Exploring Sophien church in former East Berlin, where MLK once came to speak.
My dear fellow traveler,
On this second day of Christmas, some of you might be sighing a sigh of relief: finally some time to start the journey! And so our group of Christmas pilgrims is growing as the feast days are fleeting and the walk towards the stable begins.
Today it is time to gather together and to welcome each other in, to take a break from the usual hustle and bustle and to look to what lies ahead.
Turning Christmas inward
Many of you already know that we are not very Christmassy people. In fact, this Christmas we ended up skipping the church services all together and instead took a long walk through the city of Berlin.
We ended up on a Christmas market packed with travelers who enjoyed being away from home and probably also from the commitments which come with it. Instead they sipped spiced wine and walked the rainy streets of Berlin, ready for another exploration. Somehow we felt quite at home with these travelers from across the world, people who decided the world would be their home on this Christmas Evening.
Wasn’t the holy family traveling, too? And weren’t the streets packed with travelers and the hotels filled? I guess there have been folks out on the streets in Bethlehem sharing some food and wine at dinner time.
Every year again I think I am done with Christmas. And every year it pulls me back in. Bethlehem is every where. We must only see.
And while still wondering how these long practiced rituals we grew up with could be filled with new life again, the bells of Berlin started to ring, ringing in the Christmas night. One church joined the other. It took our breath away. We stood, we danced, we laughed, we cried. Just listening to the bells calling us. What are they calling us to?
Culture obscures and enhances our experience of the holy. It comes with both burden and blessings. To find Christmas where we are, we need some courage to fill the old with new life, to make it ring, for us, again. Then Christmas will find us at the most unexpected places. Or somewhere in between.
Gathering Together
And so here we are, weary Christmas pilgrims nonetheless.
I am humbled you have joined us, as we are no Christmas teachers. And many of you have let me know some of what is on your heart this season (please continue to do so. It helps me walking along side you!). I am thinking of the one who offers herself this journey as a gift after a busy season. The one who arrives feeling whittled down seeking some reprieve. And I am thinking about the recent widow, the void still too fresh to give it words. And the one who time and again grieves her beloved because that void can never be filled. I see the one who lost a parent and feels only relief. And the ones feeling crushed under the burdens of this world, El Paso, Ukraine, Palestine, or a torn up family. And I see the parents who lost so much this season, their hopeful expectations crushed, just trying to keep walking. And I see you, arriving somewhat tired from communal and family duties longing for a time of contemplation. And also you, who loves the idea of walking through Christmas instead of just spending it.
I see you, dear traveler. You are welcome here. Let’s walk this walk together. Let’s hold each other in silent embrace. We are not traveling alone.
Taking Courage: Let’s go to Bethlehem, within
This journey comes with a warning. We are indeed on a pilgrimage. Your feet will ache and you will get tired midway in. Things will happen you do not expect. Your heart will be cracked open if you let it. Starting to walk the streets to Bethlehem, you will notice that we are on a pilgrimage to the heart of the Divine stable. Where ever you are. We walk from different paths but we are on the same way. To the interior dwelling place.
If you wonder how this journey will unfold, there is a yearly rhythm to it, and then there is the content which just unfolds by our walking. The rhythm leads us from the Christmas Day into contemplation of aspects of the Christmas story, figures of the nativity may be, towards the thin place where the new and the old year meets. There, this year on a Saturday, we will invite you into a self guided retreat to collect the year. Followed by a holy pause on Sunday, the first day of the new year. From there we are on the way to Epiphany, following the star and where it will lead us. We hope we all will find Bethlehem just as the wise (wo)men did.
I write you today, on this morning of the second Christmas Day, from somewhere in the rural outskirts of Berlin. There in a monastic retreat center in a small valley, my German family meets for Christmas. While I write, they are all on a walk through the nearby hills: the little children we just met this year, my aging parents, uncles and aunts and cousins and girlfriends, and of course the dogs. All winding through the ancient hills.
But as I write to you now, I am focussed on the deep gratitude and love I have for each of you, my fellow travelers. We are on a mutual journey. You and I and us. I am always learning to trust this voice calling me on this journey, to restrain it less and cultivate it more each time we meet.
And so what is left for me is to find a blessing to send you on the way. What about the Berlin church bells? And words of blessing Chuck wrote for us while listening in?
May these bells ring you
on your way freedom
and challenge
and life.
May they echo through
the valleys of your heart
and come to rest in the
ancient chapel there.
And may they feed your weary soul
with the bread and wine of life.
CH
And may Christmas find you where you are!
A & C & H