How is your memory?

With Christmas only a few days away I am reminded of an event.

I was in junior high school and my class was preparing for the annual children's Christmas program at St. Paul Lutheran Church in my hometown of Eldora, Iowa.

Several of us were asked to deliver portions of the Christmas Gospel from memory!

Although each of us needed to memorize only a short section of the first 20 verses of the second chapter of Luke's Gospel, we were challenged to commit the entire reading to memory.  

Memorization was never one of my strong suits, but I managed to do it - in the King James Version!  

That was more than 50 years ago.  With only an occasional misstep I can still recite this portion of the world's most important narrative today.

Here it is.  It is definitely worth the effort to commit it to your  memory and to your heart.

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them."

A Christian driveway persona

A story out this week reported that a research firm believes it can predict the political leanings of a city neighborhood by analyzing the types of vehicles its residents drive.

It does this with technology that identifies vehicles parked in driveways and elsewhere using images found on Google's Street Views application.

For instance, in those areas where the number of sedans is higher than pickup trucks, there’s an 88 percent chance of the district voting Democratic. Where there are more pickup trucks, there’s an 82 percent chance it’s a Republican-voting district.

The researchers made other claims about their results, and you can find a summary at this website if you are interested.

While we can debate the validity of profiling a group of people based on the cars and trucks they own, an interesting point can be raised.

We Lutherans confess that our salvation from sin and death is a gift from God received from his abundant grace without any merit on our part.  Our good works are useless in this.  Only faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ leads to our reconciliation to God, and this, too, is a gift from him.

Some are so firmly devoted to (infatuated with?) this doctrine of "grace alone" that they begin to believe that their outward actions have nothing to do with the faith they hold.  Because faith is an issue of the heart, how can it be judged by the work of the hands or the words of the mouth?  

I once read an online debate among a group of supposedly confessional Lutheran pastors in which they speculated about how vile their speech and how outlandish their actions could become before they "crossed the line" of allowable Christian conduct.

They were asking, in essence, 'How un-Christlike can I be and still claim myself to be Christian?'  

The Advent season reminds us that Jesus has come and will come again as foretold.  And at his second coming all will face judgment.

As Jesus described this judgment in Matthew 25, peoples' outward actions will inform him about what has ruled their hearts.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.  Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (Matthew 25: 41 & 45)

St. Paul reminds us of this in his words to the Galatia Christians, "As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." (Galatians 6:10)

We live to be like Jesus to others in all that we do.  Our works matter; they simply don't save us. 

As members of the body of Christ it is our privilege and our calling to aid and support one another in both body and spirit. Jesus tells us that this is how we make a public witness of the faith that we hold.

Our motivation is as clear to Christ as a sedan parked in a neighborhood of pickups.