Thin Places

Meditation Christmas Eve 2017

Thin Places

Tonight as we enter into the holy night of the birth of our Savior I am thinking about thin places. a thin place is a term used for millennia to describe a place in time where the space between heaven and earth grows thin and the Sacred and the secular seem to meet. 

That night so long ago was one of those thin places moments. 

We all come to the dim lights of Christmas Eve, the candle glow, and the softness of the sounds around us. 

We all come to hushed tones of the evening seeking, searching, hoping, for a glimpse into the holy. We come to encounter the thin place where God reaches down and touches us. We come with expectation of the birth, to witness the manger once again, to be lifted up into the glorious song of angels. 

We want to be with the shepherds as they grab their gear and run to Bethlehem. 

We want a sense of that hurried anticipation of the power of the presence of God in our life.

Yes, a thin place. 

A place in time where heaven and earth grow daringly thin so that God may enter in. 

And yet, it is on this night that we discover the mystery of God’s bursting forth into real time and real space. To claim us for his own. The Incarnation happened then and happens now-be born in us today, we sing.

No matter who we are or how we are God moves through this evening with the mystery that captured that first clash of heaven to earth.

We can learn to Trust it.

Be in love with it.

And we come to discover that this mystery, this miracle, is what carries us through all the Christmas Eves to come.

Allow God to show us the holy, the thin place and space that will warm our hearts and shape our lives.

And so I invite you to remember that Christmas Comes (Ann Weams)

Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons. 

The human and the holy meet in Bethlehem-or in Times Square,

For Christmas comes like a golden storm on its way to Jerusalem—

Determinedly, inevitably…

now it comes

In the face of hatred and warring----

No atrocity too terrible to stop it. 

No Herod strong enough, 

No hurt deep enough, 

No curse shocking enough, 

No disaster shattering enough-----

For someone on earth will see the star, 

someone will hear the angel voices, 

someone will run to Bethlehem, 

someone will know peace and goodwill: 

The Christ will be born! 

Christ is born this night. 

Christ is our light.

  Blessings to you this Christmas in whatever state God finds you. 

Know you are loved and love wraps around you. 

Amen.