FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 2009

“WE’VE A STORY TO TELL”

INTRODUCTION

This is the day our God has made -- let us rejoice and be glad in it!

AMEN

Merry Christmas -- you know that in the church Christmas is not a just a day, it is a season -- a season the spans the twelve days of Christmas from Christmas Day to Epiphany on the 6th of January -- the day we celebrate the arrival of the wise men. 

If there is an underlying theme today, it is story-telling.  I think it is very important that we know the stories of our faith foundation -- and that we share our personal stories with one another.  We cannot possibly in one lifetime experience all there is to experience -- so we can profit from the experiences of others.  Besides, I think we learn about each other by what stories we choose to tell and how we tell them.   

We worship as a community, I think, for the same reason -- so that we may see God through fresh eyes.  As Methodists we are obliged to work on our relationship with God.  There is no check-list of what we must BELIEVE.  Instead we are called to FAITH development.  Faith calls for trust -- trust in God -- and that, I think, comes with age and experience.  I may actually be getting close to achieving the age of reason.  Age brings certain benefits. I’ve gotten over certain distracting physical desires -- you know, like wanting to climb Mt Shasta in one day -- or hike out of the Grand Canyon on a white water trip.  Those desires.  (What were YOU thinking?  -- It’s OK to laugh -- it was supposed to be funny.)  And I like to think that I’ve traded youthful vigor for wisdom and perspective.  It’s a poor trade if I didn’t get something out of it.

We begin with the foundational stories from the Bible and build our theology based upon how we perceive God and the universe through experience, tradition, and reason.

We promised something different today and you’ve seen part of that already with the music of our trio -- thank you all so very much for sharing your musical gifts with us.       

Our scripture passages this morning both have to do with children’s experiences -- the prophet Samuel and Jesus as boys.  Perhaps one of those stories will stimulate your story-telling of personal experiences as a child -- or maybe your own children.  The Samuel story worked for me.  

So, the deal today is that we -- you -- will choose the hymns, Christmas music you haven’t heard enough of yet.  For reference, the Christmas music in the blue UMH is 217 - 254 and in FWS 2095 - 2100.  And you’ll be supplying the message too in your stories -- of Christmases past -- lifetimes past.  We have a comfy story-telling chair down here -- start thinking -- I’ll let you know when.

But the first order of business is to choose our opening hymn . . . 

TIME WITH THE CHILDREN

Hi guys.  We’re talking about story telling today.  I really like stories myself -- and there are so many different ways to tell stories.  A couple of weeks ago we had the Christmas pageant -- that’s story telling.  Every week we read from the Bible and sing hymns -- more story telling.    There are movies and television and BOOKS that tell stories -- and some ways you might not think of as story telling.  Here in the church we have the stained glass windows -- they tell stories too.  At our home at Christmas time we have another story telling helper -- nativity scenes -- or some call them crèches.  They’re a good way to tell the story of the birth of Jesus for people who can’t read.  We can learn all the different characters in that story by looking at them.

So, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to read the Christmas story from the Bible -- from Luke and Matthew -- and every time I mention a character let’s see if you can find it there in the line-up of characters and put it in place here in our nativity set.  All of these sets that we have in our house are part of Grandma Mary’s collection, so she’s here to help us find the right person for the jobs.  And we can imagine the story from the viewpoint of the different characters.  

Mary and Joseph -- felt proud and frightened at the same time

The Inn keeper -- happy to have a place to shelter the family

The shepherds -- the Bible says they were afraid

Angel -- doing the messenger’s job -- bringing good  news

Magi -- wise guys -- really pretty wise, didn’t tell Herod about where the baby was

Sometimes in addition to the standard Bible-type characters, we’ll have some visitors at our home nativity scene who come to see what’s happening here in Bethlehem -- visitors like Gumby and Poky, and Counselor Troi from Star Trek, or even Frosty the Snow Man.    The whole world wants to know about Jesus.

PRAYER

Gracious God,  help us to see you in the stories we hear and the ones we choose to tell -- show us how you want us to treat each other.  In Christ’s name.  AMEN