setup: [E-Mail Ministry] Stick With The Carols

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STICK WITH THE CAROLS

by Rev. Jim Harnish

Dave Barry noted that "the school dropped religion altogether and started
singing about the weather...nonmemorable songs such as 'Winter Wonderland',
'Frosty The Snowman,' and -- this is a real song -- 'Suzy Snowflake,' all of
which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor from another
planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of
Meteorology."

We stick with the carols because the carols stick with us. Year after year,
the words come back from some deep place in our memory...at least through my
generation. The culture around us helped us learn to sing them.

That's not the case today. Kids aren't learning the carols in school.
Outside the church, the next generation does not have a memory of singing
the story of the birth of Christ.

The Biblical irony, of course, is that it was never supposed to be the
culture's responsibility to tell the Christmas story. The New Testament
Christians always assumed that it was the church's responsibility to take
the story to a secular, unbelieving world; a world where the gospel has to
compete with belief in The Church of Meteorology; just the kind of world in
which we live today.

This is to encourage you to sing the carols, play them on your CD, hum them
in the shower, teach them to your children. Listen to the words and let
them soak into your soul.

Sticking with the carols,

Jim Harnish

(a U.M. Pastor in Florida)

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