PUTTING AWAY OR KEEPING CHRISTMAS

We've done it! We've done it again!  We have celebrated Christmas.  The frantic last minute rush is over.  Bright, bow-decked packages have disappeared from under the tree, and a rainbow of crumpled paper spills out of the garbage can.  Bows and bags, saved each year, have been carefully placed in my Advent box - the pre-Christmas box I use to help me remember what comes out first.  As I close up this box and get ready to put it back in the attic, I start to recall that it wasn't very long ago that the presents were wrapped so nicely, stacked on my extra bed.  They are all a part of the love and excitement that will follow from the spirit of giving, the Christmas spirit in my house.  I'm so anxious to clean it all up, but maybe it's a little early to do that - January 4th.  I start to feel a little guilty, since I just put baby Jesus in the manger not long ago.

Christmas, rightly called a festival of good will: "Good will towards men" literally from the Greek, means, 'God's peace in/amongst/on men' who are being good to one another.  It is right for us even on and especially during these days after Christmas Day, to sing carols and hymns about goodness, tenderness, warmth and love.  Words like:

"Comfort, comfort my people. Tell of peace so says our God; comfort those who sit in darkness.
Hark the glad sound the Savior comes; let every heart prepare a throne, let every voice a song.
What child is this who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping; joy, joy for Christ is born; Yea
Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning. True faith and love to us impart, that we may hold you in our heart."

My thoughts continue. I start to think and wonder about the preparations for making Christmas a memorable event - the sounds, sights and smells of the homemade gifts (thanks, Pinterest!); the traditional foods of plum pudding and white sauce, French

MESSAGE Luke 19:1-9

Meet two old geezers - rich old goats who were tighter than tight.

"Eb was a tight-fisted, covetous old sinner; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.  The cold within him froze his old features.  No warmth could warm him, nor wintry weather chill him.  Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, 'how are you,' and no beggars implored him to drop a coin in their cup, no children asked him what time it was.  Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and would wag their tails as if to say, 'no eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'" (Charles Dickens)

You could find Eb each day, in his counting house.  He was so miserly that he only had one clerk to do the job of many, and one little stove to keep him warm and one little lamp to light his work.  Eb believed that the end of the year was the time for paying bills, a time when you found yourself one year older AND not one year richer, a time for balancing the books.  Eb was rich, and yet, according to him, not richer than last year, so what reason did he have to be happy.

Three visions in a wild dream cause Eb to take a look at his life.  through these visions he is reminded of his past and the people he had loved and known and who had been influenced by him and his actions.  It was only when he saw his own name on a headstone which is a foretaste of the future that he becomes aware of how his life really is now.  In his dream he calls out, "Hear me! I am not the

MESSAGE: But Then What?

Foundation and Excerpts for my messages are from "The Daily Study Bible Series, Revised" by William Barclay

Luke 1:26-38   Sunday before Christmas  Title, "But Then What."

"Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meetin' you here today,
To take you to that mansion in the sky."

(Written by Alexander Harvey in 1971, sung by Bette Midler and then by Tanya Tucker.)

Delta Dawn is waiting....waiting for someone special. She wasn't about to miss him if he came to get her today - a promise made to her long ago.  She'd been so ready, for such a long time, but then what?  We've been getting prepared for Christmas for four weeks now.  And we're ready for the most part - but ready for what?  We're getting ready to celebrate the King's birth, our Savior, who came unto us; we're ready for a family get-together, an exchange of gifts and abundance of food, but then what?

The shepherds weren't ready to hear the praises of the angels.  They were minding their own business, and suddenly, like a