I heard about a man who wanted to buy his mother a Christmas present, not just any old Christmas present, not just something nice, he wanted to get his mother something special for Christmas, he wanted to get her maybe even something a little exotic.  So he went to this sort of exotic store and the salesman talked him into buying this bird, it was like a parrot, I guess.  It could talk.  In fact, it could speak four languages.  The man asked if it could be delivered to his mother, and they assured him that it could be, and that they would have it there by Christmas.  So on Christmas day the man called his mother and asked, “Did you get my gift?  Was my gift delivered to you?”  And she said, “Yes, I got it this morning.”  “How did you like it?” he asked.  And his mother said, “I loved it.”  And then she said, “It was delicious.”  The man said, “Mom, did you eat that bird?  That was a special bird I got for you.  It could speak four languages.”  And his mother said, “Well then, it should have said something.”           

Our theme for this evening is communication, communication, what we have here is a failure of communication, getting your message across, getting your message out while you still can, getting your message out in a way so that people will comprehend and respond.           

I have this friend who is a minister, and at one point in his career he damaged his vocal chords.  I don’t know all the specific medical details, but he could not speak at all for some time.  Now we ministers make our living by speaking, in part.  You may not be listening to what we have to say, but boy can we speak, some of us.  And so here was my friend who makes his living in part by speaking, and yet for months he can’t speak a word, he’s unsure whether he will ever speak again.   And during this whole time, not knowing whether he will ever get the chance to preach again, he kept thinking to himself, “Now if I am ever able to speak again, what will I say, what will be so important that it must be said?  If I can speak again, what will my message be?”  What would your message be if you were in such a predicament?  If you had only one message that you could share, maybe a message that you might share with the world, what would that message be?           

Now just so you won’t worry, this friend of mine was able to speak again, he still makes his living as a preacher, even though I don’t really remember what he said his message was that was so important.  But it occurred to me that God went through almost the same thing.  I mean, here is God, and it was almost as if he had been silenced for a time.  The prophets in the Old Testament were speaking, but no one was really listening.  Evil empires and cruel tyrants ruled the world.  And it’s almost as if God said to himself, “I need to get through somehow, I need to get my message through.  I have a message to the planet that will transform their lives, if they will only listen.  I need to get my message through,” God said, “and so I will send my son.”           

I was at a worship service not long ago, and another minister was preaching, I was sitting in the congregation.  And while this other minister was speaking, a cell phone rang and disrupted the whole proceeding momentarily.  So this minister said, and I thought it was kind of cute, he said, “Now folks, please turn off your cell phones.  If it’s not God calling you, you don’t need to answer.”  The thing is that God was calling 2,000 years ago.  God still is calling today.  God wants us to listen, he wants us to hear his message.           

There was a little boy I heard about who was an angel in the Christmas pageant one year, and he was given a very important line to say, “Be not afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!”  That was his line, and he practiced it.  He said it to his mother every morning before he went off to school, and he said it to his father every night before he went to bed.  He said it in his sleep.  He worked on it, he was ready, he was set.  He had it down.  But then the day of the performance came, and he stepped out onto the stage with all those people there, and he could not remember his line, so he just stood there.  Finally, instead of what he was supposed to say, he blurted out this line, he said, “Say folks, have I got some Good News for you.”           

So what is this Good News, what is this message that God wants to get through to us, what is this message to the planet?  Well, it’s pretty simple really, the message is that God loves you.  God loves you.  Now I know you’ve heard this all before, but think of what this might mean, think of the power packed into this message.  God sent his son Jesus into the world to be born in a manger.  Why ?  Because he loves you.  God sent Jesus to die on a cross for our sins because he loves you.  God raised Jesus up from the dead to give him life, and to give you life, all because he loves you.  St. Augustine wrote that God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.  Think of it.  Think of how the world might be changed, think of how the world might change, if we saw ourselves, and if we saw each other, as those whom God loves.           

Soren Kierkegaard was a famous Danish philosopher who wrote that we should look at the message of Christmas this way.  The message of Christmas, he said, is like a thief who breaks into a department store, only he doesn’t steal anything, he just changes all the price tags.   Priceless things become worthless, and worthless things become priceless.           

At Christmas, it’s as if Jesus comes and changes all the price tags.  He tries to wake us up to what is really real.  Those things we thought had such value, those things we thought would buy us happiness, we thought they would save us, things like money and position and power, it turns out that they have no ultimate value at all really.  But those things we often fail to place much value on, it turns out that they are great treasures, they are priceless, and what’s more, they were just laying there at our fingertips, they were just laying there all the time, things like love and hope and peace.           

I’ve been reading about St. Francis of Assisi.  He lived the most fascinating life back in the 13^th century.  He actually traveled to the Middle East with the Crusaders on the fifth and final Crusade.  He didn’t go there to fight.  He went to see what it was like, see what he could do to help, and at one point he even crossed over the battle lines and spent a week with al-Kamil, the nephew of the great Saladin.  These two, St. Francis and al-Kamil had these wide-ranging discussions all week long on religion and politics and other things.  And these two men from such rival, enemy cultures were so taken with each other that when St. Francis returned back to the Western side, al-Kamil said, “O brother Francis, if I ever meet another Christian like you, I think I will become a Christian.”  Alas he did not meet another Christian like St. Francis, and the two sides continued to fight, and it ended in disaster for the Crusaders.           

But I can’t get that statement out of my head.  I wonder if anyone might ever say anything like this about me, or about you.  “O brother Francis, O brother Duane, if I ever meet another Christian like you, I think I will become a Christian.” 

The message to the planet, I think, is love, the message is that God loves you.  But the message doesn’t stop there, the message too is that the whole world might be changed, that you might be changed, if you saw yourself and if you saw every other person as those whom God loves.  The message to the planet is love, and the message to the planet is peace.  “Glory to God in the highest,” the angels announced, “and on earth peace, good will toward all people!” 

Some of you commented on the poem I used a week ago.  It’s a poem by Washington Gladden, a congregational minister and reformer in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  The name of the poem is “Ultima Veritas”, Ultimate Truth, and part of it goes like this: 

In the darkest night of the year,

When the stars have all gone out,

That courage is better than fear,

That faith is truer than doubt; 

And fierce though the fiends may fight,

And long though the angels hide,

I know that Truth and Right

Have the universe on their side. 

What is it that holds us at the center of our being, at the core of who we are, as individuals, as those who have been touched by God, have received a message from God?  What is it that holds you at the center of who you are?  Is it truth and right?  Is it love and peace?  Because whatever it is, whatever it is at the center of who you are, this is what you will give to others this Christmas and all through the year, this is what you will live. 

It was Mother Teresa who said, so simple, yet so profound, “Smile, it is the beginning of peace.”