Storyshare

Contents

1 Sharing Visions, "Christmas Communion" by John Sumwalt
2 Good Stories, "This Will Be A Sign" by John Sumwalt
3 Jo's Yarn Basket, "Christmas Eve Magic"
4 How To Subscribe & How To Send Stuff For Publication

Sharing Visions

Christmas Communion
by John Sumwalt

A young woman drove a rented car slowly up a snow covered mountain road on a cold Christmas Eve. She was going to see her father, whom she had not seen in twelve years. She had been sixteen when her father and mother divorced after his affair with a woman at work. Neither she nor her mother had ever been able to forgive him. The affair had not lasted and her father had soon given up his corporate job in an eastern city and moved to Colorado: "to rest his weary soul in the solitude of the mountains" was what he had written in the first letter he sent after he left home. He had taken a job with the national park service for
the summer and hoped he might find something at a ski resort in the winter. That
was all she knew about his life for all of those years. Letters had come
regularly from the same address in a town called Ward, and she had carefully
saved each one, unopened, in a cookie tin on the back shelf of the large walk-in
closet in the bedroom of her townhouse. She had done well for herself,
ironically, in the same company that had once employed her father.

The last line of that one letter she had read flashed into her mind, as it had
so many times before, as she saw the road sign for Ward with an arrow pointing
to the right. "I hope you will be able to forgive me some day, Gracie. I love
you."

Could she forgive him? Was that why she had come? Even after the long flight and
the equally long drive from the airport on unfamiliar mountain roads, she still
didn't know.

Grace and her mother had always spent Christmases together, vacationing in
Florida or the Caribbean. It was a way of distracting themselves from what they
had lost. Now that her mother was remarried there was no place to go. They had
invited her for Christmas, her mother and Ted, but she hadn't wanted to intrude
on their first holiday together. So, here she was on the road to Ward.

Grace could see the lights of the little town, shimmering below her, shiny and
yellow against the snow, like the gold that had once been mined from the
mountain. She turned off the main highway and shifted into low gear. The road
down to the village was steep and narrow and snow covered. Sand had been spread
on the curves but she still had to go slow. She wondered in which of the thirty
or forty houses and old miner's shacks she would find her father. She pulled up
in front of the general store. The porch light was on and the door was open. A
young woman about her own age, and dressed in bib overalls, with braided hair
hanging down to her waist, was crocheting behind the counter near a small wood
burning stove. Candy bars, cigarettes and several brands of cough medicine lined
the shelves behind her. The woman smiled at Grace and said, "Good evening. What
can I do for you?"

I'm looking for my father," Grace said. The plaintive tone of her own voice
surprised her. She told the woman her father's name and immediately saw a
knowing look of recognition. "Old Jim. He comes in here all the time. You must
be Grace. He told me about you."

It seemed strange to hear her father called old. Grace remembered him as middle
aged. Of course he would be older now, in his late sixties. It pleased Grace to
know he had spoken of her.

"Almost everybody is up at the church," the woman said. "I saw your dad go up
about a half hour ago. A retired preacher comes up from Nederbet every Christmas
Eve. It's about the only time they have services here. You can leave your car
out in front. It's easier to walk from here."

Grace slowly made her way over the footbridge spanning the ice covered stream
that wound through the center of the town. She could see the small clapboard
church about two hundred yards up the mountain. On top of the steeple there were
green, blue and red Christmas lights flashing in the form of a star. They
appeared to be attached to the cross. Her hands trembled as she opened the door
of the church. Would her father be glad to see her after all these years? Would
he recognize her?

She spotted him, sitting by himself in one of the back pews. 'Old Jim'. The
woman at the store was right. His hair was thin and completely gray. He was much
heavier now. He looked tired, and, the thought pained her, very much alone.

The congregation stood up to sing "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." The words of
the familiar carol rang in her ears as she slipped into the pew beside her
father. "Glory to the new-born King, Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and
sinners reconciled."

She squeezed her father's hand and a smile came over his face in the same
instant he turned to see her. "Grace," he said, "I'm so glad to see you."

"Daddy," was all she was able to say.

When the preacher gave the invitation to come forward for Christmas communion,
Grace and her father walked up the aisle hand in hand.

(This previously unpublished story came to John as a gift of the Spirit as he
passed through Ward following a camping expedition in Rocky Mountain National
Park with his two brothers, his son and four nephews in 1996)

Good Stories

This Will Be A Sign
by John Sumwalt

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child
wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:12

Christ Church put on a live nativity every year about two weeks before
Christmas. They had the perfect location downtown on the square across from the
clock tower. Everyone who drove into the business district went right by the
front lawn of the church. There were slums, and street people who slept in the
park a few blocks away, but you couldn't see them from the church. They set the
nativity up on the lawn on the designated evening after dark and flooded it with
carefully placed spotlights. For anyone driving around the square it was a
dazzling sight, a Christmas card come to life. When word got out people came
from miles around, from all over the city and the suburbs.

At first it was just a few bales of hay stacked up to give some semblance of a
stable, a couple of sheep and two sets of parents with small babies who took
turns portraying the holy family. But as the crowds grew each year the nativity
became a bigger and bigger production with shepherds, wise men, an innkeeper,
King Herod, a small flock of sheep with lambs for the children to pet, a donkey
for Mary to ride, cows with calves, chickens, ducks, geese, and, thanks to
special arrangements made through the local Shriners, three genuine two-hump
camels to carry the wise men as they followed the star. The star rolled along on
a track which had been laid out across the roof line of the church. They rented
doves one year to perch on top of the stable and coo, but they couldn't get them
to coo on cue and they discovered that the pigeons that flew down from the clock
tower could play the part just as well, and they were free, so that was the end
of rented doves.

The latest addition had been a 40-voice angel choir with the choir director Tom
Grover playing the part of the arch-angel Gabriel. Tom loved to dress up in his
flowing white robes with magnificent wings with gold glitter on the tips. He
suggested that he carry a flaming sword when he made the announcement to the
shepherds, but the director thought that would be too much. They did give him a
special halo with soft blue light which made him stand out from the others whose
halos were a much dimmer white. One of the guys in the tenor section said he
looked like he was announcing a K-Mart special.

The angel choir sang from an elevated stage erected on the far edge of the lawn
in front of the church's three large air conditioning units. Surrounded by
clouds painted on cardboard, and raised and lowered hydraulically, it made for a
wonderful dramatic moment when their lights came on and they appeared out of the
darkness singing "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." For the grand finale at the
end of each half-hour performance they formed themselves into a giant living
Christmas tree and sang "Joy to the World."

One year, at their late summer planning meeting, the director announced that
they needed a sign, a big billboard somewhere downtown, perhaps visible from the
freeway, with a picture of the nativity and an invitation for everyone to come
and see it at Christ Church. He said it would be a good way of expanding their
ministry and it would be great publicity for the church. The senior pastor said
that she knew a retired sign painter in the congregation and offered to ask him
to paint the sign. Someone else offered to make arrangements to rent the
billboard and to talk to some of the wealthy members about paying for it.
Everyone thought it was a wonderful idea.

At their next meeting in mid-October it was reported that plans were well under
way and the sign would be ready just after Thanksgiving. The retired sign
painter had responded with great enthusiasm to the idea of painting the nativity
on a billboard for all of the city to see. He said it had been a life-long dream
to paint a sign that would be a witness to his faith. He had asked for only one
consideration --- "a free hand in painting the nativity as the Holy Spirit led,"
was the way he put it. And they were glad to agree. They had seen his work and
they knew there was no one better in the sign painting business. No one was to
see the sign until the unveiling on the first Sunday of Advent.

There were several more meetings after that. As Advent approached there was an
air of excitement in the church like they had never experienced before. When
word got around about the billboard everyone wanted to be in the nativity. They
had to create several more roles: shepherd boys and shepherd girls, the
innkeeper was to have children hanging on his arm this year and a wife doing
chores in the background, there would be a dozen more angels and the wise men
would have servants following along behind the camels. They rented several more
animals including a goat and a flock of peacocks. It would add more atmosphere,
they said.

The unveiling was scheduled for noon, after the last worship service, on the
first Sunday of Advent. The church was packed and, after the benediction, the
choir, dressed in their nativity costumes, led the whole congregation out the
door, around the square and down a couple of blocks to where the billboard was
located near the downtown off ramp next to the freeway. It was one of the best
advertising locations in the city. Two hundred thousand people would see the
sign every week.

The mayor of the city was to assist the pastor and the nativity director in the
unveiling. The retired sign painter was standing by. It would be his moment of
triumph. A newspaper photographer was to take his picture standing in front of
the sign after it was unveiled. One of the television stations had sent a
reporter and a camera crew, and of course, several people in the congregation
had brought video cameras. Everyone had a sense that this was to be an historic
moment.

The ceremonies started with a brief speech by the nativity director, followed by
a few words of greeting from the mayor and a prayer of consecration led by the
pastor. Then came the moment they had all been waiting for. The choir began to
sing "Away in a Manger" softly in the background. The director signaled for the
cloth that was covering the sign to be raised. They all craned their necks
upwards and waited. And then they saw it. At first there was a kind of quiet
murmur that rippled through the crowd, then gasps, followed by a din of
wonderment which grew into what sounded like a roar of disapproval. They
couldn't believe what they were seeing! It looked nothing at all like their
beautiful nativity. The sign painter had painted a simple cardboard shack with a
contemporary Joseph and Mary who looked very much like the street people who
lived in the park a few blocks from the church. Baby Jesus was wrapped in rags
and lying in a tattered disposable diaper box. There were no shepherds or
wisemen, no angels with gold-tipped wings. There was only a bag lady and a cop
who had come by on his horse. They were both kneeling in front of the diaper box
and the babe appeared to be smiling at them. Underneath the picture were painted
the words:

This will be a sign for you:
you will find a child wrapped
in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

They put the best face on things that they could. The director said something
about the church's ministry to the poor. What else were they going to say? They
couldn't say that it was a mistake on live television, in front of the mayor and
the whole city. But it was difficult to hide their disappointment. Everyone was
gone within five minutes of the unveiling. The retired sign painter was left
alone with the television reporter to try to explain his modern rendering of the
nativity. But even he was beginning to wonder if he had made a mistake. His
wife, his children and his grandchildren had left with everyone else. He
wondered if they would ever forgive him for this embarrassment to the family.
Perhaps they would never go to church with him again.

It was on Monday morning, just after the church secretary came to work, about
eight o'clock, that the phone started to ring. There were not only calls from
within the city, there were calls from all over the country -- newspaper
reporters, disc jockeys, talk show hosts; everyone wanted to hear more about the
sign. And the calls kept coming all week. Soon everyone in the nation knew about
Christ Church's unusual sign. The retired sign painter became an overnight
celebrity. By Thursday he had been on two national talk shows and was scheduled
for Oprah the next week.

The following Sunday the church was filled to overflowing at both services. The
pastor was so taken aback that by the second service she had discarded her
prepared notes and was talking about the miracle that God had worked among them.
She suggested that while the nativity was a wonderful ministry, perhaps God was
calling them to a new ministry with the poor and homeless. Perhaps they could
start a shelter in the basement of the church and maybe they could help the
Habitat folks build and renovate houses in the slums of their city. When she was
finished preaching, the choir sang "Joy to the World" as they led the
congregation out the door, around the square, and down the two blocks to the
sign. There they stopped and looked again at the child who smiled out at them
from the rags and cardboard shack.

From somewhere near the front of the congregation there came the soft sound of a
single voice. It was Tom Grover, the choir director, and he was singing:

What child is this who laid to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?

And then the choir and the whole congregation joined with him, singing with all
of their might:

This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

William C. Dix, "What Child is This?" The United Methodist Hymnal, (Nashville,
The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 219.

(From Lectionary Stories, John E. Sumwalt, CSS Publishing Company, 1992,
pp.18-23)


4) Jo's Yarn Basket

Christmas Eve Magic

There's magic in the air at the Family Service on Christmas Eve at Wauwatosa
Avenue UMC. Children who have been gathered in the parlor for a half hour or
more file into the front pews, grouped by costume --- shepherds on the right,
angels on the left, wise men, Gabriel and the star in the front row. Mary and
Joseph await their cue by the back door, and their real, live Baby Jesus waits
with Grandma or Auntie to take his/her place in the manger.

I inherited directorship of this pageant when I took the position of Christian
Education Director eight years ago. It was conceived as a "walk-in pageant,
totally unrehearsed. All children -- visitors and regulars alike -- are welcome
to take part. The costumes are displayed for them in the parlor, next to the
sanctuary, and given out on a first-come, first-served basis. The pageant itself
hasn't changed much over the years. High School students still read the
Christmas story from Matthew and Luke. Middle Schoolers try to snag the roles of
the wise men, angel Gabriel and the star. It is carried atop an 8-foot pole,
'round and 'round the sanctuary while the congregation sings ALL of the verses
of "We Three Kings," and alights in a flag stand behind the Holy Family when the
wise men finally get to offer their gifts. Dozens of angels join Gabriel as the
Heavenly Host, praising God and singing before dozens of little shepherds bowing
in awe during "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

The biggest difference is the children involved. Our first baby Jesus is now a
3rd grader. Our son, who was in 5th grade our first Christmas here, is a college
Freshman. One of the high school readers from Christmas 1994 is now on our staff
as the Senior High Youth Coordinator.

What never changes is the wonder --- the faces of the young couples who portray
Mary and Joseph as they lay their baby son or daughter in the manger --- the
angels, male and female, with their tinsel halos aglow --- the faces of the
little shepherds when they "hurry to Bethlehem" and find the real live baby in
the manger --- and last year, the face of the shepherd boy who put his finger
out to be grasped in the tiny fist of Baby Jesus, who was his own baby brother,
and gave him a kiss.

5) How To Subscribe & How To Send Stuff For Publication

Each of these weekly emails will include two Lectionary based stories and a
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We have hundreds of good stories to share, stories we have created and "really
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You have good stories to share too, probably more than you know: personal
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We are especially looking for "Vision Stories," personal experiences of the
presence of God. Have you heard the voice of God? Have you been healed as a
direct answer to prayer? Have you seen an angel or experienced the presence of a
loved one who has died? Send your story to jsumwalt@naspa.net with the words
Story Share in the subject line.

To subscribe to Story Share and to learn more about our new book, "Vision
Stories," and other CSS publications, click on www.csspub.com/iw.

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Please forward this invitation to Friends, Colleagues, Pastors, Christian
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