Christmas Promises

From the Open Files of: Heilig Resource Center, 704/633-4861 Contributed by: Mt. Zion Church, Richfield, NC This file is available in Rich Text Format version for editing

CHRISTMAS PROMISES Leader. Centuries ago the Wise Men knelt before the Christ Child and in love and adoration offered to Him the gifts they had brought to honor Him. Since then many legends and customs have grown up based on these first Christmas Gifts. One of the loveliest legends is that of the Cathedral Bells: Long ago in a large city in the mountains stood a vast, beautiful cathedral. It stood on a mountainside, its tall spire reaching up into the clouds, which nearly always shrouded the mountain. At the top of the spire were some bells, but there was no rope attached to them, no way of ringing them. A legend dating back to the building of the cathedral said that the bells could be rung only by God and would be rung only when someone offered at the altar a gift which was particularly pleasing to God. Each Christmas Eve, everyone attending the worship service would come forward to place gifts at the altar, and each one hoped that his or her gift would be the one which would cause the cathedral bells to ring. The wealthy would offer gold and precious jewels; artisans would bring the best of their crafts; women would spend hours creating beautiful laces and needlework. The bells had never been heard within anyone's lifetime, although a few very elderly persons reported their grandparents had claimed to have heard the bells when they were young. In the forest far from the city lived a woodcutter and his two young children; his wife had died the year before. The little girl and boy had long wished to go to the cathedral on Christmas Eve to see the beautiful sights and hear the music of the service. This year the woodcutter gave them permission, and they sat out joyfully on their long walk. They planned to spend the night in a hut they knew of, but shortly before they reached it, they stumbled over the forms of a young woman and her baby. They were alive, but terribly cold. The children helped them into the hut, built a fire and shared with them the food the children had carried to eat on the journey. In the morning the children discussed what to do. The woman was still too weak to walk very far or even to keep the fire going; if the children left her there, she would probably freeze to death before help arrived. The little girl finally told her brother, "You are stronger than I and can walk faster. You go to the city, and ask somebody to come here to help the woman. I will stay with her until help comes. I can keep the fire lit and share my food with her. When you have sent someone here, you go on to the cathedral." Her brother did not like this plan, because he knew that she longed to see the service. However, he also knew that he had a better chance to get to the city alone than she would, so he finally agreed. Before he left, his sister took off the locket she wore, which had been a gift from her mother, and handed it to her brother, saying, "While you are at the cathedral, watch carefully everything that happens, so you can tell me all about it when you reach home. And put this on the altar for me, as my gift for the Christ Child." So the brother set out, and he did everything they had agreed on. He found some men in the city who knew of the hut the boy described and went to bring the young women to safety. Then he went on to the cathedral where the service was just beginning. The scene enraptured him; the sight of so many people, all richly dressed in their best clothes; the beauty of the majestic cathedral, filled with the blaze of candles and the scent of incense; the stirring music. When the time came for the gift-giving, the aisles were filled with people moving forward to offer their best. Suddenly, all movement stopped at the sound, soft at first but gaining in volume, of the ringing of the cathedral bells. All looked at the altar to see what gift had caused the miraculous ringing, but no one could decide which gift it was. And no one noticed the young boy who had inched his way through the crowd to lay his sister's locket on a corner of the altar. We no longer bring gifts to offer to Christ on Christmas; we give them to each other instead. If we tried to do it, we would probably find ourselves quoting the Little Drummer Boy: "I have no gift to bring, that's fit to give our King." After all, how many of us have gold or precious jewels? And we certainly can't give Him shirts or ties. #1. It's all very well to make a joke of it by talking of shirts and ties, or gold and jewels, but it seems to me to be worth seriously thinking about. After all, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord, and there must be something we can offer to Him. #2. You're right. But, what? #3. The obvious gift is money. That doesn't sound as lavish as gold or jewels, but our offerings to the church are gifts to God, and our money does help to do His work. #2. And every time we contribute to a charity or help someone in need, we are giving Him a gift. He did say that whatever we do for another person, we do for Him. #3. That's right. And it would be an even better gift if we gave more generously. Most of us only give what is left after we've bought everything we want for ourselves. #1. All right, we've settled on money. Now is there anything else we can offer Him? #3. How about ourselves? #1. What do you mean? #3. Well, you know. We could do more for the church, or something like that. #1. Sounds a bit vague to be a gift. #2. I've been thinking. When I was young, my parents encouraged my sisters and me to give presents that involved our doing something. We would wrap a box all fancy and inside it we would put a note promising to do something for the person getting the gift. I remember my older sister, after she learned to cook, once gave my mother a promise that she would cook dinner every Saturday for a certain number of weeks; I forget how many. And I once promised Dad that I would wash his car once a month for six months. There were lots of others, but what I'm trying to say is that maybe we can give that kind of gift to Christ. Promises to do something specific for Him. #3. Or for someone else in His name. That would please Him just as much, wouldn't it? I think that's a great idea. #1. I don't know; it could end up like most New Year's resolutions, promise a lot and forget it the next day. I wonder how many of your Christmas promises were actually kept. #2. All of them. We were taught that if we gave a promise and didn't keep it, it was like, well, like giving someone a box of chocolates and then eating them all yourself. A gift promise just had to be kept. #1. You mean, then, that we should promise Christ that we will do something specific, like teach a Sunday school class, maybe, and offer that as a Christmas gift. #2. That's right. #1. That sounds like something I could do. And maybe it would make each of us stop to think hard about what we can do that we're not. After all, you wouldn't offer as a gift something you're already doing. #3. I wonder if we couldn't go a little farther than that. I mean, none of us is perfect, right? We all have faults of some kind. Don't you think it would please Christ if we tried to overcome them, to become the kind of person He wants us to be? We could pick out one particular fault, and to please Him, as a gift to Him, work really hard to correct it. #1. I think we've come up with some good ideas for gifts for Christ. They're truly gifts of ourselves. Promises. #3. Promises to change. #2. Promises to do. #1. Promises to keep. HYMN 406 Take My Life, LBW During singing of hymn, pass the offering plate. Also distribute the "gifts", to be read after the hymn. Reading of gifts Leader: Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Savior, accept the gifts we bring tonight to honor you and to celebrate the anniversary of your birth. By the grace and power of your Holy Spirit, enable us to keep the promises we give you, so that our lives will reflect your glory to all the world and lead others to your love and mercy. May all we do and say be pleasing to you, and may your love and mercy fill our lives. Amen. This program lasts about 30 to 40 minutes. For a longer program, hymns could be added at the beginning and the end; a Scripture could be used at the beginning. If you want to use more readers, simply adjust the numbers. There are many versions of the Cathedral Bells legend. If you have one that you prefer, use it. For the Reading of gifts portion: Gift wrap a number of small packages; matchbox size works very well, or a piece of tissue paper tied with a ribbon. Copy one of the gift promises on a piece of paper, fold the paper and push it into a gift package, leaving one end exposed so the paper can be pulled out and read. Prepare enough packages so that each woman present will have one to read. Have a small Christmas tree set up; each woman, after she reads her promise, can replace it in her package and then hang the package on the tree. If you do not want to use a tree, have a table ready, with perhaps a candle on it, so the gifts can be piled on the table after they are read. A number of gift promises are given below. You may add or substitute others. " I promise, Lord, to work at controlling my temper. When I'm tired, or in a rush, or have a lot to do, I react to irritations with a flash of anger and say and do things I later regret. All too often it is my family which suffers; outside of my home I usually make a successful effort to control my reactions. There is no reason why I cannot exert the same control at home, and there is no excuse for my continuing to hurt the feelings of those I love. So, in your name, Lord, and with your help, I will work to keep my temper under control." " I promise, Lord, to work to overcome my tendency to envy those with something I wish I had. Whether it is something material, a personal trait, a talent or accomplishment, my envy usually results in my disliking the person I envy and myself, for feeling the way I do. With your help, Lord, I will outgrow it. " " I promise, Lord, to try harder to forgive others. It's not too hard to forgive those I love, or even just like, especially for minor offenses. But when I am deeply hurt, or when someone I dislike or don't know hurts me or my family, forgiving is much harder. So much so that I usually say "I can never forgive that." And don't even try. I know that it's wrong, so in your name, Lord, and with your help, I will learn to forgive more. " " I promise, Lord, to think better of myself. I'm such a queer mixture of conflicting attitudes. In some ways I have too much conceit and pride. At the same time I have too little confidence in myself and my abilities. I need to accept in my heart that as a child of god, I should be proud of myself and my abilities. I need to accept in my heart that as a child of God, I should be proud of myself as a person, as your creation. With your help, Lord, I will grow in self-confidence and pride. " " I promise, Lord, to become more humble. So often I find myself feeling smugly superior to another person, because I believe I'm smarter, or better dressed, or have better taste, or have better-behaved, smarter children. I can find so many reasons. Yet I know that to feel that way means that I have set up false values. In fact, I am no better than those others. In your name, Lord, and with your help, I will overcome that attitude and grow in humility." " I promise, Lord, to become less selfish. I'm not thoroughly selfish; I do things to help others. What bothers me is that there are too many occasions when I could have helped someone and didn't, because I was too tired, or too busy, or just didn't feel like it. That is wrong, and I am ashamed of it. In your name, Lord, and with your help, I will grow in unselfishness." " I promise, Lord, to develop and use the talents you have given me. I've wasted too many years saying, "I can't do this" or "I could never do that" when the truth is that I never tried and didn't really want to. It's easier to leave things to others who know that they can do it. Yet I know that you have given me talents and abilities, some of which I don't even know I have because I've never tried to use them. So I'm going to try things I've not done before. I might make a mess of some of them, but at least I'll find out for certain what I can and cannot do. With your help, Lord, I will more fully use the abilities you gave me." " I promise, Lord, to become a better steward of this word you gave us to live in and care for. The pollution and despoiling of this beautiful earth, the waste and misuse of your abundance, are disgraces to which we have all contributed. I intend from now on to be much more careful in my use of earth's yields. In your name, Lord, and with your help, I will take better care of your world." " I promise, Lord, to spend more time serving others in your name. The local school has asked for tutors for children needing help in their school work. I don't know how much good I can do, but I can spend a couple of hours a week trying. So in your name, Lord, and with your help, I will offer my services to the school." " I promise, Lord, to spend more time serving others in your name. I'm not at all sure what I can do, but I have heard of many areas where I might help. Hospitals need volunteer workers; people who are illiterate want someone to teach them to read; the blind need people to read to them or translate books into Braille; patients in nursing homes want visitors. I just don't know where I can help best. I'm going to pray about it and talk it over with some of my friends, or maybe the pastor can help me decide. Anyway, I promise that within the next month, I will decide what to do. In your name, Lord, and with your help, I will spend more time helping someone besides myself and my family."

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