Merry Christmas

[Sandy]

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope all of your worship services this evening and tomorrow go well, as you celebrate the birth of our savior.

No white Christmas here this year, though we do have some snow patches left from last week, and though its warmed up a bit, it's still flirting with the freezing mark.

[Rvaughn]

Merry Christmas to you as well.

[Dave Roberts]

Merry Christmas! May this be a day when you are a blessing.

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Ditto.

[Shawn Koester]

Merry Christmas and a Happy Boxing Day to my Canadian friends!

[Haruo]

And St. Stephen's Day for the rest of us.

Text by Jan Struther
Tune: SALVATION (Boyd), kENTUCKY hARMONY, 1816 ()

1 When Stephen, full of power and grace,
Went forth throughout the land,
He bore no shield before his face,
No weapon in his hand;
But only in his heart a flame
And on his lips a sword
Wherewith he smote and overcame
The foemen of the Lord.

2 When Stephen preached against the laws
And by those laws was tried,
He had no friend to plead his cause,
No spokesman at his side;
But only in his heart a flame
And in his eyes a light
Wherewith God's daybreak to proclaim
And rend the veils of night.

3 When Stephen, young and doomed to die,
Fell crushed beneath the stones,
He had no curse nor vengeful cry
For those who broke his bones;
But only in his heart a flame
And on his lips a prayer
That God, in sweet forgiveness' name,
Should understand and spare.

4 Let me, O Lord, your cause defend,
A knight without a sword;
No shield I ask, no faithful friend,
No vengeance, no reward;
But only in my heart a flame
And in my soul a dream,
So that the stones of earthly shame
A jeweled crown may seem.

[Jim]

St. Stephen had the last laugh and could have sung this homily: . Ironically, his greatest tormentor (or those of that ilk) explained the final outcome for not only him but all the martyrs who've suffered through experiences believers in this country never face but which believers especially in Islam-world face every day, most recently in the Cairo bombing – 25 dead and many others injured. The bloody heads of other “infidels” rolled into the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya a short while back, not to mention all the others murdered by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.