Saturday, January 5, 2008

I will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD,
the praiseworthy acts of the LORD,
because of all that the LORD has done for us.
Isaiah 63: 7 

Many years ago now, I attended a New Year's Eve service at a New Church Start in another denomination.  The service was in LaCrosse.  The whole purpose of the message was to ask the identity of the greatest story of the year just past. 

He used a news magazine to review many things that had occurred, each time asking if this were the greatest story of the year and then telling us, "No, it is not!" 

Maybe the next story would be the greatest one of the year.

Of course, that wasn't it, either, so on we went. The pastor's bias came through in the analysis of current events, and that fascinated me. 

Of course the greatest story of the year, that year as it is every year, is the Incarnation, God in the Flesh.

So, there you have it, a high quality sermon for the Sunday following Christmas.

These are hard days for churches. They are difficult days for those who wish to follow the Incarnation to the realization God has always intended ever since Joseph followed angel voices from dreams and ran hither and yon with the infant.  These are hard days. 

Take comfort, during your struggles, in the gracious deeds and the praiseworthy acts of which you are part. 

As Red Skeleton always said at the end of his television show, "God Bless."