Brown's Daily Word 12-20-11

     Praise the Lord for the Wonder of Christmas.  In our finite minds we fail to grasp and cpmprehend the mysteries and the depths of Christmas.  We come to the event o Christmas as little children and wait on the Lord with a  sense of wonder and awe .  The Lord blessed us with a extravagant weekend. Some of us as a team attended the presentation of Handel's  Messiah.  .  It is always a treat. One of the ministry teams prepared and servesd A christmas meal in down town Endicitt at the Firs United Methodist church, Saturday noon and our church presented a living Nativity with a full cast Saturday afternoon in the city center of Endicott. followed by our Saturday Evening worship.  It was all blessing every way.  We met for worship yesterday at Wesley and Union Center followed by Christmas dinner gtherings at both churches.  Praise the Lord we have ample reassons and occasions to celebrate the grace and he gift of Jesus our Lord.  The Choirs sang at both churhes including the Chilren Choir.  We praise Jesus the heart of Christmas.

      One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Luke 1 . The Magnificat. The When we hear the words read as part of the Christmas gospel, we are captured by the poetic loveliness of the cadence. I would like to share some quotations from famous scholars about the Magnificat. E. Stanley Jones, a famous preacher amd missionary to India said that the Magnificat is “the most revolutionary document in the world.” Martin Luther,  said  that the Magnificat “comforts the lowly and terrifies the rich.”The Magnificate is God’s revolution. The Magnificate is the charter, the document, the constitution of God’s revolution. Magna Carta is the fundamental document on which freedom is based in English society. So also, the Magnificate is God’s charter; it is God’s Magna Carta. That document lays down the fundamental principles of the Christian revolution.

     In the Magnificate, God totally changes the order of things. God takes that which is on the bottom; and God turn everything upside down, and puts the bottom on top and the top on the bottom.  God revolutionizes the way we think, the way we act, and the way we live. Before God’s revolution, we human beings were impressed with money, power, status and education. We were impressed with beauty, bucks and brains. But God revolutionizes all of that; God totally changes all of that; God turns it upside down.  The poor are put on the top; the rich are put on the bottom. It is a revolution; God’s revolution. The Magnificate clearly tells us of God’s compassion for the economically poor; and when God’s Spirit gets inside of Christians, we too have a renewed compassion and action for the poor.  Our hearts are turned upside down.

      God tells us in the content of the Magnifiact that  He  regards or respects the poor, exalts the poor, feeds the poor, helps the poor, remembers the poor. In that same chapter in Luke, we hear the story that God chose a peasant  girl, Mary, to be the mother of Jesus.  In Christian language, before the revolution, we were impressed with the rich. After God’s revolution, we are impressed with the poor. Before God’s revolution, we are impressed with bucks and beauty.  After God’s revolution, we are impressed with paupers and poor people. Let the revolution begin in your life, and mine. This is God’s revolution in our hearts. God’s value is to respect the poor, exalt the poor, feed the poor...within our hearts and actions.

     The Magnificat is a prelude to the whole gospel, and the theme of the whole gospel is that God respects the poor, exalts the poor, cares for the poor, feeds the poor, remembers the poor, helps the poor.

    In Christ,

    Brown

http://youtu.be/MS3vpAWW2Zc

    Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

        4:30 PM at First United Methodist, 53 McKinley,  Endicott

         Sponsored by :  Union Center UMC

        Music:  Aric Phinney and Yancey Moore

        Preacher:  Rev Brown Naik

 

    Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

        A Service of Carols, Candles, and Communion

        7:30 PM at Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive

        Music:  Laureen Naik, Betty Phinney, Sarah and Emily Sabin

        Preacher:  Rev. Brown Naik