“Think differently this Christmas Season,” says Reverend Candice Bist

December 18, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Marni Walsh

The theme this year in the Shelburne United Church Charge is Let There Be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me.

“World peace is not a political issue, nor an economic one, nor a cultural or social one,” says Interim Minister Candice Bist. “It is a spiritual issue.”

“Peace begins within ourselves, and in fact, cannot be born anywhere else but in our own individual hearts in our own particular circumstances,” she says.

In conversation with Reverend Bist last week, she told the Free Press that at Trinity and Primrose United Churches, members are being encouraged to “think differently this Christmas Season.” She said that starts with “thinking differently about the Christmas story that we hold sacred.”

Reverend Bist says she believes the Biblical Christmas story holds truth for all people not just Christians.

“What I think is interesting is that though the Christmas story has sacred significance for Christians, the wisdom that beats at the heart of it is available for all people, for all time, in all places, in all traditions, or lack thereof,” says Reverend Bist. “And the reason for that is because it is a universal story of how love can be born in the midst of any and all situations, and how ultimately, that love has the power to overcome all obstacles. It is a story for our time. It is a story for all time. It need not supplant other stories, only stand, as it does, on its own merit, and enrich other sacred stories.”

Some members of Reverend Bist’s congregation are currently studying a book entitled “The Heart of Christianity.”

She says the book addresses an “emerging paradigm” that “sees the Bible’s status as sacred, as “Holy Bible,” as a result of historical process, not as the consequence of its divine origin.

The author of the book, Marcus Borg, holds that “the documents that now make up the Bible were not sacred when they were written, but over time were declared to be sacred by ancient Israel and early Christianity.”

Reverend Bist says this is a process is known as “canonization.”

“The Christmas story was never meant to be a literal, historical, factual story,” says Reverend Bist, who holds several degrees including her Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology. “That is not its intent. Its intent is to tell us something of greater import than mere facts can tell.”

The story of Christ’s birth came many years after his death as “writers went back and created his birth story,” said the Reverend. However, she does not believe this makes the story any less powerful.

“The Christmas Story is the story of Jesus because of what and who he was,” she says, calling the story “a template, a wisdom story of how to live in an empire with violence and disparity, where the lowest and the least can live a life that is good and worthy by following the way of love.”

In fact, the early name for Christians was “People of the Way,” she says.

Jesus’ birth story is “a metaphorical one,” says Reverend Bist, “one in which deep truth is told in the way of narrative.”

“Over time, this story has taken on a sacredness, both because it holds deep wisdom about love and the nature of humanity, and also because it has long been a part of our memory and that of our faith tradition,” she says. “It is sacred because it can inform our lives, giving us a way forward through the darkness to the goodness within us that we wish to unveil. And for those that love the way of Jesus, the way of love, it is the story of our family.”

At the time it was told, Reverend Bist says the Christmas story was revolutionary – “turning the world upside down.” The symbolic character of Joseph who led the way in a new manner of thinking with his acceptance of Mary is very relatable to the troubled times in which we live.

“Everyone is hoping against hope that everything will shift,” she says. “The Roman Empire got its power from violence and oppression, there was a great disparity of wealth – they did not want change.”

For change toward a better world today, she says, “We have to think differently about everything and the Christmas story is a good place to start.”

Reverend Bist invites us to consider this reflection on the birth story:

“We see Mary as a young girl who found herself in a difficult situation and decided that she would stand firmly in exactly where she was, with who she was, with the circumstances that were hers, and hold to the power of love, taking God, the divine spirit, as her council, and standing ready to see what her life had in store for her.

“We see Joseph, a man firmly in the midst of a patriarchal society who turned away from the law of his religion, the law of his tradition, the law of his social status, the inclinations of his culture, and instead hold to the power of love, taking the hand of God to see where the great adventure would lead.

“We see the shepherds, going about their ordinary jobs herding sheep, who decided it was important to be part of something wonderful, to check out whatever it was that drew their attention to wonderment, to new sight, to new revelation; ordinary people who were invited to the extraordinary and accepted the invitation.

“And the angels, as good messengers, which is what angels are, announcing to the world that there was something to sing about, and that was the power of love.”

In many ways, Reverend Bist says she thinks of artists – “singers, writers, poets, painters, sculptures, performers, who are always, in one way or the other, trying to speak to us in the language of love” – as messengers.

In contemplation of Reverend Bist’s hope that we all “think differently this Christmas,” may we reflect on her theme and the musical message written for an international choir of children in 1955: “Let There Be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me.”