Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 22, 2004 - THREE
Christmas messages from area churches
St. Patrick’s and St. William’s Parishes
‘Lessons from shepherds'
At this time o f the year we commemorate the birth
o f our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Sometimes we
overlook the significance o f the shepherds in the nativity
account So it is good to recall that shepherds came to visit
and to play homage to him It is interesting to recall that at
the time o f Jesus the status o f shepherds was a lowly one
It still does not rate very high in our world today Yet, it
was to such lowly people that the angels appeared and
informed them that the Savior was born in Bethlehem The
shepherds, for their part, welcomed the news and went to
Bethlehem to worship the Savior
They tended their sheep probably far from the cities
and towns. More than likely they were poor Material
poverty is to recognize While they were engaged in their
simple work, the Good News came to them Once the
shepherds received the message, they did not sit back and
discuss the fact that they had been informed o f a great event
The m essage really m oved them to actio n T hey
immediately set out to search for the Child Savior They
made the journey to Bethlehem and found that what the
angels had said was true With their physical eyes they saw
a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manager
However, with the eyes o f faith they recognized the Child
as the Savior.
Then they had to return to their flocks Perhaps the
journey was cold; perhaps it was treacherous Yet they went
back “praising and glorifying God for all they had seen and
heard.” They had experienced this magnificent event and
yet they went back to tending their flocks. Their lives would
never be the same They now had a new hope, a new sense
o f the presence o f God with hem Their world has not been
transformed, but they have been transformed and now had
a new vision o f life.
We have not seen what the shepherds saw, but we
have learned the message o f the angels. Like the shepherds
we need to see Christ with the eyes o f faith We see not
just a baby, but our Savior, G od’s love made flesh,
Emmanuel, God with us. When this holiday season is over,
like the shepherds, we also must go back to work It may
be to our typewriters, or computers, our committees, our
workshops. Let us do so glorifying and praising God for
his goodness to us. Our world will not be transformed, but
we will have renewed hope and inspiration
Our religion leads to a different commitment to life
It teaches us how close we can be to God and how close
God is to us In celebrating the birth o f Jesus, we see how
God has immersed Himself in our world It brings us joy to
know that our God is with us, that He is watching over us,
that he is a source o f joy and o f spiritual strength Such
was the joy that the shepherds experiences; that the Magi
experiences and that Simeon and Anna experienced when
they met the Christ Child
May that joy be ours, not only in the Christmas
season, but throughout our lives
-Father Gerry Condon
Heppner Nazarene Church
‘Nothing’s Impossible’
Luke 1 26-38: In the sixth month, God sent the
angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant
o f David. The virgin’s name was Mary The angel went to
her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored The
Lord is with you” .
Mary was greatly troubled at his w ords and
wondered what kind o f greeting this might be But the angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor
with God You will be with child and give birth to a son,
and you are to give him the name Jesus He will be great
and will be called the Son o f the Most High The Lord God
will give him the throne o f his father David, and he will
reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will
never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since 1
am a virgin9” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power o f the Most High will
overshadow you So the holy one to be born will be called
the Son o f God Even Elizabeth your relative is going to
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have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be
barren is in her sixth month For nothing is impossible with
G od”
“ I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered “May it
be to me as you have said ” Then the angel left her. (NIV)
For God Nothing’s Impossible and Christmas is a
time o f miracles The passage above mentions at least three
Christmas miracles that most o f us really believe; and one
Christmas miracle that many o f us only pretend to believe
The first o f the Christmas miracles that most o f us
really believe is that: The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary
to tell her that she would bring G od’s son into the world
Christmas without angels is unthinkable What kind o f story
would we have to share if God had telephoned Mary to tell
her that she was going to have a child by the Holy Spirit9
I can hear that conversation now, “Hello, Mary9
This is God speaking, I’m phoning to tell you that, o f all
the women in the world I have selected you to...” (and
about that time Mary interrupts and says), “I’m sorry, but
we don’t take telephone solicitations ” Clunk
And what if St Luke had written: “And in that
region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch
over their flock by night And, suddenly, a messenger from
Western Union appeared to them saying, “Telegram
Telegram I bring you good news o f a great joy which will
be to all the nations.”
No A technological announcement would not have
sufficed Beside it would have ruined our hymns Can you
imagine singing instead o f “Angels From the Realms”; we
sang; “Faxes From The Realms O f Glory”9 Angels are so
much a part o f the Christmas miracle that we can hardly do
without them.
The Second Christmas miracle that most o f us
accept is that Jesus was born o f a Virgin Why not? We
have believed the story o f the Resurrection Believing the
story o f the Virgin Birth is pretty easy. Besides, it seems
perfectly fitting that, “The only begotten Son o f God,”
should have a unique birth Especially in our day and age
o f cloning sheep, DNA typing, artificial insemination
Nothing’s Impossible for God
The third miracle o f Christmas that we accept
without question is the miracle o f the “Incarnation.” That
means “God With Us.” For some this miracle is a little
harder to swallow than the other two. “Why would God
become man9” That is a good question
A great philosopher once explained that mystery
by telling this story Once upon a time there was a man,
who every Christmas Eve, he stayed home alone while his
family went off to church He did not believe in the miracle
o f “Emmanuel,” that is “God With Us.”
He often congratulated himself that he was too
sophisticated and educated to be taken in by tales about
God becoming a man On one particular Christmas Eve he
was about to doze off when he heard a tapping sound
coming from the window in his kitchen He went to
investigate and found a bird that had somehow managed
to light upon the windowsill and was tapping the glass with
its beak
As the man approached the window, the bird flew
but not far away When the man looked out at the ground
he saw not one bird, but dozens of birds, cold, wet, huddled
under the light o f his porch. “Poor creatures,” he thought,
“they look miserable They need some shelter from the wet
and cold I’ll see if I can coax them onto my enclosed
porch.”
He went to the porch and made a dry place for
them However, making a place for them was easy, getting
them to use it was another story. First he called them, but
they did not understand his speech Then he tried to motion
with his arms but that only frightened them away. Then he
tried to lead them in with a trail o f bread but they did not
understand his motives
At last the man said to himself, “ If only I were a
bird, just for a moment; then I could fly down to them and
lead them in my house ” As he spoke these words to himself
the bells o f the church began to toll midnight, announcing
the birth o f Jesus Christ Suddenly, the man knew why God,
in the person o f His Son, would become a man God did it
so that he could lead us into the safety and warmth o f the
father’s house
Most o f us accept these three miracles o f Christmas
without question. Still there is at least one Christmas miracle
that seems completely beyond belief. It’s the promise of
the angel that, “For nothing is impossible with God.”
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9
Extension to be
closed for
holidays
O regon
S tate
University, Morrow County
Extension Service will be
closed on Dec 23, 24 and
3 1 to celebrate the holidays
We will resum e reg u lar
office hours of 8 a m to 4:30
p m , M onday th ro u g h
Friday, on Jan 3, 2005.
30 /
It’s not that we have difficulty believing that God
can do anything The problem we have with this miracle is
that- “Can God do anything with me” (With you/me-
personally) Yet, if we are going to be all we can be in this
world for ourselves, and most particularly “for God” then
this is the miracle we must believe This is the miracle that
Mary had to personally believe about herself, before she
could become “Mary the Mother o f Jesus ”
If you think that you have a hard time believing in
the Virgin Birth, then try and put yourself in Mary’s place
when she first heard it from the angel Gabriel Nine full
months later she held the proof in her arms Then she knew,
she fully understood, the truth o f what the angel had said:
“For nothing is impossible with God ”
This is why our Hope is in Jesus I have a challenge
for each o f you this Christmas I want you to believe in
yourself just a much as you believe in God I want you to
believe that God loves you That God needs you That God
has a plan for you I want you to believe that- “For nothing
is impossible with God ” When we finally accept this fact,
then, our hope in the Christmas Miracle will become
complete
-Pastor Duane Jones
Heppner Christian Church
‘All I Want For Christmas’
We live in one o f the most prosperous nations in
the world Livability in the United States o f America is a
given principle, which no one challenges We can ask the
question, “What do you want for Christmas?” The answer
to that question in some sense fills the stores o f America
with so many wants that it sometimes boggles the mind
Sometimes the answer to that question can come from deep
in the heart and does not have the shallow smack o f a
commercial Christmas. “That mom and dad could get
along,” “That grandma would get well,” “That we would
have enough to eat,” “That our son will make it home from
the war,” “That God would give us one more Christmas
together ” At times the deep answers to a shallow question
tug at our heart strings because we can remember when
we have asked those very questions Many times the way
those questions have been answered in our lives determine
how we feel especially this time o f year
Two thousand years ago there was a nation that
struggled under the rule o f an occupational government
from Rome that controlled most of the known world at
that time This nation was asking for a gift that had been
promised to them many centuries before that time o f a savior
that would come and establish his governm ent and
somehow everything would be all right if only he would
come But when they found out that the savior was just a
baby that was born in a manger to a poor couple, Joseph
and Mary, they wondered how, how would my question be
answered9 Certainly God had a different idea about what
this salvation would look like than those who saw the baby
born in the manger God o f course planted little clues for
those to see who had eyes, but even his mother with her
storing up all o f these memories o f her son could not see
what God had in mind One clue was that Joseph was to
name him Jesus, “for he would save his people from their
sins ” Another clue was that he would be called Immanuel,
which means “God with us.” It wasn’t until 33 years later
that the true nature o f G od’s story and plan to save the
world began to be seen as the right answer to a very tough
question that they had been asking for many years
I am not sure all o f our questions will be answered
in this life time Not all o f the gifts we want for Christmas
will be given Sometimes our gift is dependent on the actions
o f someone else, or on time, circumstance, or some other
factor outside our control But the thought I want to leave
you with for this Christmas is that 2000 years ago a gift
was given and since that time God has continued to give a
gift to each o f us It does take faith to hope for a brighter
future, but l hope you can do that very thing because o f
the gift o f Jesus Christ that was given to us through Mary
in the form o f a baby. Truly the hope o f the whole world
and your hope this Christmas Wishing you all a merry
Christmas and a happy new year
-Pastor Andrew Johnson
Heppner Nazarene to hold Christmas
Eve service
Heppner N azarene
welcom es all to attend a
Christmas Eve advent and
com m union serv ice on
Friday, Dec 24 at 7 p m
Traditional Christmas music
will be shared and a message
en titled , “ Search for the
perfect gift,” will be shared
Do you have all your
Christm as shopping done
yet9 There are some folks
that are hard to shop for You
have no idea what they want
or need You d on’t know
what items, size or color to
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217 North Main, Heppner
«76-9158
Serving Heppner Lexington & lone
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High View Mortgage
Rick A Sylvia Sandford
877 - 422-7330
( 541 ) 422-7333
ch o o se H ow ever, God
knows exactly what they
need He gives us good and
perfect gifts
Just to help us keep
our spiritual perspectives in
perspective, during these last
h o u rs leading up to
Christmas let us be reminded
o f some o f G od’s gifts to us
Heppner Nazarene is
located at 335 N Gilmore,
across from the hospital
Neighborhood
Center to close
for holidays
The
H ep p n er
Neighborhood Center will
be closed from Tuesday,
Dec. 21, 2004 th ro u g h
Sunday, Jan 2, and will
reopen with normal business
hours on Monday, Jan 3 It
is asked that all donations be
held during this closure and
not left at the Center