Christmas, Treasure Or Celebrate?

For those not familiar with an Anglican Service, there are Four Scripture readings prior to the message. Those assigned for this day are Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14 and Luke 2:1-20.

Let Us Pray..... O' Heavenly Father.... I thank-you for all those gathered here this night. May you fill each .... with an overflowing presence ..... of your peace .... and your joy. ..... This night we remember..... the gift that you sent us ..... the gift ..... of your very own son. May we not only celebrate..... the night of our dear Saviors birth but may we treasure it always. We ask this in the name of Jesus... our Savior ..... and Our Lord. Amen!

In 1843 ..... Charles Dickens wrote a story

He called it ...... "A Christmas Carol."

And he prefaced the story ..... with these words. "

I have endeavored," he wrote, "in this Ghostly little book, ...... to raise the Ghost of an Idea ..... which shall not, I trust, ......put my readers out of humor with themselves, .... with each other, ..... with the season, ..... or with me.

He concluded......May it haunt their houses pleasantly."

And it has, .....It has haunted our houses, .....our bookshelves,..... our stages and our screens...... quite pleasantly .....for almost two centuries.

Over the years .....I have noticed something unique ..... about this Story:

Whenever I read it ......or see it played out, ...... Even though I know ...... the story well, ...... I always seem to hear something in it ..... something that touches .... my heart.

So this year, ...... as I was a seeking .....what I wanted to share this evening, ...... I was not surprised ...... to find my mind going back ..... to the ending of: "A Christmas Carol".

As you may recall.... After his hauntings ...... and his resolution to start a new life, ...... the narrator shares this about the change ...... that Scrooge experienced,:

The author writes: Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more. To Tiny Tim, who didn't die, he was a second father. He became.. as good a friend, as good a master, as good a man, As the good old city ever knew . And it was always said of him, that he knew how t keep Christmas well.

Is that what I do? ...Do I keep Christmas...well?

I have a feeling that many do not. Maybe we do not know how too.

Maybe we are a little selfish. So we do not "keep Christmas well."

Instead, we just "celebrate it.

We decorate. We cook. We wrap. We get together.

We unwrap. We eat. We un-decorate.

And then Christmas is gone until next year.

We celebrate Christmas yet , We do not hold on to it. We do not keep Christmas Well.

We do not allow Christmas to indwell us We do not let it transform us. We do not Treasure it as Mary did that Christmas Night. (Long Pause)

In Luke's account of the Christmas Story that was read this evening, ..... it is clear .... that Mary....Mary knows how..... to keep ......... Christmas.

In fact Luke describes Mary much in the same way that Dickens describes Scrooge after his transformation.

In the last lines of the Gospel reading this evening we hear these words ..... BIBLE "Mary treasured up all these things .... and pondered them in her heart." END

There is a clear link between the Holy Scriptures ...... and the line that Dickens wrote ..... at the end ....of his story.

It is even more obvious ..... when you realize.... that the version of the Scriptures..... that Dickens would have read ...... uses the past tense of the word "keep" .... instead .... of the word "treasured."

The King James translation of the Gospel (Luke 2:19) states it with these words: Mary...... "kept .....all these things and pondered them in her heart."

Mary .... Kept all these things. But I prefer the word ..... "treasured."

When I treasure something, ..... I do more than ..... just keep it.

The things I treasure ...... have more value to me.... than the things ..... I just .... keep around.

And their value often comes from the fact .....that they show me ..... just how much someone else ...... treasures me. (Long Pause)

...On my left hand, ...... I am wearing a ring. (Raise Left Hand) It is my wedding ring.

Which I have been wearing for thirty three years now. And it is one of the things..... I treasure.

You see the ring I wear is one of my treasures ..... because it is Not a ring .... That I bought for myself.

It is a ring .... that was given to me ......when my wife and I ..... were married, .....