Christmastide #2 of 2: The Twelve Days.

The Light shines in the darkness,

and darkness cannot overtake it.

(John 1:5)

A woman friend, during a beautiful Christmas dinner, shared how she missed the fast of Advent contrasted with the feast of Christmastide. She was an observant Catholic. In her tradition, you hold off Christmas feasting until after Advent, and then you get twelve days of Christmas, called “Christmastide,” to celebrate the birth of Christ. It seemed to her we were jumping the gun.

We were mostly Protestants, evangelical types, around the table. We tend to jump over fast days and get quickly to feasting. Maybe that’s why we don’t make much of Christmastide with its twelve days of Christmas. We’ve already done our feasting.

Those who follow more closely the Christian calendar, like our observant Catholic friend at the table, have a point. The weeks of Advent move towards the darkest days of winter. During Christmastide, the tide of darkness meets the tide of light and days get brighter. Nature itself joins in the celebration. Christmas turns the tide.

Christmastide #1 of 2: Christmas Day:

The Word became Flesh

(John 1:14)

On this Christmas morning we celebrate that day when God the Son became baby Jesus. The church fussed some about when we should celebrate God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Some thought it should best be celebrated at Jesus’ baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and “a voice was heard from heaven” saying, “This is my beloved Son.”  At adulthood, when Jesus did miracles, that’s when the Word became flesh, they would argue. But, eventually the church settled into the Gospel Story, that baby Jesus was Immanuel—God in a manger.

When you gather today to read again the Christmas story; notice how human it is, almost as if there was nothing supernatural about it. Just an ordinary couple; Mary, with child, on a donkey and Joseph leading them south towards Bethlehem because of some arbitrary decree by Roman power. Yet, at the same time there’s the angels’ song, and that star in the east. That’s the way the Bible is. The human story of the Holy Family is never lost in the Divine story of God’s dealings with us. Christmas, the most Divine story ever told; is, at the same time, the most human story ever told.

Advent #10 of 10:

Abraham begat Isaac… David begat Solomon

(Matthew 1:1-17)

It takes a lot of begetting to get from Abraham to David to “Mary, of whom Jesus was born” (Mt 1:16). “Begat” means we have something more than a genealogical list. We have a story. A story made up of all sorts of surprising begets stories, like how it is that David begat Solomon.

That’s how the Bible is. It prefers stories over lists. Or, if you have a list—say the Ten Commandments, you can’t just go one, two, three… you have to tell the story about what happened that day “when you stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice” (Dt 4:8-14). If you didn’t tell the story, you didn’t tell it right.

So it is with our Lord’s genealogy. It’s full of surprising stories—the stories of the women most surprising of all. Tamar gets a whole long complicated begat story ending with Judah saying: "She is more righteous than I” (Gn 38:26). Then there’s Rahab, and then Ruth who gets a whole Book for her begat story—a story that won’t stop calling her, “Ruth the Moabites;” just so we don’t forget. All three women are Gentiles; and, maybe Bathsheba as well, since she was married to Uriah the Hittite.

What a jumbled lineage. Even its prominent heroes, Abraham and David, have their spiritual struggles and notorious shortcomings. Isn’t it something that the Bible wants us to know such begat stories? Maybe it’s to get us to the Virgin Mary. On Christmas morning, Jesus is born into this tangled lineage of Promise; only Jesus’ begetting will be different.

Advent #9 of 10:

The son of David, the son of Abraham

(Matthew 1:1)

It’s from the lineage of David that Jesus receives his title “The Messiah.” “Messiah” means “anointed” as in “The Lord’s Anointed” (Ps 2 & 72). The Greek title “Christ” means the same. So, the Messiah is the Anointed One who fulfills God’s promise to the lineage of David. Christ’s kingdom will be eternal. It will not be won by sword and violence; nor, will it be ruled by domination and exploitation (Jn 18:36). The reign of Christ will be a different kind of kingdom.

As a descendent of Abraham, Jesus fulfills God’s promise that through Abraham “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gn 12:3). Like Abraham, the Christ Child will be for all people. As we sing during Advent (Charles Wes­ley, 1745):

1. Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

2. Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a king,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

“Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth Thou art.” That’s the Promise that comes from the lineage of Abraham. That’s how we get in on it.

Advent #8 of 10::

The record of the lineage…

(Matthew 1:1)

That’s how Matthew begins his Gospel. The Eternal Son did not just drop from the sky: “He was born of a woman, born under the Law” (Ga 4:4). His family tree stretches back a thousand years to David; and, even further, another thousand years to Abraham: “Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Mt 1:1).

From David comes the promise that his “kingdom will be established forever” (2Sam 7:14). It didn’t appear so. The immense empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and now Rome seemed to put an end to the Promise. Yet, all along, God’s people continued to sing songs of “the sprout of David,” who would be “God’s Anointed One” (Ps 132). And the prophets spoke of a day when “the root of Jesse will arise” (Isa 11:10); and “a fresh shoot from the tree of David… will set things right” (Jer 33:15).

When we cut down our big tree in the front yard, the landscaper saturated its roots with Roundup thinking that should do it. But, by and by, little sprouts started popping up out of the ground. Eventually, we had to bring in heavy equipment to dig out the roots. I haven’t seen a sprout since, but I wouldn’t count it out. Who knows? Maybe the next owners will notice a sprout coming up from somewhere deep in the ground. Perhaps our young neighbors, who will then be as old as we were when we cut the tree down, will remember and say, “That looks like a sprout from a big tree the Heath’s cut down.” That is how it went with the Tree of David. In the midst of the world’s mighty kingdoms, the kingdom of David lies hidden awaiting the “fulness of time” (Ga 4:4).

Advent 7 of 10: Hanukah & Christmas:

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

(Romans 9:2)

What’s causing the Apostle such sorrow: “I anguish …for my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen” (Ro 9:1-5).

During Advent we spend time with the Apostle’s “kindred according to the flesh”. We too, are Abraham’s children, adopted by faith. Israel’s story is our story. And yet, and here is the sorrow, just when Advent meets Christmas, we depart and go our separate ways—they to the lights of Hanukah and we to the lights of Christmas.

This rift has a tragic history. For example, the Holocaust, carried out by a Christian nation. Yet, there were Christian leaders, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth, who formed the Confessing Church to protest the Nazification of the State Church. Albert Einstein noticed:

Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth, I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and more freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly (The Church’s Confession Under Hitler, p. 40).

The Apostle’s anguish continues for three complex chapters ending with a doxology and an “Amen”:

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

"For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?"

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen (Ro 11:33-36).

The doxology and the “Amen” means the tragic rift will not be the last word. It is part of the Gospel Story. There is hope Hanukah and Christmas might someday be one. That’s why we must treat those who light the Menorah with faith, hope and love.

Advent 6 of 10:

They stored the defiled stones…

until a prophet should come

                                       and tell what to do with them.                    

(First Maccabees 4: 41-46)

One hundred sixty seven years before the birth of Christ; the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphany, transgressed the Jerusalem Temple and claimed it as his own. He sacrificed pigs on the altar of burnt offerings. For the next three and a half years, sacrifices were offered to Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. Four books of the Maccabees tell the story of the upheaval and the Jewish revolt that sought to cleanse and restore the temple after “the Gentiles had defiled it.” Hanukah celebrates the retaking of the temple and dedicating it to God—that place where God would have dealings with his people.

Yet, they couldn’t help but wonder about those years Antiochus desecrated the temple: “They deliberated what to do about the altar of burnt offering, which had been profaned. …So they tore down the altar, and stored the stones in a convenient place on the temple hill until a prophet should come to tell what to do with them” (1Macc 4:41-46). The cleansing of the temple awaits “a prophet” —”The Prophet,” who alone can cleanse and renew sacred space. This is an Advent longing, that God will create new, undefiled, sacred space to be with his people—to be Emmanuel, “God with us.” It will be a surprise how Jesus cleanses the temple and how he renews the temple.

I can't help but wonder about that pile of stones set off to the side of the temple mount. Folks must have wondered, “What’s that pile of stones doing over there on the edge of the mount?” And those who knew the story would retell how the stones got there and how they were waiting for the One who alone could cleanse such defilement.

Advent #5.1 of 10:

With Healing in his Wings.

(Malachi 4:2)

Sunday afternoon, along with our friends whose home had been plundered the week before, we attended a presentation of “A British Christmas” by the Valley Concert Chorale. The performance began with the choir singing from the back of the sanctuary Once in Royal David’s City. The pipe organ accompanied without overwhelming. One could hear the words to the haunting melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ9JVAzDpxs. The audience was invited to sing along on the third stanza as the chorale formed a processional to the dais. I couldn’t sing without tears. Hard to explain. I suppose it has to do with age. I’m moved by tradition, beauty and pageantry. All this high culture with the simplest of lyrics: “Once in royal David’s city, stood a lowly cattle shed…” I love every word: “once” for example. It doesn’t happen every day; but, “once in royal David’s city” it happened.

Afterwards, during dinner, we discussed things. We talked of the break-in of their home and the beauty of the concert. They said, more than once and in several different ways, “This has been healing.”

They were so grateful for all the friends and family who helped put their plundered home back in order; making it beautiful once again. But during dinner, they went on to talk of a personal healing that has to do with that “lowly cattle shed,” as the choir sang, “where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed.” As the prophets foretold, this is The One who comes to us “with healing in his wings.” It is the kind of healing that restores our shattered souls and makes us whole.

Advent #5 of 10:

Even though the inclination of the human heart is evil.

(Genesis 8:21)

Thieves broke into our friends home while they were vacationing in Hawaii. They returned immediately to view the pillage, catalog their losses and put things back in order—“Just things,” they tell me.

Yet, there is this lingering hurt that our “just things” rationale cannot satisfy or heal. Something deeper and personal had been violated. The Bible word “trespasses” comes to mind. It’s one of those sin words that speaks of violating the boundaries and defying sacred space.

It’s the kind of insult that riles God: “The wickedness of humankind was great, and every inclination of their hearts was evil”; resulting in the flood. “But God remembers Noah” and the waters subside. Nothing changes much after the flood. “The human heart is still evil”. If anything changes it comes from God’s side. He decides to stick with his fallen creation “even though the inclination of the human heart is evil.”

That “even though,” makes it an Advent story. The rainbow is an “even though” sign that somehow God is going to keep the world open and see his creation through until The One arrives who enables us to “forgive those who trespass against us.”

Why Follow the Christian Calendar? #3 of 3:

Together with all who in every place

call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(First Corinthians 1:2)

That’s another reason I migrated towards the Christian Calendar—it was a way of identifying with the big church that in all times and all places “calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1Cor 1:2). This big, deep and ancient faith we call “orthodoxy”.

“Orthodoxy” comes from two Greek words: orthos meaning “straight’ as in orthodontist—the one who works at getting our teeth straight; and, doxa meaning “glory” or “glorious”. To be orthodox means we attend to getting the glory right. It’s a worship word—how do we best glorify our glorious God? The Creed and the Calendar serve, and has served for nearly 1,700 years, to help the church glorify God correctly—it straightens us out.

“Glory” has the sense of weight as in the “eternal weight of glory” (1Cor 4:17). True glory is weighty. It has a gravitational pull to it. We can take off on all sorts of lightweight ideas; but, the “weight of glory” has a way of reining us in. The Creed and the Calendrer keep us real and weighty.

Bonus: Watch how the Calendar celebrates the Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,    = Advent                                                              

        creator of heaven and earth;                           

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord:                                  

        who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,                          

        born of the Virgin Mary,                   = Christmas

        suffered under Pontius Pilate,            = Lent

        was crucified, died, and was buried   = Good Friday

        he descended to the dead.                   = Dark Saturday

        On the third day he rose again;           = Easter Morning

        he ascended into heaven,                     = Ascension Thursday

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

        and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,                          =Pentecost Sunday                                            

        the holy catholic church,                                   

        the communion of saints,                                                 

        the forgiveness of sins,

        the resurrection of the body,

        and the life everlasting.

AMEN.

Why Follow the Christian Calendar? #2 of 3:

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

(Second Corinthians 3:17)

Non-liturgical churches, like our own, tend to reject the liturgical calendar fearing it replaces the freedom of the Holy Spirit. We tend toward more contemporary and spontaneous worship. The Christian Calendar is too scripted. Why not just let the Spirit move and see what happens?

Does the Calendar edge out the workings of the Holy Spirit? I suppose it could if it were set in stone. However, I’m constantly surprised by the openness and flexibility of the Calendar. It’s spacious. It provides ample room for the Spirit’s leading and prompting.

We are free to make it our own. For example, last Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent, a young couple came forward to light the first and now second candle of the Advent Wreath, and then read an Advent text from Isaiah—the one about how Jesus will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  All beautiful with two more candles to go, plus the Christ candle in the center saved for Christmas Eve when the whole wreath is set ablaze on that dark night. This is our own touch on the Ancient Calendar. It brings us, as our Lord teaches, “something old and something new” (Mt 13:52).

My deepest experiences of the love of Christ tend to come on those cold dark Christmas Eve nights when we gather to worship. As we enter, each one receives a little candle. Towards the conclusion of the celebration, while singing “Silent Night, Holy Night,” we light our own little candles from the flame of the Christ candle. With all candles set aflame, we linger and share many hugs filled with laughter and joy.

Why Follow the Christian Calendar? #1 of 3:

Do not let anyone condemn you in matters of observing festivals...

(Colossians 2:15)

Moses and the Law prescribed three festivals: Passover in spring, Pentecost in summer, and Tabernacles in the fall. Since Jesus fulfilled the Law, we are no longer obliged to observe: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law” (Ga 4:4-5).

Christ frees us from prescribed feasts and fasts, festivals and rituals. “Therefore,” as the Apostle instructs us, “do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:16-17).

So, we are free. We need not follow the Christian Calendar or any other contrived rituals and regulations (Col 2:18-20). If we follow the Christian Calendar, we do so out of our freedom. It’s not the Gospel. It’s not the “substance”. But maybe it’s one of those shadows that can help some of us stick close to the “substance”— the Gospel and the fulness of Christ.

The Christian Calendar was not “handed down” to me. Neither my denomination, nor my church, nor my family paid notice—too Catholic and liturgical, I suspect. The Calendar came to me during my early years of pastoring. I noticed how much of church life depended on me—what God was doing in my life. The personality of the pastor seemed everything. It was a burden I could not bear. The congregation deserved something bigger than what God was doing in my life. For me, the Christian Calendar became that bigger thing to guide and feed the congregation, and me as well.

Advent #4.1 of 10:

The woman was deceived.

(First Timothy 2:14)

I wish the Apostle had not said it. At least, not the way he did. There is some truth to it. The woman was deceived. However, in no time, the man joined in—deceived as well. The curse falls on both and all.

This Advent hope, the first promise of Christmas, does not come through the man, but through the woman. The Serpent will meet his end through the “seed of the woman” (Gn 1:15). What the Serpent put in motion through the woman will recoil back on him through The Woman. Maybe, that’s what the Apostle had in mind when he quickly adds: “Nevertheless, the woman will bring salvation through childbearing” (1Tm 2:15).

It means, from the start, the woman is not looked upon so much as “the deceived” as she is the one who will one day turn the tables on the deceiver. Through her and her seed, the deceiver meets his end.

Something could be said as well about how man is out of the picture. Just as Adam went to sleep when God did his woman work; so man in his power, will be out of the picture when the Mother of our Lord “conceives by the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:35). Man becomes the helper, as woman takes center stage. Christmas will be something  between God and the Woman.

Advent #4 of 10:

The seed of the woman will crush the serpent.

(Genesis 3:15)

The serpent’s temptation brings about “the curse”. But tucked away somewhere deep down in the curse there is hope: “Creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope” (Ro 8:20). This hope has to do with the woman. It is a hope at first vague and riddled, but a hope that will make its way all the way to Bethlehem.

The curse brings futility and death to God’s good creation: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gn 3:19). But, if one looks closely, you will notice that God’s “No” has a “Yes” in it. That’s just the way God is. The curse will not be the last word.

God’s “Yes” has to do with the woman:  First, in the midst of death she will bring forth life. It is such a wonder that her name will be changed from Woman to Eve, “the life giver”. Because of her, “with the help of the Lord,” life goes on—humanity lives on.  It is life unto death, but life nonetheless—enough life to see something of us living on in our children and our children’s children.  Second, and an even greater wonder, the wonder of all wonders, from woman and her seed will come The Woman whose offspring will turn the tables on the serpent. That’s the riddled part—a riddle placed right at the beginning of the curse—a hint that there is from the beginning something tucked away down deep in the curse that will someday turn the tables bringing an end to death and liberating us to life eternal.

That’s how we sing it when Christmas comes: “He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found…” (Joy to the World).

Advent #3.1 of 10:

The Word was God

(John 1:1)

Probably something should be said about that word “Word" that appears in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. I’ll try. It’s a translation of the Greek word logos which, for the most part, is simply and properly translated as “word”. With words we tell our stories, or give an account, or put things in order, or try to make sense of things.

Which leads philosophers and poets to use logos in a deeper sense meaning “reason,” or “rational order.” The logos is that which makes sense of things. We get our word “logic” from it as well as a host of “ology” words like biology and sociology; by which we mean “the study of”. So “biology” is the study of life and sociology is the study of social structures. Today, we think of such studies in more scientific ways as methods for discovering the mechanisms of life or society. For philosophers and poets of old, logos had to do with discovering the meaning of things. What is the meaning of life? Or, what is the “Meaning” that underlies all things? That’s the logos of poets and philosophers.

Thus, we might translate John’s poetic use of logos something like this: “In the beginning was the Meaning, and the Meaning was with God, and the Meaning was God.” The Chinese version of the Bible, I’ve been told, translates logos in John chapter one with the word “tao”: “In the beginning was the Tao…” Lewis would like that (his “Illustrations of the Tao” in The Abolition of Man).The idea is that the Word that calls all things into being continues to echo. Poets and philosophers contemplate this sustaining echo of the eternal Logos.

My hunch is that poets and philosophers would have little trouble with John’s first stanza. They would nod their heads in approval: “Yes, in the beginning was the Logos…” It’s not until the last stanza of John’s poem that the philosophers and poets realize John is talking about something they could never imagine. We’ll save that shocking surprise for Christmas.

For now, Advent has to do, not only with how Israel’s prophets foretell the mystery and wonder of Christmas, but also how some of the poets and philosophers long for it as well. There’s something universal about Advent. As the Apostle Paul said to the Athenian philosophers: “Even some of your poets have said…” (Ac 17). All humans wonder about such things. As we sing during Advent: “Dear desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart” (Come Thou Long Expected Jesus). An echo of that sustaining Logos, spoken before the beginning, still lingers in God’s creation.

Advent #3 of 10:

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

(John 1:1)

The Word speaks before the beginning: “Let there be light.” And from that Word “light shines and darkness could not overtake it” (Jn 1:5)—from that Word, there’s light instead of darkness, there is something instead of nothing.

God speaks creation into being out of his absolute freedom—no need on his part. God is quite at peace within himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the love and delight that flows within the infinitely spacious Godhead. Out of his eternal love and pleasure, God calls forth the heavens and the earth. The people of God can’t help but sing about it (Ps 33):

Praise the Lord with the lyre;

  make melody to him with the harp.

Sing to him a new song;

  …the earth is full of his love.

For by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made,

   and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

The whole of our triune God is in on it:  God the Father who creates all things; and, God the Son who redeems all things; and, God the Holy Spirit who hovers over all things (Gn 1:1-4). Advent reminds us that Christmas was always and eternally in the heart of God. It’s just the way God is.

Advent #2 of 10:

In the beginning was the Word

(John 1:1)

That’s how the Gospel according to John begins. It’s the back story; or, the Advent part of the Christmas story that speaks of “the Word” that existed before the beginning began. Sometimes we wonder if our “handed down faith” can be “honest faith” (2Tm 1)? Maybe we were just born into it. How does our “handed down faith” become our own personal, real and authentic faith? For starters, it’s helpful to recall that our faith is in something bigger than our family, or clan, or church, or denomination. It’s not the invention of my parents or my parent’s parents or of Western Culture. The object of our faith is the Eternal Word before the beginning—before the origin of the universe, before the big bang put stuff in motion. Before the beginning began, there was the Eternal Word.

The creeds and the calendar help us recall the vastness of our faith—the trusted path of our faith in the Christ of Christmas.

Thanksgiving to Advent:

An Honest Faith handed down from your Grandmother Lois

(Second Timothy 1:5)

It was easy to be grateful on Thanksgiving Day. The meal itself was something of a miracle. When our oven malfunctioned it seemed all was lost. But family kicked in and managed to set table for all twenty-one of us—our whole family.

It so happens, we all share “an honest faith handed down.”  For each one, questions can’t help but come: “Is it really true?”  Maybe I believe because my parents and my parents’ parents believed? Or, maybe if I were born in Iran, for example, I would simply believe what Iranians believe? All fair and honest questions. What turns “faith handed down” into my very own “honest faith”?

Maybe the first thing to say about “honest faith” is that it welcomes such questions—otherwise it would not be honest faith. That’s the way with Jesus. He’s always open to our questions. Take Thomas’ question for example (Jn 14): Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you …and you know where I am going.” Thomas says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus is not offended by Thomas’ question. He welcomes it. Without it, we would not have Jesus' answer: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life...”

Our faith isn’t about vague religious or philosophical thoughts; but rather, a belief that Christmas and Easter are really so. Which gets me to Advent when we celebrate the beginning of the Big Story that envelopes all our little stories—like the little story of our miracle Thanksgiving Dinner, for example. Our Christian Calendar celebrates this Big Gospel Story that begins before the beginning and ends without end.

During the reception of one of those Winter’s weddings, a couple of Stanford smart young men—cousins, I believe; engaged me in interesting conversation concerning the various paths one takes up the mountain. “It’s not the path that matters,” they argued, “but the mountain.” I asked, “What path have you chosen?” They explained how they were pondering their path. I have a hunch they are still pondering. Honest Faith chooses its path. I can’t imagine a better path than that one path that celebrates Christmas and Easter.