[Propertalk] Christmas Eve & Day - Part 2

Fri Dec 23 15:42:26 EST 2016

 Part 2 - greetings and blessings, again
Bob

 So we’re invited, we‘re encouraged to be surprised, yes. But
we’re called and invited to be brave also. As God took that
tremendously surprising step in coming among us, in our own form, in
our own doubts and uncertainties, in our own confusion about what it
means to relate fully with one another and respect one another, so
we’re brought to see in God the invitation to be present, to accept
whatever company we find at the birth, no matter how strange, no
matter how unexpected, no matter how changing this may be.

	 God speaks to us through the helplessness of a human baby and prays
that we’ll find in Jesus the courage we need to endure and work
through all the uncertainties we face. God, in Jesus, asks us to look
around, to see not just one baby. God’s arrival and birth to Mary
and Joseph asks us to take from Jesus birth the vision of how God is
present all around us.

	 Almost four hundred and seventy-five years ago, Martin Luther spoke
in his Christmas sermon in 1543, “The inn was full .. 

	 “There are many of us who think to ourselves: 

	 ‘If only I had been here! How quick I would have been to help the
baby!’

	 “Why don't we do it now?” Luther said. “Why don’t we do it
now? We have Christ in our neighbor. We ought to serve our neighbor,
for what we do to our neighbor in need we do to the Lord Christ
himself.” 5

	 Luther said that we react as if we’d go because of what we know
now about Jesus. But the surprise of God, the birth of Jesus, the
bravery of God, calls forth surprise and bravery from us to go, to
look, to respond now, without necessarily stopping to think of exactly
who or what that baby is, no matter who or what the adult is.

	 A Muslim-owned Turkish restaurant in a south-east London suburb is
going to be open on Christmas Day. This isn’t so surprising,
in-and-of-itself. Many shops are open, here as well as around the
world. What IS surprising – there’s that word! – what IS
surprising is that the restaurant owner and staff will offer
“elderly and homeless (people) free meals on Christmas Day so that
‘no one eats alone’.” 6

	 This will be no quick burger or a chicken sandwich either, but a
full, three-course meal, with choices! CHOICES! And it’s not limited
to those within a few blocks of the restaurant either. The restaurant
announced this twenty days ago and urged people to spread the word on
social media and by word of mouth. 

	 “No one eats alone,” God said. “We’re here to sit with
you,” said the restaurant owner and staff, because God said,
“I’m here to sit with you.” And if God happens to appear
ethnically Turkish, that’s not off-the-mark. God, in Jesus, born of
Mary, took on the physical characteristics of His time and place –
ALL of them! But then, God left it to us to pick up the joy and the
love from there – for ourselves and for everyone.

	 Let no one ever eat along, or despair, or feel pain – unless that
person asks for such time, as DOES happen. Nevertheless, Jesus, having
been born, will stay still.

	 Of course, the story only starts at the birth of Jesus, and gets
into difficulty almost right away. But Jesus says, quite often,
“Surprise!”

	 I pray that none of us will ever get too old to be surprised –
surprised by joy, surprised by love, surprised by service –
surprised by God.

	NOTES:

	[1] _“__Metropolitan Diary: The Scarf Blinked”_ The New York
Times, 7th December, 2016 Metropolitan Diary The Scarf Blinked - The
New York Times [1]
www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/nyregion/metropolitan-diary-the-scarf-blinked.html
[2] 

	2 _“Revolutionary patience”_ by Catherine Meeks. Special to The
Telegraph, August 9, 2016.
http://www.macon.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article94598002.html
[3] 

	3 _“O little town of Bethlehem”,_ words by Philips Brooks, Hymn
78 and 79, _“The Hymnal 1982”_The Church Hymnal Corporation, The
Church Pension Fund, New York, ©1985. 

	4 Murray Perahia, in _“The James Naughtie Interview”,_ BBC Music
Magazine, Volume 21 Number 11, August 2013, page 36.

5 MARTIN LUTHER, CHRISTMAS SERMON, 1543, QUOTED IN CELEBRATING ADVENT
WITH MARTIN LUTHER | CHRISTIAN HISTORY [4]

	www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/.../celebrating-advent-with-martin-luther.html
[5] see also a message from the pastor - St. John Lutheran Church [6]

	www.stjohnabingdon.org/uploads/4/7/1/4/4714988/december2013_newsletter.pdf
[7] 

	6_ “Muslim-owned restaurant offers elderly and homeless free meals
on Christmas Day so ‘no one eats alone’” _'This is the most
selfless gesture I have ever seen and they should be recognised as a
pillar of the community,' social media user says Loulla-Mae
Eleftheriou-Smith [8] Monday 5 December 2016

	http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/turkish-restuarant-free-christmas-meals-elderly-sidcup-xmas-lunch-offers-a7456686.html
[9]

Links:
------
[1]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiozqrh4eLQAhVDzGMKHZB6CXMQFggsMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F12%2F06%2Fnyregion%2Fmetropolitan-diary-the-scarf-blinked.html&usg=AFQjCNGgmCxxzhhy1lcxw44Z6mWJGCuLAw&bvm=bv.140496471,d.cGc
[2]
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/nyregion/metropolitan-diary-the-scarf-blinked.html
[3]
http://www.macon.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article94598002.html
[4]
http://mail2.charter.net/HTTPS://WWW.GOOGLE.COM/URL?SA=T&RCT=J&Q=&ESRC=S&SOURCE=WEB&CD=1&CAD=RJA&UACT=8&VED=0AHUKEWJS24EU1-_QAHVN7MMKHAFTADYQFGGAMAA&URL=HTTP%3A%2F%2FWWW.CHRISTIANITYTODAY.COM%2FHISTORY%2F2008%2FDECEMBER%2FCELEBRATING-ADVENT-WITH-MARTIN-LUTHER.HTML&USG=AFQJCNFHQMDT0CB3U8KZK_D-Z_3S5LTZUG
[5]
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/.../celebrating-advent-with-martin-luther.html
[6]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjS24eU1-_QAhVN7mMKHaFtAdYQFggkMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stjohnabingdon.org%2Fuploads%2F4%2F7%2F1%2F4%2F4714988%2Fdecember2013_newsletter.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEG_oX2dE6SZSFPIImUvDPt3TC56A
[7]
http://www.stjohnabingdon.org/uploads/4/7/1/4/4714988/december2013_newsletter.pdf
[8] http://www.independent.co.uk/author/loulla-mae-eleftheriou-smith
[9]
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/turkish-restuarant-free-christmas-meals-elderly-sidcup-xmas-lunch-offers-a7456686.html

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20161223/a9844f62/attachment.htm>