WHO:  Everyone – bring friends!

WHAT:  A Birthday Party for Jesus!

WHEN:  TBA

WHERE:  Also TBA!

WHY:  Jesus loved a party!

Christmas-time can be harried and commercial and just plain crazy and un-merry.  People talk of “dreading the holidays” and “surviving Christmas.” Probably not what God had in mind…. We’ve been given a gift in the church calendar, however, and if we unwrap it and use it, wonder and sensibility and good fun can be had without adding to the incessant hustle and bustle our culture provides.

Christmas is a season–a full twelve days, actually. Have you noticed that much of the harriedness comes in the days before December 25^th–the concerts and office parties, the shopping and entertaining…. All of this happens during Advent–that season of quiet expectancy and hope. Oh, the irony!  December 25^th is the first day of Christmas as far as the church is concerned. The celebration and worship and fun is only just beginning Christmas morning. Think outside the box for how you and your community might more fully celebrate the season after the culture considers it done for the year. When everyone else is packing up the decorations and putting things away, you might just be sending out party invitations….

…for a Birthday Party for Jesus!  This can happen anywhere in the twelve days, of course, but it is especially fitting in conjunction with Epiphany on or around January 6^th. This is when we celebrate The Wise Ones who came from afar bearing gifts for the Christ Child. It is the perfect excuse the gather one last time and hear the story of Christmas and celebrate what it means. For there is a call in the wonder of Christmas–a “now what?” that is asked. Now that we know the story of Jesus, have seen the faithfulness of God, have wondered about those whose story is not told in our sacred texts and our news stories…what will we do? How will we respond? Gathering in our community to serve would certainly be a way to respond and there are any number of ways this can be done–including throwing a Birthday Party for Jesus.

What might a Birthday Party for Jesus include, you ask? Well…cake, for sure!  And a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday,” of course. And games! And balloons! And PRESENTS! Don’t forget the presents, because they provide a great opportunity to help the larger community in which your faith community resides. Two ideas for presents are included in the narrative “Gifts on a Starry Night”–Birthday Party Bags and/or Welcome Baby Bags. These are presents that the party goers assemble at the party and deliver to the local foodshelf and/or crisis nursery after the frivolities.

Consider a Birthday Party for Jesus this year. We are God’s hands in the world and the old adage that “many hands make light work” is true. Many people and all ages can be involved in this gathering, worship, and service. It could be a starry night to remember!

The stories of the people whose stories are not usually told hold a special kind of truth, one that completes the larger truths of history and faith.  Sometimes we have to read between the lines, into the gaps, and through the holes to find these stories.  And we must find them because the testimonies, prayers, hopes, dreams, and disappointments of these unknown stories are what flesh out the story of God with God’s people.  Without them, our faith story is incomplete.

“The Stories the Stars Tell” aims to summon forth the stories otherwise missing from our faith narrative.  Through song and story, questions and imaginings, singing and quiet, we wonder about all those in Jesus’ family tree who did not have their story preserved in scripture.  We think also of those in today’s world who do not have a voice, whose story is hushed or hidden, whose history has been lost.  Many of the stories lost are the stories of women and girls.

A new carol was commissioned for this collection with these lost stories in mind.  Written by Neal Hagberg, “Star Girls” is a gorgeous song with an easy melody to use in a worship setting.  This beautiful piece looks back at history and through today’s headlines for the stories not told.  The stories of those whose names will never be known, the people whose choices were not their own, women whose place at the table was forbidden, individuals who did not have a say, faithful persons who spoke of God in new ways and knew the price they’d pay….  These are the stories that form the basis of this original song.

Hagberg posits in his lyrics that the ignored and hushed are precisely the people who keep the faith in hopes the next generation would find a better way.  These, too, are the shining stars on Jesus’ family tree. But we have to look for them.  They have not been allowed the sparkle of the hero’s stories or the star naming and gazing of generations upon generations.

Here are a couple of verses from Hagberg’s “Star Girls” lyrics that speak to the silence of the past and the hope for the future:

All of the girls who raised their children up well

All of the girls who rose each time they fell

All of the girls who work for the coming new day

All of the girls who knew the price they would pay

 

All of the girls who somehow still kept the faith

That all of their girls would find a much better way

You are the stars, You are the stars without words

I believe someday your voice will be heard.

In this collection, we call forth stories like these and then add them back in to the one we know better; for these, too, are the ones for whom Jesus came.

Listen to “Star Girls” Song Sample

Once, when I was a little girl, I saw a Christmas tree decorated entirely in paper stars. Although I’ve forgotten where I saw it, I have never forgotten the star tree itself.  It was simple, beautiful, and so different from the laden down Christmas trees–bright lights and tinsel and too many ornaments–we usually see.

My husband and I were married at Christmas and we received dozens if not thousands of beautiful ornaments tied to our wedding gifts. It is a treat to decorate our Christmas tree each year, remembering who gave us this angel and that crèche, this star and that small stocking.  But I’ve yearned for a tree decorated only in paper stars. Each year I mention this possibility, and each year I’m voted down by the others in my family–rightly so, we love our ornaments too much to let them sit in their boxes through Christmas!

So…I made a star-covered tree for our worship space at church instead. With the children in our community, I told the story of God’s promise to Sarah and Abraham and traced their family tree with stories of the Biblical heroes and heroines. Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and his wives, Joseph and his brothers, the prophets and judges, queens and kings, rebels and saints….  As we mentioned each name and told their story, we hung a gold paper star on a large otherwise undecorated Christmas tree at the front of the worship space. We started at the bottom of the tree with Sarah’s and Abraham’s stars. When the children could no longer reach to hang their descendants’ stars, I hung them as we told the stories together.

We made our way into the New Testament–Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph–and now we were at the top of the tree! And past my reach; yet, our story was not done and the children knew exactly whose star came next. So a little boy named Charlie volunteered his Dad who lifted him above his head to put the final gold paper star on the tree–a big one with the name ‘Jesus’ on it. The crowning glory of our Christmas Tree, which became in our stories, Jesus’ Family Tree!

The magic of that Christmas will be remembered for a long time in that congregation. Little Charlie hoisted in the air, proudly putting Jesus’ star at the top of a tree of stars–it doesn’t get much better than that! It was a holy moment, for sure.

That is what I’ve tried to recreate in this Christmas collection–holy moments. The stars tell us stories and the stories that make up Jesus’ family tree are rich indeed. Take the time to tell the whole story this Christmas. It isn’t difficult to do, and it makes the story of Jesus’ birth so much more meaningful. Let the stars tell the story. And let the children help.

“The Stories the Stars Tell” is a resource for the Christmas and Epiphany season.  Guided by images of wonder-filled starry nights, worship and celebration, story, song and service comprise these two narratives.

The Christmas Story is much larger than what is found in the first couple of chapters of Matthew and Luke.  We get a hint of its true size when reading the opening lines of John’s gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God….”  (John 1:1)  The Christmas Story–the story of Christ coming into our world–is a story that begins at the very beginning and continues through today and into tomorrow.

The story celebrated in this collection is larger than our usual nativity scenes and bigger than most of our carols and traditions. When I set out to curate this collection I sought both to recognize and highlight the enormity of The Story of Jesus, which begins back in the first chapter of Genesis, trips through the Old Testament and into the New Testament, and then continues throughout history and into our lives today.

“Promises on a Starry Night” is the name of the Christmas narrative. The story told in this narrative begins at Genesis 1 and proceeds to that starry night when Sarah and Abraham receive their preposterous promise from God. God tells old Abraham that he and Sarah will have a family that numbers the stars in the sky.  This despite the fact that both Sarah and Abraham are too old for babies.  God fulfills this preposterous promise and in a dramatic reading, we trace Sarah and Abraham’s family tree through their miracle baby, Isaac, their resulting grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and on through the generations and the multitudes of stars in the sky…until at least we come to that night when a very special star appeared over a stable in Bethlehem.   The Christmas Story in context.  As it is told, the Christmas Tree in the worship space becomes a visual Family Tree of Jesus, decorated in stars.

“Gifts on a Starry Night” tells the story of Epiphany found in Matthew 2 in which the Wise Ones from afar – outsiders! – come to bring gifts to the child born under the star in Bethlehem.  This narrative asks us: “So what?  What do we do – how are we to be in this world – once we know this story?”

“Gifts on a Starry Night” is focused on celebration and service–one response to the questions asked of us at Christmas.  Along the way we are reminded of all the stories not told in our traditional stories, our Biblical Story, our world’s history.  We remember the girls, the women, the poor and disenfranchised, the voiceless, the ones without hope….

There is a new song, a little astro-physics, and prompts for wonder throughout both of these narratives.  There are more ideas than can be used and options provided that can work in many contexts.  Take a look.  Wander outside on a clear night and look at the starry sky.  Cut a few paper stars, procure some sparkly star stickers, and dream of something different this Christmas and Epiphany.  “The Stories the Stars Tell” gives you something new.  Something fresh for a season that suffers from commercialism and has plenty of wonder to find.