[Propertalk] Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2017 - part 2

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's part 2 of the homily for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Blessings!
Bob

 But that was enough. THEY found their lives changed, and, even if
they continued to care for someone else’s animals for the rest of
their lives, they were never the same. The Love Song reached their
hearts and they could never be the same again.

	 How did they view sheep after that? Did they value lamb chops or
stew any differently? Possibly, we don’t know. But in whatever they
did, they praised God, taking that new feeling, that sense of God’s
Presence, and not keeping it to themselves.

	 And this is the invitation to us tonight/today: take what we hear
and be transformed. Live differently. Examine our priorities. Think
about LOVE! 

	 This Song, this Light, this Message – is not something to be
packaged,

	however, to be commercialised, to be usurped, to be taken over by a
limited few – be they a multi-national corporation or a city
congregation. They are given to the earth, to the universe, so that
they may be shared freely in order to change lives.

	 You and I have heard of and seen restaurants and agencies which
close early, sometimes foregoing a potentially enriching dinner crowd.
4 You and I have heard of such people and businesses which then
prepare food and take it to make-shift tables set up under bridges.
You and I have seen people come from their own make-shift shelters to
receive warm, nutritious food and to feel the touch of another human
being whose smiling eyes connect with each person to say, “You’re
important. You matter. You have dignity – to me and, most
especially, to God.”

	 This is what The Song of Holy Love is about. This is how God spoke
and continues to speak.

	 It can be easy to get caught up in the ritual of our Christmas
celebrations: the excitement of decorating our homes, the profusion of
coloured and white lights in our neighbourhoods, the sound of bells
ringing. It can be so easy to become involved in trying to find the
most appropriate, the most delightful gift for the one or several
someones who are so important to our lives. It can be relatively easy
to do all this, and to sit here, singing hymns to God, hymns of
praise, and wonder, and thanksgiving, yet, to forget that what we
celebrate was the most practical thing that God could think to do. God
touches us, wherever we are – whoever we are – however we feel
this particular season. God doesn’t check out any I.D.s. God
doesn’t have a “naughty and nice book”. God doesn’t
discriminate in any way.

	 At one particular moment in the existence of the incredible being
which is the universe, God, as it were, collapsed every last ounce of
Love that there is and came to earth in a vulnerable baby that needed
human beings to respond, in order to have those most basic necessities
satisfied – milk, a rough blanket, a spot out of the wind and the
draughts. 

	 And, every single day, God needs people to respond, to see what that
Song of Holy Love really means.

	 We needn’t be afraid of the thought of destruction, of being
overwhelmed, of being, somehow, held back from whatever is in our
lives at the moment. That, and every moment, is the time of OUR birth
in Christ, just as Bethlehem’s risk was God’s birth for us, in
Jesus.

	 A contemporary song writer, talking of David Willcocks, who was the
famous and long-time Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge
University, wrote, David Willcocks “didn’t just say nice things,
he did them.” 5

	 Kind of like God, on that Night of Wonder, when music itself was
reborn. There is NOTHING to fear, then, and everything to gain if we
listen and learn The Holy Song of Love. And if there’s nothing to
fear, nor “hobgoblin nor foul fiend”, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor anything nor anyone on earth, no matter what or who they
think they are, “can daunt (our) spirit.” 6 Thanks be to God! 

	NOTES:

	[1] St. John Chrysostom 

	2 The title comes from an article in Biblical Archeology Review, 6th
December, 2017 

	http://reply.biblicalarchaeology.org/t?r=2686&c=3923656&l=209532&ctl=4D9CF9D:95D0553B081805FFE51F7A7FDED947A54A450DAA0B6B0A42&
[1] 

	3 Attributed to nikka ursula (n.t)
alwayskeepitrea.com/post/79581575012 

4 For Instance – “_Korean Restaurant Cooks Meals For Those In
Need” _ Humankind Stories [2] November 23 At 6:00am [3] Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel [4]: “Even After Their Last Paying Customer Leaves,
This Couple Is Prepared To Serve Hundreds More For Free.”
https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/?fref=mentions
[5] 

	5 John Rutter, quoted by Michael White in _“The Composer who owns
Christmas”,_ _The New York Times_, 16th. December, 2017. 

	6 _“Who would true valour see”,_ hymn from Part 2 of “A
Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan and Romans 8:35-38.


Links:
------
[1]
http://reply.biblicalarchaeology.org/t?r=2686&c=3923656&l=209532&ctl=4D9CF9D:95D0553B081805FFE51F7A7FDED947A54A450DAA0B6B0A42&
[2]
https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/?hc_ref=ARQiPLSbuk8dZWbfQP8fXoxE2fqnMe2WWURRZHuTp5_sq5f7iN1k-73OF4i893AWatI
[3] https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/
[4]
https://www.facebook.com/journalsentinel/?hc_ref=ARRvUGdmIRlgeWwibBRBdeLPGkkr_3rEpyBEcYXrBX03fIarWmdaxB1hYPj2tJ3RYGc&fref=nf
[5]
https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/?fref=mentions

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20171219/57fc7de0/attachment.htm>