A Light to the Nations

REFLECTIONS — Christmas Eve 2008
“A Light to the Nations” Matthew 2:1-12

When I was little boy, I learned to build a fire and
I got good at it. Then I learned to throw
a baseball, then I got good at dressing chickens,
I got good at swinging a machete, then I
studied geometry and algebra and whole bunch
more. Then I went to college. Then I went
to graduate school. Then I went to seminary.
Just when you think you know a lot, that is
when you learn you know so little.

George Burns said: “Too bad that all the people who
really know how to run the country are busy driving
taxis and cutting hair.”

Dale Evans said, “Every time we love, every time we
give, it’s Christmas.”

The prophet Isaiah teaches us today that a Great Light
has come into our world to break our darkness.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is
given. That light is wisdom, that light is knowledge,
that Light is Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Once there was a little boy at a shopping mall. He stood by
the escalators in a department store waiting. A supervisor
in the store came by and asked, “May I help you?”
The boy said, “I’m waiting for my gum to come back?
I ask you tonight, what are you waiting for?

In a little town in Palestine, in a manger, light began breaking
the darkness. Love came down, and truth is now at
our fingertips. All we have to do is reach out and grasp it.
Christ is the light to the nations.

Today our world is in disorder, but not without hope.
The economy is bad, but it hasn’t collapsed.
Religion is confusing, that doesn’t mean you
have to lose your faith. Just hold on to your
fork, because it means something better is coming.

Saint Frances de Sales said,
You can learn to speak by speaking, to study
by studying, to run by running, to work by
working; and just so, you learn to love by loving.
All those who think to learn in any other way
deceive themselves.

And the angel said:
I bring you good news of a great joy to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)

God Bless You All!