Pastor Don’s Corner . . .  

Homemade ice cream is one of my favorite foods in all the earth, and not just any old homemade ice cream, but homemade ice cream made with fresh milk, full of cream and richness, taken from the milk-house tank on the Wagner farm. Yet, as most of you know, the really good homemade ice cream doesn’t just ‘happen’, it is a holy process. Everything counts: from the taking of the creamy fresh milk out of the milk-house tank to the mixing of the ingredients in the bowl; from the breaking of blocks of ice in a gunny sack to the careful addition of salt along the sides of the freezer as it is turned; from the taking turns at turning the freezer to the conversation that goes on while the ice cream finishes in it’s covered container. Everything counts. It is all holy. It is all necessary. It all contributes to the enjoyment of that very first taste of the delectable, cold, creamy blessing from heaven, the gift of God to the common person: homemade ice cream.  

And there is an art to eating homemade ice cream. Never eat it fast. Swirl your spoon in the bowl just across the top of the creamy mountain, taking care to lift an equal taste from all parts of the bowl. Then, raise the spoon to your lips, slowly drawing in the indescribable beauty and elegance of human effort and divine intervention met, even intertwined in culinary delight. (Be cautioned: To eat it quickly or to just dig it out of the bowl most often transforms this gift of God into a tool of wrath. It quickly, imperceptibly, renders the unwitting helpless in the grasp of a brain freeze, the pain of which is so excruciating that it would seem the head would burst.) 

The rich and those who only show up to indulge in the finished product, who either have their servants prepare it or depend upon the goodwill of neighbors to share it, will never fully understand how wonderfully good this veritable nectar of life really tastes. They have no investment, no participation in the innate holiness of the ice cream itself. To them it is just one more product, one more thing on the table, one more proof of their own ability to consume, and consume it they will.

But, to you and me, to the common people who have had the privilege of being surrounded by the very presence of God while seated on a lawn chair beside an ice cream freezer . . . to those of us who have been called by name to extend, on behalf of the entire family, the sacred spoon into the manna of heaven and, upon extraction,  having tasted the fullness of God’s bounty . . . to us has been given hope, love, joy, peace, and good news. God is good and God chooses to be good to us all. Uuuuuummmmmm.  

It is a paradoxical picture, homemade ice cream and Christmas, yet all the more poignant by the irony of it’s truth.  

Since September the stores have been calling out, “Hey, here, here is Christmas! Come, indulge yourself! Consume what you cannot prepare for yourself! Let us prepare Christmas for you and serve it to you in heaping helpings! Take as much as you can, as quickly as you can! Don’t savor it, devour it, for it is yours for the buying!” as though Christmas were an event, a day to be consumed, and not a holiness to be experienced. And our heads ache, our stomachs turn, our feet become as clay. Satisfaction with the moment is in direct proportion to our ability to fund the purchase of the necessary symbolic gifts. It hasn’t become what we thought it should be, what everyone before us said it could be. It is a product that can never be fully purchased, the pursuit of the pieces running us to into the ground, deadening our souls, dulling our eyes. It is quickly eating the ice cream out of the freezer without having drawn the milk, mixed the ingredients, broken the ice or taken a turn at the handle. It is, for some, for too many, the transformation of the Gift of God into a tool of wrath which quickly, imperceptibly, renders the unwitting helpless in the grasp of a brain freeze. It is, in trying to take in all of Christmas in one fell swoop, sheer pain . . . as though the head would burst.  

Now, don’t misunderstand: I love Christmas. I love the giving of gifts. I love the kindness of the season, the beauty of the nativity, the wonder of the Story. But the years have taught me not to try to take it in all at once. I am no more capable of making the time from September until December 25, Christmas, than I am of eating an entire freezer of homemade ice cream at one sitting. When I was a little boy I tried to do that often, to eat as much of that freezer of homemade ice cream as I could, as quickly as I could. But, somewhere along the way, I got tired of the brain freezes, of having to put my spoon and bowl down and hold my head until the pain would go away. Somewhere along the way, I learned to appreciate the planning, the preparation, the details leading up to the turning of the freezer. Someone along the way taught me the value of participation in the process as a key to sharing the wonder of the final outcome. Thus, I have learned to love and appreciate Christmas anew and more abundantly because I sense the awe and power of the Advent preparation. Not unlike homemade ice cream, slurping in the awesome first taste of Christmas on December 25 is made all the more poignant by the careful weeks of preparation spent observing the season of Advent, from December 3 – December 24.  If Christmas begins in September, or even if it waits until the day after Thanksgiving when the malls offer the big sales, then what is the joy to be shared on the late night hours of December 24^th? Or the early morning hours of the 25^th?  

This is the season of Advent. It is the time of preparation of heart and soul for the coming of the Child of God. It can be nothing less than intentional, as critical to Christmas Joy as turning the crank on the hand freezer is to homemade ice cream. If we could draw homemade ice cream from the cow, would it ever be special? If Christmas could be purchased at the mall, why did Jesus come?  

Christmas is an act of God, entirely dependent upon God’s good will, God’s love for humanity. The gifts we choose to share with others are our response to God’s first Gift of Jesus to us. We cannot purchase, nor could we ever afford, Christmas, though many stores and agencies would have us believe differently. What we can do, though, is prepare to receive anew the Gift of God, the Christ of God’s salvation. We can take the time from Sunday, December 3^rd through Sunday, December 24^th to bring together all the elements of the Christian faith: to ponder the hope God has for all of creation; to appreciate the peace that comes with ‘Immanuel’, ‘God with us’; to dwell in the love of God which teaches us how to love one another; and to celebrate the Joy of God in the redemption of the world. Good News is the One who comes to us in the Babe of Bethlehem. Good News is God’s choice, the offering of the very best for those who dwell in the heart of God, who are prepared to receive Christmas. Good News is placed on the lips of humanity, a song begun by God and continued on the lips of angels, and therein is the wonder.  

It does taste so good, that first spoonful from the freezer. My taste buds begin to anticipate it even as the top is being taken off and the churn is being drawn out. I am ready to immerse myself in it’s earthly pleasure, because my soul has made a place in the time of preparation.  

I pray Christmas means the same for us all, because the season of Advent has been given it’s due.  

Have a Holy Advent Journey and a Blessed Christmas Season!  

Pastor Don & Nancy                                           The St. Paul U. C. C. Staff