122419 – 5:00 P.M. (THE GIFT)
I do it every year at 6:00 A.M. on Easter Sunday…you know it’s dark out and the mood is a little bit somber…
People are still a little bit tired…
So I do the unexpected…I tell a joke, more like GROANERS actually, but at least I get a response! Everyone perks up a little bit!
I go for the “smile effect”…so let me FIRE off a couple…and see HOW well YOU guys do!
BRING OUT you’re “A” GAME…
How does Santa Claus keep his bathroom tiles so IMMACULATE?
HE USES COMET…get it…COMET!!!
What is Santa Claus’ laundry detergent of CHOICE?
YULE-TIDE.
PEGGY, please take NO offence-
What do you call an “OBNOXIOUS” reindeer?
RUDE-olf
One more, then I’ll stop…(I know I should never have started! Right?)
What do reindeers SAY before they tell a joke?
(GET READY-this will “SLEIGH You!”)
Now that I have your attention…I want to tell you about one of “my all-time-favorite-Christmas-verses.”
It is not FOUND in the four Gospels. It is not A PART of the “traditional Christmas story”…you won’t find it in the readings for TONIGHT…
And yet, I THINK it is SO GOOD that it SHOULD appear on some of Hallmark’s “FINEST and MOST EXPENSIVE Christmas cards.”
It comes from a guy named PAUL. Some of you may remember him as being “Saul of Tarsus.” He was a brilliant man who studied under one of the finest Rabbi’s of old, a man by the name of Gamaliel.
Well this Paul-guy was well-respected in his day (at least by some) and he was considered by many to be a keen thinker, with a broad vocabulary. He was bi-lingual, speaking both Hebrew and Greek. He was a master of both languages. And he was a “very capable communicator.” He actually WROTE more of the early Christian writings than anyone else.
When this PAUL – was writing to a church that gathered together in a city called CORINTH, he wrote, “Thanks be to God for his INDESCRIBABLE GIFT.”
I’m not sure if people really GOT “what he was talking about.” He was talking about “THE” Christmas gift. The best gift ever. The GIFT of JESUS.
He was referring to the birth of a SAVIOR. Sent from GOD. To SAVE us from our SIN. He was talking about none other than Jesus whom we called “THE CHRIST.”
Meaning “the anointed one!”
And as far as I know, PAUL was the first writer to call the birth of Jesus “a GIFT” for ALL people everywhere.
Not just for the people living in Jerusalem, or those living in Bethlehem or even to those that he was writing to living in that place called Corinth.
THIS GIFT was literally meant for ALL PEOPLE (sent without reservation!)
This JESUS was SENT for EVERYONE…EVERYWHERE…without exception. (PERIOD) He was sent from GOD…for all the people of God.
Now I get it, I know people like the beauty and the simplicity of the “Lucan narrative…”
I mean, who wouldn’t right?
Cattle, lowing, sheep grazing, animals lending heat and warmth to the cold night’s air…
When you toss into the mix “excited-talkative-shepherds” and “singing angels”…and a birth in one of the “oddest-of-all-places…” And a “first time mom” – scared and uncertain as to “what to do next” it is pretty exciting…stuff…And then there is old Joseph, just “hanging around” and not believing either his eyes or his ears…and all that he is hearing…and seeing… THIS IS BIG STUFF. But it is A GIFT. Perhaps the BEST gift ever! Paul saw THE GIFT as being almost INEXPRESSIBLE, beyond mere words, beyond DESCRIPTION, so overwhelming and so powerful. GOD GIVEN. A SAVIOR, to save us from our sins…Talk about powerful…Talk about life-altering…Talk about life changing.
YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE ACCEPTED. YOU ARE EMBRACED. WITHOUT EXCEPTION. It is the gift of ALL gifts…
So as I started so will I end.
READY?
Knock-Knock
Who’s there?
MARY and ABBY!
Mary and ABBY who?
Mary Christmas and ABBY New Year.
Ok, I’m done!
AMEN.