PASTOR’S COLUMN Our theme tonight is “Don’t Leave a Gift Unopened.” It reminds me of the joke about the flood that was coming. The water was knee high when a National Guard truck pulled up in front of a man’s home. “Get in! We’ll get you out of here!” The man said, “Thanks, but no thanks. The Lord will save me.”
By the time the water was half-way up the side of the house, two fellows in a bass boat came along. They said to the man, who was sitting on the roof, “Get in! We’ll get you out of here!” The man answered, “Thanks, but no thanks. The Lord will save me.”
The water rose so high that the man was forced to the very top of his roof. A helicopter came along and dropped a rope to him. “Hold on! We’ll pull you up!” But the man said, “Thanks, but no thanks. The Lord will save me.”
The man drowned. In heaven he complained to God, “Why didn’t you save me?”
The Lord answered, “I tried three times! Why didn’t you respond?”
Do you remember hearing that one Christmas during WWI there was a brief truce between German and British troops facing each other across the trenches? Alfred Anderson, the last surviving soldier who was there, died several years ago at age 109 in Scotland. The year was 1914, and Anderson recalled to the end of his life the eerie
sound of silence as the shooting stopped and soldiers clambered from trenches to greet each other.
The enemies swapped cigarettes and tunic buttons, sang carols, and even played soccer amid the mud, barbed wire, and shell-holes of no-man’s land. The informal truce spread along much of the 500-mile Western Front, in some cases lasting for days – alarming army commanders who feared fraternization would sap the troops’ will to fight. The next year brought the start of massive battles of attrition that claimed ten million lives. The Christmas truce was never repeated.
Maybe this should serve as a
reminder that there is a power
attached to the Prince of Peace that
is yet fully untapped. We have seen
glimpses of this power, and this in
spite of our lack of cooperation, even
opposition. But what incredibly good
things might Jesus occasion in our
lives and world if we would welcome
them with our cooperation?
Seen at a mall recently, a woman
wearing a sweatshirt saying, “I’m
Right 97% of the Time. Who Cares
About the Other 4%?”
Also seen, a high school cheer-
leader in a T-shirt that said:
“Wimps lift weights. Cheerleaders
lift people!”
On a car bumper sticker:
“Humankind: Be Both!”
