Creighton Lacy - "Christmas Always Comes at Night" (December 22, 1968)
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| (indistinct) | 0:05 | |
| Speaker | Grace and peace be to you from God, our father, | 1:24 |
| and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 1:28 | |
| Unto you, child, a son, is given. | 1:32 | |
| Praising, proclaiming the ingression of love | 1:36 | |
| earth, darkest invents, the blaze of heaven | 1:39 | |
| and frigid silence meditates a song. | 1:43 | |
| For a great joy has filled the narrow and | 1:47 | |
| the sad while the emphasis of the rough and the big, | 1:50 | |
| the abiding crag and the wandering wave | 1:55 | |
| is on the forgiveness of God. | 1:58 | |
| Therefore sing glory to God and goodwill to men. | 2:01 | |
| Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing, | 2:06 | |
| which has come to pass, | 2:10 | |
| which the Lord our God hath made known unto us. | 2:13 | |
| (organ music plays) | 2:21 | |
| - | Let us continue our worship of God, | 5:07 |
| as we read responsively, | 5:09 | |
| the reading of confession and for pardon numbered 640, | 5:10 | |
| the second reading. | 5:16 | |
| All we like sheep have gone astray. | 5:25 | |
| We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid | 5:29 | |
| on him the iniquity of us all. | 5:34 | |
| He was oppressed and he was afflicted, | 5:38 | |
| yet he opened not his mouth, | 5:41 | |
| like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and a sheep that is | 5:44 | |
| before cheers is done. | 5:48 | |
| So we opened not his mouth. | 5:51 | |
| By oppression and judgment | 5:53 | |
| he was taken away, | 5:55 | |
| and as for his generation who considered that he was | 5:57 | |
| cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the | 6:01 | |
| transgression of my people. | 6:05 | |
| And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man | 6:08 | |
| in his death, | 6:13 | |
| although he had done no violence, | 6:14 | |
| and there was no deceit in his mouth | 6:17 | |
| yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him. | 6:20 | |
| He has put him to grieve when he makes himself an offering | 6:25 | |
| for sin, he shall see his offspring, | 6:29 | |
| he shall prolong his days. | 6:33 | |
| The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. | 6:36 | |
| He shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be | 6:40 | |
| satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one, | 6:44 | |
| my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, | 6:48 | |
| and he shall bear their iniquities. | 6:53 | |
| Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, | 6:56 | |
| and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, | 7:00 | |
| because he poured out his soul to debt | 7:04 | |
| and was numbered with the transgressors. | 7:07 | |
| Yet he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the | 7:11 | |
| transgressors. | 7:15 | |
| (organ music plays) | 7:44 | |
| (woman sings gospel music) | 8:07 | |
| - | Let us open our hearts and our minds to the reading | 13:37 |
| of the word of God, | 13:41 | |
| as it is contained in the book of the prophet Isaiah | 13:42 | |
| and in the gospel of St. John, | 13:46 | |
| let us hear the word of God. | 13:48 | |
| The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. | 13:53 | |
| Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness | 13:58 | |
| on them has light shine. | 14:01 | |
| Thou has multiplied the nations, | 14:05 | |
| thou hast increased its joy. | 14:07 | |
| They rejoice before thee, | 14:10 | |
| as with joy at the harvest. | 14:11 | |
| As men rejoice when they divide the spoil | 14:14 | |
| for the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, | 14:17 | |
| the rod of his oppressor, thou has broken, | 14:22 | |
| as on the day of Midian | 14:26 | |
| for every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, | 14:28 | |
| and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as for fuel | 14:33 | |
| for the fire, for to us, a child is born. | 14:38 | |
| To us, a son is given and the government | 14:43 | |
| will be upon his shoulder. | 14:47 | |
| And his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, | 14:49 | |
| everlasting father, the prince of peace. | 14:54 | |
| And of the increase of his government and of peace, | 15:00 | |
| there will be no end. | 15:03 | |
| Upon the throne of David and over his | 15:06 | |
| kingdom to establish it and to uphold it | 15:08 | |
| with justice and righteousness | 15:12 | |
| from this time forth and forevermore. | 15:14 | |
| The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. | 15:18 | |
| The lesson from the new Testament, | 15:40 | |
| from the gospel according to St. John, | 15:42 | |
| in the beginning was the word | 15:46 | |
| and the word was with God. | 15:48 | |
| And the word was God. | 15:50 | |
| He was in the beginning with God. | 15:52 | |
| All things were made through him, | 15:55 | |
| and without him was not anything made that was made. | 15:57 | |
| In him was life. | 16:02 | |
| And the life was the light of men. | 16:05 | |
| The light shines in the darkness | 16:08 | |
| and the darkness has not overcome it. | 16:11 | |
| Here ends the reading of the lessons. | 16:15 | |
| (organ music plays) | 16:18 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 16:52 |
| Let us pray. | 16:56 | |
| Almighty and ever-loving God, | 17:08 | |
| Thou who has so wondrously created us | 17:12 | |
| and who does daily sustain us. | 17:16 | |
| We lift unto thee, | 17:19 | |
| our prayers of thanksgiving for this occasion | 17:20 | |
| of worship and Christmas time. | 17:23 | |
| Thy majesty, oh Lord is shrouded in mystery | 17:27 | |
| and Thy ways are far beyond our knowing. | 17:30 | |
| Yet, Thou has come to us and the gift of the Christmas child | 17:36 | |
| and has offered to us Thy graceful and faithful love | 17:41 | |
| and has called us to live, and to come before thee | 17:47 | |
| in adoration and in praise and in thanksgiving. | 17:51 | |
| With heaven's angels, oh Lord, | 17:58 | |
| and with shepherd's awe, | 18:01 | |
| we praise and bless and magnify thy holy name. | 18:03 | |
| For all this season means, our father, | 18:09 | |
| we lift our thanks unto Thee. | 18:14 | |
| May all our celebration here, | 18:18 | |
| and in the days to come, we ask, | 18:20 | |
| be a hymn of thankful and faithful response | 18:23 | |
| to the gift of thy love, which it brings to us. | 18:27 | |
| Oh Lord, | 18:35 | |
| we also would seek the hope that the coming of the babe | 18:37 | |
| of Bethlehem brings unto us | 18:40 | |
| for our world is very dark, | 18:44 | |
| and as of old, when he first came, | 18:48 | |
| Herod, the king sought to slay him. | 18:51 | |
| So the murderous passions of many men lie wait | 18:54 | |
| for him still in our time, | 18:58 | |
| yet we in this community know he is our chosen hope. | 19:01 | |
| We have seen his light, however dimly, and once seen, | 19:07 | |
| we can never forget it. | 19:11 | |
| He is our salvation, our father. | 19:15 | |
| He is the firstborn among many brethren. | 19:18 | |
| We would believe in him afresh today and follow him with | 19:22 | |
| more faithful and loyal hearts. | 19:26 | |
| Thanks be to thee for him, | 19:29 | |
| without sin, full of grace and truth. | 19:32 | |
| Oh Lord, we would lift our petitions | 19:40 | |
| and our prayers for others before thy mercy. | 19:42 | |
| Most merciful, God abundantly blessed, | 19:46 | |
| those we ask in whose hearts there is little room for joy | 19:50 | |
| because sorrow has come close to them in the season. | 19:55 | |
| May the Christ who has been the sharer of their joys and | 20:00 | |
| their comrade in toil, | 20:04 | |
| now come to them as the great comforter and in the | 20:07 | |
| knowledge of his sympathy and love, | 20:11 | |
| may they find the peace that knows no end. | 20:14 | |
| We pray oh Lord for the happiness and wellbeing of all thy | 20:20 | |
| children of every race and color of every climb and coast. | 20:24 | |
| We beseech thee oh God to bless those, | 20:31 | |
| especially, who are linked to us by the bonds of family and | 20:33 | |
| of friendship during the season, | 20:38 | |
| enable us by the witness of thy spirit to know that love | 20:41 | |
| will never lose its own. | 20:46 | |
| And that thou does keep thy children ever near to thee | 20:48 | |
| both in this world and in the world to come. | 20:52 | |
| We pray, oh Lord, for peace on earth, | 20:58 | |
| in the season of peace. | 21:01 | |
| We pray not because we have been men of goodwill, | 21:03 | |
| but because we have come at last in our bewilderment | 21:06 | |
| to long for thee, | 21:10 | |
| that we might become men of goodwill. | 21:11 | |
| Today, oh Lord, we pray for children, | 21:16 | |
| the hungry and the helpless and those who long for life. | 21:19 | |
| We pray for those in every land who hide amid the ruins of | 21:24 | |
| their hopes and who suffer from the cruelties of war. | 21:28 | |
| We bow our heads in shame for any part that we have had in | 21:34 | |
| visiting thy beautiful and lovely world with ghastly terror | 21:37 | |
| and with tears of human pain. | 21:42 | |
| Grant us, we ask, oh Lord, the calm, | 21:48 | |
| which comes when doubt thus enter into our hearts, | 21:50 | |
| grant us the faith that dares to risk it's all on love. | 21:55 | |
| Grant us, we ask, our father the will to make our own amid | 22:00 | |
| the blackness of the night. | 22:03 | |
| The angel song of peace on earth strengthened the wise in | 22:05 | |
| every land to the end that love may be transmuted as it once | 22:10 | |
| was of old, into deeds decisive | 22:14 | |
| for the ends of peace and goodwill. | 22:17 | |
| May we live close enough to thee | 22:21 | |
| to know that only holy methods will produce thy holy ends. | 22:24 | |
| That love alone survives, | 22:29 | |
| defeat and ushers in the morn, which we call resurrection. | 22:31 | |
| Almighty God whose mercy brought thee to earth in the | 22:38 | |
| coming of our Lord, | 22:42 | |
| deepen and widen our vision of thy presence among us, | 22:44 | |
| that thou mayest not be turned away from our crowded busy | 22:48 | |
| hearts, but welcomed with joy and with thankfulness, | 22:51 | |
| our hearts as ever rejoice in the glad tidings of the Christ | 22:55 | |
| who was born in Bethlehem to be the savior of the world | 22:59 | |
| yet in all our joy, | 23:03 | |
| the long centuries behind this of our hearts that have been | 23:05 | |
| made glad in yesteryear by his coming. | 23:10 | |
| We know that there is much in us that deafens our ears to | 23:14 | |
| the sounds of the angels, | 23:17 | |
| much that blinds us to the sight of the guiding star, | 23:19 | |
| much that crowds our hearts and minds leaving little room | 23:23 | |
| for the arrival of thy gift. | 23:28 | |
| Even in the midst of our Christmas this year, oh Lord, | 23:31 | |
| some of us are as lonely as shepherds, as wayfaring | 23:35 | |
| as the Kings, as busy as the innkeeper. | 23:38 | |
| Forgive us, Oh Lord. | 23:42 | |
| And turn us, again, to the quietness of thy peace. | 23:44 | |
| Come, we ask oh Lord, as Christ came with healing | 23:49 | |
| and with peace. | 23:54 | |
| Thou shalt find this proud for we have not yet learned | 23:57 | |
| what it means to be humble. | 24:01 | |
| Thou shalt find us guarded and defensive for we are weak | 24:03 | |
| within and full of fear. | 24:08 | |
| Thou shalt find us irritable and not a little arrogant for | 24:11 | |
| we are uncomfortably guilty and have not been willing to | 24:15 | |
| admit our frailty or our sin. | 24:19 | |
| While we dress, and we parade | 24:23 | |
| like little helots and lordly pilots, | 24:25 | |
| we know we have deeper need of thee, old Lord. | 24:28 | |
| Come again, thou meekest of all kings, | 24:32 | |
| and save us from ourselves | 24:36 | |
| that we may learn to live joyfully as thou didst for others. | 24:39 | |
| In the name of the Christ child of Bethlehem, | 24:44 | |
| our Lord and Savior who taught us that we should pray | 24:47 | |
| together when we assembled to worship. | 24:50 | |
| Our Father who art in heaven, | 24:53 | |
| hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 24:56 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 24:59 | |
| Give us this day, | 25:04 | |
| our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, | 25:06 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 25:09 | |
| and lead us, not into temptation, | 25:13 | |
| but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the | 25:16 | |
| power and the glory forever. | 25:21 | |
| Amen. | 25:25 | |
| When the world can celebrate Christmas this year, | 25:46 | |
| who at least with any sensitivity to the cries of anguish | 25:50 | |
| from Vietnam, from the opera, from the Jordan valley, | 25:54 | |
| from Prague, from Brazil, from Rhodesia, from Chicago, | 25:58 | |
| from Marion county, West Virginia, | 26:02 | |
| from Durham, North Carolina. | 26:05 | |
| Add the war casually lists the starvation | 26:07 | |
| statistics and the highway death toll multiplied by the | 26:11 | |
| number of political assassinations, subtract the concern for | 26:13 | |
| foreign aid and nuclear arms control divided by the square | 26:17 | |
| root of inflation plus devaluation, | 26:21 | |
| 1968 just doesn't come out even. | 26:25 | |
| Somehow the tinkly Christmas music sounds a bit more | 26:29 | |
| out of tune than usual. | 26:32 | |
| And the tinsley decorations look a little shabbier and more | 26:35 | |
| artificial this season. | 26:38 | |
| These are man's shoddy efforts, | 26:41 | |
| and we cannot really celebrate Christmas until we seek to | 26:43 | |
| understand what God is doing. | 26:47 | |
| There is an old saying that when it is dark enough, | 26:51 | |
| you can see the stars. | 26:54 | |
| Indeed, there have been many other nights of human history | 26:57 | |
| when men of faith rope their way over treacherous ground, | 27:00 | |
| by looking upward, Isaiah described one such period | 27:04 | |
| when he wrote, | 27:08 | |
| "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. | 27:09 | |
| Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, | 27:13 | |
| on them has light shine." | 27:17 | |
| There are many who believe that he was speaking, | 27:20 | |
| not merely of a single experience, but of a universal hope. | 27:22 | |
| Yet we in this century of science are afraid of the dark, | 27:27 | |
| determined to use all our technological resources to push it | 27:32 | |
| back, to shut it out. | 27:35 | |
| And thereby we miss the stars. | 27:37 | |
| The sun goes early for the year is old, | 27:42 | |
| leaving us here together yet alone, | 27:45 | |
| too dark to see our other neighbors in the cold, | 27:48 | |
| huddled like us turned in for fitful warmth, | 27:51 | |
| too far to reach them with the warmth we give our own. | 27:55 | |
| Let us look up this night to see a star. | 27:58 | |
| Our knowledge tells us that there is no star, | 28:03 | |
| finding no orbit marked upon the charts. | 28:06 | |
| Too schooled, to heed a message from our hearts. | 28:10 | |
| We are too knowing far, to seek a star. | 28:13 | |
| Our brightly lighted business hides the star. | 28:18 | |
| Great enterprise would fail if we went peaking, | 28:21 | |
| no time is budgeted for idle seeking. | 28:25 | |
| We are too busy, far, to seek a star. | 28:28 | |
| We have rituals to run, | 28:32 | |
| which use no current star. | 28:34 | |
| Rash will fold, questing simply will not serve | 28:36 | |
| our people's great traditions to conserve. | 28:39 | |
| We are too righteous, far, to seek a star. | 28:42 | |
| The dark comes early for the year is old, | 28:48 | |
| knowing, busy, and righteous, yet alone. | 28:50 | |
| Our public sight too dim, our public heart too cold. | 28:55 | |
| Let us forswear the world, | 29:01 | |
| accept our plight ignorant, idle, unrighteous on our own. | 29:03 | |
| Let us look up to seek a star this night. | 29:10 | |
| We are too knowing far, to seek a star. | 29:16 | |
| How true, | 29:20 | |
| after all, the whole Christmas bit is pretty ridiculous. | 29:21 | |
| I don't mean just the Harris people driving store clerks | 29:25 | |
| crazy while they try to make up their minds. | 29:28 | |
| There are long lines at the post office with odd shape | 29:30 | |
| bundles that cost too much. | 29:33 | |
| No, the silly idea of fat old men trying to squeeze down | 29:35 | |
| sooty chimneys, | 29:38 | |
| nor the empty frustration of torn paper and discarded | 29:40 | |
| string from stationary we didn't want, | 29:43 | |
| and ties we didn't need. | 29:45 | |
| These are absurd enough if we stand aside | 29:47 | |
| and look objectively, | 29:50 | |
| but the main thing was kind of far-fetched too. | 29:52 | |
| How odd of God to choose the Jews | 29:56 | |
| as one that summed it up. | 29:59 | |
| Rome and Egypt and Greece and China were lots more civilized | 30:01 | |
| than the bare little province of Judea. | 30:04 | |
| Major nations today know they've got to demonstrate | 30:07 | |
| their power and importance. | 30:11 | |
| It was foolish of Mary to believe, | 30:14 | |
| even before she was married, | 30:15 | |
| that she would have a son, | 30:17 | |
| and foolish of Joseph to take his | 30:19 | |
| young wife on a strenuous journey under those conditions. | 30:20 | |
| We've studied more about science and medicine today, | 30:24 | |
| so we know more about antiseptics and psychology, | 30:27 | |
| presumably more about life and other miracles. | 30:30 | |
| Shepherds, like farmers, are usually hard-headed realists. | 30:36 | |
| So it sounds a bit preposterous that after a moment of fear, | 30:39 | |
| they should believe an unusual light and voices | 30:42 | |
| and go chasing off to town in the middle of the night. | 30:46 | |
| And those so-called wise men, | 30:50 | |
| what was so smart about thinking that a star would lead them | 30:52 | |
| anywhere and what dumb presets to take to a baby. | 30:56 | |
| We scoffed at the Russian cosmonaut for declaring that he | 31:02 | |
| didn't find God up there in outer space, | 31:05 | |
| but does any good Christian American this season expect our | 31:08 | |
| astronauts to see any angels | 31:12 | |
| flying around the earth or the moon? | 31:14 | |
| Of course not. | 31:18 | |
| They're up there to snap TV pictures, | 31:19 | |
| and test out mechanical equipment and survey landing spots | 31:21 | |
| for colonizing the moon. | 31:24 | |
| It won't be long before we will be reducing the Christmas | 31:26 | |
| star to its physical material components | 31:29 | |
| or maybe we already have. | 31:34 | |
| So the poet Kenneth Benny is right. | 31:37 | |
| We are too intelligent to go hunting for a migratory star. | 31:40 | |
| It's easier to push back the darkness with all the | 31:44 | |
| brilliance of our libraries and laboratories, | 31:47 | |
| all the wisdom of academic pursuits. | 31:50 | |
| Going out and finding a star, a real life glory of the Lord, | 31:54 | |
| won't get us a PhD. | 31:58 | |
| It might even lead us off on some crazy new direction to the | 32:01 | |
| Peace Corps or the Christian Service Corps, or | 32:05 | |
| Project Bolivia or even down to Edgemont. | 32:09 | |
| But most of us are perfectly safe. | 32:13 | |
| Our private worlds are radiant with privilege and | 32:16 | |
| opportunity and comfort, so that the darkness we hear people | 32:18 | |
| talk about remains a respectful distance away. | 32:22 | |
| Things really aren't black enough for us to see a star. | 32:26 | |
| We are a much too schooled | 32:31 | |
| to heed a message from our hearts. | 32:33 | |
| Similarly, we are too busy, far, to seek a star. | 32:37 | |
| Denunciation of the commercialism of Christmas has become as | 32:41 | |
| fashionable and as sterile a cliche as the offense itself, | 32:44 | |
| the garish splendor of most municipal decorations of this | 32:49 | |
| season, the glittering window displays the flood lip, | 32:52 | |
| Santa Claus, cavorting down an avenue of colored lights. | 32:55 | |
| All these certainly dispel the gloom of night, | 32:59 | |
| but do they dispel the gloom of frustration | 33:03 | |
| around an untenable war? | 33:06 | |
| Do they push back the shadows in slum alleyways | 33:09 | |
| and wrath infested tenements? | 33:12 | |
| Do they brighten the mood of tired sales girls inside the | 33:14 | |
| stores or shivering pickets outside? | 33:18 | |
| Oh yes, our brightly lighted business hides the star quite | 33:22 | |
| successfully for most of us. | 33:27 | |
| To be sure, great enterprise would fail if we went peaking, | 33:29 | |
| it simply doesn't do to inquire why 6% | 33:34 | |
| of the world's population | 33:37 | |
| should have more than 50% of its wealth or | 33:39 | |
| whether corporation executives are really worth ten times | 33:43 | |
| as much as university professors. | 33:46 | |
| The military industrial complex, | 33:49 | |
| which president Eisenhower warned against eight years ago, | 33:51 | |
| has grown more powerful, more all pervasive. | 33:54 | |
| Our great nation seems to have nothing publicly to say about | 33:59 | |
| the extensive racquets, | 34:02 | |
| which oppressed so many little people, | 34:04 | |
| corrupt so many citizens and manipulate so many cities. | 34:06 | |
| Just this week, a columnist of the entertainment world | 34:11 | |
| remarked the prostitutes are flourishing on Broadway | 34:14 | |
| so openly that New York has become what Paris and London | 34:17 | |
| were before those cities were cleaned up. | 34:21 | |
| The glitter of false jewels and of guilt edge stock | 34:25 | |
| and of spectacular parties all serve to | 34:28 | |
| keep away the darkness by dazzling ourselves with gaiety and | 34:31 | |
| opulence. | 34:35 | |
| Even, or should I say, especially, | 34:38 | |
| in our academic ivory towers, | 34:40 | |
| no time is budgeted for idol-seeking. | 34:43 | |
| Without a pre-filed flight plan, | 34:46 | |
| the itinerary of the wise man would have been rejected. | 34:48 | |
| The research of the shepherds clearly lacked footnotes and | 34:52 | |
| the credible bibliography. | 34:55 | |
| Obviously no starlight ever filtered | 34:57 | |
| into the old Duke library stacks. | 34:59 | |
| And it's doubtful whether Denisons of the new building will | 35:02 | |
| have much opportunity to peer up | 35:04 | |
| through the vaulted windows. | 35:07 | |
| Indirect lighting and high-intensity lamps, | 35:09 | |
| not to mention examination schedules and thesis deadlines, | 35:12 | |
| pretty thoroughly preclude any serious stargazing. | 35:16 | |
| At the bright and boisterous performance of the Nutcracker | 35:20 | |
| last Wednesday, one faculty wife leaned over | 35:24 | |
| to remark to another, | 35:26 | |
| if we didn't have Christmas, | 35:28 | |
| by which I took her to mean all the parties and concerts | 35:30 | |
| and programs and activities, | 35:33 | |
| we might have a lot more Christmas spirit. | 35:36 | |
| In other words, if we didn't try quite so hard | 35:39 | |
| to be festive, we might catch a glimpse | 35:42 | |
| of that wandering star. | 35:45 | |
| Ironically, the busy-ness that so often shuts out | 35:48 | |
| God's holy night is often composed of good deeds | 35:51 | |
| and thoughtful acts of Christmas kindness. | 35:53 | |
| Last Thursday's Chronicle devoted an entire page to some | 35:58 | |
| touching scenes from the Giles house party for | 36:01 | |
| underprivileged kids with the plaintiff caption, | 36:04 | |
| the Christmas season at Duke. | 36:07 | |
| Is there anything to it besides last minute hourlies, | 36:10 | |
| term papers, and the Hong Kong flu. | 36:13 | |
| I hope that the Chronicle frequently cynical and sometimes | 36:17 | |
| childishly obscene was answering its own question, | 36:21 | |
| but to continue my own cynical symbolism about trying to | 36:24 | |
| outshine the dark, | 36:28 | |
| the largest picture on the page showed Baldwin auditorium | 36:30 | |
| and the Christmas tree, | 36:33 | |
| both blazingly lit up against an otherwise black background. | 36:34 | |
| The only specs that remotely resembled stars were flaws on | 36:39 | |
| the photographic or engraving plate. | 36:42 | |
| Yes, even with charity bazaars and buying gifts for others, | 36:46 | |
| we are indeed too busy, far, to seek a star. | 36:51 | |
| The third judgment of our keynote poet | 36:57 | |
| is even more devastating. | 36:59 | |
| We are too righteous, far, to seek a star. | 37:01 | |
| How often we try to deny the existence of the world's night | 37:05 | |
| by turning up the rheostat on our own traditions. | 37:08 | |
| Some of you have been reading this week of preparations for | 37:12 | |
| the Christmas Eve pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. | 37:15 | |
| Eighteen months ago, | 37:20 | |
| I stood in the grotto of the church of the nativity, | 37:21 | |
| surrounded by colored lamps and smoking incense, | 37:24 | |
| telling myself that wherever the exact spot might be, | 37:27 | |
| Jesus was not born on a brass star set in a marble floor. | 37:30 | |
| As I turned to leave, a priest shouted indignantly | 37:36 | |
| and came running towards me with beard and ropes flying, | 37:38 | |
| to hold out a tambourine like collection plate | 37:42 | |
| that I had tried to bypass. | 37:45 | |
| But there are Christians closer than Bethlehem who still | 37:48 | |
| desecrate the birth of Christ. | 37:51 | |
| At least one local church, | 37:54 | |
| which has balanced its budget by lopping off $800 from its | 37:56 | |
| benevolence giving for the year, | 38:00 | |
| was nevertheless festooned gaily with reeds inside and out | 38:02 | |
| last Sunday morning. | 38:06 | |
| Rows of bright red candles | 38:07 | |
| in traditional nine branched holders | 38:09 | |
| struggled bravely to push back the shadows. | 38:11 | |
| But I noticed that several of them burned themselves up, | 38:14 | |
| sputtered and died before the service was over. | 38:18 | |
| Since the patterns were very uneven, | 38:22 | |
| the center candle shrinking between two tall ones, | 38:24 | |
| or one straight and another flaring and dribbling away, | 38:26 | |
| I meditated metaphorically on the inequality of candles, | 38:30 | |
| or of man, | 38:35 | |
| on their lack of inner integrity. | 38:37 | |
| On the way in which fitful gusts of unpredictable wind | 38:40 | |
| buffet some individuals and spare others. | 38:44 | |
| Oh, there are many great traditions to conserve | 38:49 | |
| at Christmastime. | 38:52 | |
| The family gathering, so often unfairly caricatured, | 38:54 | |
| is truly joyous in many homes, | 38:57 | |
| yet it can be an occasion for shutting out the lonely | 39:00 | |
| and the homeless, | 39:03 | |
| for ignoring the darkness and cold beyond the family circle. | 39:04 | |
| The camels, an assumption in very early Christian history, | 39:09 | |
| have become almost interchangeable with reindeer. | 39:12 | |
| Some of the best choir directors try to brighten the corner | 39:17 | |
| where we are and thus obliterate the sacred star by | 39:21 | |
| forbidding Christmas hymns in advent. | 39:24 | |
| But those of us who insist on caroling lustily, | 39:27 | |
| but naively, | 39:30 | |
| about that glorious song of old and angels' harps of gold, | 39:31 | |
| very seldom get as far as the millions beneath life's | 39:36 | |
| crushing load, whose forms are bending low, | 39:41 | |
| who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow. | 39:44 | |
| Or we exhort all merry gentlemen to let nothing you dismay, | 39:51 | |
| but we'd rather mumble into our Walsall bowl. | 39:55 | |
| That line about saving all from Satan's power. | 39:58 | |
| When we have gone astray. | 40:01 | |
| It would be very bad taste to raise a theological question | 40:03 | |
| in the midst of seasonal merriment. | 40:06 | |
| To wit what really happened between God and man | 40:09 | |
| on that first Christmas day. | 40:12 | |
| After all, we are too righteous, far, to seek a star. | 40:16 | |
| At least the church should be bright enough without any | 40:20 | |
| extraneous light from outer space. | 40:22 | |
| This is not intended to be a bitter prescription for our | 40:27 | |
| Christmas hangover. | 40:30 | |
| Indeed, as we suggested at the beginning, | 40:31 | |
| the world has seldom been in greater need | 40:34 | |
| of light and life and love. | 40:36 | |
| Our country may have been in worse circumstances, | 40:41 | |
| less prosperity, more bloodshed, less goodwill, | 40:43 | |
| but there have been few times when the nation has been more | 40:47 | |
| acutely aware of the dark midnight of her soul. | 40:50 | |
| Yet our pyrotechnic human displays are not the kind of | 40:55 | |
| illumination we need in this somber year of our Lord, 1968. | 40:58 | |
| Our stoplights and stage lights and spotlights and | 41:05 | |
| strobe lights are not quite suitable for a stable. | 41:08 | |
| As Kenneth Benny put it, | 41:13 | |
| let us forswear the world, accept our plight. | 41:14 | |
| Ignorant, idle, unrighteous on our own. | 41:17 | |
| Let us look up to seek a star this night. | 41:23 | |
| What I am proposing is that we pull the master switch for | 41:29 | |
| all this radiant pretense, | 41:32 | |
| technological and ethical, | 41:34 | |
| and wait to see what God may have to say. | 41:36 | |
| Military searchlights and television floods have not | 41:41 | |
| vanquished the darkness. | 41:44 | |
| They have simply revealed more starkly than ever | 41:46 | |
| man's folly, greed, and inhumanity. | 41:48 | |
| They have enabled more of us than ever before to see our | 41:52 | |
| inability, | 41:55 | |
| or worse, our unwillingness, | 41:57 | |
| to cope with the moral and spiritual problems | 41:59 | |
| we have created. | 42:02 | |
| And that's precisely why we need Christmas. | 42:04 | |
| But we don't need a bright gay gaudy Christmas this year, | 42:09 | |
| we need a black Christmas. | 42:13 | |
| Now don't misunderstand me, | 42:17 | |
| I'm not referring simply to a local shopping boycott. | 42:18 | |
| That may be one necessary way to achieve justice, | 42:22 | |
| but it will not produce peace and goodwill among men. | 42:26 | |
| I'm suggesting that we need a dark Christmas at the end of a | 42:30 | |
| dark year. | 42:33 | |
| When we acknowledge that we have made an ugly mess | 42:35 | |
| of God's creation. | 42:37 | |
| When we turn off the glittering lights | 42:40 | |
| of an artificial world, | 42:42 | |
| blow out the hollow drippy candles of our private lives, | 42:44 | |
| and rest beside the weary road | 42:48 | |
| to hear the angels sing. | 42:51 | |
| A dark Christmas when we stop trying to dazzle ourselves | 42:55 | |
| or our associates with the brilliance of our knowledge | 42:58 | |
| or our brilliant business or our piety, | 43:01 | |
| and look up into the blackness, which surrounds us. | 43:05 | |
| The bleakness, which we try to deny, | 43:09 | |
| and wait for a sign of God's forgiveness and his love. | 43:12 | |
| That sign is visible only when we welcome the darkness and | 43:18 | |
| give ourselves to it, | 43:23 | |
| instead of trying to chase it away with deceptive devices. | 43:24 | |
| More than a century ago, Soren Kierkegaard, | 43:29 | |
| the Danish theologian, affirmed this truth, quote, | 43:32 | |
| "Under you, a child is born, and yet it was night | 43:36 | |
| when he was born. | 43:39 | |
| That is the eternal illustration. | 43:41 | |
| It must be night. | 43:44 | |
| And it becomes the middle of the night | 43:46 | |
| when the savior is born." End of quote. | 43:49 | |
| In other words, he comes at life's darkest period, | 43:54 | |
| but once he has come, the world is moving toward the dawn, | 43:58 | |
| whether we know it or not. | 44:02 | |
| The same theme is simply expressed in a little verse | 44:05 | |
| written during the long night of World War II | 44:09 | |
| by Franklin Elmer, Jr. | 44:11 | |
| Not great poetry, | 44:13 | |
| but an eternal truth from which I borrowed | 44:15 | |
| the sermon title for today. | 44:17 | |
| Christmas always comes at night, | 44:20 | |
| when men grow blindly for a light. | 44:22 | |
| Christmas could not come by day, | 44:25 | |
| that is not God's or nature's way | 44:27 | |
| can wise men see a star at noon? | 44:30 | |
| And shepherds hear the angels tune when sun is bright? | 44:32 | |
| Death on the cross will come at eve, | 44:37 | |
| when weary daylight takes its leave | 44:40 | |
| and resurrection fits the dawn, | 44:43 | |
| when patterns for new days are drawn. | 44:45 | |
| But Christmas comes in deepest dark, through black despair, | 44:48 | |
| men see a spark, and battled with the night. | 44:52 | |
| Oh Mary, Mary, mother by the stall, | 44:58 | |
| exhausted in the darkness, | 45:01 | |
| did you sense at all that God has brought a brilliant star | 45:03 | |
| to birth matching your lonely labor there on earth? | 45:06 | |
| Did you know that from your anguish, angels made a song to | 45:09 | |
| cheer the hopeful few who kept long vigil for the right? | 45:13 | |
| I heard the song. | 45:19 | |
| I saw the star, | 45:21 | |
| but chilling visions plagued my mind to mar my peace. | 45:23 | |
| Children being born far down the years in poverty | 45:27 | |
| and bloodshed, in famine and in tears, | 45:30 | |
| men, steeped in hate, cruel in war. | 45:33 | |
| Oh, I had hoped, had prayed for more. | 45:37 | |
| And I would say, | 45:39 | |
| I saw the star I heard the song, | 45:42 | |
| and deep within my heart I knew that long, | 45:46 | |
| long after he and I were gone, | 45:48 | |
| my son would be a song of hope and every evil night | 45:51 | |
| that he would stand alone against all human power, | 45:55 | |
| as strong and pure as any star in any tragic hour. | 45:59 | |
| And I was glad. | 46:04 | |
| So Christmas always comes at night, | 46:06 | |
| when men are hungriest for light, | 46:10 | |
| Can wise men see a star at noon? | 46:12 | |
| Can shepherds hear the angels tune when the sun is bright? | 46:14 | |
| Christmas comes in deepest, dark. | 46:18 | |
| When in despair, man sees a spark, conquering the night. | 46:21 | |
| Oh, I know it was a very ancient Chinese proverb | 46:30 | |
| says that it is better to light a candle | 46:33 | |
| than to curse the darkness. | 46:35 | |
| But I'm not asking you to curse the darkness. | 46:37 | |
| I'm asking you to bless it, | 46:40 | |
| to accept it as a gift of God within which His greater gift, | 46:42 | |
| maybe deserved, nor am I asking you to acquiesce in hatred, | 46:47 | |
| greed and bitterness. | 46:52 | |
| Everyone should light a candle for the workbench, | 46:54 | |
| for the kitchen, for the neighbor in need. | 46:57 | |
| But do this only after you have rediscovered the true source | 47:00 | |
| of eternal light. | 47:04 | |
| Relight your candle, not from a gold plated cigarette | 47:06 | |
| lighter or an exploding coal mine, | 47:10 | |
| but from that heavenly spark, | 47:12 | |
| even if it stretches your imagination, and your faith. | 47:14 | |
| Between now and New Year's Eve or between now and epiphany, | 47:21 | |
| that feast of lights. | 47:25 | |
| When we shall return to this campus ready to display all | 47:27 | |
| manner of academic brilliance in semester examinations, | 47:30 | |
| admit that the world looks black. | 47:34 | |
| That many of our traditional beacons have failed. | 47:37 | |
| Look up. | 47:41 | |
| And you may find, for this is the Christmas hope and the | 47:43 | |
| Christmas promise, that the light shines in the darkness, | 47:46 | |
| present tense, active voice, | 47:51 | |
| the light still shines in the darkness. | 47:54 | |
| JD Phillips says. | 47:57 | |
| And the darkness has never put it out. | 47:59 | |
| Not that there is no darkness, | 48:02 | |
| but that the only radiance which cannot be overcome is the | 48:04 | |
| light of a star announcing God's commitment, | 48:07 | |
| His involvement in human life. | 48:12 | |
| So Christmas always comes at night when men are hungriest | 48:15 | |
| for light, | 48:19 | |
| Christmas comes in deepest, dark, | 48:21 | |
| when in despair, man sees a spark conquering the night. | 48:24 | |
| Let us pray. | 48:34 | |
| Our father whose love made manifest that this holy season is | 48:38 | |
| the source of all life and light. | 48:42 | |
| Grant us that in the midst of fear and frustration, | 48:45 | |
| darkness and discouragement, | 48:49 | |
| we may declare with the wise men of old, | 48:51 | |
| we have seen His star and our come to worship Him. | 48:54 | |
| Amen | 49:02 | |
| ("Silent Night" plays on organ) | 49:13 | |
| (organ music plays) | 53:07 | |
| (woman sings gospel music) | 56:07 | |
| - | Oh Lord, our father, we turn our faces like | 1:02:15 |
| the wise men of old, toward the star of Bethlehem. | 1:02:18 | |
| And with willing hearts, we offer these, | 1:02:23 | |
| our gifts to the manger child | 1:02:25 | |
| who is our King. | 1:02:27 | |
| When at last, in the midst of this world tonight, | 1:02:29 | |
| the child is born. | 1:02:33 | |
| Give us, oh God, | 1:02:35 | |
| wisdom to kneel, and joy to serve, | 1:02:37 | |
| and courage to share the good news to all the world | 1:02:41 | |
| in the name of Christ, amen. | 1:02:46 | |
| And now go in peace into the world to do the work of God and | 1:02:52 | |
| the blessing of God, Allfather, Almighty, the Father, | 1:02:57 | |
| the Son, and the Holy Spirit, | 1:03:00 | |
| rest and abide with you one and all. | 1:03:03 | |
| Amen. | 1:03:06 | |
| (bells chime) | 1:03:08 | |
| (organ music plays) | 1:03:23 |
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