Christmas Sermons

I was just reading some of my fellow bloggers' posts and discovered one of Jeni's recent writings. Well, Jeni when I read "End of the Year Feasting" I could not help but remember my family. That Robert Frost poem is a family favorite. But, I would not have written here about it, except that on Christmas eve I heard several sermons that kept reminding me of one of my favorite Robert Frost poems. You see, I heard these pastors say, "would you leave a gift under the Christmas tree and not unwrap it?" and also "Bring Jesus along too, to all those painful places he intended to go with us when God became flesh." 

And, in both of these cases I thought of Robert Frost's "The Pasture." I believe it is the invitation in this poem that the pastors brought to my mind. We have been invited, we have been given a gift and we should return the favor by inviting Christ into our lives and into all the places we wouldn't want anyone to go, but in which we really need him. The poem's setting is simple, calm, and lovely. Not everywhere that we go is calm and lovely, but just because some places are hard and uninviting does not mean we go alone. The invitation and reminder of God's willingness is simple, "Hey God, You come too."

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I shan't be gone long - You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother. It's so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I shan't be gone long - You come too.