A reading of the holy gospel according to Luke. The time came this is a continuation of the of the text that we've been reading for the last morning from Saint Luke. The time came for Elizabeth to be delivered of Saint John, and she gave birth to a son. And Zachariah, the father of John, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying now here we have something as we had of the Magnificat of our blessed mother. Is this what Zachariah said exactly?
Well, one thing sure, he didn't speak English. We can be sure of that. So, anyway, here is the speech that the evangelist puts on the lips of Zechariah, the birth of his son, John. Blessed be the lord god of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the most high. For you will go before the lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people, in the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our god. When the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise be to lord.
The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. The first reading today has to do with David and Nathan and of course, the Lord God. And the point of it is that David looks around and sees this the beautiful house of cedar that he's living in, and the house of the lord is just a little old tent. So Nathan gets into the picture and together they god comes into the picture too, and from this comes forth the plan to build a fitting house for the lord god almighty. Now this may seem farfetched to you, but I don't think it is.
We are all asked to build a house for the lord, a fitting house for the Lord. And the one house that we can do most about, in some instances, that the only house we can do anything about is our own individual lives. We can't very well change other people. The one person in this whole world that I can change is my little old self. Now this brings me to a to an idea that hit me very strongly the other night.
Most of you know, if you don't, I am now informing you that in our rectory in the meeting room, three times a week at least, every single week of the year come hail, rain, storm, tornado, hurricane. You have men and women who are fighting a problem called alcoholism, whatever that is, but they're having a problem with drink. Some of them are AAs, these are the people who are themselves fighting the problem. The other group, Al Anon, are men and women whose spouses or mothers or fathers or what have you have the problem, and anyone who lives with an alcoholic has a problem with alcohol. Believe me, I know whereof I speak.
Now one of those men, as he was going down to open up the door, saw him and he said, please remember us in your prayers. And the thought struck me, I've been here twelve years. These people have been meeting there every single week, year in and year out. I never thought of mentioning them in our prayers. Now I've been thinking about this.
And if you there is no single group that I know in my whole life, and you know it's tremendous, that even remotely, even remotely, is so concentrated on building up a house for the Lord as those men and women are. Because the first thing that they do is to turn their lives over to god, that they are helpless and that only god can turn them around. That's the first thing. They call it the first step. And from then on in, what they are doing is working, I mean working, at this great project of building a house for the Lord.
Now you may say they they you're talking in Christian language. That may well be true. They use the word a power greater than myself, but who in the world powers greater than myself? I know that I'm about as great as they come. Everybody knows that.
So if you're talking about a really a power greater than myself, where do you find it? So what they're talking about is god almighty. Every that's that's self evident. And as I say, it's never occurred to me to remember those men and women in our prayers. And yet who in god's earth are more deserving of being remembered?
Now this thought comes to me particularly on Christmas Eve when these men and women have very special problems and they're not the only ones who find the holidays pretty rough. Just look at the suicide rate, that tells you something. Holidays, especially the Christmas holiday, because we've forgotten that it's a holy day, it's a lot of difference, and it's more than the difference between a why and an I, that the this is a a very critical, morose, melancholy, depressing time for many, many people. Many people. Do I have to belabor that?
Well, if it's true for people, a lot of people in general, it's A four C RI true for these men and women who have a very special problem because whatever you may say about drugs, alcohol and so forth, they are means of escape. And when the going gets rough, it's nice to have a way of getting out of the roughness. And so, as I say, for men and women with problems of one sort or another, this holiday season and much of the loneliness that comes with it for many people, it's a hard, hard season of the year. And so this morning, I recommend, as I've been requested to do by one of those gentlemen, these men and women, IAAs and to your prayers. I can't think of a better cause because if you as I say, here you have people who are who are actually doing the building of the house of the lord.
They're working at it with intelligence and zeal and prayer and fervor and generosity and a total self giving. Now I have chosen those words carefully. It is not hyperbole. It's no exaggeration. And if you don't believe me, go to one of their open meetings and you will know what I speak is the truth.
And what I'm saying of our group here, you can multiply over almost the whole world now because this movement has spread. And one of the reasons that it spread is that it works. And so as we edge into the Christmas season, whether there we've been there for days, you know, why, please remember these valiant souls. These are not a bunch of people. Get this out of your head that to be a a recovered alcoholic, you have to hit the bottom.
That is ancient history. That is true. Thanks to AA. And as I say, at this particular time of the year, I think we ought to have a particular prayer for these men and women, young and old, who are trying to build actually and explicitly a house to the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit.
Amen.