<html><body><div>Here's part 2 of the homily for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.</div><div><br></div><div>Blessings!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"> But that was enough. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THEY</u></b> found their lives changed, and, even if they continued to care for someone else’s animals for the rest of their lives, they were never the same. The Love Song reached their hearts and they could never be the same again.</font><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>How did they view sheep after that? Did they value lamb chops or stew any differently? Possibly, we don’t know. But in whatever they did, they praised God, taking that new feeling, that sense of God’s Presence, and not keeping it to themselves.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And this is the invitation to us tonight/today: take what we hear and be transformed. Live differently. Examine our priorities. Think about <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>LOVE</u></b>!<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><sub><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></sub><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>This Song, this Light, this Message – is not something to be packaged,</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>however, to be commercialised, to be usurped, to be taken over by a limited few – be they a multi-national corporation or a city congregation. They are given to the earth, to the universe, so that they may be shared freely in order to change lives.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>You and I have heard of and seen restaurants and agencies which close early, sometimes foregoing a potentially enriching dinner crowd. <sup>4</sup> You and I have heard of such people and businesses which then prepare food and take it to make-shift tables set up under bridges. You and I have seen people come from their own make-shift shelters to receive warm, nutritious food and to feel the touch of another human being whose smiling eyes connect with each person to say, “You’re important. You matter. You have dignity – to me and, most especially, to God.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This is what The Song of Holy Love is about. This is how God spoke and continues to speak.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It can be easy to get caught up in the ritual of our Christmas celebrations: the excitement of decorating our homes, the profusion of coloured and white lights in our neighbourhoods, the sound of bells ringing. It can be so easy to become involved in trying to find the most appropriate, the most delightful gift for the one or several someones who are so important to our lives. It can be relatively easy to do all this, and to sit here, singing hymns to God, hymns of praise, and wonder, and thanksgiving, yet, to forget that what we celebrate was the most practical thing that God could think to do. God touches us, wherever we are – whoever we are – however we feel this particular season. God doesn’t check out any I.D.s. God doesn’t have a “naughty and nice book”. God doesn’t discriminate in any way.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>At one particular moment in the existence of the incredible being which is the universe, God, as it were, collapsed every last ounce of Love that there is and came to earth in a vulnerable baby that needed human beings to respond, in order to have those most basic necessities satisfied – milk, a rough blanket, a spot out of the wind and the draughts. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And, every single day, God needs people to respond, to see what that Song of Holy Love really means.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We needn’t be afraid of the thought of destruction, of being overwhelmed, of being, somehow, held back from whatever is in our lives at the moment. That, and every moment, is the time of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>OUR</u></b> birth in Christ, just as Bethlehem’s risk was God’s birth for us, in Jesus.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>A contemporary song writer, talking of David Willcocks, who was the famous and long-time Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge University, wrote, David Willcocks “didn’t just say nice things, he did them.” <sup>5</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Kind of like God, on that Night of Wonder, when music itself was reborn. There is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NOTHING</u></b> to fear, then, and everything to gain if we listen and learn The Holy Song of Love. And if there’s nothing to fear, nor “hobgoblin nor foul fiend”, nor principalities, nor powers, nor anything nor anyone on earth, no matter what or who they think they are, “can daunt (our) spirit.” <sup>6</sup> Thanks be to God! </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>St. John Chrysostom </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The title comes from an article in Biblical Archeology Review, 6<sup>th</sup> December, 2017 </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://reply.biblicalarchaeology.org/t?r=2686&c=3923656&l=209532&ctl=4D9CF9D:95D0553B081805FFE51F7A7FDED947A54A450DAA0B6B0A42&"><font color="#0000ff">http://reply.biblicalarchaeology.org/t?r=2686&c=3923656&l=209532&ctl=4D9CF9D:95D0553B081805FFE51F7A7FDED947A54A450DAA0B6B0A42&</font></a> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Attributed to </span><span style='margin: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.6pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>nikka ursula (n.t) alwayskeepitrea.com/post/79581575012 </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.6pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><h5 style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><font size="2"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'>4</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>For instance – “</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'>Korean restaurant cooks meals for those in need” </span></i><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(144, 148, 156); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/?hc_ref=ARQiPLSbuk8dZWbfQP8fXoxE2fqnMe2WWURRZHuTp5_sq5f7iN1k-73OF4i893AWatI"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(54, 88, 153);">Humankind Stories</span></a></span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'> </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext;">November 23 at 6:00am</span></a><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(144, 148, 156);"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/journalsentinel/?hc_ref=ARRvUGdmIRlgeWwibBRBdeLPGkkr_3rEpyBEcYXrBX03fIarWmdaxB1hYPj2tJ3RYGc&fref=nf"><font color="#0000ff">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</font></a>: “</span>Even after their last paying customer leaves, this couple is prepared to serve hundreds more for free.”</span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'> </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/?fref=mentions"><font color="#0000ff">https://www.facebook.com/humankindstories/videos/143262252992422/?fref=mentions</font></a> </span></font></h5><h5 style="background: white; margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></h5><p style="margin: 0px;"><font size="2"><sup><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'>5</span></sup><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>John Rutter, quoted by Michael White in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“The Composer who owns Christmas”,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The New York Times</i>, 16<sup>th</sup>. December, 2017. </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>6</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Who would true valour see”,</i> hymn from Part 2 of “A Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan and Romans 8:35-38.</span></p></div><div><b><br></b></div></body></html>