Pastor’s Pen

As we enter February, winter carries on. It is about this time each year that the charm of snow has long since passed. The novelty of winter nights gives way to the longing for warm summer sunsets. It is a time aptly named “bleak,” for we look around and there are no signs or shades of green. As Rossetti describes, “Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.” Here, in this very time, we wait and hope for growth. Yet, it is in this waiting and longing that there lies opportunity to be Christ’s hands and feet in the heart of the valley.  

While we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December, I am reminded most of his unexpected coming in the cold, frostbitten month of February. It is fitting that this one whom we call Messiah and Christ came to earth in its most desolate season. He was neither born in our comfortable heated rooms nor wrapped in our warmest Pendleton blankets. Jesus was born exposed to these elements. In a place housing animals, there our Messiah appeared. How profound then are the words of Rossetti. “Enough for Him… breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay; Enough for Him, whom angels fall before.” I am humbled at this Jesus whom we call Lord. The One whom we call King and Lord, this One did not come into this world with extravagance or comfort. Jesus our Emmanuel was born and spent in his first night as a human in the cold-winters night.  

I imagine that it is this very Jesus who is close to the homeless in our community. The one who was born in a manger in the cold, sits in the parked cars of our homeless siblings. The one who was born in a smelly, crowded barn with animals waits in line with those washing their clothes and showering thanks to the efforts of Loads of Dignity. Where we sit comfortably in our homes longing for warmth, Jesus is present with those suffering indignities and silent condemnations. There Rossetti speaks of the whole heavenly host praising and worshiping God. How might we look at our homeless siblings differently if we saw them as embraced and blanketed by the whole heavenly host? Would it be that we would stop, listen, and worship even as our Messiah is? 

Rossetti concludes her poem asking a provocative question, “What can I give Him, poor as I am?” This month, consider our homeless and disadvantaged neighbors in the valley. Whether you are a shepherd or a Magi, consider what it might look like to bless our community. Can you give your time to volunteer? Can you donate warm clothes, heaters, or food to community support groups? Can you give of your presence to sit with our neighbors, to hear their stories, and all this in the presence of God and the whole heavenly host? What can we give to God by a shining light in our community? How can we be a community bringing warmth and light in the bleak midwinter? My prayer for us this bleak midwinter is that we would be the body of Christ seeking the well-being and flourishing of our community.  

“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rosetti

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, 

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; 

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, 

In the bleak midwinter, long ago. 

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; 

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign. 

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed 

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. 

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day, 

Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay; 

Enough for Him, whom angels fall before, 

The ox and ass and camel which adore. 

Angels and archangels may have gathered there, 

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air; 

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss, 

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss. 

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.