Let the Chair Hold You

Right around the time I moved to Philadelphia, I got struck by a memory from my brief time studying in Oregon—a memory I haven’t been able to shake. We were just starting a contemplative body exercise, and the spiritual director urged us to let our chairs hold us. Fidgeting in my seat, I wondered how I was supposed to “be held” by the chair anymore than I already was. By sitting down in the chair, wasn’t I already letting it hold me?

As if sensing my confusion, the spiritual director added that too often when we sit in our chairs we hold up our own weight rather than letting the chairs fully support us. We let our bodies take on more work than necessary, because consciously or unconsciously we feel like they should. One of the major lessons of the exercise was to remind us to accept support for our bodies when it is given. 

Over the past couple of months, I have been learning that the lesson from that exercise applies to far more than simply how I sit in my chair. Just as I have a tendency to hold my own weight even when a chair is provided, I also have a tendency to try to completely support myself even when help is all around me. I struggle to accept support from other people, because I feel like I shouldn’t need help from anyone or else I will become a burden. But just as people have provided chairs in order that my body might be supported, God has provided me with a multitude of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in order that the rest of me might be supported as well. And as I have repeatedly found myself in situations during my post-college transition in which I need support, it is has been a helpful lesson to learn to be more accepting of the support offered to me.

It has been valuable to be reminded at work, at home, and in the community that it is okay to need to lean on someone else. It is okay to have to ask for help. It is okay to let yourself be held up by your chair and by those around you.

- Angelique Gravely

A St. Nicholas Blessing

St. Nicholas Day is December 6th.

St. Nicholas is a resplendent visitor at St. Martin's. I am certain we have the best St. Nicholas in the diocese. His appearance reminded me of an Advent prayer by an author I really like – Edward Hays. I would like to share it with you. It is from his book, Prayers for the Domestic Church.

St. Nicholas Blessing Prayer

St. Nicholas, holy patron of children,

                  Bishop of the East,

                  we invite you to come among us

                  and to grant us your holy blessing.

Help us in this busy, busy season

                  not to miss the miracle of the coming of Emmanuel

                  in the days of preparation

                  as well as on the feast itself.

Help us not to be blind

                  to the gifts of getting ready.

Protect us from insincerity.

May every greeting we send

                  be signed with love, friendship and prayer.

May our greetings, so written,

                  be fun to open and treasures to keep.

Kind St. Nicholas,

                  protect us from shoppers fatigue.

Show us how to take delight in the marketplace,

                  now transformed in beauty, lights and music.

Save us all from anxiety over what to give

                  so that we may concentrate on how to give.

Stand by the stepladder

                  as we decorate our homes and trees and lives.

May our decorations not be mute

                  but rather singing symbols,

                  sacred signs of the evergreen coming of the Lord of Life.

Help us to remember that mistletoe, holly

                  and all other ornaments of the season,

On Sunday, December 8th St. Nicholas visited Church School. 

                  were sacred signs to ancient believers.

But, most of all, jolly saint of toys and sweets,

                  help us stay youthful, humorous, playful and dream-filled

                  as we prepare together for the coming of Christ

                  with Advent longing.

St. Nicholas, pray for us.

Amen

- The Rev. Carol Duncan

“… Not in that poor lowly stable …”

“Christmas is coming, the goose (gander?) is getting fat …” It is an interesting time of year.  Without going into details, December always feels two-faced to me – an ideal image of warm sentimentality and good-will juxtaposed against a more realistic frenzy of greed, being overcommitted, and exhaustion.  I’m sure everyone deals with these or similar emotions; but this season takes a unique toll on musicians (and especially church musicians).

While I’m fond of our Christmas hymns, I often have difficulty enjoying them, because in my mind they’ve become associated with stress, panic, and quite frankly, fear (fear of playing something wrong, omitting that special carol and therefore ruining someone’s holiday, or not playing it “the way it’s supposed to be played”.)  Eventually, we musicians build up defenses to help deflect the stress and keep our sanity.  This can take the form of alternate words to carols, hilarious Facebook posts about playing “The Nutcracker” 19 times in 12 days, or being able to play Handel’s “Messiah” in retrograde inversion.  (I can completely play Bach’s “Wachet auf” with the right hand starting one eighth-beat behind.  In college I would sing “All We Like Sheep have Gone Astray” one beat behind and a whole step down (under my breath and only in rehearsal, of course)).

So how do I deal with the season?  I reckon that I’ve performed “O Come All Ye Faithful” over 500 times, and that’s not an exaggeration.  It’s become difficult to enjoy the more sentimental carols.  And what’s worse, I get a sick sense of superiority when I point out that “We Three Kings” is incorrect, as the Magi were in fact not kings, and that there’s actually no biblical reference to three of them (just three gifts).  I also love to roll my eyes when the angels appear “singing sweetly through the night”, because if the heavenly host appeared before me I would probably need a new pair of underpants.  And of course, there’s the countless references to snow, which rarely falls in Bethlehem.  (but it does on rare occasion, and when it does, it’s beautiful.)

Again – I love these hymns and the cultural train which flows from them.  But my eyes will be dry when we sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or even “Silent Night” (if these give you tears of joy, that’s wonderful.)  HOWEVER – there still are a few Christmas carols that can strike me in the heart; these usually go far beyond the image of a cuddly baby in a snow-covered manger with cherub angels hovering around.

Everyone knows the iconic first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City.”  But this hymn is less about the birth of Christ, and more suited to Christ’s second coming:

And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love;
For that child who seemed so helpless is our Lord in heaven above;
And he leads his children on to the place where he is gone. 

Not in that poor lowly stable, with the oxen standing round,
We shall see him; but in heaven, where his saints his throne surround:
Christ, revealed to faithful eye, set at God’s right hand on high.

A modern hymn by American composer David Hurd, “A Stable Lamp is Lighted” is in our hymnal (#104) – the text is written by Richard Wilbur (© GIA Publications). Again, the first verse paints a gentle image of the stable, but the hymn is really about Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross (maybe this is why this hymn struggles to become a popular Christmas carol?)  What strikes me most is the subtle change in the meaning of “and every stone shall cry”, from verse to verse: 

A stable-lamp is lighted whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, and straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven, a stall become a shrine. 

 This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, though heavy, dull, and dumb,
And lie within the roadway to pave his kingdom come. 

Yet he shall be forsaken, and yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry for stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead, God’s love refused again. 

 But now, as at the ending, the low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices, and every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry, in praises of the child,
By whose descent among us, the worlds are reconciled.

Finally, although Christina Rossetti’s most famous hymn begins with a very English (ie: not Middle Eastern) “earth stood hard as iron … snow had fallen, snow on snow”.  The last verse is simply perfect: 

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

- Erik Meyer