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"The Christmas Express"
A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
Kim and I took Amanda and Rebecca to see The Polar Express a few weeks ago.
We were already getting ready for Christmas and were pretty excited
about it. The book has been a family
favorite for years. It was a great
film. My favorite part was the simulated
roller coaster of the train ride. I
loved the speed, the gadgets, the excitement and suspense of it all. When you got to the North Pole, the elves and
the children were frantic with all of the preparations for Christmas. This
typifies the frantic life of the Christmas season.
It serves as a metaphor for all of our business, so that we can make
everything just right. We set the
standard so high and rightfully so, but yet we sometimes run so fast that we
just wish we could get off the Christmas express.
I think the true message of
Christmas is that things do not need to speed up. If anything, they need to slow down. I don’t imagine that a trip from
Think what happens when we slow
down. We might notice something we might
have overlooked in our haste: the serenity that comes from sitting and watching
cartoons with a sick child, like I did this week; the voices of angels in a far
off hillside; the homeless sons and daughters of that miraculous nativity scene
still shivering from the cold in Minneapolis; the humanity of someone who might
have seemed like an enemy; the sheer joy that comes not simply from the flood
of presents under a tree, but of memories of times gone past and hope for a
future filled with peace; the prayerful commitment to making the world a better
place, and making us better people.
And so we gather in the warmth of
an old stone church. We recite the
familiar stories. We sing the carols we
have been avoiding throughout Advent in church, but have heard on TV and in
commercials since October. The express
has finally arrived. And now that it’s
here, we can relax, right?
Well, not exactly. What we can and should do is pay attention to
how this story connects with our stories.
And maybe then we can have a bit more patience, a bit more hope, a bit
more joy, a bit more compassion for our fellow human beings. For when we do that, we witness to the
miracle that is Christmas. God has taken
on human form in order to walk with us on our life journeys. God is close at Christmas and invites you to
come along on the Christmas express.
That’s how you express Christmas to
a people and a world in need.
Today we stand in awe of the Christmas story and we pray that it will become alive in each and everyone of us this season.
This Christmas, when you hear the
music, allow yourself to be lulled and transported into the stable, onto the
mountainside with the shepherd, into the innkeepers registration desk telling
the child's parents that there is no room, into the hands and hearts of the
wise men who bring gifts and into the fact that Jesus has come and will
reconcile the world to God and the people will follow.
And, my friends, the world will
never be the same again. For finally
peace will reign with justice on God's holy mountain.
May this Christmas be a time in
which we can truly celebrate the Christ who is alive in each of us. And may we express Christmas by how we live
and walk with God at our side.
May all we do this evening and when
dawn breaks tomorrow, express the vision that is Christmas. As the prophet said, it is an audacious time
when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb and the fatling and the calf
together, nation shall not raise up sword against nation and neither shall they
learn war anymore. The only way for that
to happen, is if we truly express the Christmas hope to a frozen and bitter
world in need of warmth and hope.
When that happens, the angels sing
again. They rejoice for a world that
believes once again. And we will join
with them, proclaiming God’s reign on this earth, Gloria in Exclesis Deo. Glory to God in the highest and on earth
peace, good will to all the people.
May it be so in our very lives.
AMEN.