A Funney in my email

Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess…. ‘”Will you marry me?”

The Princess said, “NO!!!”

And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf  and drank beer and scotch and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and belched  whenever he wanted.

The End

JOY Third Sunday in Advent

Today is the third Sunday in the season of Advent. In Latin it is called Gaudete which is translated as JOY! Even the traditional advent candle is pink rather than purple to give us a lighter more joyous feeling.

Joy is a little different than the other themes of Advent it is not a thing like Peace of Love it is a sense of being that is in us. We can not purchase it or give it  away. Without Joy in our life our faith becomes empty and meaningless. We need it but we don’t seek joy nor can we work for joy. This third Sunday in Advent reminds us to rejoice that God in Christ is planting Joy in our  hearts as a gift.

Our Joy is the presence of God in our lives and it has been with us all along.

One Little Baby

One afternoon I was sitting a surgery waiting room with the husband of a church member who was having surgery. It was a tense time for him as we waited and prayed. The room had a few other people awaiting news of their family and friends also in surgery.

As we waited a young couple with a baby entered the room and was greeted by a woman next to us. Her eyes lit up as she reached for her granddaughter. The baby girl smiled and giggled and in o time at all the whole room had a change of attitude. That one baby girl overcame the tension that had gripped us all and we relaxed.

I am reminded that Jesus came to us as a tiny baby boy innocent and loving. Christmas is a time to reflect on that great gift and how the birth of a child changed the world. If only we adults today could accept the gift of peace and salvation in innocence. If only we could over come our indifference, hate, and intolerance of those who are different. If only we who claim to follow Jesus would be faithful to the teachings of the Prince of Peace and live peacefully.

I pray for that day every day!

Three Wise Men

The community chorus I sing in is doing a Christmas concert next Monday and one of the carols we will sing is “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” I like that hymn but it is not accurate as the bible says three wise men not three kings. This is not a very important issue but it does point out that sometimes our cultural information does not track with the facts very well.

I point this out because of an advertisement I saw in a magazine today. It read:

“You can own actual coins of the three kings that visited Jesus in the manger.”

Glory here are con artist trying to bilk people out of their money selling coins that can not exist. What next?

Christmas Gifts

When I think of Christmas gifts I picture beautiful presents under a tree waiting to be opened. Gifts are presented to us by those who care for us and love us. Gifts have the quality of being something we do not earn or often even deserve. In fact to truly be a gift there can be no expectation of being paid back. Sadly the idea of present exchange is often a part of our celebration. A true gift is not earned or repaid.

Salvation is like that in many ways. It is a precious and priceless gift of God. There is no way we would earn it or buy it. We certainly do not deserve it but God in an act of love and compassion offers it to each of us as a gift. It is the perfect gift that keeps on giving.

Merry Christmas 

Original Sin

The phrase “ORIGINAL SIN” does not appear in the scriptures. It is a later theology of the church as it struggled with the knodledge that we humans are remarkably prone to do things that we know very well are just wrong.

The theology of  “Original Sin” is that some how the first sin of Adam and Eve is genetically passed on through birth. Personally I don’t buy that idea. WE all have to commit our own sin which we manage to do a lot! To top that off we are capable of self deception and justification about our actions when we do. When my neighbor sins it is a horrible thing but when I do the same thing I had a good reason and am there for justified.

It is only when we are able to admit our sin and seek forgiveness that we are able to receive it. Christmas is a time for us to remember the greates gift ever given - God’s Grace in forgiveness.

December 7, 1941

It was a quiet Sunday morning in Pear Harbor Hawaii but that was about to change. Well that was sixty-eight years ago and the trauma of that day is slowly fading from memory.

I was barely alive then and by that I mean I was alive but not yet born. I don’t feel the trauma from the day that shall live in infamy but I know a few who do. There are less and less people who do all the time. A neighbor down the street was a  young man still in high school on that day and he remembers that he promptly joined the Marines.   When his generation passes the date will just be another footnote in history for most high school students to remember for a test. The same thing will happen to September 11, 2001 some day. That is the nature of things.

Today to honor my parents generation who felt the trauma of 68 years ago and those who died in Pearl Harbor I will lower my flags to half staff today.