Shaking the Meme Tree on Epiphany

My family belongs to a small Episcopal church, and so it is difficult to use elaborate programs for Christmas. What do you do when you have less than six kids available to participate?  For the last few years, we've written my own, and the kids have had the opportunity to doing a choral reading.

This year, kudos to Episcopal Memes, which gave me the majority of the materials that the five kids 'discussed' with the congregation this morning.  We read, shared the Good News (and pictures), and laughed with all the participants at the puns.  Unusual...perhaps.  Tinsel-free, certainly.  But timely and best of all, the kids--from 8 to senior in high school, participated and 'got it'.  I'm in awe of the way the Spirit moves.

C	Hey T, watcha doing?
T	I'm playing Minecraft. What do you think I am doing? It's a great server on the multiplayer version where we build Dr. Who stuff. I'm building a snowman because of the Dr. Who Christmas special.
M	That was creepy. You had talking snow and an ice governness and blood thirsty snow people.
T	But the Doctor melted them. It was all good in the end.
K	T, is that all you did over break? Play minecraft?
T	Well, no. We went sledding, and M and C bugged me and Mom made us clean. But H left Wednesday and school started Thursday. It doesn't take long for Christmas to be over
G	I know that. That's why I have been looking at memes.
C	What are memes?
M	That's when you laugh at an internet thing, and it spreads really fast.. You know, like Zomby Cat.
C	Are there a lot of those out there?
G	Tons. You can make your own meme. There are some made every single day. It's one of the best ways to reach people our age who may not even have a church. And it's a great way to think about what is important about the days of Christmas.
M	Like We Three Kings?
T	M, do you even know who those Kings are?
M	Sort of. I know the one on the right is Larry King. Whose's the guitar-playing guy?
G	That's BB King. He used to sell diabetic supplies and he's a famous blues guy.
C	And the guy with the wild hair?
K	“Well, congregation, do you know?” (the right answer is Don King)
G	There have to be better pictures than that of three kings.
K	You mean like this one? I don't know if plastic light bulbs stuck in the back of the kings are all that respectful.
C	I like this one. Look. These guys got where they were going using a GPS, just like on a phone. I wonder what you would get if you typed in Jesus on Dad's navigator.
T	But the wise men didn't have a GPS, C. They followed a star. They were astronomers
G	We celebrate 12 days of Christmas, but really, a lot of theologians think Jesus might have been over a year old by the time the wise men arrived.
M	Does that mean Jesus' birthday wasn't on Christmas? I mean, if they got the whole wise men thing wrong, what about that day?
K	Or is just important that Jesus was born?
G	Does it really matter? We celebrate Jesus' birthday at Christmas time. It's the remembering that's important, not the date itself.
Tom	I don't always get why they make a big deal of 12 days of Christmas. I mean, most people take down their tree by the 27th.
Glyn	Well, it has something to do with people who are part of Orthodox Christianity....like the religion in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. So they link together two feasts—the Nativity and the Theophany, the celebration of John Baptizing Jesus in the Jordan.
Maire	But we don't do that. We celebrate Epiphany today. That's the twelfth night
G	That's true. Shakespeare wrote an entire play about the Twelfth Night. And we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus NEXT week.
C	But what do people do between day 1 and day 12?
K	They celebrate and remember other special days. New Year's is one of them.
G	That's also called Holy Name Day, because Jewish people named their child on day 8. They went to the temple, and Jesus was presented to the priests.
Tom	It all started with Advent. That let us think about how cool it is that God's Son came to earth. And that Star Wars is cool.
Maire	And how uncomfortable it was for Mary.
Tom	It wasn't much of a party for Joseph, either. Hey, is that Chuck Norris?
Glyn	And along the way, we remember some great saints....like the first martyr, Stephen.   And maybe some lesser saints, too.
C	And we have lots of time to sing carols and celebrate with family.
K	I guess the whole point it to tell people that God loves them. It takes time to believe that.
T	God saves the world.
C	God is the Light.
Everyone	May we join in the dance of God this day, And sing our praises to Christ our Saviour. Let us celebrate the joy of Christ’s birth, And shout aloud: Emmanuel, God is with us!