Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

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“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
(Habakkuk 2:20)

It’s about this time of the Christmas Season when I’ve had about enough.

I know, it’s only started.  Keep in mind, though, I’ve been working on the Christmas Services since September.  We put our tree up at Thanksgiving this year, but for whatever reason, Christ the King Sunday came after Thanksgiving, not before, and now Advent has only just begun and the tree has been out for two weeks.

Then consider the fact that it’s not enough to have Black Friday shopping and Cyber Monday.  Now we’ve got “Doorbusters” on Thanksgiving Day, weeklong advertising leading up to it, and the Christmas music pumped through the shopping centers long before the turkey ever gets cooked – it’s a bit of a Christmas overload.

Call me a Scrooge, if you must, but I’m tired of it.  And I’m really not a Scrooge at all. **Let me shamelessly plug the Cherokee Community Theater one more time in our production of A Christmas Carol the Musical…  Seats are still available, and we have five shows this weekend.  Visit www.cherokeect.org for more details.**  As I was saying, I’m not really a Scrooge.  I do love Christmas.  The music, the message, the decorations, the general good spirit that people have during the season.  What really turns me off to it all, however, is the busyness.

There’s the noise, the lights, the decorations that often times turn to clutter, the general mayhem and madness that we call Christmas.  Then add to that the programs, activities, concerts, etc. that we have to throw in, and Christmas flies right by and you never even notice.  Maybe that’s the point.

We have a general rule in our house that goes something like this: NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY.  Every parent knows the significance of this rule, and how difficult it is to enforce it especially when there are older children in the home.  But a baby resting (and not crying) is a beautiful thing to sleep deprived parents.

So then, what would Mary and Joseph think of the way we celebrate the birth of the Christ-child?  Would they usher us out of the stable saying, “Shh!  The baby’s sleeping.  Take your plastic Rudolf and Perry Como’s Christmas elsewhere.”

One of the ancient carols of the church says,

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand
Christ our God to earth descended, our full homage to demand.

Friends, let me ask you this: When was your last quiet moment this Advent Season?  If you can’t remember, then it’s been too long.  Are you so busy with all the busy-ness of the season that you have forgotten why He came?  He came to bring peace to our hearts, to quiet our souls – but we drown out the silence with noise, noise, noise.  Take a moment right now – stop what you are doing – stop reading this – and quiet yourself before the Lord.

SDG

A Time to be Thankful

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“Praise the Lord!  For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.”
(Psalm 147:1 (ESV)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and what great timing!  The election is over, and regardless of who you supported, I don’t think anyone is completely satisfied with the election.  The money spent by each campaign was disgusting, the lies and falsehoods, scandals and cover-ups, were shameful.  The election revealed that we are a nation evenly divided.  There are wars and rumors of wars around the world, but political correctness and expediency keeps us from protecting and defending our allies.  Economies are crumbling, and those who have been elected to lead us lack the courage of their convictions to do what is right and necessary.  If ever we need a time to be Thankful, this is the time.

In spite of all that we see around us, let us never forget the blessings we have received from the hand of our Heavenly Father through the grace and mercy of Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord.  The blessings are innumerable, immeasurable, and incorruptible.  As the apostle Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3).

To this end I share with you the Proclamation of a Day of Thanksgiving, presented by President Lincoln on October 3, 1863.  In commemoration of the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, but also the turning point in the war, Lincoln called the nation to a time of prayer and thanksgiving for the blessings and mercy that come in the midst of God’s dealing with our sins.  May this serve as a reminder of all those things for which we are thankful.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

May you have a truly blessed day of Thanksgiving!

SDG