The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
December 19, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 50
Again this year I have received something unique, yet ancient: a handmade Christmas card, no hint of digital virtuality or even a typeset font. My teacher Sebastian Brock sends out these cards the way others mail or email their family Christmas letter, but it is only his elegant handwriting and calligraphy in colour that wish the recipient “Very Happy Christmas & New Year.” The year’s summary begins with a familiar refrain – “retirement is still a sham ….” Most “retired” folk I know are so busy they wonder how they ever had time to work in their former lives.
The highlight of the card is the short selection Sebastian chooses from one of the Syriac fathers, the Syriac lettering on one side and English translation on the other, and naturally a poetic stanza on the Nativity.
This year’s selection is from St. Ephrem of Nisibis (d. 373), the best known Biblical teacher and hymn writer of the Syriac-speaking church. This verse has only 17 syllables (Near Eastern haiku?) encased within only nine words. The fewer words the bigger the meaning.
In December when seeds
are hidden in the ground
there sprung up
from Mary’s womb
The Wheat-Blade of salvation
that gives life.
Winter matters. In the midst of bleak mid-winter when all is hidden from life and nothing grows, there is the appearance of food that feeds and life to the hungry world. Ephrem must have made it to Saskatchewan in the winter sometime.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan