Updated: Dec 28, 2022
I read this passage of Dr. Peter Marshall’s sermon “Let’s Keep Christmas” each year and this portion speaks to my heart this Christmas season.
“……and then you will remember what Christmas means – the beginning of Christianity …the Second Chance for the world…the hope for peace…and the only way. The promise that the angels sang is the most wonderful music the world has ever heard: ‘Peace on earth and good will toward men.’ It was not a pronouncement upon the state of the world then. Nor is it a reading of the international barometer of the present time … but it is a promise – God’s promise – of what one day will come to pass.
The years that are gone are graveyards in which all the persuasions of men have crumbled into dust. If history has any voice, it is to say that all these ways of men lead nowhere. There remains one way – The Way – untried, untested, unexplored fully … the way of Him who was born a Babe in Bethlehem.
In a world that seems not only to be changing, but even to be dissolving, there are some tens of millions of us who want Christmas to be the same …with the same old greeting ‘Merry Christmas’ and no other. We long for the abiding love among men of good will which the season brings…believing in this ancient miracle of Christmas with its softening, sweetening influence to tug at our heart strings once again.
We want to hold on to the old customs and traditions because they strengthen our family ties, bind us to our friends, and make us one with all mankind, for whom the Child was born, and bring us back again to the God who gave His only begotten Son, that ‘whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ So, we will not ‘spend’ Christmas …nor ‘observe’ Christmas. We will ‘keep’ Christmas – keep it as it is …in all the loveliness of its ancient traditions. May we keep it in our hearts, that we may be kept in its hope.”
Giving thanks for Peter Marshall’s life and ministry, praying his words will reach through the years to touch our hearts this Christmas.
Elizabeth
Every year I turn to old favorites filled with deep meaning. One such favorite is this poem by J. Barrie Shepherd:
“Late Tidings”
After more than eighty of such purple seasons,
you might think there would be nothing
left to look toward, get ready for.
And, to be sure, there breathes
an air of fond familiarity over much
that we get up to in these leaning forward
weeks of early winter.
All those lists, addresses, recipes,
festive greens and candles, special services
bazaars and concerts, sip-and-dip occasions
frequented by a dwindling clan
of usual suspects all swapping tales
of medical misadventures
and prodigy grandchildren.
“And it came to pass, in those days…”
even so and yet, it all begins again, spell-binding,
simplest words, sweet lingering syllables
that resonate within, beyond the weary ear
into the heart of all our hoping, with a melody
that sings through fear and brings glad news
of an eternal comforting that echoes fondly
from the past and yet is ever new.
As we prepare our hearts for Christ’s coming, may we hear those “glad tidings of great joy” in deeper ways than ever before – that “eternal comforting that echoes fondly from the past, and yet is ever new.”
Elizabeth
Yesterday was supposed to be a beautiful day at Jackson Springs Presbyterian, with lighting the Candle of Peace on our Advent Wreath and sharing a sermon about “Finding Peace.” We looked forward to the beauty of our Hanging of the Greens Service in the evening - our 200-year-old sanctuary is especially beautiful in the Advent-Christmas season – but this was not to be.
Most of Moore County was plunged into darkness Saturday evening when the main Duke Power Substation and the back-up station were targeted, with gates smashed and transformers riddled with bullets. Why such an act of vandalism, causing harm to so many, and who could have done such a destructive act? Three days later, we continue to live with unanswered questions, and thousands still are without power.
After a night and morning in a cold, dark house, friends and neighbors came to my rescue. A generator was brought so I could be sure to have my medical treatments; a heater was brought in to warm a room; a warm plate of home-cooked food showed up early afternoon; and a fast-food supper picked up by a friend coming back from Greensboro that evening hit the spot! With landline, cell phone and internet out of order, it would have been easy to feel all alone, but friends and neighbors made the difference.
I was planning to preach on “Finding Peace,” the main text coming from Isaiah 11, telling of the coming of a time when “the lamb and the lion will lie down together … and none will hurt or destroy in all the land.” Will that time ever come, I wondered, dealing with the events of the day? Will the many, many “lions” and the “lambs” in our world today ever come to a time of peace? That seems a distant dream in light of the happenings in recent days.
After waiting outside for the few who weren’t affected by the power outage, and came for morning worship, I went back into the cold, dark and empty sanctuary and sat at the piano, deciding to play a Christmas hymn or two before heading back to the manse. The hymnal opened to “Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light” and I played from the heart. Never will I forget the beauty of that moment – for in that moment I found peace.
May God bless our county in these days of recovery, with neighbors helping neighbors, and all working together to secure and strengthen the life we share in this special corner of God’s good creation.
Elizabeth