Christmas Concert, Homily(12Dec10)
John 1:1
Advent 2010: Christmas Concerts: Homily (10 12 11&12)
Dennis talked about how tired he is… tired of the Christmas rush, tired of the whininess, tired of being consumed by consumption, he talks about how he sometimes feels like a dead man walking and how he longs to have more desire.
The antidote? In his words, not taping yourself up with more caffeine.
For some of us, a dose of wonder might help.
Wonder… being lost in wonder.
If you saw the invitation card for our concerts this year, you saw that word: wonder.
You saw the green, blue, and white northern lights. I’ve never actually seen the northern lights. How many of have you have seen them in person?
Actually seeing the northern lights must invoke a sense of wonder and awe.
I would love to see them sometime in my lifetime.
After 33 men were trapped deep underground in a small, dark mine in Chile for nearly 70 days, we experienced a sense of wonder when one by one, men slowly rose from the earth in a bullet-shaped pod. The men wore sunglasses to protect their eyes from the daylight.
The first miner to be rescued was 31-year old Florencio Silva. He was embraced by his wife and his young children who had been waiting more than 2 months for him, wondering if they would ever see him again.
From deep beneath the earth, Esteban Carrizo, sent up a note on scrap piece of paper to his girlfriend whom he had been with for 25 years. She opened the note and read, When I get out, we will buy a dress and get married.
Of the 33 men underground, many spoke of a mysterious, other-worldly presence protecting them while they were trapped underground. Nineteen-year-old Jimmy Sanchez wrote a note shortly before the rescue mission began: There are actually 34 of us because God has never left us down here.
When a 4-inch tube was lowered half a mile and finally reached them, one of the things that the miners requested was T-Shirts with these words in Spanish across the front: Thank you, LORD.
Those miners experienced a sense of wonder while trapped in the darkness—and of course as they were lifted toward the light.
If you’ve ever experienced being rescued or have seen others rescued on TV, a sense of wonder may have been born in you.
If you have ever fallen in love, you’ve experienced wonder being birthed in you. You have the energy of adolescence, the aliveness of youth all over again (and likely some of the angst and insecurities too!).
If you have had a baby, you’ve no doubt experienced wonder coming to life in you.
A couple of years ago, after my wife went through a few hours of hard labour, our son Joey came into the world with the sound track of Chariots of Fire playing. I held his long, thin pink body with lots of hair on his head—and I experienced a hushed awe.
With the birth of our baby, wonder was born in me.
But, the greatest wonder of all…. is the birth of the One we’ve been celebrating….
Incredibly, the Maker of all things shrank himself down, down, way down--so small as to become an ovum, a single fertilized egg barely visible to the naked eye, an egg that would divide and divide until a fetus took shape, enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager.
The choir sang that God in becoming a baby was “sentenced to be nine months dumb, infinity walled in a womb.”
The Maker of the stars is made under the stars.
The greatest event in history is not a human being taking a small step on the moon, but God taking an enormous leap to Earth, the infinite one--walled within in a teenager’s womb.
That first Christmas, the light of world was born in a dark cave, under the steamy breath of the cows and sheep, and placed in a bed of hay.
This is the greatest wonder of all.
As the infinite one was born in Mary, so he can be born in you.
If we want to become people who live with more desire, more life, and with more to give, we can invite the source of all life to be birthed in us.
Because God became a human being in Jesus Christ that first Christmas, God’s life can be born in you. When this happens, the path to eternal life opens for you—not just life forever, but God’s life for you now.
So if you would like the Christ Child to be born in you, please pray with me.
Jesus Christ,
I don’t understand it all, but I pray
that as you were born in Bethlehem that first Christmas
Come and be born in me today
Forgive me my sin and enter in
(this is possible because of Jesus death at age 33 on the cross as sacrifice for your sins)
May your life from here forward, guide mine.
Amen.
If you’ve said yes, to Christ, I’d encourage you let someone know, and to a way to deepen your friendship with Jesus Christ.
Advent 2010: Christmas Concerts: Homily (10 12 11&12)
Dennis talked about how tired he is… tired of the Christmas rush, tired of the whininess, tired of being consumed by consumption, he talks about how he sometimes feels like a dead man walking and how he longs to have more desire.
The antidote? In his words, not taping yourself up with more caffeine.
For some of us, a dose of wonder might help.
Wonder… being lost in wonder.
If you saw the invitation card for our concerts this year, you saw that word: wonder.
You saw the green, blue, and white northern lights. I’ve never actually seen the northern lights. How many of have you have seen them in person?
Actually seeing the northern lights must invoke a sense of wonder and awe.
I would love to see them sometime in my lifetime.
After 33 men were trapped deep underground in a small, dark mine in Chile for nearly 70 days, we experienced a sense of wonder when one by one, men slowly rose from the earth in a bullet-shaped pod. The men wore sunglasses to protect their eyes from the daylight.
The first miner to be rescued was 31-year old Florencio Silva. He was embraced by his wife and his young children who had been waiting more than 2 months for him, wondering if they would ever see him again.
From deep beneath the earth, Esteban Carrizo, sent up a note on scrap piece of paper to his girlfriend whom he had been with for 25 years. She opened the note and read, When I get out, we will buy a dress and get married.
Of the 33 men underground, many spoke of a mysterious, other-worldly presence protecting them while they were trapped underground. Nineteen-year-old Jimmy Sanchez wrote a note shortly before the rescue mission began: There are actually 34 of us because God has never left us down here.
When a 4-inch tube was lowered half a mile and finally reached them, one of the things that the miners requested was T-Shirts with these words in Spanish across the front: Thank you, LORD.
Those miners experienced a sense of wonder while trapped in the darkness—and of course as they were lifted toward the light.
If you’ve ever experienced being rescued or have seen others rescued on TV, a sense of wonder may have been born in you.
If you have ever fallen in love, you’ve experienced wonder being birthed in you. You have the energy of adolescence, the aliveness of youth all over again (and likely some of the angst and insecurities too!).
If you have had a baby, you’ve no doubt experienced wonder coming to life in you.
A couple of years ago, after my wife went through a few hours of hard labour, our son Joey came into the world with the sound track of Chariots of Fire playing. I held his long, thin pink body with lots of hair on his head—and I experienced a hushed awe.
With the birth of our baby, wonder was born in me.
But, the greatest wonder of all…. is the birth of the One we’ve been celebrating….
Incredibly, the Maker of all things shrank himself down, down, way down--so small as to become an ovum, a single fertilized egg barely visible to the naked eye, an egg that would divide and divide until a fetus took shape, enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager.
The choir sang that God in becoming a baby was “sentenced to be nine months dumb, infinity walled in a womb.”
The Maker of the stars is made under the stars.
The greatest event in history is not a human being taking a small step on the moon, but God taking an enormous leap to Earth, the infinite one--walled within in a teenager’s womb.
That first Christmas, the light of world was born in a dark cave, under the steamy breath of the cows and sheep, and placed in a bed of hay.
This is the greatest wonder of all.
As the infinite one was born in Mary, so he can be born in you.
If we want to become people who live with more desire, more life, and with more to give, we can invite the source of all life to be birthed in us.
Because God became a human being in Jesus Christ that first Christmas, God’s life can be born in you. When this happens, the path to eternal life opens for you—not just life forever, but God’s life for you now.
So if you would like the Christ Child to be born in you, please pray with me.
Jesus Christ,
I don’t understand it all, but I pray
that as you were born in Bethlehem that first Christmas
Come and be born in me today
Forgive me my sin and enter in
(this is possible because of Jesus death at age 33 on the cross as sacrifice for your sins)
May your life from here forward, guide mine.
Amen.
If you’ve said yes, to Christ, I’d encourage you let someone know, and to a way to deepen your friendship with Jesus Christ.
posted by Shigematsu at 1:06 PM
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