice to the story by sweeping those realities aside. But you also talk about that stubborn donkey on the road up from Jericho, the motley crew of shepherds you met on the last, endless trudge from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and the marvel of gifts from foreign potentates who came bearing not only precious goods, but a whispered warning with angelic emphasis.

 

The incidents behind you haunt your delight in the baby born in a stable, but you don't let them keep you from recounting the traverse of the Sinai, that ferryman's outburst as you crossed the Nile, and even – glancing around at your listeners to gauge their trustworthiness – the dream sent from Heaven that led you to return home.

 

Tears may not make much of a gift at Christmas, nor do they stay long on the hearthstones, but the shedding of them has a place in the story, and always has. May your Christmas celebration tell stories, one to another, that include those who mourn, those who rejoice, those who wander, and those who have found their way home.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in central Ohio; tell him about your journey home for Christmas at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.