December 30, 2007

I really admire people who wake up each day to experience the newness that awaits them.  They greet the day as the gift that it is.  They start afresh.  They welcome what comes their way. 

I am not that kind of person.  I’m fairly optimistic, but I do not greet each day as an opportunity to begin anew.  By the time my feet hit the floor in the morning, I’ve usually gotten a clear idea of what is on my to do list and I’m off and running.  So much for fresh starts.

I rely on  special occasions to remind me to pause, take a deep breath, change course, wake up.  These occasions are many.  They include Rally Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Ash Wednesday, Easter, birthdays, anniversaries.  All of these open the door to a new beginning.  Often though, I’m so busy with the activities related to the events that the door closes before I walk through it.

Recently it occurred to me that a new beginning may be more about attitude than it is about activity.  Just before Christmas I was watching the movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with my grandson.  I was struck by how Cindy Lou Who, the little girl who nominated the Grinch for the Spirit of Christmas Award saw the Grinch in a very different light from the rest of the citizens of Whoville.  While others in the town recoiled in fear when the Grinch showed up, Cindy Lou saw him as a lonely being.  Cindy Lou asked many people about the Grinch when he was little.  She discovered a lot about him.

When Cindy Lou went to the Grinch’s cave to invite him to the Christmas celebration and to receive the award, the Grinch was his usual rude self.  That didn’t put off Cindy Lou.  She kept listing all the reasons why the Grinch should attend and how he would enjoy himself.  He, of course, kept on being rude.  At one point, Cindy Lou told the Grinch that he really needed a time out.  That is hardly the reaction of someone who is intimidated by his fierceness or put off by his rudeness.  This particular scene ends with the Grinch pulling a rope that opens a trap door sending Cindy Lou down the moutain through the garbage chute back into town.  Now that could be a scarey experience in itself, but she really enjoyed the ride and giggled all the way down.  Cindy Lou had a very different attitude from everyone else in Whoville. 

While this movie is a fantasy made up in the wonderful imagination of Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, it holds up for us how we so often write off the one who is different and create a lot of rules to keep that one out of our way.  It was actually Cindy Lou’s attitude that offered a new beginning to the Grinch and to the whole town of Whoville.

At this time of the year, as Christians we celebrate the birth of Christ – for us a significant new beginning.  While we often dwell on the little child, meek and mild, during this season, the Gospel of Matthew tells a different story.  The birth narrative takes place in the space of 31 verses in the first 2 chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.  The opening of the narrative addresses the fact that Mary, who is engaged to Joseph, is pregnant.  Joseph, an honorable man, has decided to divorce Mary quietly rather than to disgrace her.  In a dream an angel tells Joseph that the child Mary is carrying is from the Holy Spirit and that he should not be afraid to marry her.  When he awakes he does just that.  Joseph was open to another perspective and was able to experience a new beginning under these very strange circumstances.

The Gospel then moves on to the story of Herod, ruler of Judea, and the Magi – political officials from the east.  Herod is a conniving king.  In his fear that Jesus has been born to overthrow his rule, Herod pretends to the Magi that he is interested in paying homage to the new born child.  He asks them to return to him on their way back home to let him know exactly where he would find Jesus.  The Magi offer Jesus their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh --  gifts for a king.  Fortunately for Jesus the Magi are warned in a dream that Herod is up to no good and they return home by a different route.

This is where we enter the story today.  Joseph has another dream warning him about Herod’s treachery, so he takes his family to Egypt to escape the slaughter of the innocents.  When Herod discovers he has been tricked he orders all children under two in and around Bethlehem to be killed.  After Herod dies, Joseph has another dream telling him that he could return from Egypt.  He takes his family to the district of Galilee where they settle in the town of Nazareth.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, the first few years of Jesus’ life are filled with new beginnings.  Fifteen- or sixteen-year-old Mary is pregnant and engaged to a man who has every right in his culture to set her aside, but chooses not to.  As soon as Jesus is born, Joseph takes his family to Egypt to escape the slaughter planned by Herod.  After Herod’s death, Joseph relocates his family to the town of Nazareth.

Of these beginnings, only one is a choice.  Joseph chooses to go ahead with his marriage to Mary.  While the other beginnings might at some level be viewed as a choice, the alternatives are not on an equal scale.  Did Joseph really have a choice not to move to Egypt to escape Herod’s terror?  Would he really prefer to remain in Egypt rather than return to his homeland after Herod died? 

A question this raises is this:  How can we make each new beginning our choice?  How can we wake up each morning and see the day as the gift that it is?  How can we let go of the to do list – without letting go of our responsibilities – and take what the day presents?

I am reminded of a couple more Christmas movies:  “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey spends a lot of time helping those around him and a lot of energy wishing he were somewhere else – traveling the world and building great cities.  Clarence Oddbody, Angel Second Class, is sent to help George when he decides he’s worth more dead than alive.  Clarence shows George what his family, friends, and town would be like if he had never been born – and it’s not a pretty sight.  George makes a great discovery that helps him change his perspective and his attitude.  As his brother, Harry, says, “George Bailey is the richest man in town.”

In “Miracle on 34th Street,” Macy executive, Doris Walker, and her daughter Susan are in great need of an attitude adjustment.  Doris has dealt with her own disappointment by encouraging her daughter to be practical and to stiffle any imagination or sense of wonder.  Fred Gailey, the Walker’s neighbor, and Kris Kringle, Santa Clause extraordinaire, make it their quest to help Doris and Susan have a little faith.  It takes some doing, but they are ultimately successful.

Both of these movies reinforce the importance of new beginnings – not those new beginnings that focus on doing things differently.  Rather they focus on new attitudes.  Being open to the possibilities.  Seeing the adventure in life as it is.  Appreciating who we are.  Appreciating those who are in our lives.

Sometimes we are forced into new beginnings.  We lose a job.  We start at a new school.  A good friend moves away.  Someone we love dies.  We disappoint someone we admire.  Our environment changes, perhaps drastically.  We move through the emotional rollercoaster these new beginnings carry.  And then, when we’re ready, we can be open to the possibilities.

Twenty years ago, when our daughters were 4 or 5, Jim and I had established a Friday evening routine that focused on family.  We would spend our time watching a movie together – Dumbo was a favorite then – and having fun.  Then Jim had the opportunity to attend a class offered by one of his favorite professors from grad school.  This was a wonderful chance for Jim to reconnect with this professor.  Of course, the class met on Friday nights.  When Jim brought up this idea, I did not see it as great for him.  I saw it as something that would destroy (yes, destroy) our lovely Friday night family time.  I’m sure I pouted. 

At any rate, the first Friday night came along.  Jim went off to his class.  Kate, Jenna, and I decided to go out for dinner.  We changed our family routine.  The three of us had a great time.  We chatted throughout the evening about school, friends, family.  We also made a plan for the next Friday evening.  By the time Jim came home the girls were in bed and asleep.  I’m sure he was surprised and probably relieved that the pouting wife he had left several hours earlier was replaced by a rather contented wife.  A new beginning for us.    

We do not read any detail into the new beginnings that Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived through in the story we find in the gospel of Matthew.  We don’t know if Mary and Joseph sat down at the kitchen table and laid out a plan for how they were going to travel from Bethlehem to Egypt and then on to Nazareth.  We don’t know if they simply looked at each other, picked up the child, jumped back on that donkey we see in so many holy family paintings, and high tailed it out of town. 

What we learn from the gospel of Matthew is that Joseph is an honorable and reasonable person.  He is open to the possibility that he can change his mind and make a choice that feels right even when his social context might suggest another course.   From the Gospel of Luke we meet Mary as a very young woman who is open to the risk of pregnancy under socially unacceptable circumstances and all the challenges and heart ache that will bring.  The Gospels present two adults who are open to meeting new beginnings as if they are welcome experiences.  In that way, these new beginnings become welcome experiences.

I am convinced that this notion of new beginnings really is after all much more about attitude than it is about activity.  It’s more about living than it is about planning.  I am not disparaging planning and activity.  Those are important steps.  But they are only steps.  Our attitude of openness to the possibilities that lie ahead and our willingness to remain open to those possibilities is key to the fullness of our new beginnings.

Tomorrow night we will welcome the new year. We take stock of the past year and make decisions about the year to come.  We mark our accomplishments and determine course corrections that will help us achieve our goals.  The plans and activities help us on the course we have laid out. 

May we also bring to these plans and activities that attitude of openness to the possibilities.  May we live into our future aware that God is with us, making room for God’s realm in our lives.