The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Mark

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.

Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

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Jesus went to Galilee and preached that people should turn back to God and believe the good news.  

That’s fine, but just what is this ‘Good News’ that Jesus brought? 

I don’t think I have ever specifically been told what the Good News was. Or is.  I have often been told that  we should spread the Good News – the Gospel – but if we haven’t been told what it is, then how can we?

Spread it?

Some people might find it easier to spread the Good News about something like calculus.

We have all heard portions of the  good news, I suppose, through Bible stories, stories about Jesus and so on, and have listened to the weekly readings, and have listened dutifully to sermons, and we may have some vague idea of what it is, but if asked, then we might mumble something about Jesus dying for our sins, but that would be all. 

Am I right?  

Well, this is what I have found out about the Good News from Dr. Barclay, and others.

I hope when I am through, that you will have a better idea of what it is, and be able to tell others, if asked. 

First of all, the Good news is the Good News of truth.  The truth about God.

Before Jesus came onto the scene, people saw God as someone who demanded  perfection – and would punish those who failed to make perfection.   And a lot of people tried hard to live their lives perfectly – and many still do.  But they were, and are mistaken. 

I say ‘mistaken’ because firstly, we can’t be perfect, and secondly, God made us, so He knows we can’t be perfect.

With the coming of Jesus, then, we found out the truth about God.

That we don’t have to be perfect for Him to love us. In fact, in Jesus’ ministry we saw that the imperfect people – the sinners, the lepers, the prostitutes, the tax gatherers, were targeted for special consideration, and for redemption.

God actually welcomes sinners.

That’s the truth.

The Good News is also about hope.

Things afflict us, don’t they?

Things affect our lives in such negative ways that we are literally left without hope. Losing a job!  Marriage break up! Serious illness – physical or emotional!  Addiction!  Loss of a loved one!  You name it. These dark clouds can stifle all hope.

I read a  story of a teacher, assigned to visit children in a large city hospital.  She was sent to one child to help him keep up with his school work.

She was given a room number, the boy’s name, and was told,   ” We   are studying nouns and  adverbs in his class now. I’d be grateful if you could help him with his homework, so he doesn’t fall behind.”

It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got inside the hospital that she realized the boy’s room was in the burn unit.

It was a shock when she saw the boy.

She hadn’t been prepared to find  a young boy so horribly burned and in such pain.  She felt she couldn’t turn and walk out, so she stammered, somewhat awkwardly, “ I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher asked me to help you with nouns and adverbs.”

The next morning when she came back again, the nurse on the burn unit asked her, “ What did you do to that boy?” 

Before she could come up with some sort of apology  – she thought she must have done something wrong –  the nurse said, “ We have been very worried about him, but since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He is fighting back. It’s as though he has decided to live.”

It wasn’t until, later, that she understood, as the boy explained that he had completely given up all hope until he saw her.

He said, with joyful tears, “ They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

Knowing God in Jesus, we can see that crippled as we may be by sin, despair, hardship, self hatred, we are wanted, valuable, and more than that, he offers us hope where there seems to be none. 

The Good News is also good news about peace.

People have traveled the world looking for secret places, lonely islands, idyllic locations where they might find peace.  One couple, wishing to retire to a place where war could never intrude, did months of research.  They eventually found what they were looking for in an island paradise which was beautiful, and had an attractive climate. And best of all, it had no oil, or gold, or anything anyone would want to fight over. 

They moved to their paradise, and sent their pastor a postcard with a picture of their new peaceful home ………in the Falkland Islands!

You can’t find peace in this world.  

You see, we  humans have within us, both beast and angel intermingled.  We struggle with sin and goodness, love and hate, pride and shame. It’s part of our human nature.   

We can only really find peace in knowing that God made us as we are, and He loves us as we are, and  we have no need to punish ourselves for our failures, and no need to hide.

Without self-hatred, self-doubt, self-punishment, we are able to discover that elusive element – peace of mind – wherever we are living.

The Good News is also about promise. Our God is a God of promises, not a God of threats.  All  non-Christian religions have demanding gods. But Christianity tells us about a God who gives much more than He asks.

That is the promise. Your cup will run over with blessings if you just  give Him a chance.

The Good News is also about immortality.

Now I know that sometimes, even if given the chance, we might not want to live for ever.

Or even for a bit longer.

On a cruise ship, one time, a green faced passenger was hanging onto the rail around the deck of the ship. He was obviously in deep distress. A passing crew member, seeking to cheer him up, said, “ Don’t worry sir. No-one has ever been known to die of seasickness.”

The passenger replied,  “Don’t tell me that. It’s hoping that I am going to die, that’s keeping me going.”

So God has promised us immortality, in a place free of all earthly worries and sickness, and pain  – instead we will find a place of  eternal joy.

Almost makes you want to go right now, doesn’t it?

But the Good News also promises us salvation. Salvation isn’t just being free from sin – it’s the power to live a life of victory. The freedom to live a life that can be heaven here on earth. 

Now!

Now we read that Jesus asked those seeking to know the Good News, to repent, and so find salvation.

Repenting doesn’t mean being sorry for something because we may be caught out, but rather, that as we become aware of our sin, we  realise what it does  to us and to those around us, and we are repelled  by it, and we want to change.     

We want to be different!

Finally we are asked, by Jesus just  to believe the Good News.

Believing the Good News means that we take Jesus at his word. God is the kind of God that Jesus has told us He is.  God does love the world, so much that he will make any sacrifice to bring us back to Him.

We are asked to believe that what sounds too good to be true is in fact, the truth – that He loves those who don’t love Him.

Incredible, isn’t it?

So there you have it. The Good News is about  Truth, Hope, Peace, Immortality, and Salvation .

If we change the order somewhat, to Truth, Hope, Immortality, Peace and Salvation we get an acronym THIPS.

So if we are asked what actually is the Good news, we just need to remember THIPS .

Truth, Hope, Immortality, Peace and Salvation.

Easy. Isn’t it?

    The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.  (John 2:1-11)

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A priest was driving his car rather erratically. It was weaving from side to side. Naturally, a policeman sitting in his car watching the traffic go by, on seeing how this car was being driven, gave chase. It didn’t take long to catch up with the car and the driver readily pulled over when signaled to do so.

The priest wound down the window, and looked at the officer with a big smile. The officer asked, “ Sir, have you been drinking?”  The priest answered, “Yes, but only water.”

The policeman then spotted an empty bottle on the floor of the car, and asked the priest to pass it to him. The priest did so. The officer smelled the bottle, and said,” This bottle smells like wine.”

“Would you believe it,” said the priest,” He’s done it again.”

The event that took place at Cana and which is related in today’s Gospel has inspired many stories like that.

Mary was invited to a wedding, and asked Jesus to come along. He did so, but he arrived with five disciples. Five unexpected guests might have put a strain on the resources of bride and groom, and sure enough the wine ran out.

An incident like that would be terribly embarrassing for anyone, but in Palestine, because of the strong tradition of hospitality, it would be doubly so.

In some accounts, Mary is the sister of the groom’s mother Salome. She may have had some official function at the wedding. She certainly was able to speak authoritatively to the servants. It was she who first noticed that the wine was gone, and she mentioned it to Jesus.

It’s a bit like, if a woman, accompanied by her son, handy at fixing computers, was visiting  friends, and seeing that their computer was on the blink, says to her son, “The computer is broken, “ meaning, “Go and fix it.”

Jesus at first says, “My time is not yet come.”

His mother ignores him, and tells the servants, “Just do whatever he tells you.” 

She knows he will do something about the situation. 

And Jesus does.

He, in effect, provides  120 or more gallons of wine. Six stone jars, each holding twenty odd gallons – more than enough for a half dozen wedding receptions.

This looks like overkill doesn’t it? They asked for wine. They got wine. Oh boy, did they get wine.

There are several points to this story.

This is the first recorded miracle, or sign, that Jesus did.  It sounds rather frivolous at first.  There is so much to do in the world, and here is Jesus  making water into wine.

But to the couple whose wedding was being celebrated, running out of wine would be disastrous.  It would be a monstrous shame.

If you think that is an overstatement,  then just cast your mind back to your own wedding, or to the wedding of a son or daughter and remember the stress, the worry, the tumultuous part that wedding played in the lives of groom and bride, father of the bride, mother of the bride, attendants, groomsmen, and so on, for weeks, or months.

I see it a lot, I tell you, and although it dismays me that it is so, it is a fact that a wedding is an extremely worrying event.

Jesus had compassion on that couple and helped them out.

Are you like me in that when you pray you are kind of ashamed to ask God to help with simple everyday things?  Like,  I pray for peace in the world. I pray for those I know are sick, or who have asked for my prayers. But if there is something in my own life that is bothering me, and even though it is a serious worry for me,  in the world scheme of things it seems  trivial,  then I am reluctant to ask God to help me out.

How about you? 

But this story tells us that God is concerned with our everyday problems and we can take them to him.

As soon as Mary heard there was a problem, she immediately turned to Jesus, and so can we. In fact he should be the first one we turn to.

The story works on another level too.

John the evangelist, the writer of this Gospel, said nothing that was not meaningful. He wrote this Gospel seventy years after Jesus was crucified.

He had all that time to consider, to ponder the deeper meanings of the events he remembered, and he brings all that consideration to his Gospel. 

At the very beginning of his ministry, in a little village almost within sight of Nazareth, Jesus did this miracle.

He replaced water with wine. It was better wine than had been there before. It was so plentiful that there was more than enough for everyone there, more than  enough for the whole village, probably.  

The deeper message that John wants us to understand is that Jesus is entering into a momentous time, a wonderful ministry of word and deed, that will put an end to the old stale ways of doing things. He is doing a new thing. He will bring a different, new, more wonderful way of knowing God.

The way of worship epitomized  by Temple sacrifice will be ended. The way of worship epitomized by the Pharisees and their obsession with the law will be discredited.

People will have access to a God that had appeared to have become distant, not because God wanted it, but because the priests and the temple and the law and all the stuff around religion, plain got in the way of the people and their God.

Jesus was bringing the blessing of freedom to worship, and to experience  joy in that worship.

Anyone who thinks that religion should be gloomy has got the wrong idea.

Here are Jesus and the disciples having a good time, with people they know, at a celebration. 

The old ways, like the old wine had run their course. New ways, much better ways, like the new wine, would take their place.

The story works on another level too.

What changed in the story primarily was the water. It became wine. But what also changed?

The attitude of the wine steward changed. One moment he had no wine to serve, the next moment he had plenty. Imagine the grin on his face.

The attitude of some of the people there changed too. They always thought that the best wine was served at the start of a celebration and the not-so-good wine near the end when people would be less discerning. This time the best was served last.

The attitude of the couple was changed from one of consternation to one of joy.

The attitude of the bride’s father was changed. He was responsible for providing the wine, and was probably white with worry when it ran out. Now he is happy, relaxed, can enjoy the evening, and looks like a great planner.

Mary’s attitude didn’t change. She knew Jesus could fix things, and here he had fixed this.

You see, Jesus did what he did, for people.

This story therefore, works for us. Jesus is not in this world physically, but he still does his miracles for us, and through us. 

Some years ago, Bob Proctor was doing a week-end seminar at the Deerhurst Lodge north of Toronto. He was there on that awful Friday night when a tornado swept through Barrie, killing several people and doing millions of dollars of damage. I am sure you remember that.

I met someone just a few months ago whose trailer was smashed to ruins, and who were lucky to get out alive.

Sunday night as Bob was going home, he stopped his car in Barrie and got out on the side of the road and looked around. It was a mess. Everywhere he looked there were smashed houses, and overturned cars.

The same night a man by the name of Bob Templeton was driving down the same highway – probably Highway 400. He stopped to look at the disaster just as Bob Proctor had. His thoughts, however were different. Bob was the vice president of Telemedia Communications, which owned a string of radio stations in Ontario and Quebec. He thought there must be something he could do to help the people of Barrie, using the radio stations they had.

The following night Bob Proctor was doing another seminar in Toronto. Bob Templeton and Bob Johnson, another vice president from Telemedia came and stood in the back of the room. That night  they shared their conviction that there had to be something they could do for the people in Barrie. They went back to Bob’s office.

Templeton was now committed to the idea of helping those caught in the tornado.  So the following Friday he called all the executives at Telemedia to his office. At the top of a flip chart he wrote the numbers 3-3-3.

He said to his executives, “How would you like to raise three million dollars three days from now, in three hours, and give the money to the people of Barrie?”

Finally someone said, “Templeton, you are crazy. There’s no way we can do that.”

Bob said, “Wait a minute. I didn’t ask you if we could , or even if we should,

I just asked if you’d like to.”

They all said, “Sure, we’d  like to.”  He then drew a large T underneath the three threes. On one side he wrote, “Why we can’t,” and on the other, he wrote,” How we can.”

He put a big X on the ‘why we can’t’ side,  because he said that was a waste of time.

He told them he would put down all their ideas on the other side, and said,  “We are not going to leave the room till we figure it out.”

There was a long period of silence, until someone finally said, “We could do a radio show across Canada.”  Bob said that was a great idea and wrote it down.

Before he had finished writing, someone else said, “You can’t do a radio show across Canada, we don’t have radio stations across Canada.” That was a pretty valid objection, They only had stations in Ontario and Quebec.

Templeton said, “That’s why we can. That stays.”

It had also been a valid objection because radio stations are very competitive and don’t usually work together.

All of a sudden, someone suggested, “You could get Harvey Kirk and Lloyd Robertson, the biggest names in Canadian broadcasting to anchor the show.”

At that point it was amazing how the ideas began to flow. They came fast and furious.

That was Friday. The following Tuesday they had a ‘radiothon.’ They had fifty radio stations all across the country that agreed to broadcast it. It didn’t matter who got the credit for it as long as the people in Barrie got the money. Harvey Kirk and Lloyd Robertson anchored the show and they succeeded in raising three million dollars, in three hours, in three business days.

That’s a miracle if you ask me.

People working together to help people who needed help, probably prayed for help, and help came.

Miracles are still being done in this His world. 

Don’t tell me that God doesn’t care, or that Jesus came for nothing, or that there is no good going on in this world.

Jesus began something with that first miracle, that has endured.

He merely changed water into wine, but it was a beginning that saw mighty changes, miraculous changes, take place in people’s lives.

More, much more has happened since Jesus died than during his short three year ministry – as he promised it would.

Proof that His Spirit is still at work, in the world, in the church, and in us.

Amen. 

I found the story told by Bob Proctor, about his friend Bob Templeton,, in Chicken Soup for the Soul, written and complied by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, published in 1993 by Heath Communications Inc., Florida.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ  According  to Luke

Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptised by John. And when he came up out of the water, the sky opened and he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him like a dove.

And he heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”

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At the time that  Jesus went to be baptised, he was about to make a major decision, and take a major change in the direction of his life. It would be a change, not only in the way he would go,  but in who he was, and how he would do the task set out for him.

And  it was a decision that would  affect the lives of millions of people who would come after him. 

That’s pretty heavy, isn’t it?

It’s a heavy responsibility to place on the shoulders of one young man.

Who would want to take it on?

Well, if you had the assurance of help from the God who created the universe, and who had given you the task in the first place, and if you knew that He would always be there for you to touch and draw strength from, then you might go along with it.

What’s really surprising about the affirmation that God gave Jesus when he came up out of the River Jordan, is that Jesus hadn’t done anything yet ,

He hadn’t done anything yet, and he needn’t have done anything yet. The support of his Father in Heaven was his, even without his asking.

As Peter is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles: God gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus of  Nazareth. He was with Jesus as he went around doing good and healing everyone who was under the power of the devil.

He was with him.

And the prophet Isaiah has God saying, “Here is my servant. I have made him strong. He is my chosen one; I am pleased with him. I have given him my spirit and he will bring justice to the nations.”

And just in case there is any doubt where the strength to do God’s will comes from, Isaiah quotes God again, “I am the Lord God. I created the heavens like an open tent above. I am the source of life. I selected and sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations.”

That’s who Jesus had standing by him – the Lord of the Universe. 

Wouldn’t it be great if whenever you had something challenging to do, you could have someone strong, and competent by your side? 

Someone  who would build you up when you needed it; someone who would guide you in what to say, and how to make decisions, and be there to comfort you if things didn’t go quite right.

Who could fail with such help?

Who could fail to make the right decision – with such guidance?

Who could be faint-hearted knowing that God was standing there with them at every turn, as He was with Jesus?

Well, we are promised that.  Through  our   baptism.

The trouble is that it happens usually when we are too young to know about it, or we have forgotten about it, or we have just never availed ourselves of it. Or something!

When Jesus was baptised, God’s voice was heard saying, “This is my own dear Son and I am pleased with him.”

When we were baptised, God was pleased with us too. And we hadn’t even done anything yet to please him.

The voice that might have been heard at our baptism, might have said,  “ Let’s hope that now that baby’s been baptised, it’ll be quiet.”

The fact is that when you and I were baptised, we were promised the same support from our Father in heaven that Jesus had been given.

We were promised that His Holy Spirit would be with us, to help us live life right.

But we forget, don’t we?

We forget that He has promised to be there to help with our problems. 

He is there, even if we don’t know it, and He loves us even when we don’t care, and  He recognizes us, even when we don’t really know who we are, ourselves. 

He is right there, just waiting to be needed.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, in southern California, a few years back, the pastor of a large local church told this true story of something that happened to his own family.

His wife and her sister had been Christmas shopping and were speeding along the freeway on their way home. It was a cold blustery night, dark and rainy. His wife and her sister were busily chatting  in the front seat of the car. The pastor’s three year-old daughter was in the backseat by herself.

Suddenly the two adults were aware of a strange, unnatural and horrifying set of sounds as they heard they heard the back door of the car open  – the whistle of the wind, and a sickening muffled sound. Quickly they turned and saw that the child had fallen out of the car and was tumbling along the freeway.

Panic!

The mother slammed on the brakes and pulled the car to a wrenching stop, jumped out and ran full speed, back toward the child. When they arrived at the motionless body, they noticed something strange. All the traffic was stopped, lined up like in a parking lot just behind her body.  The child had not been hit by a car. In fact, the car that would have hit her was stopped just a few feet short of her prone form.

Wonder number one.

A truck driver had jumped down from his cab and was bending over the girl when they arrived at the scene. He said, “She’s still alive. Let’s get her to a hospital quickly. There’s one nearby. He picked up the child and they all got into his truck and sped to the nearby hospital. The child was unconscious, but still breathing. 

Wonder number two.

When they arrived at the hospital, they rushed into the emergency room and the doctors immediately began to check her vital signs. The room was hushed. Finally the doctor spoke. “Well, other than the fact that she is unconscious, and scraped, she appears to be in good shape. I don’t see any broken bones. Her blood pressure is good. Her heart is fine. So far so good.” 

There was no apparent gross damage. She was only bruised and skinned from her vicious tumble along the freeway.

Wonder number three.

The mother bent over her child. Her eyes were full of tears and her heart was filled with gratitude for such a miracle. Suddenly, without warning, the child’s eyes opened. She looked at her mother and said, “ Mommy, you know, I wasn’t afraid.” Startled, the mother said, “Oh, what do you mean?”

”Well,” she said, “ While I was lying on the road waiting for you to get back to me – I wasn’t afraid, because I looked up, and right there I saw Jesus holding back the traffic with his arms outstretched.”

Wonder after wonder, and every wonder true.

God was actually, actively, working to save that child.

Now I don’t recommend that you dispense with seat belts, nor that you don’t bother to watch your children when they are in the car. But this story does give us food for thought doesn’t it?

At our baptism we are offered to God, and He takes us for His own.  He promises to be with us through the ups and downs of life, and the choices that we have to make.

He promises that as His children we will be forgiven our sins, cared for, and guided along right pathways.

Not because we have done something to warrant that.

Just  because!.

Having God as an integral part of our lives is something that we often overlook.

We live our lives, do our time, as it were, and maybe never give him a thought.

Sometimes, though, being independent, and strong willed, and having gone our own way, we find ourselves lost, and scared, and alone.

That’s when we notice that He isn’t there – or so we think.

Some years ago,  I bought some  Bible software on a disk. For a certain sum of money you got so many features. There were many more features on the disk, but they were not available until you made a long distance call to  the publisher, agreed to pay a fee, and then were given a  key to unlock the other features you wanted to use.

They had always been there. But you couldn’t access them without the key.

That’s kind of the same – but not quite, the same with God.

He is always there. That’s the same, but what isn’t the same is that all you need do is make that long distance call – it’s called prayer – and accept Him.

And there is no fee!.

.Acceptance is  key. 

He accepted us the day we were baptised in His Name.

We accept Him when we call upon His name. A

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:

`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'”

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.  Mt 2::1-12

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Do you know where the name for Boxing Day came from?  The day after Christmas Day in the homes in Britain that were -shall we say – better-off, was the day when the tradesmen would come by and be given a gift. The gifts were wrapped – boxed – early that day, and the name for the day after Christmas got its name from that custom.

In ancient days I don’t think it was the custom to wrap gifts. I would be interested to know when that started. But in paintings depicting queens and kings being given gifts, you can always see what the gift is, can’t you. Maybe the giver knew that the recipient couldn’t delay gratification and had to see what they were getting a soon as possible.

In paintings of the Magi kneeling at the feet of the baby, and holding out gifts, you can see what the gifts are.

The point is though, that the Magi were there because they knew what the gift of Jesus meant to the world.

They were not Jews, but they came to pay homage to this child, destined to be a king – although not an earthly king – but a king over all peoples.

Jesus was and is for all mankind.

Paul writes about this in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul sees this news as a secret that only a few people were privy to. But it was revealed in Jesus Christ, and Paul saw himself as chosen to bring the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles – to you and me.

And it is strange, isn’t it, that Jesus was, by and large, rejected by his own people, and accepted more so, by non-Jews.

Paul was gifted by God with the ministry of telling people that there was a God above who loved them. Further, that God so loved them that in His goodness, he reached out to them in the person of His Son Jesus.

But  Paul had  first to be gifted with that knowledge himself. You see, he had been a Pharisee. He had been of the mind that he could save himself by keeping strictly to all the laws, and regulations that had been laid down over hundreds of years.

When Jesus called him to serve, and when Paul found out the depth and the breadth and the height of the love that God has for us, and the freedom that experience gave him, Paul could not help but answer God’s call to bring that wonderful story to the world.

I am reminded of a story I read just the other day about another man named Paul.  He received a new automobile from his brother as a pre-Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when this Paul came out of his office, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. “Is this your car, mister?” he asked.

Paul nodded, “ My brother gave it to me for Christmas.”

The boy looked astounded. “You mean your brother gave it to you, and it didn’t cost you  nothing? Boy, I wish…..”

He hesitated and Paul knew what he was going to wish. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the lad said, jarred Paul all the way down to his heels, “ I wish,” the boy went on, “ that I could be a brother like that.”

Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively asked, “Would you like to ride in my automobile?”

“Oh yes, I’d love that.”

After a short ride the urchin turned and with his eyes aglow, said, “Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?”

Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbours that he could ride in a big automobile.

But Paul was wrong again.

“Will you stop right where those two steps are?” the boy asked.

He ran up the steps, then in a little while, Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast.

He was carrying his little polio-crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him, and pointed to the car.

“There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas, and it didn’t cost him a cent. And someday  I am going to give you one just like it. Then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Christmas windows I have been telling you about.” 

Paul got out and lifted the little lad to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride.

That older boy wanted his brother to share in his happiness, by giving him the same gift he had been given, a ride in a new car. And also, to  promise him something even better in the future.

For the Apostle Paul, the knowledge that God’s overwhelming love was for everyone, not just the Jews, was something  that just had to be shared, and like that little boy, he couldn’t wait to share his gift.

He shared it, even at the risk of  being imprisoned – in fact it was his zeal to convert Gentiles, that landed him in prison.

And so we turn back  to the story of the Magi. We may think it to be a mythical story, but maybe not.  It is exactly the kind of thing that could easily have happened in the ancient world.

When Jesus Christ came, the world was in an eagerness of expectation. People were waiting for God and the desire for God was in their hearts.  They had discovered that they could not build the golden age without God.

Isn’t this world like that now? Despite the wonders of science, despite all that humankind has accomplished, isn’t it obvious that nothing real, nothing lasting, nothing that is simply good, can come without Jesus? There are indications that people are looking for something beyond the material, for satisfaction.  Will they turn to Jesus?

The Wise Men represented the world beyond Jerusalem. Their visit to Jesus symbolised the need of their world for His love.

The world is still in need, and that need will not be met; unless we Christians, like that small boy, are so excited about our joy,  that we can’t  wait to share it with someone. 

Children know it, don’t they?

When they open a gift, at Christmas time, the first thing they do is show  it around, with an excited, “Look what I got! Look what I got!”

If we can carry the excitement of Christmas in our hearts throughout the year, and share it with someone, in our daily life, then we will be helping bring about the promise that the Magi saw in the birth of Jesus the Messiah.

And we will be giving someone else the opportunity of knowing and experiencing what we have experienced.

Amen.