Dec 24 11 Pm Service

The Moon for Christmas .2007 11 PM Christmas Eve
When I read this Christmas story
I go there in my heart
and in my mind

But I gotta tell you
that somewhere a few years ago

I started just to lose my mind,

at Christmas, ,I let go of my mind

this is what Madeleine L’ ingle called the Irrational Season

Christmas is story of the heart
this is a story for the soul ..

for the imagination.

it really is a kind of fithful make believe

except that we we call it faith formation

because we are making belief

And it is i so much Deeper than the mind..

It speaks of wonder and mystery

Christmas is more like music..poetry and beauty and love

the kind of deep truth that says
let go
of your intellectual ...reasoning mind.
Come to this irrational season
So tonight

Just enjoy the shepherds
and Mary and Joseph
and Bethlehem
and the birth of a heavenly child

and in that same spirit

let me. .give you something that doesn’t fit into your mind..

Let me help you get there with a story

Once upon a time
there was a monk in Japan
a hermit really

off in the mountains
who stood and looked out his window one night

he was hungry and he wondered what he would eat

now
this was a serious thought

because he had not eaten all day
an he had not eaten the night before

So he stood in his simple hut
with his stomach growling
and he looked at that window

and he saw the rising of the moon

it was full and white
shining through the tress

lifting just above the mountains

and he sighed
in awe
at the beauty of the moon

and then
like that

he was drawn outside

in fact he rushed out the door

into the cold winter night

and he just ran

for a long time he just ran

and then he walked
under the moons sweet light

for the longest time

in fact he just lost track of time

sometimes he danced
sometimes he sang.

Sometimes he just stood
there wondering in the silence of the stars and the moon

in the light of the moon

life was good

all of it was good

the ice glistened on the bare branches
of the trees.


The crunch of his feet
on the glittering snow

the shadows across the hills
the sounds s of the night

yet everything was so good
and everything w was still

so he just kept on
running and dancing and singing
and just being

just being
in the light of the moon

well by the time
the moon was higher in the sky

the monk realized how cold it was outside

and how long of walk he still had to get home.


Yet he walked on blissful..peaceful
heading
home lin the light of the moon.


And when

he came finally to the top of a ridge

he could see his hut
off in the distance

it was shining like a beacon on the side of the hill..

But wait..
what was this ?


there was light inside of his hut

and he had not left any lamps burning in his house.

Someone must be in his house

so he ran the rest of the way
as fast as he could
and slipped up by the window
and took a peek inside

sure enough
there was a thief in his house.


the thief was frantically
going through his things

.. Dumping the drawers
looking under the bed
going though the cupboard..
Dumping the boxes

Trying to find something to steal

but having no luck at all.
No food..
no money
no jewels
there just wasn’t much to steal
.
So the monk
decided to rush through the door

. He spoke with courage
and sympathy as
he said to the thief..


I know how hard it is to work and come up with nothing

so here
you must not go away empty handed

and the monk took off his shirt and his shoes

and scooped some clothes off the floor....

and put them
into the arms of the startled thief.

The man paused
for just a moment
before he ran out the door
. Withe monks clothes.. Piled in his arms

After the thief left

The monk
stood in the middle of his empty room.

The door was wide open

the night air was rushing in..

And he could still the see the moon.

So he stood at his door of his hut...

and agin

he just looked at the beautiful moon.



All was calm
and all was bright
ah he said .
.
In the gentle night light.

.ah
he said..

What I really wanted to give him was the moon.

If I could only give him the moon.


Strange Christmas story
I know (But there is a full moon tonight)

And that story I think

says waht I feel

and what I think God might be feeling


what God just might feel..

On this Christmas night

I think we are all looking for something
arent we really?

and like the thief in the story

we are also working hard...Christmas is a time when we work hard.

And I want to give us all something
to reward us for all the work

to reward us for coming to church
and being in worship tonight

maybe God just wants give us something

so we get out the Christmas songs

and we put in the time..
Maybe you decorated your house,
cooked the meal..did the shopping..
Now you are here


wondering what we’re going to find in here

take this we say
its Christmas

we get out these sacred words
we read the story from Luke

and we get out the candles


but really

want I wanted to give you was the moon

I think
what you wanted.... was the moon

by that
I mean

some thing like the beauty
and the peace
and the wonder and the mystery of the moon

the silent night
the holy night
when all is clam and all is bright.

It is this presence of Gods love .
It is salvation..
it is hope..beyond description
it is Good News..

.the mystery of God in a holy child
Immanuel
God with us.

someone said

“Mystery is not the absence of meaning...
.but the presence
of more meaning than we can comprehend..”


If I could only give you that mystery.

That would be my prayer.
. My Christmas prayer...for something even beyond the moon.

Christ is born

More meaning than we can comprehend..