Paul J. Beeman - "Your Virgin Birth in Christ" (November 27, 1977)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
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- | Prepare ye the way of the Lord. | 15:01 |
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. | 15:04 | |
God's amazing love comes to us in Jesus. | 15:11 | |
The certainty that this love is a forgiving love | 15:17 | |
enables us to acknowledge | 15:22 | |
and make confession of our sin. | 15:24 | |
Let us pray. | 15:28 | |
Oh Lord, we are grateful for this place, | 15:31 | |
this moment, this experience. | 15:35 | |
We find it very easy to withdraw from the world | 15:39 | |
and turn our backs on the needs of our neighbor. | 15:44 | |
We know that you have called us to go out from this place | 15:48 | |
into the world, but we lack the courage and conviction. | 15:53 | |
Our sinfulness and shortcomings handicap our potential. | 15:58 | |
Forgive us, merciful God, and move us to caring. | 16:05 | |
Strengthen us to reach out a helping hand, | 16:10 | |
to listen with a sympathetic ear | 16:14 | |
and to be the answer to someone's need. | 16:17 | |
Help us in our being, oh God, | 16:21 | |
that someone else might become. | 16:24 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ. | 16:28 | |
Oh loving God, we cannot forgive ourselves | 16:49 | |
without the assurance that you have forgiven us. | 16:56 | |
We rejoice that we know | 17:02 | |
that nothing can separate us from your love | 17:03 | |
which is always offering to us forgiveness, | 17:07 | |
wholeness, new possibilities. | 17:11 | |
This is our hope for today and tomorrow, oh God, | 17:15 | |
and for this we give you thanks, amen. | 17:19 | |
The Old Testament lesson | 17:26 | |
is from the second chapter of Isaiah. | 17:28 | |
Listen for the word of God. | 17:32 | |
The word which Isaiah, the son Amoz, | 17:36 | |
saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. | 17:39 | |
It shall come to pass in the latter days | 17:43 | |
that the mountain of the house of the Lord | 17:46 | |
shall be established as the highest of the mountains | 17:49 | |
and shall be raised above the hills | 17:52 | |
and all the nations shall flow to it | 17:55 | |
and many people shall come and say, | 17:58 | |
"Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, | 18:01 | |
"to the house of the God of Jacob, | 18:04 | |
"that he may teach us his ways, | 18:07 | |
"that we may walk in his paths, | 18:10 | |
"for out of Zion shall go forth the law | 18:13 | |
"and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." | 18:16 | |
Oh, house of Jacob, come let us walk | 18:21 | |
in the light of the Lord. | 18:25 | |
The gospel lesson is from the first | 18:28 | |
and the 24th chapters of Matthew. | 18:31 | |
Will the congregation stand for the reading of the gospel? | 18:34 | |
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. | 18:44 | |
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, | 18:48 | |
before they came together | 18:52 | |
she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit | 18:55 | |
and her husband, Joseph, being a just man | 18:59 | |
and unwilling to put her to shame | 19:02 | |
resolved to divorce her quietly. | 19:05 | |
But as he considered this, behold an angel of the Lord | 19:09 | |
appeared to him in a dream saying, | 19:14 | |
"Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife | 19:16 | |
"for that, which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. | 19:22 | |
"She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, | 19:26 | |
"for he will save his people from their sins," | 19:31 | |
and all of this took place to fulfill | 19:35 | |
what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. | 19:38 | |
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son | 19:41 | |
and his name shall be called Emmanuel, | 19:46 | |
which means God with us. | 19:50 | |
When Joseph woke from sleep, | 19:54 | |
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. | 19:56 | |
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had born a son | 19:59 | |
and he called his name Jesus. | 20:04 | |
And from the 24th chapter of Matthew. | 20:08 | |
But of that day an hour no one knows, | 20:15 | |
not even the angels of the heaven nor the son, | 20:18 | |
but the father only, as these were the days of Noah, | 20:22 | |
so will be the coming of the son of man, | 20:26 | |
for as in those days before the flood, | 20:30 | |
they were eating and drinking, | 20:33 | |
marrying and giving in marriage | 20:35 | |
until the day when Noah entered the ark | 20:38 | |
and they did not know until the flood came | 20:41 | |
and swept them all away. | 20:43 | |
So will be the coming of the son of man. | 20:45 | |
Then two men will be in the field. | 20:48 | |
One is taken and one is left. | 20:51 | |
Two women will be grinding at the mill. | 20:54 | |
One is taken and one is left. | 20:56 | |
Watch therefore for you do not know | 21:00 | |
on what day your Lord is coming, but know this, | 21:02 | |
that if the household had known | 21:07 | |
in what part of the night the thief was coming, | 21:09 | |
he would have watched | 21:11 | |
and would not have let his house be broken into. | 21:13 | |
Therefore you also must be ready, | 21:16 | |
for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. | 21:19 | |
Here ends the reading of the morning lesson. | 21:25 | |
Praise be to God. | 21:29 | |
(organ music) | ||
(organ music drowns out singers) | 21:52 | |
Let us affirm what we believe. | 22:47 | |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 22:50 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 22:55 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 22:59 | |
who works in us and others by the spirit. | 23:01 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 23:06 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 23:10 | |
to love and serve others, | 23:13 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 23:16 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 23:20 | |
our judge and our hope. | 23:24 | |
In life and death and life beyond death, | 23:27 | |
God is with us, we are not alone. | 23:32 | |
Thanks be to God. The Lord be with you. | 23:36 | |
(congregation responds indistinctly) | 23:41 | |
Let us pray. | 23:43 | |
We give you thanks, oh God, that you know us all by name, | 23:52 | |
that you hold the whole world in your hand. | 23:58 | |
You have created us, called us into to life | 24:04 | |
that we should all be made one with you | 24:10 | |
to be your people here on Earth. | 24:15 | |
Blessed are you, creator of all that is. | 24:19 | |
Blessed are you for giving us | 24:25 | |
a place of freedom and of life. | 24:27 | |
Blessed are you for the light of our eyes | 24:31 | |
and for the air we breathe. | 24:35 | |
We thank you for the whole of this creation, | 24:38 | |
for all the works of your hand, | 24:42 | |
for the all that you have done for us, | 24:45 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 24:49 | |
whom you sent to bring your kingdom to the poor, | 24:53 | |
to bring redemption to all captive people, | 25:00 | |
and to give to all people you constant love and goodness. | 25:04 | |
We thank you for this unforgettable man | 25:12 | |
who has fulfilled everything that is human, | 25:16 | |
our life and death, and has enabled us | 25:20 | |
to become bearers of your love and goodness to others. | 25:26 | |
Holy Spirit of God, fill us with confidence | 25:33 | |
and make us available. | 25:38 | |
Teach us to pray and hear the moanings of your children. | 25:42 | |
Those who are calling to us, who are hungry, | 25:48 | |
those who are cold, | 25:53 | |
those who are struggling for peace and freedom, | 25:57 | |
those who are sick, who are lonely, | 26:03 | |
those who mourn. | 26:08 | |
Almighty and merciful God, | 26:11 | |
pour out in your church the spirit of Jesus | 26:15 | |
so that dreams may be dreamt and visions seen. | 26:20 | |
Open our eyes and hearts to his work among all people | 26:26 | |
so that we may respond to the moanings of your children. | 26:31 | |
We pray in the spirit of Jesus who taught us to pray. | 26:38 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 26:43 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 26:50 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 26:54 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 26:57 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 27:01 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us | 27:03 | |
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil | 27:07 | |
for thine is the kingdom, | 27:12 | |
the power and the glory forever. | 27:14 | |
Amen. | 27:18 | |
- | After four months away | 27:34 |
from my pulpit in Olympia, Washington | 27:35 | |
on a study leave here on the Duke Campus, | 27:38 | |
it's a delight to be preaching again, | 27:41 | |
especially in this place where I have learned so much | 27:43 | |
in so short a time, but more especially on this occasion, | 27:47 | |
this very special season of the year, | 27:52 | |
which is for me the happiest time | 27:54 | |
to be proclaiming the gospel of Christ. | 27:57 | |
For my text this morning, | 28:00 | |
I want to use those words from Matthew's gospel, | 28:02 | |
the first chapter and the 20th verse, | 28:05 | |
which say so much about Mary's condition. | 28:08 | |
That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. | 28:12 | |
Would you join me for a moment of prayer? | 28:18 | |
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts | 28:24 | |
be acceptable in thy sight, | 28:29 | |
oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer, amen. | 28:32 | |
It would be appropriate to greet you this morning | 28:39 | |
by saying happy New Year, | 28:41 | |
for this is the first day of the first season | 28:44 | |
of a brand new Christian year. | 28:46 | |
In my congregation, all the way across the continent | 28:49 | |
and in Christian churches around the world, | 28:52 | |
the advent wreath has appeared, | 28:55 | |
as it has in our midst here this morning. | 28:57 | |
With simple words and ringing carols, | 29:01 | |
the first candle of advent is being lighted | 29:04 | |
all around the earth. | 29:08 | |
The songs may quietly affirm | 29:10 | |
that in the silence of the night, | 29:12 | |
all is calm, all is bright, | 29:15 | |
'round yon virgin mother and child. | 29:18 | |
Or may make jubilant claim that there's a tumult of joy | 29:21 | |
for the wonderful birth for the virgin sweet boy | 29:25 | |
is the Lord of the Earth. | 29:29 | |
But therein lies a problem. | 29:32 | |
The virgin birth has been easier | 29:35 | |
for me to sing about than to preach. | 29:37 | |
Oh, I could speak with enthusiasm about the incarnation, | 29:39 | |
God's coming among us as a human being, | 29:43 | |
of entering fully into the life of the world, | 29:46 | |
but I wanted to describe Jesus' life | 29:50 | |
in terms I could rationalize and explain. | 29:53 | |
Somehow I could believe in God as creator, | 29:57 | |
or God as first cause, if only I could free him | 29:59 | |
and free myself from the virgin birth. | 30:03 | |
That seems strange in a way. | 30:07 | |
A God who could create the world ex nihilo | 30:10 | |
seemed quite manageable to me, | 30:13 | |
but a baby born of a virgin, | 30:16 | |
well, that was just too much. | 30:18 | |
It would be more accurate, of course, | 30:21 | |
for us to speak of the virgin conception of Jesus. | 30:23 | |
But with tradition, let's simply call it the virgin birth | 30:27 | |
and we'll all know what we're talking about. | 30:30 | |
The whole idea that Jesus was born of a virgin | 30:33 | |
has been a troublesome one for me | 30:36 | |
and yet, as I think more deeply about it, | 30:39 | |
the living Christ of faith | 30:42 | |
who has been born into each of us | 30:45 | |
has also been conceived through God's action | 30:48 | |
and not our own. | 30:52 | |
Of course our belief is required. | 30:54 | |
we must take the leap of faith, | 30:57 | |
we must accept God's gift, | 30:59 | |
but you and I have done little to secure our new birth | 31:01 | |
and our new life in Christ. | 31:04 | |
It is God who has taken the initiative. | 31:07 | |
We must admit with St. Paul | 31:09 | |
that it is no longer even we who live, | 31:11 | |
but Christ who lives in us. | 31:14 | |
One accurate analogy then for describing God's action | 31:17 | |
is to say that as Christians we too are virgin born. | 31:22 | |
St. Peter expresses the idea when he writes, | 31:27 | |
"That it is by God's great mercy | 31:30 | |
"that we have been born a new into a living hope | 31:32 | |
"and it is by God's power," he writes, | 31:35 | |
"that we are guarded through faith for salvation." | 31:38 | |
Or as John Wesley puts it, | 31:42 | |
"Our very power to work together with him was from God, | 31:45 | |
"therefore to him is all glory." | 31:50 | |
In other words, the living Christ born in us | 31:53 | |
is the gift of God. | 31:57 | |
That's what I mean by your virgin birth in Christ | 31:59 | |
and that is at the very heart of the advent message. | 32:03 | |
Now, if we really believe | 32:07 | |
that God is the source of our faith, | 32:09 | |
then that belief will have three profound effects upon us. | 32:12 | |
First, it will challenge the pride with which we live. | 32:18 | |
Second, it will determine the meaning by which we live. | 32:22 | |
And third, it will create the environment in which we live. | 32:27 | |
First, then the virgin birth of Christ within us | 32:32 | |
challenges, the pride with which we live. | 32:35 | |
Most of us have cultivated a sense of pride in our families, | 32:40 | |
our jobs, ourselves, and we're usually happy to take credit | 32:44 | |
for the faith that we have worked out | 32:49 | |
to our own satisfaction. | 32:51 | |
To an extent that kind of pride can strengthen us | 32:54 | |
when it's honest and when it's justified, | 32:57 | |
but if we really believe that our faith | 33:01 | |
is not of our own making, but is the gift of God, | 33:04 | |
then our whole sense of pride becomes challenged. | 33:08 | |
Let's look back at Joseph in our text. | 33:13 | |
He must've been about the age of an entering freshmen | 33:16 | |
when he was betrothed to Mary | 33:19 | |
and like other young men of his time and his age, | 33:21 | |
he was ready to settle down in marriage | 33:24 | |
and yet with his wedding day almost at hand | 33:27 | |
he discovered that his fiance was expecting a baby | 33:30 | |
and he knew that he could not be the father of the child. | 33:34 | |
If Joseph had been a real macho, | 33:39 | |
he might've blown the whole incarnation then and there. | 33:41 | |
But knowing that it was God who had intervened, | 33:45 | |
Joseph was able to move out beyond his pride. | 33:49 | |
He was able to yield to the initiative of God. | 33:53 | |
Joseph's story, you see, is our story too. | 33:58 | |
For like him, we move beyond our own pride | 34:03 | |
whenever we acknowledge that our life in Christ | 34:06 | |
is not of our own making, | 34:09 | |
not the result of our superior wisdom, | 34:11 | |
not the treasure at the end of our spiritual search. | 34:14 | |
Whenever the incarnation occurs in us, | 34:18 | |
God must break through the walls | 34:22 | |
of our carefully constructed worldview, | 34:24 | |
our moral self-righteousness, | 34:28 | |
our own sense of propriety, | 34:30 | |
our religious convictions. | 34:33 | |
These must all become secondary, even obsolete, | 34:35 | |
giving way in painful surrender | 34:39 | |
before the humiliating scandal | 34:41 | |
that that which is conceived in us | 34:44 | |
is of the Holy Spirit too. | 34:47 | |
The gift of God's love. | 34:49 | |
It is a challenge to the pride with which we live. | 34:52 | |
Then second, this virgin birth of Christ within us | 34:58 | |
determines the meaning by which we live. | 35:01 | |
If we do find meaning in this season of advent | 35:06 | |
and purpose in our own celebration of Christmas, | 35:09 | |
it will not be because we use a slogan like, | 35:12 | |
"Put Christ back into Christmas." | 35:15 | |
It will come if and when we hear a similar message | 35:19 | |
and catch a similar vision | 35:24 | |
to that one which called our Lord himself | 35:26 | |
into his mission and his ministry. | 35:29 | |
Sometimes, however, you and I tend to get | 35:33 | |
the source of our message mixed up. | 35:36 | |
In this light, let me tell you about | 35:39 | |
a couple of friends of mine, Joe and Lucy Harding. | 35:41 | |
Some time ago, Joe discovered that he had a really bad tooth | 35:44 | |
and he got it repair with an unusually large filling. | 35:49 | |
When he got home that night, Joe told his wife, Lucy, | 35:54 | |
that he had a kind of a strange sensation in his tooth, | 35:57 | |
almost like a sound or a vibration in it. | 36:01 | |
"Well," Lucy said, "it's a big filling | 36:05 | |
"and it'll probably feel better in a few days. | 36:06 | |
That night they had gone to bed | 36:10 | |
and almost had gone to sleep | 36:11 | |
when Joe reached over and shook his wife gently. | 36:14 | |
"Lucy, Lucy," he said, "it's weird! | 36:17 | |
"It's as if I hear music coming right out of my mouth. | 36:19 | |
"It seems to be coming from my filling." | 36:23 | |
"Ah, that's impossible," Lucy said, "go back to sleep." | 36:26 | |
"No," Joe said, "I know what I hear. | 36:30 | |
"Rollover and I'll open my mouth | 36:33 | |
"and you put your ear right down to my mouth | 36:35 | |
"and see if you don't hear it too." | 36:38 | |
And Lucy rolled over and put her ear down to his mouth | 36:41 | |
and listened carefully and she said, | 36:44 | |
"Joe, that's incredible. | 36:46 | |
"I hear music coming right out of your mouth. | 36:48 | |
"Your new filling must be picking up a radio station. | 36:51 | |
"I don't believe it." | 36:54 | |
When she rolled over to turn on the light | 36:56 | |
to examine that new filling, however, | 36:58 | |
Lucy spotted the little wire | 37:02 | |
leading from Joe's pocket radio into the earphone | 37:04 | |
plugged into his ear down on the pillow | 37:07 | |
and she knew that she'd been had. | 37:09 | |
Sometimes it takes us longer | 37:13 | |
to sort out the real sources of the messages | 37:14 | |
which we believe and yet, according to St Paul, | 37:17 | |
the message which comes from God is this, | 37:21 | |
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. | 37:25 | |
"The old has passed away and behold the new has come." | 37:29 | |
All this is from God, who, through Christ, | 37:34 | |
reconciled us to himself | 37:37 | |
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. | 37:40 | |
It is then to this reconciling ministry | 37:44 | |
that all of us are called. | 37:47 | |
So don't get the idea that you may be excused | 37:50 | |
because you're too old or too young, | 37:54 | |
too sinful or too good, | 37:57 | |
too weak or too filled with doubt, | 38:00 | |
or too much in pain. | 38:02 | |
I wonder if there's anyone in this chapel this morning, | 38:05 | |
or anyone listening over the radio, | 38:08 | |
who is always strong and confident, | 38:10 | |
always pure, always in control, always abounding in faith. | 38:13 | |
No? | 38:19 | |
Every one of us can admit, as St Paul does to the Romans, | 38:20 | |
I was with you in weakness | 38:25 | |
and in much fear and trembling | 38:27 | |
and my speech and my message | 38:29 | |
were not in plausible words of wisdom, | 38:31 | |
but in demonstration of the spirit and power | 38:35 | |
that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, | 38:39 | |
but in the power of God. | 38:43 | |
In God's ministry then, we may be wounded and suffering, | 38:46 | |
we may be weak and discouraged, | 38:51 | |
but we are all called to share in his ministry | 38:53 | |
and it is here that we find the meaning of advent | 38:57 | |
and Christ's coming and of epiphany or his appearing | 39:01 | |
and his manifestation to the world. | 39:04 | |
The poet Conrad Aiken has caught this idea | 39:08 | |
in the lines he has entitled "Christmas Eve." | 39:10 | |
"As of the unseen in the scene | 39:14 | |
"and of the unheard in the heard. | 39:17 | |
"The meaning that we all most mean. | 39:20 | |
"The truth within the broken word. | 39:24 | |
"In these is our epiphany." | 39:27 | |
In other words, the virgin birth and Christ within us, | 39:32 | |
gives to us all a ministry | 39:36 | |
and even in that broken ministry | 39:38 | |
is determined the meaning by which we live our lives. | 39:42 | |
And this leads to my third point, | 39:47 | |
this virgin birth of Christ within us | 39:51 | |
creates the environment in which we live. | 39:54 | |
It is an environment in which God | 39:58 | |
can gently reshape his people and his world | 40:00 | |
to live in response to him. | 40:04 | |
The ancient prophets with their visions | 40:08 | |
looked forward to the new age of God's Messiah. | 40:10 | |
Next weekend, we'll hear those early prophecies | 40:15 | |
and eschatological hopes | 40:19 | |
sung again to the magnificent strains | 40:21 | |
of George Frideric Handel's score. | 40:24 | |
The tenor will sing, comfort ye, comfort ye my people | 40:28 | |
and the alto will reply, behold, a virgin shall conceive | 40:33 | |
and bear a son and shall call his name, Emmanuel. | 40:37 | |
God with us. | 40:42 | |
And then her solo will flow into the stirring, | 40:45 | |
oh, thou that tell us good tidings to Zion | 40:47 | |
and the chorus will chant, for unto us a child is born, | 40:50 | |
unto us a son is given and the alto will sing | 40:54 | |
almost as a lullaby the prophecy | 40:59 | |
that he shall feed his flock like a shepherd | 41:02 | |
and the choir will conclude in pulsating rhythm | 41:06 | |
and he shall reign forever and ever | 41:09 | |
king of Kings and Lord of Lords, hallelujah. | 41:12 | |
This is prophecy beautifully expressed | 41:17 | |
and yet we are not Hebrews waiting for Messiah's appearance. | 41:21 | |
We are Christ's people who live each day | 41:26 | |
as full present participants in his coming kingdom | 41:29 | |
and it is our faith and our participation in that kingdom, | 41:35 | |
which creates the new environment | 41:40 | |
in which Christians live and labor, work and serve. | 41:43 | |
As citizens of God's kingdom, | 41:48 | |
we seek then to fulfill the ministry of reconciliation | 41:50 | |
to which you and I have been called, | 41:54 | |
making sure, as fully as we are able, | 41:57 | |
that every fellow human being has food and shelter, | 42:00 | |
medical care and education, | 42:04 | |
dignity and opportunity, | 42:06 | |
justice and love | 42:08 | |
as equal sisters and brothers under our common God. | 42:10 | |
As DM Bailey puts it, this is not a trying to live | 42:16 | |
by the Sermon on the Mount, | 42:20 | |
but rather it is the unselfconscious goodness | 42:22 | |
of living in eager response to the son of God. | 42:26 | |
This living in God's new age | 42:31 | |
means daring in the midst of war | 42:34 | |
to live out the promise of peace | 42:36 | |
as President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin | 42:39 | |
so courageously demonstrated last weekend. | 42:41 | |
This new environment in which we live as Christians | 42:46 | |
is at once God's gift to us | 42:50 | |
in the infant Jesus and our response to him. | 42:53 | |
Its meaning and its power have been captured, for me, | 42:57 | |
by the master storyteller of the American West, Bret Harte, | 43:01 | |
in perhaps his best known story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp." | 43:05 | |
During the California Gold Rush, you see, | 43:11 | |
Roaring Camp attracted the roughest toughest cluster | 43:13 | |
of outlaws and vagabonds that ever mined a claim. | 43:17 | |
It was unfortunate then that Cherokee Sal, | 43:22 | |
a woman of questionable moral practice, | 43:25 | |
happened to be there in Roaring Camp | 43:27 | |
when the hour was upon her | 43:31 | |
that she should be delivered of her baby. | 43:34 | |
It was no wonder that the woman died in childbirth | 43:37 | |
but it was closer to a miracle that the baby survived | 43:41 | |
and even more strange that this cluster | 43:44 | |
of rough and hardy miners wanted to keep the baby | 43:46 | |
in their dirty dilapidated mining camp. | 43:51 | |
First they placed it in an old box | 43:54 | |
and wrapped it in scraps of torn overalls. | 43:56 | |
Then they took up a collection | 43:59 | |
and send a delegate on mule back 80 miles | 44:01 | |
down to Sacramento to buy a cradle | 44:04 | |
and a layette for the child. | 44:07 | |
But when he was put in the dainty white clothes | 44:10 | |
the child seemed completely out of place | 44:13 | |
in the smokey walls and dirty floors of the cabin | 44:15 | |
and so the miners scrubbed the place | 44:20 | |
and whitewashed it inside and out. | 44:22 | |
Then on bright days they took the cradle outside | 44:25 | |
and suddenly the rough ground around the cabin | 44:29 | |
looked unusually ugly and so they smoothed out the place | 44:32 | |
and planted shrubs and flowers. | 44:36 | |
Each of the a hundred miners in camp | 44:40 | |
demanded his turn in holding the baby | 44:41 | |
but they were soon ashamed | 44:44 | |
of their dirty overalls and rough appearance | 44:45 | |
and they began, miracle of miracles, to clean up, | 44:49 | |
to shave and even to wash their clothes, | 44:54 | |
which was quite a strain on most of them. | 44:57 | |
Concerned for the baby's sleep | 45:00 | |
there was less shouting and fighting around the camp | 45:01 | |
and they stopped swearing quite so much. | 45:05 | |
Some admitted, at least privately, | 45:08 | |
that they were becoming kind and thoughtful | 45:11 | |
toward one another. | 45:13 | |
It was strange. | 45:16 | |
Roaring Camp, once thought of as the dirtiest, | 45:18 | |
most boisterous mining camp in all California | 45:21 | |
became a new environment, | 45:25 | |
a place of kindness and true beauty | 45:28 | |
because a tiny baby was born among them. | 45:30 | |
The angel told Joseph | 45:36 | |
"That which is conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit, | 45:38 | |
"and you see, that which is of Christ | 45:43 | |
"that is born and conceived in you | 45:48 | |
"and in me is of the Holy Spirit also. | 45:50 | |
"It will challenge the pride with which we live. | 45:55 | |
"It will determine the meaning by which we live | 45:58 | |
"and it will create the environment | 46:02 | |
"in which we live for Christ." | 46:05 | |
And then we can respond as did Mary, | 46:09 | |
"Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord. | 46:12 | |
"Let it be unto me, according to your word." | 46:15 | |
Let us pray. | 46:21 | |
Our father, as the first candle of advent | 46:25 | |
sends its tiny rays of light | 46:28 | |
to inaugurate this beautiful season, | 46:30 | |
so may the light of your son, Jesus, burn within us | 46:33 | |
and through us penetrate the world. | 46:38 | |
In his name we pray. | 46:42 | |
Amen. | 46:45 | |
(organ music continues) | 46:50 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 47:37 | |
(organ music continues) | 48:50 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 49:13 | |
(organ music) | 49:50 | |
(organ music continues) | 51:50 | |
(organ music continues) | 53:40 | |
(organ music) | 54:28 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 54:58 | |
(organ music) | 55:40 | |
- | Oh Lord, from whom we receive all | 56:00 |
and upon whom we are ever dependent, | 56:04 | |
accept this offering of ourselves | 56:07 | |
for service to all people. | 56:11 | |
Use, we pray, our being and our doing, | 56:14 | |
our gifts and our goods for your glory | 56:19 | |
and the wellbeing of all of your creation. | 56:23 | |
We pray in the spirit of the living Christ. | 56:27 | |
Amen. | 56:31 | |
(organ music) | 56:34 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 57:07 | |
(organ music continues) | 58:30 | |
(organ music drowns out singers) | 58:40 | |
- | May the blessing of God who creates, | 58:58 |
redeems and sustains us | 59:02 | |
be with you this day and forevermore. | 59:06 | |
Amen. And amen. | 59:11 | |
(organ music) | 59:16 | |
(organ music continues) | 1:01:00 | |
(organ music continues) | 1:02:00 |
Item Info
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