Every Time A Bell Rings An Angel Gets His Wings

John 1:1-14

This Sunday we will have our first annual Impromptu Intergenerational Interactive Christmas Pageant. Wish I could tell you for sure what will happen, but I'm not sure how it will unfold. Which, in my estimation, makes it just about as perfect as you can imagine a Nativity being.  I can't wait!

On Christmas Eve, we finish our sermon series on The Gospel According to George Bailey, the theological insights in It's A Wonderful Life. This week's sermon blog below focuses on the Christmas Eve sermon, "Every Time A Bell Rings, An Angel Gets His Wings."

What George Bailey discovers in his journey with Clarence, Angel Second Class, is that life can be wonderful even if it is not what we planned. He also discovers that every person's life affects everyone else's life... even people we will never know are touched somehow by our moving about on this planet with them.

John 1 reminds us that the Light of Christ has been with us from the beginning.  That in him was life and "the life was the light of all people."  That "the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

Our lives are the light.  The light of Christ shines in our hearts and in our souls and it is our duty and responsibility as people of Christ to release that light from within and let it shine on a world in darkness.

Clarence tells George that he will help him see that his life is worth living and that George, in turn, will help him get his wings.  Clarence will earn his wings by helping a lost soul that has gone terribly dark return to a joyous Christmas light.  And, in the last scene, when George sees all the pieces of his wonderful life shining around him in his living room, he gets it.  He knows his soul will no longer be dark and that the light he shines on the world matters.

Bells rang out across our land on Friday in memory of the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Each of those bells represents a life lost, but also must represent a light that will continue to glow throughout the ages.  We can never get back, in physical form, those who pass on, but we can see to it that their light shines throughout the ages.

We do this by making a difference in big and small ways each day.  We do this by understanding what the Christmas Season of Peace is all about. We do this by letting the Love of Christ pour out of our souls and into the world.

... to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.


How can you shine your light not only on Christmas, but every day?  What lights have shined for you in times of darkness? Email me or comment below.  Merry Christmas.