Christmas C The Turning Point

 Christmas C The Turning Point

December 24, 1985

By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell


We all share a common handicap tonight…. winter. Having lived in Minnesota for fifteen years,

I can say, “this is what winter is like. The ground is like iron, travel is treacherous, heating bills

staggering.” Yesterday a cattleman shared that he had just purchased 50 tons of hay he did not

anticipate needing, and at each feeding takes his shovel to break drinking holes through the iced

over creek. Winter’s grip is not discriminating. We are all, in one way or another, forced to cope

with its frozen miseries.


One way of copping, at least in St. Paul Minnesota, is the annual Winter Carnaval. In the face of

the season’s harshness, it is the Minnesotan’s way of laughing at winter. Never mind that the

trumpeter’s lips in the marching band are frozen to their instrument…winter can be fun!

For me the most appropriate event in the winter carnival was chunk kicking. The idea was to see

how many kicks it would take to dislodge the huge chunk of ice gathered beneath the car fender.

It didn’t really matter that it runed a pair of overshoes…what mattered was the opportunity to

express your true feelings about winter. In Minnesota, winter was always about a month too

long.


Throughout history, human beings have tried to put a happy face on grim old man winter. WE

may have come as far int aht challenge as in any age before us…what with a rainbow of colors in

our new light weight winter clothing…down hill and cross-country skiing, snow mobiles, hot

tubs, television, video tapes and…plane tickets to warmer climes.


In simpler times people caught in winter’s grip would celebrate the solstice or winters turning

point on December 22. On this shortest and darkest day of the year, people would haul

evergreens into their homes, light candles in windows and generally have a merry old time with

feasting, songs, dancing and drama. The main idea was to leave the festivities feeling better than

when you went in.


Look around us. It is December 24 th . We have decorated the church and our homes with greenery,

there are candles burning in the window. We are singing, sometimes with tears of joy, some of

our favorite tunes.


Outside we know it’s still winter, but where…. Inside it seems to have lost some of its power.

We are poised at a joyful turning point…every day from now on will be longer, brighter, warmer.

Winter will soon be going down the drain.


I knew one priest who when the water began to run would go out with his garden edger and chip

away at the ice to, as he put it, “Help Spring along.”


There is another darkness besides winter that has fastened itself upon man. It is the darkness in

our own hearts of selfishness and greed. We have all know its icy grip. It has frozen

relationships between family and friend. It has made life, at time, most disconcerting and

seemingly without hope.


Ex) one of millions of examples someone broke into a day care center and stole the children’s

toys!  Would anyone argue that who ever committed that crime needs a change of heart?


All we like sheep have gone astray…. all have missed the mark…. all need a change of heart.

Our heavenly father understood our dark thoughts and our need for a turning point. Into our

darkness he sent the light of his heart changing love, int eh person of Jesus Christ.


A new man has come into the world. By the gift of His forgiveness and love and by the power of

His spirit of service we have a new turning point…in our own hearts. When we with integrity

seek, desire, invite the truth of God’s love into our lives the power of sin loses its oppressing grip

on us. The warmth of God’s love has stamped finished on the winter of our sin. And we can all

help that process along by chipping away at sins crust with our own acts of love.


The fact of Jesus Christ’s birth will be human kind’s everlasting turning point. A fact we can all

joyfully celebrate again this Christmas.

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