The Twelve Days of Christmas

Rev. Kristi Denham
Congregational Church of Belmont
December 25, 2008 - January 6, 2009

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly.  Someone during that era wrote “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as a catechism song for young Catholics.  It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church.  Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.

So for our Twelve Days of Christmas, celebrated from Christmas Night to Epiphany, January 6, you will be invited to mediate not on the Catholic meaning of each verse, but the spiritual significance behind each verse as we might reflect on it from our various points of view. I may take some license with the metaphors and theology but so did the creators of the song.

May your faith be deepened in this season of renewal. May your heart be opened to the wisdom at the heart of life. May the music of the spheres sing within you.
Merry Christmas!

December 25 ~ On The First Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent to Me A partridge in a pear tree ~ Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigned injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . ." (Luke 13:34)

The early church had no problem seeing Christ as a mother and several of the Medieval Mystics described their relationship with the One God as comparable to the intimacy of mother and child. When we remember God’s love for us this first day of Christmas, may we feel as close to our Creator as Jesus felt to Mary.
May the simple beauty of a partridge in a pear tree remind you of God’s profound love for you this day and everyday.

December 26 ~ On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me Two turtle doves ~ The Old and New Testaments.

The Old and New Testaments, which together bear witness to the relationships humanity has developed with its Creator over the centuries are symbolized by turtle doves.  Doves are love birds. They mate for life and remind us of the bond we can experience with one another and with the divine. As they gently whisper “Coo…Coo…”  they invite us into a deeper relationship with the One whose name is Love.

I have to admit that doves, although lovely, have never been my favorite birds. They tend to be foolish and a bit slow. But I am learning that every created being has value. Many of you may find the Bible a bit ponderous and convoluted. There is much that needs historical/critical explanation in order to make sense, but it always seems worth the effort. Humanity hasn’t changed all that much in the last 6000 years and the stories we find in the pages of our scriptures are often as relevant today as they were when they were written.

May the turtle doves of God’s love invite you into the pages of scripture this season to find the words of comfort that will strengthen your heart.

December 27 ~ On the Third Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me Three French Hens ~ Faith, Hope and Love.

The Three Theological Virtues:  Faith, Hope, and Love as defined by Paul  (1 Corinthians 13:13) are central to our faith… “and the greatest of these is love.”

Faith is not a belief system. It is trust in the deepest sense. When Jesus healed others he always said, “Your faith has healed you.” Yet he had no theological conversations with these folks. He simply saw the openness of their hearts.

Hope is the substance of things unseen. This is the season of the “audacity of hope.” We are learning that what we most deeply long for will manifest in our world, if we “put feet on it.”

“And the greatest of these is love.” This entire song reminds us that our “True Love” is sending each gift. Who would you describe as your True Love?
Where we put our hearts, there shall our treasure be. For many who have found a partner in this life the first response would, of course, be their mate. And yet, it is God’s love for us that allows the love we share with others to manifest.
God is truly our One True Love, the bond that unites us all.

December 28 ~ On The Fourth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to Me Four Calling Birds ~ The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

The Gospels call us to remember the life and light of the teachings of the Christ Child. They are the Calling Birds that challenge us to discover this story for ourselves. Each is different. Each contradicts the others in some way, challenging us to think for ourselves, to discover the deeper and essential truth behind the stories.

Matthew ‘s Gospel was the favorite of the church of the 4th Century when the canon was chosen. It seemed most royal and most connected to the Hebrew Scriptures, quoting them over and over again. Matthew saw Jesus first as the King of Kings, heir of the throne of David. The growing and powerful church of the time of Constantine focused most on Christ as King.

Mark was actually the first of the Gospels to be written and circulated and all the other gospels used his story as their model. He wrote in a blunt and uneducated style of Greek.  His was the shortest and most action packed of the gospels and it did not include an actual resurrection story, although it was implied by the empty tomb at the end. In it you will find no birth stories at all. We begin with John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus which was the starting point for his ministry. Mark feels closest to the poor. It is my favorite gospel.

Luke also builds on Mark and carries many of the same stories as Matthew but he focuses on Jesus as compassionate healer and builder of communities that cross boundaries. His is the gospel of feasts and focuses on justice for the poor. Here we find the story of Mary and Elizabeth and the journey to Bethlehem where Christ as laid in a manger. Luke’s is the most poetic and creative of stories. The intimate details bring everything to vivid life.
Luke’s gospel does not end with Christ’s resurrection. It continues on in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, a wildly dramatic description of the founding of the early church.

Then there is John. His gospel was written late at the end of the first Century and was considered too Gnostic by many in the early church to be included in the canon. It focused on Christ as pure Spirit and contained many long speeches that contradict the simple itinerant preacher of Mark’s version of Jesus. Its poetry, power and many of our favorite stories of Jesus (including the Woman at the Well and the Woman Caught in Adultery) are found in no other gospel.

I have issues with all the gospels but I am thankful for each of them for what they glimpse of the man called Jesus of Nazareth.

There  were other gospels, of course. The Gospel of Thomas in particular is worthy of inspection. Written at the same time as the other gospels, it was even more Gnostic in tone than John’s, and so it was rejected. Others were written later, some perhaps earlier but lost forever. We have a Gospel of Mary Magdalene, a Gospel of Judas, a Gospel of Peter and fragments of several others.

May you experience the good news of Christ’s presence and teachings in your life this season of remembering his birth. May all the gospel stories add something of their wisdom to your journey.

December 29 ~ On the Fifth Day of Christmas My True Love Sent to MeFive Golden Rings ~Pentateuch  or Torah, The First Five Books of the Hebrew Scriptures

A resent survey of American thinking on religion found that many if not most Americans were not aware that the Torah was part of our very own Bible. Thought to have been written by Moses, although in it he describes his own death, scholars now see the Torah as the most ancient of our Hebrew scriptures, written and rewritten in layers that added and retold stories, sometimes creating duplications and contradictions that challenge our logical minds. Again, we are invited to discover the ancient stories of very human people making decisions based on their understanding of who they believed God to be. They are wise and tragic, inspiring and troubling. They give us our faith foundations and were the essential scriptures known to Jesus.  

Genesis means birth or beginnings. In it we find not only the creation of the world but the stories of its near destruction during the time of Noah, as well as the journey and the generations of Abraham and his children and their children down to the time of the great famine and Joseph’s leadership in Egypt. We learn of betrayals and duplicity and abuse and visions.

In Exodus we are introduced to Moses and his eventual leadership of the people in their escape from the oppressive power of pharaoh. The people travel in the wilderness, receive the Ten Commandments and learn the hard lessons of their stubborn ways. Freedom from oppression has drawn many an enslaved people to the words of scripture with a sense of deep recognition.

Leviticus is a book of laws, associated with the priestly class. It gives us all those problematic passages that have cause so much conflict among people of faith. But it also gives us the essential Law of Love which Jesus told us was the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. It is not an easy read.

Numbers continues the journey through the wilderness and includes most of our favorite characters: Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Baalam’s talking ass, Joshua and Caleb. There are plenty of numbers in Numbers too.

Finally, Deuteronomy speaks of the consolidation of the faith under the leadership of Joshua although it was probably written to establish the rule of King Josiah in the 6th Century B.C.E. It tells of the death of Moses and calls for the end to all local worship demanding that all must come to Jerusalem to worship God. We are challenged to “choose life” as we follow the living God.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy give us plenty to chew on as story and inspiration. May we find in them examples to strengthen our faith even as we challenge the assumptions some make by trying to take these stories literally.

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