Last year, I attended a Dutch Christmas eve service which featured off-key English language praise songs and a sermon comparingthe Incarnation to a human's becoming a gold fish. I thought I'd reached an all-time Christmas low. I thought wrong.
Bit of background: my friend Catherine and I had been discussing attending a Christmas eve service together. She then told me she'd been invited to dinner and a service by some friends of hers and I was welcome too. I didn't really ask any questions because Catherine is a very nice, normal person, and I assumed any friends of hers would be equally nice and normal.
They certainly were nice. We had a lovely dinner in their cute house with very interesting and fun conversation. After dinner, they made wonderful latte macchiatos with their espresso machine. But the normal part broke down when we went to their 'church.' They are, in fact, members of a cult.
Where to begin? I did not hear the word "Christmas" a single time in the service. The word "Jesus" was mentioned only once - as a "good example." The service consisted of readings from letters by their cult leader (they call him "the Apostle"). They played a clip from Obama's inaugural address. The choir sang some weird songs I'd never heard before, and one I had... "Imagine" by John Lennon. At that moment, I wanted to get up to leave, but we were in some dingy neighborhood in a city I don't know at all and, of course, I didn't want to embarrass Catherine. The worst part of all was that the service lasted 2.5 hours. ughh.
On the overhead, they projected artsy photos of people looking happy. One featured a man doing bungee jumping. It reminded me vaguely of some of the Abu Ghraib torture photos.
Oh well. To be honest, I felt very close to Christ during those 2.5 hours. I was reminded of how much I love Him and how thankful I am to have Him, not just as a 'good example,' but as my Saviour. I also had substantive conversations with Catherine and her friends on the way back about areas of agreement and (mostly) disagreement in our beliefs, e.g., I asked them if they "imagine there's no heaven" and where they get guidance on right and wrong, etc.
This morning I went to my own church here in Utrecht and heard the story of Christ's birth. Catherine came along because she also felt her Christmas would not be complete without a traditional service. I'm about to go have dinner with the lovely people I lived with when I first moved to Utrecht. So what am I complaining about? It's a been a wonderful Christmas. I am very blessed.
