December 1998 Issue

I want to tell you a story about an event that happened in 1971. December of 1971 was before some of you were born. But in 1971, 1 was a first year seminary student in Boston. The academic calendar at my seminary was arranged in such a way that there was very little academic work required in the month of December. That was to accommodate the many seminary students who were also pastors of churches while they were going to seminary. That first year I was there, I was fortunate in that I did not have pastoral duties at a church and so it meant for me the month of December was relatively free. My wife Becky was teaching school so she did not finish her December work until 2 or 3 days before Christmas. I was a graduate student that meant we were hungry. So, I signed up as a part of the throngs of seasonal Christmas workers at a department store.

In downtown Boston there are two great old fashion traditional department stores. One is Filenes and the other is Jordan March. Each of these stores hires literally hundreds and hundreds of seasonal clerks for their Christmas season. Not only are Filenes and Jordan March open downtown at night during the Christmas season, but many other stores are also so that downtown Boston during the month of December is alive with shoppers and people traffic. I remember one particular evening where I finished my shift at 9 o'clock, which is when the stores all closed. I hurriedly closed out my cash register and did those things that I had to do, then rushed to the subway station to catch a train home. The particular station that was nearest downtown, where most people who traveled by subway used, was the Park Street Station. Perhaps, some of you have been there at some time. Park Street Station is the main intersecting station of the whole sub-way hub in Boston. Can you imagine about 9:15, the incredible throngs of humanity that were packed into that subway station? People with shopping bags and all kinds of Christmas paraphernalia, heavy coats of course and all of that. Well, it is a situation where Christian courtesy and charity are displayed at their best!

Getting on a subway train on Park Street Station at 9:15 p.m. after all the downtown stores had closed was an adventure. I remember that particular night finally getting on one of the cars and climbing up the three steps above the platform where the main aisle of the subway car was and squeezing in. More and more and more of that humanity squeezed and pushed and squeezed and pushed. If you have never been smashed into a group of strangers, well go ride the subway. Just when it seemed like the subway car could hold no one else, there was no possible way another human being could get in that car, I felt a sudden shove and the whole group was pushed back and squeezed together even more tightly and at the same time there was a kind of a groan or a shriek. I looked towards the door and here was a man with a Christmas tree in his hand, who had taken that tree and shoved it into the door ahead of him and jumped in behind it just as the doors closed and off we went.

I have often thought that that is a metaphor for Christmas. Our lives are so packed this season, aren't they? There really isn't any room for anything else: shopping, preparing, decorating, partying. Our lives are so scheduled, so busy so full of things and events. There just doesn't seem to be room for anything else. And yet like that man with his tree trying to get on the subway, God in Christ is still trying to find a way to get in to our lives. Just as Christ came into the world, in the grubby reality of a manger in Bethlehem, so Christ is wanting to find room somewhere among our schedules and our busyness this season to find the comers and the cracks of life where he can get in. I wonder. As we pack our days and spend our money and busy ourselves with so much, will we make room on the train of our lives with the Christ Child this season?

Carl L. Schenck