Sermons

"Bedtime Stories"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on Christmas Eve 2009

There is something about this time of the year, this night that evokes for me images from my childhood.  This year, specifically, pieces of memory that recall me tucked under the sheets of my bed, warm and cozy, counting sheep.  I romanticize; this is someone else's life.  I actually remember counting sheep only once.  I was wired from too much being me and complained to mom and dad down the hall "I can't sleep" to which one of them replied, "count sheep," so I did - out loud; the parents weren't happy.  First and last time I recall "counting sheep."

There was only one sure fire way to calm the restless little beast that was me - read me a story.  What kindled the idea to read me a story?  I don't know but once my parents fell upon the idea I imagine they told their friends - whatever works.

Looking back, the question that occurs to me about my "bedtime stories" is why did they work?  What was it about "bedtime stories" that turned down my motor and caused me to surrender to their plots?  Maybe more importantly, why after the stories ended was there a chance that the folks might have some peace and quiet for the rest of the night?

I suggest that "bedtime stories" slowed my fidgety self because the stories transported me beyond the boundaries of my experiences as a restless little beast.  I could see the potential for something else, something different and greater than a pintsize tyrant.  Through my "bedtime stories," I could dream of horizons that I barely could conceive.

These "fairy tales" of dashing princes and the beautiful princesses that loved them had the power to capture my imagination about the possible and set me off dreaming.  The stories spoke to my story.  The stories may not have been about restless little beasts like me but they let me see the potential that I might become.  Frogs into princes - there was hope.

Tonight we gather around to hear, reflect, and "live into" another story; some for good reason call it a "fairy tale."  It is a story which speaks truth into our story, whether historically true or not.  It sort of even has its own frog with potential - a baby born in a feeding trough of an out of the way stable.

But the story is about more than a frog who becomes a prince who kisses awake a princess; this Christmas Eve story is about a baby that becomes a man who brings a whole lot more than a kiss to the world.  True, the baby actually brings nothing - most babies don't, they just cry kinda how frogs just croak - but transformed by time and wisdom a message for all ages of any age comes from the man.

Hope, peace, joy, and love lie just beyond what you might understand of your circumstances.  They are yours any day or night that your story will become like mine.  It is your birthright as children of God.  For those who know God, God is with them; this is his message. 

Now this prince doesn't come to a good end to his story but . . . well, we try to look away from that part . . . this night is about singing angels and other "fairy tale" elements not the reality of a cross.  Let's put that off for another day or night, a few months from now.

But my friends if we are to really understand this night with its promises of hope, peace, joy, and love we have to listen intently to more than the beginning of the story.  The story does not really become about us, and its promises don't unfold for us until the whole story is told.

Hope, peace, joy, and love are yours for the taking - free gifts of simply being alive - it is the truth of the "fairy tale."  But . . . there is always a "but" it seems with God, they only come for those who "get" the rest of the story.  The only way to receive the benefits of God's prince is to walk in the way, in the footprints, that he left.

This does not mean you are to come to an ending like his, that was his story not yours, you just must be willing to go where your story will take you.  It is the rest of the story which brings meaning to its opening chapter and without it the beginning will not make for a good night sleep.

Frogs into princes is the stuff of "fairy tales" and brings to us the comfort and security of hope, peace, joy, and love only when the story speaks its truth into ours.  Some of us are too young and the rest of us too distracted most of the time to grasp what is happening, but at some level on some nights we "get it" enough to set us dreaming of our possibilities.

This is how I see it on Christmas Eve - a night for dreaming.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.  Amen.