Seeing the Future
Stories
Contents
“Seeing the Future” by Peter Andrew Smith
“A Distant Land” by Frank Ramirez
Seeing the Future
by Peter Andrew Smith
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
John sat at the edge of his bed in the half way house staring out the window.
“Are you okay, John?” Carl asked from the doorway.
“Yeah, just watching the snow falling on the manger scene across the street. On days like this my Mom would always take us in the car to look at the Christmas lights.” John turned to face the other man. “I missed that every year that I was in prison.”
“There’s no reason that you couldn’t do that this year.”
“I don’t think so,” John said. “I think it might just depress me.”
“Sorry. I forgot your Mom died last year.” Carl sat next to him. “Have you got any other family?”
“A sister but we don’t talk very much. There are a couple of cousins that I lost touch with but other then that I really don’t have anyone anymore.”
“That’s rough.”
“Yeah well, I did the crime and I did the time.” John turned back to the window. “I wonder if there is anything left for me now.”
The two men looked out the window for a while.
“Do you know what I think of when I see manger scenes?” Carl asked.
“What?”
“I think about how much the shepherds were impressed by the baby they found.”
John frowned. “Well it was Jesus, of course they were impressed.”
“Naw, it was just a baby. Probably small and helpless. Plus he was lying there in straw wrapped in torn up bits of cloth. I can’t imagine anything more humble.”
John shrugged. “So they were easily impressed I guess.”
“Shepherds easily impressed? I remember when I was inside a pastor telling us that shepherds were the rough and tumble troublemakers of the time. If you had a son who you couldn’t control you sent him out to the fields. They were basically nobodies”
John turned to his friend. “Really?”
“Yeah. In some ways shepherds were kind of like us.” Carl paused. “Are you easily impressed John?”
John shook his head and laughed. “I don’t think anything impresses or surprises me in life anymore. I’ve seen it all and done it all.”
“Yet the shepherds were blown away by the baby.”
“I think the angels showing up was what impressed them,” John said.
“An army of angels showing up certainly terrified them. The light show was probably a bit much and I’m taking it on faith that the singing was first rate too,” Carl said. “Yet the Bible tells us that it was the baby that they went to see, that they told about, and that they made a fuss over.”
“That’s true.”
Carl pointed toward the manger scene slowly being covered in snow. “That doesn’t look that impressive to me.”
John rubbed his chin. “So did the pastor say what struck them about the baby Jesus?”
“He said it was the promise that was made to them about Jesus. The fact that he was there to save them, to change there world, and to make things different.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” John rubbed his chin. “If my life was in chaos that message would make all the difference in the world.”
“Then why doesn’t it?” Carl asked. “I know you found Jesus when you hit rock bottom inside. I know you go to chapel here and church as well. So why don’t you let that promise grow in your heart?”
“I don’t know.” John stared at him for a few minutes. “I guess this time of year I get lost in memories of things I don’t have anymore and people that aren’t in my life. I look back and it drags me down.”
“So why not look forward?”
“To what? To society hassling me because I’m an ex-con or to having no one on the outside that cares about me?”
Carl looked him in the eye. “Do you believe that Jesus is your Saviour?”
“You know I do.”
“Then how about looking forward with the shepherds when they saw the baby Jesus and realized that there were better days ahead because God was bringing them hope and salvation?” Carl said. “How about realizing that God is giving us the peace, the joy, and the love we need to face absolutely anything, even living a new life through the babe born in Bethlehem?”
John smiled. “Yeah, I like that.”
“Then come on let’s go look at some lights.” Carl stood up. “People are celebrating that Jesus has come among us and I feel that as modern day shepherds we should be part of that celebration.”
John stood as well. “Lead the way, friend, and let’s go and see what God is doing in the world today.”
* * *
A Distant Land
by Frank Ramirez
Isaiah 62:6-12
Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples (Isaiah 62:10).
At the core of Hebrew identity is the story of the Exodus. God made a people by leading them out of slavery in Egypt into their own land. Maybe that’s why, at a crucial point in history, the prophet Jeremiah warned the Judeans against returning to Egypt. It seemed like turning one’s back on God's greatest gift, making them a people.
But things were falling apart. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah was under siege from the Babylonians. The prophet Jeremiah warned that those who fled to Egypt would be destroyed. And against his will Jeremiah was taken to that country, which did not prevent him from continuing to proclaim the same message. Did Jeremiah die there? No one knows.
Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 587 BC. In 538 the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, who released captive peoples like the Hebrews, sending them back to their homelands to rebuild their destroyed temples and renew their former way of life.
The prophet Isaiah may have been talking about the rebuilding of the roads that led back to the city of Jerusalem, which with its temple would be rebuilt, when he wrote: Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples (62:10).
Not everyone returned. There was a thriving Jewish colony of mercenaries in Egypt, serving the Persian government around the time the Second Temple was being built in Jerusalem. This was a military garrison on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, near Aswan.
No one is sure if these Jews fled Judea because of the Babylonians, or if they had fled Israel because of the Assyrians, or if they were exiles who slowly found their way to Egypt long after Jeremiah’s day. We do know they seem to have kept in touch with their fellow Jews in Jerusalem.
These Egyptian Jews built themselves a temple modeled after the Temple in Jerusalem, where they offered animal sacrifices. They collected a temple tax among the Jews of Elephantine to support it. The people seem to have been very proud of their temple, so they may have also thought of the words of the prophet, "Go through, go through the gates..." when they entered the temple they built.
Something is known about the lives of these Jews, for among the ruins of that military base were discovered many documents written by, for, and about the Jews, between 495 and 399 BC.
There are marriage contracts and divorce settlements. There are contracts for loans and judicial complaints about non-payment. There are building contracts, and wills outlining who gets what property and when.
One letter is astounding. It’s dated to the year 419 BC, over a century after Jews returned from Babylon to Judah. It’s a letter from someone named Hananiah in Jerusalem to someone named Jedaniah in Elephantine. It contains instructions on how to conduct the Passover!
The letter was found in terrible shape, with many gaps in the manuscript. It instructs the people how many days they are to count in the spring month of Nisan before they start the Passover, how they are to get rid of anything with leaven, and how many days the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to continue. It advises the people to rid their houses of leaven, including not only bread, but also beer, for the duration of the festival.
Now the Passover is a spring festival. Why am I talking about it during this Christmas season?
Because it brings up a perplexing question -- even though they had lived for over a century in a distant, foreign land, with a Temple no less to conduct animal sacrifices, how could a group of Jewish believers have forgotten how to observe something as fundamental as Passover?
And that brings to mind another perplexing question -- how could we Christian believers, who do not live in a distant land cut off from the practice of our faith, have forgotten how to observe something as fundamental as Christmas!
*****************************************
StoryShare, December 25, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Seeing the Future” by Peter Andrew Smith
“A Distant Land” by Frank Ramirez
Seeing the Future
by Peter Andrew Smith
Luke 2:(1-7) 8-20
John sat at the edge of his bed in the half way house staring out the window.
“Are you okay, John?” Carl asked from the doorway.
“Yeah, just watching the snow falling on the manger scene across the street. On days like this my Mom would always take us in the car to look at the Christmas lights.” John turned to face the other man. “I missed that every year that I was in prison.”
“There’s no reason that you couldn’t do that this year.”
“I don’t think so,” John said. “I think it might just depress me.”
“Sorry. I forgot your Mom died last year.” Carl sat next to him. “Have you got any other family?”
“A sister but we don’t talk very much. There are a couple of cousins that I lost touch with but other then that I really don’t have anyone anymore.”
“That’s rough.”
“Yeah well, I did the crime and I did the time.” John turned back to the window. “I wonder if there is anything left for me now.”
The two men looked out the window for a while.
“Do you know what I think of when I see manger scenes?” Carl asked.
“What?”
“I think about how much the shepherds were impressed by the baby they found.”
John frowned. “Well it was Jesus, of course they were impressed.”
“Naw, it was just a baby. Probably small and helpless. Plus he was lying there in straw wrapped in torn up bits of cloth. I can’t imagine anything more humble.”
John shrugged. “So they were easily impressed I guess.”
“Shepherds easily impressed? I remember when I was inside a pastor telling us that shepherds were the rough and tumble troublemakers of the time. If you had a son who you couldn’t control you sent him out to the fields. They were basically nobodies”
John turned to his friend. “Really?”
“Yeah. In some ways shepherds were kind of like us.” Carl paused. “Are you easily impressed John?”
John shook his head and laughed. “I don’t think anything impresses or surprises me in life anymore. I’ve seen it all and done it all.”
“Yet the shepherds were blown away by the baby.”
“I think the angels showing up was what impressed them,” John said.
“An army of angels showing up certainly terrified them. The light show was probably a bit much and I’m taking it on faith that the singing was first rate too,” Carl said. “Yet the Bible tells us that it was the baby that they went to see, that they told about, and that they made a fuss over.”
“That’s true.”
Carl pointed toward the manger scene slowly being covered in snow. “That doesn’t look that impressive to me.”
John rubbed his chin. “So did the pastor say what struck them about the baby Jesus?”
“He said it was the promise that was made to them about Jesus. The fact that he was there to save them, to change there world, and to make things different.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” John rubbed his chin. “If my life was in chaos that message would make all the difference in the world.”
“Then why doesn’t it?” Carl asked. “I know you found Jesus when you hit rock bottom inside. I know you go to chapel here and church as well. So why don’t you let that promise grow in your heart?”
“I don’t know.” John stared at him for a few minutes. “I guess this time of year I get lost in memories of things I don’t have anymore and people that aren’t in my life. I look back and it drags me down.”
“So why not look forward?”
“To what? To society hassling me because I’m an ex-con or to having no one on the outside that cares about me?”
Carl looked him in the eye. “Do you believe that Jesus is your Saviour?”
“You know I do.”
“Then how about looking forward with the shepherds when they saw the baby Jesus and realized that there were better days ahead because God was bringing them hope and salvation?” Carl said. “How about realizing that God is giving us the peace, the joy, and the love we need to face absolutely anything, even living a new life through the babe born in Bethlehem?”
John smiled. “Yeah, I like that.”
“Then come on let’s go look at some lights.” Carl stood up. “People are celebrating that Jesus has come among us and I feel that as modern day shepherds we should be part of that celebration.”
John stood as well. “Lead the way, friend, and let’s go and see what God is doing in the world today.”
* * *
A Distant Land
by Frank Ramirez
Isaiah 62:6-12
Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples (Isaiah 62:10).
At the core of Hebrew identity is the story of the Exodus. God made a people by leading them out of slavery in Egypt into their own land. Maybe that’s why, at a crucial point in history, the prophet Jeremiah warned the Judeans against returning to Egypt. It seemed like turning one’s back on God's greatest gift, making them a people.
But things were falling apart. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah was under siege from the Babylonians. The prophet Jeremiah warned that those who fled to Egypt would be destroyed. And against his will Jeremiah was taken to that country, which did not prevent him from continuing to proclaim the same message. Did Jeremiah die there? No one knows.
Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed in 587 BC. In 538 the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, who released captive peoples like the Hebrews, sending them back to their homelands to rebuild their destroyed temples and renew their former way of life.
The prophet Isaiah may have been talking about the rebuilding of the roads that led back to the city of Jerusalem, which with its temple would be rebuilt, when he wrote: Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones, lift up an ensign over the peoples (62:10).
Not everyone returned. There was a thriving Jewish colony of mercenaries in Egypt, serving the Persian government around the time the Second Temple was being built in Jerusalem. This was a military garrison on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, near Aswan.
No one is sure if these Jews fled Judea because of the Babylonians, or if they had fled Israel because of the Assyrians, or if they were exiles who slowly found their way to Egypt long after Jeremiah’s day. We do know they seem to have kept in touch with their fellow Jews in Jerusalem.
These Egyptian Jews built themselves a temple modeled after the Temple in Jerusalem, where they offered animal sacrifices. They collected a temple tax among the Jews of Elephantine to support it. The people seem to have been very proud of their temple, so they may have also thought of the words of the prophet, "Go through, go through the gates..." when they entered the temple they built.
Something is known about the lives of these Jews, for among the ruins of that military base were discovered many documents written by, for, and about the Jews, between 495 and 399 BC.
There are marriage contracts and divorce settlements. There are contracts for loans and judicial complaints about non-payment. There are building contracts, and wills outlining who gets what property and when.
One letter is astounding. It’s dated to the year 419 BC, over a century after Jews returned from Babylon to Judah. It’s a letter from someone named Hananiah in Jerusalem to someone named Jedaniah in Elephantine. It contains instructions on how to conduct the Passover!
The letter was found in terrible shape, with many gaps in the manuscript. It instructs the people how many days they are to count in the spring month of Nisan before they start the Passover, how they are to get rid of anything with leaven, and how many days the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to continue. It advises the people to rid their houses of leaven, including not only bread, but also beer, for the duration of the festival.
Now the Passover is a spring festival. Why am I talking about it during this Christmas season?
Because it brings up a perplexing question -- even though they had lived for over a century in a distant, foreign land, with a Temple no less to conduct animal sacrifices, how could a group of Jewish believers have forgotten how to observe something as fundamental as Passover?
And that brings to mind another perplexing question -- how could we Christian believers, who do not live in a distant land cut off from the practice of our faith, have forgotten how to observe something as fundamental as Christmas!
*****************************************
StoryShare, December 25, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
