Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Did you hear about

the unfortunate

fortune-tellers convention?

 

It had to be cancelled

due to unforeseen circumstances!

 

What, I suppose,

soothsaying the future

is always

a mug's game.

 

So in trying to divine

what the Ghost of Christmas Future

is telling us,

I decided to steer clear

of predictions.

 

Rather, I took an event

in recent history

that is so fantastic

that it could well be

part of our future

instead of our past.

Because you see,

at 7.50 Eastern Standard Time

on 21st December 1968,

three astronauts blasted off

from the Cape Canaveral

aboard Apollo 8.

 

And their destination

was the moon.

 

The outward journey

took nearly three-days.

 

Then they orbited

our this satellite

for 20 hours

before starting back

with the whole trip

taking just six days

of the Christmas season.

And indeed,

all that witnessed

the returning smudgy

black-and-white pictures

will recall

the great excitement

that the whole venture

caused.

 

Most memorable of all

was the crew’s message

to earth

on Christmas Eve.

 

It started with

lunar module pilot

William Anders

saying-

for all the people on earth,

the crew of Apollo 8,

has a message

we would like

to send you.

In the beginning

God created

the heaven and the earth.

 

And the earth

was without form

and void;

and darkness was

upon the face of the deep.

 

And the spirit of God

moved upon the face

of the waters.

 

And God said,

Let There Be Light:

and there was light.

 

And God saw the light,

and it was good:

and God divided

the light from the darkness.

At that point

the command module pilot

Jim Lovell

took up the reading:

And God called the light

day,

and the darkness

he called night.

 

The evening

and the morning

were the first day.

 

And God said,

let there be

a firmament

in the midst of the waters

and let it divide

the waters from the waters.

 

And God called

the firmament heaven.

 

And evening and the morning

where the second day.

Finally Frank Borman,

the mission's commander,

continued by saying:

And God said,

let the waters

and the heavens

be gathered together

and to one place,

and let dry land appear:

and it was so.

 

And God called

the dry land

earth;

and the gathering together

of the waters,

called he seas:

and God saw that

it was good.

Borman then added-

And from the crew

of Apollo 8,

we close with –

good night,

good luck,

a merry Christmas,

and God bless you –

all of you on the Good Earth.

 

Yet we could ask

what made the crew

of that tin can in space

remember

God and his works?

 

Well, Jim Lovell

gives a clue

earlier in the broadcast.

 

For he had said –

the vast loneliness

is awe-inspiring

and makes you realise

just what you have

back there on earth.

 

It seems then

that only when humans

ardently follow

their worthy ambitions;

when they strive

to realise their dreams

or when they reach out

for the stars

do they look back

and value what they have.

 

Moreover, it is only then

do we use what we have

for what we hope for.

This was certainly true

of the Wise men.

 

Because we must assume

that they had

certain means

to allow them

to pursue

their science.

 

Yet they risked it all

when they journeyed

over the desert

to an alien land

and encountered

totalitarian power.  

 

But the outcome was

they found

their hearts desire.

This was also

certainly true

for the Christ child.

 

Despite being the son

of the most high God,

he risked being born

into a barbaric,

and believing a

nd self-righteous world.

 

Nevertheless, even when

the dangers

were over whelming,

he knew the gold of

God with him;

he discovered the sterling power

of faith

and as a result

won through to his destiny.

And this using

of what we have

for our aspirations

is just as valid

for us now.

 

For do you remember

that Scrooge

was given a choice

of his future

by the ghost

of Christmas ye to come?

 

Let us then exercise

that choice today.

 

Let not all

that we have

breed lethargy

but instead energy.

 

For then we will have

the vigour

to look up

for our guiding star

and its

as yet unseen

new paths.

 

A future that requires us

to fearlessly tread

into the undiscovered,

out through

what has become

arid and airless

and even

to brave

the risky

and downright hazardous.

 

For if we do it

with every fibre of our faith,

we will not only realise

our mightiest achievements

because of God with us

but we will say

to all

who are left behind –

come thither

for God is with you too.

As the choir sings for us,

let us think

where we must go

by making a star

from our square of paper.

 

Apollo 8