Blogging toward Christmas: Magi at the manger

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For the first five years of my ministry, I served a small church
bereft of young children. Christmas presented the perfect opportunity to delve
into the mystery of the incarnation; our Christmas Eve services dripped with
candle wax and Christology.

In my new call as an associate pastor at a large suburban
congregation, I'm responsible for the Christmas Eve pageant. Candles are out--too
dangerous for the wee ones--and there's little room at the inn for theological
rumination when there are donkey-costuming logistics and Joseph-casting crises
to address. (If anyone has ideas about how to convince high school boys that
acting in a pageant is cool, do share.)