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Christmas Eve Mt. 1/18-25 by A.M.G.
Background:
The big celebration begins, a festival of
light and love, of joy and laughter, of family and community and world. Light is mentioned
almost twenty times in the course of today's liturgy. On one of the darkest days of the
year, light explodes all around us. The sun is sneaking back, just as Jesus kind of
sneaked into the world in the quiet of Bethlehem. For us in the Northern Hemisphere,
Christmas is a midwinter feast, a time when the days grow a little longer and light and
warmth return slowly. For those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, however, it is the
beginning of summer. School is over. It is a time for vacation (or as they would call it
"holidays"), for rest and relaxation. It marks not the shortest day of the year
but the longest, the day of the most light and on the average the most warmth. Christmas
fits in everywhere. |
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Story:
Once upon a time there were two kids who were
fed up with Christmas. They began an anti-Christmas campaign among their friends. Look,
they said, everyone is tense and worn out, moms are tired from cooking, dads from putting
up trees and decorations, kids from wrapping presents, neighbors from all the noise and
bustle. We open the presents and they're not really what we wanted, though we thought we
did. The house is littered with torn wrapping paper, expensive ornaments get knocked off
the trees, the little kids go out of control, big kids sulk, mass is too long, the sermons
are boring, the music is yucky. We eat too much . . .Who needs it all. So what should we
do asked their friends. Strike! Said the two trouble-makers who were, if truth be told,
Anarchists of a sort. Refuse to participate. Don't buy any Christmas presents, don't ask
for any, refuse those that are given to you, don't decorate the tree, don't eat the
pumpkin pie, don't drink the eggnog, don't say merry Christmas to anyone. A few of their
friends thought they were crazy. The others thought it was a great idea. But what should
we do? The strike leaders went to the priest and asked him what they should do. Well, he
said, if you want to welcome the Christ Child without all the fuss and bother, come to
church and pray. They thought that was a great idea. How could parents and other grown ups
object to their praying on Christmas Day. Well, they prayed for a solid hour, which maybe
doubled all their prayer for the whole year. Then one of them rushed out of church and
flagged down the priest who was about to drive off to his family's party. We prayed for an
hour, Father, the kid said. Can we go home now? An hour? That's a long time to pray! Yeah
it kind of is. Well, said the priest I don't think that Jesus would mind one bit if you
went home and celebrated with your families. The kids poured out of church with a whoop
and a holler just like it was the last day of school..
4th Sunday in Advent Luke 1/39-45
by Dr. Mary Durkin
Background:
Luke’s presentation of Jesus’
eschatological discourse alludes to his realization that there is a delay in the arriving
of the parousia (end time). He still anticipates an end time. However, while awaiting the
return of the Son of Man, his followers are urged to be on guard and to pray. The end time
still has not arrived and the conditions that indicate an approaching end time have been
present from Luke’s time up until our present day. His exhortation for correct
behavior holds true for us as we face the individual and community trials of our lives in
this age.
Story:
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Tom
was the star athlete of his grammar school and of his high school. The two sports he
excelled at were football and basketball. In his junior year of high school, he shot the
winning basket a second before the final buzzer making his school the city champs. In
senior year he was the top scorer in the city’s football championship game, leading
his team to victory. Tom was one of those natural-born athletes and, although he liked
sports, his first love was anthropology and especially archeology. As a very young boy he
watched a program on a famous dig site and told his parents that’s what he wanted to
do. So every summer while his friends went to football and basketball camp, he would be at
some museum program. Still each year he was the best player on the teams. Parents of his
classmates kept telling Tom’s Mom & Dad that he should be at a sports camp. How
else would he win a scholarship to a good college? In senior year of high school as his
team mates anxiously awaited word about possible sports scholarships, Tom was being
recruited by schools with some of the best teams in the country. Imagine the surprise of
his teammates and their parents when he turned down all offers. He was a National Merit
Scholar and had applied to several of the Universities that had excellent anthropology
programs and was awarded scholarships at each school. Now that Tom is a Dad and a
famous archeologist, he shoots hoops with his sons and daughters and plays in his
wife’s family’s Thanksgiving Day touch football game.
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