Illustrations For December 30, 2007 From The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Did you notice that on this first Sunday of Christmas-well, in reality the only Sunday of Christmas this year, because next Sunday, January 6, is the actual day of Epiphany, the day we celebrate the wise men's coming to see the baby Jesus -- did you notice that all of our four scripture readings today talk about angels?
Isaiah says, "It was no messenger or angel but [the Lord's] presence that saved them" (63:9).
The Psalmist urges, "Praise the Lord! Praise him, all his angels" (148:1-2).
Matthew tells us that, after the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt" (2:13). And later, "When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel' " (2:19-20).
And the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us, "For it is clear that [Jesus] did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham" (2:16) and, by extension, to help all of us.
We don't talk much about angels today, but they were certainly part of the biblical story. The word "angel" means "messenger," the Lord's messenger. The Lord sent them whenever there was a message that needed to be conveyed to the people. And we know that the Lord continues to speak to us today in whatever ways work the best.
How do you believe the Lord gets messages to us today? You could talk about this with family and friends after the service.
* * *
Did you notice the story in the news a few weeks ago about a seven-year-old girl in Detroit, Alexis Goggins, who threw herself between a crazed gunman and her mother and took six shots? The little girl yelled at the man not to hurt her mother and lunged forward.
It isn't just adults who can be heroes.
The girl and her mother are recovering, and people are calling Alexis an angel.
* * *
And did you notice the story about the bank in Fargo, North Dakota, that gave its 500 or so workers money this Christmas -- money that they had to donate to their favorite needy cause? Full-time employees received $1,000 and part-timers $500, and they had to give it all away (and not to relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers, or themselves).
They were, in effect, to be angels to some needy person or group, and had to provide photos confirming the transaction.
Some of the bank's workers may have really needed the money themselves. Should the bank have rather just given the money outright to their employees and let them decide what to do with it?
You could also discuss this question with family and friends later today.
* * *
"We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other rather than uniting us. When I am bombarded on the evening news with earthquake, flood, fire, it is too much for me. There is a mechanism, a safety valve, which cuts off our response to overexposure to suffering.
"But when a high-school student comes to me and cries because the two- and three-year-olds on her block are becoming addicted to hard drugs; when the gentle man who cleans the building in which the Cathedral library is located talks to me about his family in Guatemala, rejoicing because they are alive although their house has been destroyed by earthquake; when a goddaughter of mine in Luxembourg writes me about the hungry children of the immigrant Portuguese family with whom she is living, then in this particularity my heart burns within me, and I am more able to learn what it is that I can and ought to do, even if this seems, and is, inadequate.
"But neither was Jesus adequate to the situation. He did not feed all the poor, only a few. He did not heal all the lepers, or give sight to all the blind, or drive out all the unclean spirits. Satan wanted him to do all this, but he didn't.
"That helps me. If I felt that I had to conquer all the ills of the world I'd likely sit back and do nothing at all. But if my job is to feed one stranger, than the money I give to world relief will be dug down deeper from my pocket than it would if I felt I had to succeed in feeding the entire world."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, "The Irrational Season"
* * *
"The love of our neighbor is the love which comes down from God to man. It precedes that which rises from men to God. God is longing to come down to those in affliction. As soon as a soul is disposed to consent, though it were the last, the most miserable, the most deformed of souls, God will precipitate himself into it in order, through it, to look at and listen to the afflicted. Only as time passes does the soul become aware that he is there. But, though it finds no name for him, wherever the afflicted are loved for themselves alone, it is God who is present.
"God is not present, even if we invoke him, where the afflicted are merely regarded as an occasion for doing good. They may even be loved on this account, but then they are in their natural role, the role of matter and of things. We have to bring to them in their inert, anonymous condition a personal love."
-- Simone Weil, "Waiting for God"
* * *
"I believe that as Christians our focus at Christmas for our children needs to get off SC (Santa Claus), and what I can get for me, and back to the gift of the Christ Child and his gift of love for the world. SC continues to promote greed and consumerism which is destroying our planet and killing many children around the world (and who knows what will happen to our children if we don't act quickly concerning global warming). Our society, and even some that is done in the church, promotes JC only as a cute little baby to celebrate with a birthday cake, while someone else (who doesn't need them) usually gets all the presents. So for this Christmas, let me urge you to remember what believing in SC eventually leads to -- here it is:
Four Stages of Life (this is a joke, folks!)
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
"Could Stage 4 be one of the signs of the results of greed and consumerism in our culture and our lack of concern for the suffering children of the world?"
-- Dr. John Brownsberger (from an internet discussion group called E-talk)
* * *
There was once a little child who asked a priest why it was that God would allow Herod to kill all the little children. Why would God allow such cruelty to their moms and dads? It makes no sense and makes you wonder if there is a God at all when God allows such things. Why the six million Jews? Why Darfur? Why? Why? Why? The priest wanted to explain that it was people who did these horrors and people who allowed them. But the child's horror stood starkly in contrast to the story of God's love. The priest resisted the temptation to answer too quickly the child's lament. Instead, steadily, quietly, he told the story of a little child born in a manger, who did wonders, and signs, and stood by the poor and the outcast. He loved everyone with a love undying until at last he could go on no more. Cruelty struck again and took the day, and He died. But then He rose again and that's the only answer there is to "why?" And finally the little child understood. And he too became a priest!
* * *
It took Mandela a long time to listen to the pleading voice of Desmond Tutu. Too many people were dying of AIDS, but finally it was Mandela's child who died from this great scourge. It was then that he could say; "There are nearly 40 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS... Nothing can shake me more than sight of these innocent young children suffering physically, socially, and emotionally."
-- Nelson Mandela, (South African Statesman First democratically elected State President of South Africa [1994], 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, b.1918)
* * *
The Innocent Ones, holy and otherwise, love to hear stories. As our children grew, we always lit a candle, told a story, said a prayer, and then bid them good night. What makes the Innocents holy is a story that brings them into the arms of the Holy One. My favorite childhood story was of the call of Samuel because it claimed that God could call children to serve. Being a storyteller for God is perhaps the highest form of care, love, and protection for the Holy Innocents. Armed with God, children can endure all that the adult word puts them through. If they are armed with God, even then when they are caught in the crossfire of a dangerous adult world, they will always have God. Give them the gift they will remember forever. Be a storyteller for God for them.
Isaiah says, "It was no messenger or angel but [the Lord's] presence that saved them" (63:9).
The Psalmist urges, "Praise the Lord! Praise him, all his angels" (148:1-2).
Matthew tells us that, after the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt" (2:13). And later, "When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel' " (2:19-20).
And the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us, "For it is clear that [Jesus] did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham" (2:16) and, by extension, to help all of us.
We don't talk much about angels today, but they were certainly part of the biblical story. The word "angel" means "messenger," the Lord's messenger. The Lord sent them whenever there was a message that needed to be conveyed to the people. And we know that the Lord continues to speak to us today in whatever ways work the best.
How do you believe the Lord gets messages to us today? You could talk about this with family and friends after the service.
* * *
Did you notice the story in the news a few weeks ago about a seven-year-old girl in Detroit, Alexis Goggins, who threw herself between a crazed gunman and her mother and took six shots? The little girl yelled at the man not to hurt her mother and lunged forward.
It isn't just adults who can be heroes.
The girl and her mother are recovering, and people are calling Alexis an angel.
* * *
And did you notice the story about the bank in Fargo, North Dakota, that gave its 500 or so workers money this Christmas -- money that they had to donate to their favorite needy cause? Full-time employees received $1,000 and part-timers $500, and they had to give it all away (and not to relatives, neighbors, friends, coworkers, or themselves).
They were, in effect, to be angels to some needy person or group, and had to provide photos confirming the transaction.
Some of the bank's workers may have really needed the money themselves. Should the bank have rather just given the money outright to their employees and let them decide what to do with it?
You could also discuss this question with family and friends later today.
* * *
"We may be a global village, but instant communication often isolates us from each other rather than uniting us. When I am bombarded on the evening news with earthquake, flood, fire, it is too much for me. There is a mechanism, a safety valve, which cuts off our response to overexposure to suffering.
"But when a high-school student comes to me and cries because the two- and three-year-olds on her block are becoming addicted to hard drugs; when the gentle man who cleans the building in which the Cathedral library is located talks to me about his family in Guatemala, rejoicing because they are alive although their house has been destroyed by earthquake; when a goddaughter of mine in Luxembourg writes me about the hungry children of the immigrant Portuguese family with whom she is living, then in this particularity my heart burns within me, and I am more able to learn what it is that I can and ought to do, even if this seems, and is, inadequate.
"But neither was Jesus adequate to the situation. He did not feed all the poor, only a few. He did not heal all the lepers, or give sight to all the blind, or drive out all the unclean spirits. Satan wanted him to do all this, but he didn't.
"That helps me. If I felt that I had to conquer all the ills of the world I'd likely sit back and do nothing at all. But if my job is to feed one stranger, than the money I give to world relief will be dug down deeper from my pocket than it would if I felt I had to succeed in feeding the entire world."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, "The Irrational Season"
* * *
"The love of our neighbor is the love which comes down from God to man. It precedes that which rises from men to God. God is longing to come down to those in affliction. As soon as a soul is disposed to consent, though it were the last, the most miserable, the most deformed of souls, God will precipitate himself into it in order, through it, to look at and listen to the afflicted. Only as time passes does the soul become aware that he is there. But, though it finds no name for him, wherever the afflicted are loved for themselves alone, it is God who is present.
"God is not present, even if we invoke him, where the afflicted are merely regarded as an occasion for doing good. They may even be loved on this account, but then they are in their natural role, the role of matter and of things. We have to bring to them in their inert, anonymous condition a personal love."
-- Simone Weil, "Waiting for God"
* * *
"I believe that as Christians our focus at Christmas for our children needs to get off SC (Santa Claus), and what I can get for me, and back to the gift of the Christ Child and his gift of love for the world. SC continues to promote greed and consumerism which is destroying our planet and killing many children around the world (and who knows what will happen to our children if we don't act quickly concerning global warming). Our society, and even some that is done in the church, promotes JC only as a cute little baby to celebrate with a birthday cake, while someone else (who doesn't need them) usually gets all the presents. So for this Christmas, let me urge you to remember what believing in SC eventually leads to -- here it is:
Four Stages of Life (this is a joke, folks!)
1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3. You are Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.
"Could Stage 4 be one of the signs of the results of greed and consumerism in our culture and our lack of concern for the suffering children of the world?"
-- Dr. John Brownsberger (from an internet discussion group called E-talk)
* * *
There was once a little child who asked a priest why it was that God would allow Herod to kill all the little children. Why would God allow such cruelty to their moms and dads? It makes no sense and makes you wonder if there is a God at all when God allows such things. Why the six million Jews? Why Darfur? Why? Why? Why? The priest wanted to explain that it was people who did these horrors and people who allowed them. But the child's horror stood starkly in contrast to the story of God's love. The priest resisted the temptation to answer too quickly the child's lament. Instead, steadily, quietly, he told the story of a little child born in a manger, who did wonders, and signs, and stood by the poor and the outcast. He loved everyone with a love undying until at last he could go on no more. Cruelty struck again and took the day, and He died. But then He rose again and that's the only answer there is to "why?" And finally the little child understood. And he too became a priest!
* * *
It took Mandela a long time to listen to the pleading voice of Desmond Tutu. Too many people were dying of AIDS, but finally it was Mandela's child who died from this great scourge. It was then that he could say; "There are nearly 40 million children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS... Nothing can shake me more than sight of these innocent young children suffering physically, socially, and emotionally."
-- Nelson Mandela, (South African Statesman First democratically elected State President of South Africa [1994], 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, b.1918)
* * *
The Innocent Ones, holy and otherwise, love to hear stories. As our children grew, we always lit a candle, told a story, said a prayer, and then bid them good night. What makes the Innocents holy is a story that brings them into the arms of the Holy One. My favorite childhood story was of the call of Samuel because it claimed that God could call children to serve. Being a storyteller for God is perhaps the highest form of care, love, and protection for the Holy Innocents. Armed with God, children can endure all that the adult word puts them through. If they are armed with God, even then when they are caught in the crossfire of a dangerous adult world, they will always have God. Give them the gift they will remember forever. Be a storyteller for God for them.
