Church of the Apostles

The devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans is overwhelming. We should pray specifically in our intercessions for the victims and the rescuers who are working mightily to bring order out of this chaos.

Many of the people will want to give to aid the victims of this disaster. Please know that you may forward monetary gifts to The Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, 1630 N. Garrett Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75206, and we will send them on the the Bishops of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, The Rt. Rev. CharlesJenkins and The Rt. Rev. Philip Duncan, for use as they see fit. We will divide the donations equally or forward those designated to one or the other. Every dollar given will be sent on since we have no overhead costs in carrying out this task.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. James M. Stanton

Bishop of Dallas

The White Witch and Christmas

No reader of C. S. Lewis could ignore his thorough understanding of the nature of evil. Certainly his classic warning at the beginning of the Screwtape Letters makes it very clear: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hale a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

The Chronicles of Narnia plunge the reader into a wonderful fantasy of four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy who enter the magical land of Narnia through the door of a wardrobe. Narnia is not without its perils. You might even say that the perils add spice to the story. In the first of the book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Witch stands as an archetypal figure of evil. At the outset of the adventure in Narnia, Mr.Tumnus, the Faun, tells Lucy that “it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!”

The only one that can break the Witch’s evil spell is the great Lion Aslan. The name Aslan is a variant of Anselm and is derived from two older words meaning “God is my Helm”, or “helmet”. Aslan is the Son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. On the Emperor’s scepter is written a deeper magic far beyond the magic of the White Witch, or for that matter far beyond the magic of Harry Potter and the realm of J .K. Rowling. The deeper magic says that when One gives His life in exchange for ours all the winter of our lives is reversed by His redemptive power. Aslan is Jesus, the true Son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea.

With the arrival of Aslan, winter’s grip on Narnia is broken, and Father Christmas arrives with his wondrous gifts. Spring begins. Ice and snow melt. Flowers bloom and trees bud. Father Christmas? Yes, indeed. “On a sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as holly-berries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest.” Lewis goes on to explain that “though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world—the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make him look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.”

But what of our world, on the other side of the wardrobe? The White Witch has been driven from Narnia and escaped through the wardrobe into our world, where so often it threatens to be winter and never Christmas. Christmas is overlaid with commercialism and false expectations and we struggle to keep the birth of the true Aslan at the heart of Christmas. It is about Jesus! When He comes, the winter of our discontent is broken and the spring of rebirth arrives. The White Witch and Winter hate the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child and will do all in their power to destroy its true meaning. Somehow the White Witch has even managed to set the image of Father Christmas over against the birth of the Christ Child, not realizing that the true Saint Nicholas was always a servant of the Lord who redeemed him, and he gives his gifts out of gratitude for the Gift that is greater than all.

In the bleak midwinter, when it’s winter, come and kneel before the Christ Child at His altar in your church. Defy the winter and kneel in humble adoration. Christ Jesus is God’s Gift to you! Once more open your heart and invite him in, that all the winter of your life might once more be turned to spring. ~ Father Rob +

We Shepherds Three

We shepherds three
camped in the fields below the hill
our flocks huddled for warmth
in the cave at our backs.

We are the door of the sheep,
with our fire at the cave mouth,
our cheeses, breads, and skins of wine,
one with a flute, and one with a lute
and one with the voice of a frog.

We cast no grand illusion.
We are not pious folk.
Often our wives are glad to see us home,
often they are glad to see us gone,
rough men, unkempt men, smelly men,
“You sleep with the sheep.
You smell like the sheep,”
the townsmen say.

This night was like all other nights
if anything darker, the wind more severe,
We expected nothing except a cold long watch
with the sheep in the cave at our backs,
with our fire at the cave mouth,
our cheeses, breads, and skins of wine,
one with a flute, and one with a lute
and one with the voice of a frog.

I wish I could say we were at prayer
and that incense, not smoke,
filled the night air.
But we sang shepherd songs
of loves long since lost,
of fighting and brawling,
the things we know most.

It was then that the angels came
and the glory of God filled the night air.
To shepherds three, coarse and unkempt
they brought tidings of great joy.
“This day in the city high on the hill
a Savior is born Christ our Lord.
A babe you will find, laid in a manger
and wrapped all secure.”
And suddenly the sky was filled with
thousands of angels singing
God’s praise.

We shepherds three penned up our sheep
and went up the hill to find him asleep.
Mary, and Joseph with Jesus the child.
We gave what we had to the baby so mild,
our cheeses, and breads,
and skins filled with wine,
And we sang him a lullaby
one with a flute, and one with a lute
and one with the voice of a frog.

~ Father Rob +