3 Advent Sunday C – Dec 16 - Homilies
Someone asked Saint Philip Neri (who happened to be playing cards at the time) what he would do if he learned that his death was imminent. Philip Neri replied that he would continue playing cards. The best preparation for the Lord's coming at any moment is to be doing what we ought to be doing. In the words of the old Shaker hymn: "'Tis a gift to be simple, 'Tis a gift to be free, 'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be."
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Today is called “Gaudete” Sunday because today’s Mass begins with the opening antiphon, “Gaudete in Domino semper” (“Rejoice in the Lord always”). Today we light the rose candle of the Advent wreath, and the priest may wear rose vestments to express our communal joy in the coming of Jesus, as our Savior. The theme of the third Sunday of Advent is rejoicing in hope. Advent is a time for joy, not only because we are anticipating the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, but also because God is already in our midst. Christian joy does not come from the absence of sorrow, pain or trouble, but from an awareness of the presence of Christ within our souls.
******Today is called “Gaudete” Sunday because today’s Mass begins with the opening antiphon, “Gaudete in Domino semper” (“Rejoice in the Lord always”). Today we light the rose candle of the Advent wreath, and the priest may wear rose vestments to express our communal joy in the coming of Jesus, as our Savior. The theme of the third Sunday of Advent is rejoicing in hope. Advent is a time for joy, not only because we are anticipating the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, but also because God is already in our midst. Christian joy does not come from the absence of sorrow, pain or trouble, but from an awareness of the presence of Christ within our souls.
Background:
The Christmas stories in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St.
Luke are not meant to be literal history, like, let us say, detailed
descriptions of the Battle of Gettysburg. Rather they are theological stories
designed to tell us that with the birth of Jesus a new phase of the history of
humankind had begun. The stories may not be true in all their details but they
are True in the sense that they disclose to us a sudden, dramatic, and total transformation
in the human condition.
As John Shea says in
his book Starlight, we discover at Christmas, not only the light that is God
and the light that Jesus came to bring to the world, but the light that is and
has always been in us because we are creatures who share in the light of God,
beings in whom the spark of God's light and love has always shone.
Christmas reveals to us that like Mary and
Joseph we too can be the light of the world and that indeed our own frail and
often dim lights are not completely discontinuous from the light of Jesus, from
the starlight that shone at Bethlehem.
Gospel Comments
On the third Sunday of Advent St Luke gives us a glimpse
into the personality of that wonderful person, John the Baptist. In your
meditation, let him remind you of great people you have known.
In verses 10 to 14 John speaks
openly. Notice how he has a different word for each group which questions him.
Notice too how the soldiers feel that even they can get a word of salvation.
Verses 15 to 18 give us a further insight into the kind of person John the Baptist was. He may have said these words in a moment of discouragement, in which case they express his trust that God would complete what was lacking in his ministry. But perhaps they tell us of his humility in the midst of his extraordinary success as a preacher.
Verses 15 to 18 give us a further insight into the kind of person John the Baptist was. He may have said these words in a moment of discouragement, in which case they express his trust that God would complete what was lacking in his ministry. But perhaps they tell us of his humility in the midst of his extraordinary success as a preacher.
John Littleton
Reflection
A sensible way to prepare for Christ’s arrival is to learn
from the example of other people who have prepared well while they awaited his
arrival. There are many such examples in the Bible and John the Baptist is one
of the dominant and most striking.
John’s preparation for the Messiah’s arrival was characterised by his preaching. He preached a message of hope and repentance to dejected people — whose land was occupied by foreigners, who were often exploited by their religious leaders and who had become spiritually enslaved to sin. John also fasted and did penance in preparation for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah and he urged other people to do the same.
John’s preparation for the Messiah’s arrival was characterised by his preaching. He preached a message of hope and repentance to dejected people — whose land was occupied by foreigners, who were often exploited by their religious leaders and who had become spiritually enslaved to sin. John also fasted and did penance in preparation for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah and he urged other people to do the same.
John learnt that the only way to become disentangled from
sin is through repentance and conversion. Thus his preaching focused on the
urgency of repentance and he reassured the people about God’s providential care
and complete fidelity towards them even when, at times, they were unfaithful
and sinful. They could be certain that God’s promise to send the Saviour would
soon be realised.
We are asked to emulate John’s example by being people who
are repentant for our sins. We are invited to encourage other people to become
repentant too. Christ and sin are incompatible. We cannot truly meet Christ as
he comes into our lives each day unless we are without sin because it imprisons
us and prevents us from recognising him.
Nowadays, many people have lost their sense of sin. They
mistakenly think that sin does not exist. They presume that they can do
whatever they wish. In effect, God gave us free will so that we can choose good
instead of evil. In addition, the Church’s teaching guides us in our beliefs
and practices so that we can prepare adequately for eternity with God.
Unfortunately, however, people have lost their sense of sin
because they have also lost their sense of the sacred. They do not believe that
the Word became flesh (that is, that God became human in Jesus Christ)
specifically because people of every time and place are sinners and need to be
saved from the effects of their sins.
During these Advent weeks, we can prepare for Christ’s
arrival by imitating John the Baptist, a voice crying in the wilderness, and
undergoing conversion from our sins. Advent is a particularly appropriate time
to experience God’s forgiveness by celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation,
with genuine repentance and a determination to avoid the occasions of sin in
the future. In this way we can truly look forward in hope to the Messiah’s
arrival both at Christmas and at the Last Judgement.
In adopting the spirit of the Advent season, we wait purposefully for Christ’s
arrival by preparing properly. John the Baptist is an ideal role model because
of his fasting, penance and message of repentance. Reflecting on John, we pray
that we too will become repentant for our sins so that we will be ready to meet
the Lord whenever and however he comes.
The figure of John the Baptist is seen as central to today’s
liturgy and so we have this rarely read section from Luke. In all four gospels
the work and preaching of the Baptist is seen as the divinely appointed
preparation for the ministry of the Christ: Mt 3:1-12; Mk 1:1-8; Lk 3:1-19; and
Jn 1:6-8. The presence of this precise theme preaching / preparing in all four
gospels (distinct from any other material they have on John the Baptist) show
that this was a fundamental element in the kerygma: part hearing the good news
of the Paschal Mystery is that the Baptist has prepared the way. It is to
maintain continuity with structural element of the preaching that it is part of
our liturgy to recall, indeed celebrate, the ministry of the Baptist on the
Second and Third Sundays of Advent in all three years of the lectionary cycle.
If we are going to celebrate the beginning of the Christ- event in the
festivals of the Nativity, Epiphany, and Baptism, then we must have celebrated
the work of the Baptist beforehand.
Now that we have established the kerygmatic context of this
gospel reading, we can look at the precise text in greater detail. Luke’s
account of the preaching of the Baptist is by far the longest, and most of
today’s passage is found only in Luke. The whole passage has as its central
theme that the arrival of the Christ is at hand: he is already on earth and
ready to pronounce judgement. The time of decision is not in some future time,
but has started already for his ‘winnowing fork’ is in his hand. However, as
part of the reaction to the presence of the Messiah — provoking this reaction
from his hearers is the Baptist’s work of preparing the way — Luke has an
ethical component: verses 10- 14 which are wholly without parallel in the gospel
tradition.
If the
axe is laid to the tree (v 9), then the people who want to prepare, ‘the
multitudes,’ must now ask: ‘What then shall we do?’ The replies cover
(1) everyone — they must care for the poor: if the time of the Messiah is come there can be no one in need of clothing or food in the land;
(2) civic officials — injustice in society is irreconcilable in these times; and
(3) soldiers — there can be no exploitation now. This ethical dimension in Luke’s presentation shows that while the early Christians were holding up the Baptist as a model to the churches, they also considered moral behaviour an essential part of their discipleship. This ethical aspect of welcoming the Christ in this gospel should be a spring board to some searching questions of each community about its own work in society to create the justice worthy of the coming of the Lord. Such ethical questions about Christian obligations to establish the just society are often forced onto the gospel text, but today it emerges directly as an Advent theme.
(1) everyone — they must care for the poor: if the time of the Messiah is come there can be no one in need of clothing or food in the land;
(2) civic officials — injustice in society is irreconcilable in these times; and
(3) soldiers — there can be no exploitation now. This ethical dimension in Luke’s presentation shows that while the early Christians were holding up the Baptist as a model to the churches, they also considered moral behaviour an essential part of their discipleship. This ethical aspect of welcoming the Christ in this gospel should be a spring board to some searching questions of each community about its own work in society to create the justice worthy of the coming of the Lord. Such ethical questions about Christian obligations to establish the just society are often forced onto the gospel text, but today it emerges directly as an Advent theme.
HOMILY NOTES
1. During Advent we hear several basic elements of the
Christian preaching over and over again in the liturgy:
*Prepare a way for the
Lord’;
*The Lord is near’;
*Repent and believe’;
*The Lord will come· again to judge the living and the dead’;
*We must be people of hope’.
*The Lord is near’;
*Repent and believe’;
*The Lord will come· again to judge the living and the dead’;
*We must be people of hope’.
2. In the run-up to Christmas we hear around· us several
basic elements of the creed of the consumerist first-world:
*We need lots of stuff
for the party’;
*Always in a hurry to get to the shops’;
*We’re flying to Madagascar for the holidays’;
*Toys are so expensive – lucky that the credit card does not come in till January’;
*I am fed up with all the Christmas-hype’.
*Always in a hurry to get to the shops’;
*We’re flying to Madagascar for the holidays’;
*Toys are so expensive – lucky that the credit card does not come in till January’;
*I am fed up with all the Christmas-hype’.
3. Two groups of five sound bites -and as sound bites we
hear and use all ten of them – which are also tokens I symptoms of two
radically opposed lifestyles, belief systems, visions of the universe.
4. The Christian vision involves, fundamentally, going out
from the individual to the other: other people, society, the world in which we
live, God. It ihvolves radically challenging our selfishness and the belief
that selfishness is the motor that makes the human world go round. We could
imagine it as a picture of myself with arrows pointing outWards, then of our
gathering for the Eucharist with arrows poihting outwards, then of our society
or the whole body of Christians and arrows pointing outwards from it.
5. The consumerist vision puts me at the centre of the
universe AND all the arrows point inwards: have I got what I want for my
happiness, have I got what I desire, am I satisfied, is there the amount of
pleasure that I desire? Others only become involved in that we pool our
selfishness so that we can have more fun together. The arrows point inwards and
it does not matter whose labour is exploited so that I can have what I want –
that is over the horizon and hidden from me. It is irrelevant if others do not
have enough to eat, have poor health care, suffer in ignorance for want of
proper education, that I consume more of the earth’s resources than whole
villages in the developing world.
6. But can we say that the Lord is near when we may
contribute to a society that exploits the poor? Can we claim to be preparing
the way of the Lord while children die of malnutrition, while whole societies
in sub-Saharan Africa are devastated by AIDS and are without drugs to stem its
effects? Can we reo joice in the Lord’s coming while we simply find things boring
and seek new amusements but at the same time know that there are people in
society who are in want?
7. Preparing a way for the Lord is simple, indeed a bit of
fun, if it is just putting up the holly, doing the shopping, and maybe popping
along to a Carol Service: but it is much more than that.
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Scripture Prayer
“The bread you do not
use is the bread of the hungry.” …St Ambrose
Lord, we thank you for
people who are direct and honest like John the Baptist.
When we ask them what we must do, they don’t beat around the bush but tell us openly:
those who have two tunics must share with those who have none,
and those with something to eat must do the same.
Lord, John the Baptist knew his people.
When the tax collectors came for baptism he told them exactly what they must do,
and so too with the soldiers.
Lord, we pray for the Church today.
When we ask them what we must do, they don’t beat around the bush but tell us openly:
those who have two tunics must share with those who have none,
and those with something to eat must do the same.
Lord, John the Baptist knew his people.
When the tax collectors came for baptism he told them exactly what they must do,
and so too with the soldiers.
Lord, we pray for the Church today.
“We all want to be
famous people, but the moment we want to be something
we are no longer free.” …Krishnamurti
we are no longer free.” …Krishnamurti
Lord, give us the
humility of John the Baptist.
When a feeling of expectancy grows
and our followers begin to think that we might be some kind of Messiah,
help us to declare before them all that we are merely baptising with water.
There is one who is more powerful than we are
and he baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
When a feeling of expectancy grows
and our followers begin to think that we might be some kind of Messiah,
help us to declare before them all that we are merely baptising with water.
There is one who is more powerful than we are
and he baptises with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
“We are a resourceful
people but deadly scared of our own natively-inspired success.”
…Clifford Sealey, Trinidadian poet
…Clifford Sealey, Trinidadian poet
Lord, often we do not
accomplish what we can because we are afraid of failure.
We must be content to baptise with water,
trusting that someone will come after us who is more powerful than we are,
and he will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
We must be content to baptise with water,
trusting that someone will come after us who is more powerful than we are,
and he will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
“Something happened
between me and the earth. The land recognised me.”
…Earl Lovelace as he landed on African soil for the first time, November 1991
…Earl Lovelace as he landed on African soil for the first time, November 1991
Lord, we thank you for
the moments of grace when we feel we are connected
with the whole of creation and all of our history.
We know then that your winnowing fan is in your hand,
that evil is merely chaff which you will burn in a fire that will never go out,
whereas we are your precious wheat which you will gather into your barn.
with the whole of creation and all of our history.
We know then that your winnowing fan is in your hand,
that evil is merely chaff which you will burn in a fire that will never go out,
whereas we are your precious wheat which you will gather into your barn.
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ILLUSTRATIONS:
1) Girl Named Jeanne Marie:
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Jeanne Marie
who was afraid of the dark. She wouldn’t go to sleep at night unless all the
lights in her room were on. You couldn’t never tell, she argued, who’d sneak
into her room at night if it were dark. She absolutely refused to go into her
closet because, like the boy in comics several years ago, she thought monsters
might lurk in the closet especially at night. She claimed that she could hear
the monsters talking about what they were going to do to her. Although she like
snow, she hated winter because it was dark so much of the time. She didn’t like
to go off to the country for vacation because there were no street lights and
the dark was very scary indeed.
The monsters who had
hidden in her closet now wandered the streets of the summer village and lurked
in the woods. She was frightened when she went to the movies because the
theaters were too dark. Her mother said to her once aren’t you old enough now
not to be afraid of the dark. She said, no, the older she got the more reasons
she should think of for being afraid of the dark.
She came home from school one
day with the story of the midnight sun in Sweden in the summer. Lets live
there, she said. But in the winter the sun hardly ever shines there, her mommy
said. Well, where does it go. To the South Pole. Well, lets live there. It’s
too cold. I don’t care, so long as it’s not dark. Then one day her mommy and
daddy took her to midnight Mass in the church. It was totally dark inside.
Jeanne Marie was terrified. Then the priest flicked the switch and the church
was filled with light. Oh, said Jeanne Marie, it’s so pretty. Light always
comes on, doesn’t it mommy? If you wait long enough.
2) “Don’t you give out warnings?”
Patricia Greenlee tells a story about her son who is a West
Virginia state trooper. Once he stopped a woman for going 15 miles an hour over
the speed limit. After he handed her a ticket, she asked him, “Don’t you give
out warnings?” “Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “They’re all up and down the road.
They say, ‘Speed Limit 55.’” People have a tendency to disregard the warning
signs, don’t they? Sometimes with dire consequences. Today’s gospel presents
John the Baptist warning the Jews of the need of repentance and conversion with
prophetic courage.
-----------------3) South Padre Island causeway tragedy:
A few years ago, a barge hit a support beam on the
causeway going from Port Isabel to South Padre Island in far south Texas. As a
result, a portion of the causeway plunged into the Laguna Madre. This all
happened during the very early morning hours. Before any indication of this
accident was conveyed to anybody, seven or eight automobiles drove through the
opening and plummeted into the water several hundred feet below. Every
person in those cars died. It took several hours before authorities on
both ends of the causeway were notified and all traffic warned of the disaster
and the tragedy. It was a horrible event. Even worse, business on
the island suffered greatly, as this bridge was the only way for trucks, cars
or vacationers to reach the island. Many were angry that plans needed to
be canceled, businesses had to be shut down, and only ferries could be used to
get to and depart from the island. Now if we had been heading for South
Padre Island that morning, would we not have rejoiced that the warning was
there and that we had been warned, not left to discover, tragically, the reason
for the emptiness of the broken causeway? In today’s gospel, John is
warning a "brood of vipers" that they have to repent and renew their
lives, if they are to receive the long awaited Messiah into their midst.
--------------4) Why not spank instead of baptizing:
Bob Beasley belongs to a Baptist Church in Canada, a church
that follows the Baptist tradition of baptizing by immersion. Returning home
from church one Sunday, his little girl asked, “Daddy, why did the pastor push
that guy under the water? Why, daddy?” Bob’s wife tried to answer her question,
but the little girl, named Rena, just wouldn’t be satisfied. Later that night
Bob and his wife tried to provide an answer from a Baptist perspective that a
child’s mind could comprehend. They talked about sin and told Rena that when
people decide to live for Jesus and to “be good,” they are baptized. They
explained that water symbolizes that Jesus washes people from sin; when they
come out of the water “clean,” it means they are going to try to be “good” from
then on. Rena thought about this for a moment and responded, “Why didn’t the
Preacher just spank him?” (Cited by Dale Bigham)
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5) "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none" (Lk 3: 11):
I once heard of a Christian speaker who declared
rhetorically, expecting the answer "Yes"': "If you had two
houses, you would give one to the poor, wouldn't you?" "Yes,"
said the man to whom the question was directed, "indeed I would."
"And if you had two cars," went on the speaker, "you would keep
one and give the other away?" "Yes, of course," said the man.
"And if you had two shirts, you would give one away?" "Hey, wait
a minute," said the man, "I've got two shirts."5) "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none" (Lk 3: 11):
6) Usher Seats Pastor's Mother:
An elderly woman walked into the local country church. A
friendly usher greeted her at the door and helped her up the flight of steps.
"Where would you like to sit?" he asked. "The front row
please," she answered. "You really don't want to do
that," the usher said. "The pastor is really boring with his long
Advent homilies." "Do you happen to know who I am?" asked
the woman. "No," said the usher. "I'm the
pastor's mother," she replied indignantly. "Do you know who I
am?" the usher asked. "No," she said. "Good."
Said the usher.
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waiting to be tortured and/or killed, waiting to die, waited in
peace. And St. Maximilian Kolbe, the
saint of Auschwitz, who asked that he be killed instead of Franciszek Gajownachek,
a young father whom the Nazis had picked for execution, sat in peace in the
starvation cell united to God, waiting to die.
St. Margaret Ward also showed the courage of her conviction and the
peace that union with Christ brings regardless of what was happening around her
or to her. You probably never heard of
her. I think it is important that we be
aware of the heroic women of our Church as well as the heroic men. Margaret Ward was an English Catholic during
the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. St.
Margaret refused to tell the whereabouts of a priest she helped escape from
prison. She was arrested and
tortured. Then her captors pretended to
be merciful and told her that this all would all end if she renounced her
faith. With all these horrible things
happening to her, she still remained at peace until they finally killed
her. Her persecutors simply could not
take the peace of Christ from her. And they tried with the viciousness of the
devils they were.
William Willimon, Chaplain at Duke University, says that
John the Baptist reminds us of boundaries we must respect and gates we must
pass through. At Duke, Willimon reminds the students, "If you are going to
graduate, you must first get past the English Department. If you are going to
practice law, you must pass the bar. If you want to get to medical school you
must survive Organic Chemistry." Likewise, "If you want to get to the
joy of Bethlehem in the presence of Jesus, you must get past John the Baptist
in the desert." The word from John is "repent," which means
"about-face" or turning 180 degrees.
Richard A. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World.
_____________________9) Seeing God
There is a story going around about a man who wanted to see
and hear God. So he went out to a hilltop and yelled and pleaded with God.
"Speak to me!" And a bird sang. And disappointed he again begged God
to speak to him and all he heard was the sound of children playing in the
distance. "Please God, touch me!" he cried and the wind blew across his
cheek. And discouraged at not having his plea answered the man prayed,
"God, show yourself to me!" And a butterfly flew across his path. And
when he got home, convinced that God had forsaken him, his daughter ran out to
greet him, but he felt abandoned by God.
Now hearing a story like this, it is easy to see God. But in
this story this man was as certain about what it means to see and hear God as
we are about the end of the stories we heard today.
Sally Sedgwick
____________________________________
10) Time to Act
10) Time to Act
Once the eminent philosopher John Dewey found his son in the
bathroom. The floor was flooded and he was mopping furiously trying to contain
the water in that room, keeping the damage to a minimum. The professor began
thinking, trying to understand the deeper ramifications of the situation. After
a few moments, the son said, "Dad, this is not the time to philosophize.
It is time to mop!"
Baptism is our statement that we are ready to stop
philosophizing and ready to start mopping. Zig Ziglar reminds us that the
largest locomotive in the world can be held in its tracks while standing still
simply by placing a single one-inch block of wood in front of each of the eight
drive wheels. The same locomotive moving at 100 miles per hour can crash
through a wall of steel reinforced concrete five feet thick, but it must be
moving first.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.sermons.com
_____________________________
11) The Wayward Bus
In John Steinbeck's story "The Wayward Bus" a
dilapidated old bus takes a cross country shortcut on its journey to Los
Angeles, and gets stuck in the mud. While the drivers go for assistance, the
passengers take refuge in a cave. It is a curious company of people and it is
obvious that the author is attempting to get across the point that these people
are lost spiritually as well as literally. As they enter into this cave, the
author calls the reader's attention to the fact that as they enter they must pass
a word that has been scrawled with paint over the entrance. The word is repent.
Although Steinbeck calls that to the reader's attention it is interesting that
none of the passengers pay any attention to it whatsoever.
All too often this is our story. Yet, John the Baptist calls
upon us to take our sinning seriously. Why? Because God does? Repentance is not
just changing our minds, or feeling sorry for something that we have done, or
even making bold resolves that we will never participate in certain conduct
again. Instead, repentance means to turn around and go in another direction.
What John the Baptist wanted his audience to hear was: Turn your life toward
this one called Messiah. This is not negative or down-faced. Rather, it breaks
the chains of oppression and death that hold us back.
12) Preparation
A few years ago as the world watched the beginning game of
the World Series in San Francisco there was suddenly an interruption of the
opening interview. The screen blinked and went blank. When the program resumed:
A Special News Bulletin. The San Francisco metropolitan area had experienced a
serious earthquake. We all watched the live pictures as the huge fire in the
Marina area burned. A remote camera crew was there and we saw the firemen
fighting the fires. The scene I remember the most, however, was a group of
people standing around just looking at the destruction and looking at the fire.
All of a sudden a cop came up to the crowd and yelled out to them: What are you
people doing just standing there. You must get prepared immediately. Go home
and fill your bathtubs up with water. Be prepared to live without city services
for 72 hours. The sun will set in another hour and your time is running out. Go
hence and get prepared.
A long, long time ago a man came on the scene by the name of
John the Baptist. John's message was not told in soft monotones, but rather
there was an urgent screaming in his voice. "Why are you not getting
ready?" he yelled to the Hebrews. Why are you just standing there. Don't
you see that your time is running out on you. You need to be preparing the way.
Making the path straight. Go and get ready.
That message may sound very strange to our modern ears, but
the simple truth is that is Jesus were standing here in the flesh this morning
and we asked him to give a list of the preachers who were most instrumental
upon him, he would have listed the name of John the Baptist. There is just simply
no question about that. There was no single human being who was more
influential upon the life and career of Jesus than John.
Staff
__________________
13) Christian Hope Had Changed His Life
Some years ago a military airplane crashed at Sonderstrom
Air Force Base in Greenland. Twenty-two people were killed. The runway and the
nearby fields were strewn with bodies. It was a tragic and horrible moment.
There was only one chaplain on the base at the time... and the entire burden
was laid on him to bring comfort and the Word of Christ to a shocked community
staggered by the horrendous accident. But there was little time to mourn that
day. The grisly task of gathering up and identifying the bodies needed to be
done.
And so, the chaplain,
along with a young lieutenant who had been assigned the duties of a mortuary
officer and a group of volunteers went about the awful business of picking up
the mutilated bodies and trying to identify the dead, so that their families
and loved ones back home could be notified. It was a heart-breaking and
exhausting task, but it had to be done. The people worked in shocked silence
well into the night until they almost dropped from fatigue. When every last
remnant of death had been picked up, they each went silently to their
individual rooms.
That night, after midnight, there was a knock on the
chaplain's door. Outside stood the young lieutenant, the Mortuary Officer. He
said nothing. He just stood there and wept. After some moments, the young
lieutenant spoke through his tears and he said to the chaplain, "As we
were picking up the bodies today, I realized something. I realized that the
only other people out there with us were the people who go to church here. I have
always been an unbeliever, and I used to ridicule these same people who were
out there with us. Yet they are the only persons who would, or perhaps could,
do what we had to do today. It must have been their Christian spirit that could
help them see beyond the horror to the hope."
That tragic day turned around the life of that young
lieutenant. As he had admitted, he had never been religious, had seldom gone to
church except for weddings and funerals, but from that time on he was a new
man. Christ was born in his heart. From that time forward, he took an active
part in the Christian ministry of that base. Then he did an unheard thing - he
extended his tour of duty in Greenland for an extra year. He was the first
person in the history of that base to do that. He did it because he wanted to
be able to tell others the story of how the power of the Christian Hope had
changed his life.
If you want to give your loved ones a great Christmas
present this year, give them the gift of Christian Hope. On page after page of
the New Testament we find it: the Good News that God will win, that nothing can
defeat Him; that ultimately God and goodness will have the victory and that
when we put our hope in Him, nothing, not even death, can separate us from His
watch care and His love and His triumph. Once each year, Christmas comes along
to renew our hope and to remind us that the darkness of this world cannot
overcome the light of the world.
James W. Moore, ChristianGlobe Sermons
_________________________14) Blessed Are They Who Find Christmas...
Blessed are they who find Christmas in the age-old story of a babe born in Bethlehem. To them a little child will always mean hope and promise to a troubled world.
Blessed are they who find Christmas in the Christmas star.
Their lives may ever reflect its beauty and light.
Blessed are they who find Christmas in the joy of giving
lovingly to others. They shall share the gladness and joy of the shepherds and
wise men of old.
Blessed are they who find Christmas in the fragrant greens,
the cheerful holly and soft flicker of candles. To them shall come bright
memories of love and happiness...
