December 24, Christmas Eve Service

Lessons: Isaiah 62.6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3.4-7; Luke 2.1-20

Sermon Title: Making Room (Do you hear what I hear?)

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INTRODUCTION

  1. John Buchanan, the Editor/Publisher of the Christian Century wrote in the December 16, 2008 issue an article titled Pah rum pah pum pum.

    1. He read somewhere that in a survey to identify what people thought was the most obnoxious holiday or Christmas music, "The Little Drummer boy," narrowly won out over "Silver Bells," and "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

    2. Now I might agree with the conclusion about "The Little Drummer Boy

    3. .Silver Bells is what I might call a nice song.

    4. But I really like "Do you Hear What I Hear?"

  2. This is why It would up being the title of this Christmas sermon.

Do You Hear What I Hear by Noel Regney

Said the night wind to the little lamb,
"Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb,
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite,
With a tail as big as a kite."

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,
"Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea,
With a voice as big as the sea."

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,
"Do you know what I know?
In your palace warm, mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold--
Let us bring him silver and gold,
Let us bring him silver and gold."

Said the king to the people everywhere,
"Listen to what I say!
Pray for peace, people, everywhere,
Listen to what I say!
The Child, the Child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light,
He will bring us goodness and light."

    1. Do you see what I see?

    2. Do you hear what I hear?

    3. Do you know what I know?

    4. There is a child that is born to bring us goodness and light.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Paul Harvey one day on his radio show, News and Comments told a Christmas story

    1. You may have heard this story, but it is well-worth repeating.

    2. Paul Harvey was unable to trace its proper parentage, He designated this as his Christmas Story of the Man and the Birds.

      1. He had no room for Jesus, until!

        1. It is a story about a man who did not see, until!

        2. It is a story about a man who did not hear, until!

        3. It is a story about a man who did not know, until!

      2. It is a story about a man who did not understand the meaning of good ness and light, until!

    3. The Man and the Birds By Paul Harvey (1)

You know, THE Christmas Story, the God born a man in a manger and all that escapes some moderns, mostly, I think, because they seek complex answers to their questions and this one is so utterly simple. So for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced I submit a modern parable.

Now the man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window.

But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it.

Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, the scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn. And then, he realized, that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me. That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

"If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safe, warm...to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand."

At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells--"Adeste Fidelis"--listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. His experience changed with a changing set of circumstances.

    1. He heard the bells pealing out "Adeste Fidelis" O Come All Ye Faithful

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye, to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels;

True God of true God, Light from Light Eternal,
Lo, He shuns not the Virgin's womb;
Son of the Father, begotten, not created;

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation;
O sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest;

See how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle,
Leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze;
We too will thither bend our joyful footsteps;

Lo! star led chieftains, Magi, Christ adoring,
Offer Him incense, gold, and myrrh;
We to the Christ Child bring our hearts' oblations.

Child, for us sinners poor and in the manger,
We would embrace Thee, with love and awe;
Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

    1. Fortunately, he was enabled to see, to hear and to know.

  1. This night of nights, may we also have confirmed by our faith what we see, what we hear, and what we know.

  2. Does this make room for Jesus?

Amen.

1. Mikey's Funnies [funnies-owner@lists.MikeysFunnies.com]

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