Sermons & Studies

Presented Before the City Council on December 1, 2004                                                                                                                                                                        
In the movie Home Alone,
There is a song by John Williams called
Somewhere in My Memory
This song beautifully captures the sentiment of Christmas:
Candles in the windows,
Shadows on the ceiling,
Lights on the Christmas tree..
Precious moments, special people,
Happy faces…I can see
Somewhere in my memory,
Christmas is all around me…
Somewhere in my memory…
All of the music, all of the magic,
All of the families,
Are still with me.
Yet Christmas is more than a sentimental journey.
Christmas is a time of affirmation
That the most important and significant meaning of life
Is public service and bettering the life of the common men and women.
The central figure of Christmas is Jesus of Nazareth,
Whose birth Christmas celebrates.
Whether you believe that he was God became man—
As the Christians and Catholics do,
Or you simply regard him as a historic figure,
Jesus of Nazareth has significantly impacted 
The history of mankind.
When we read the 4 biographies of Jesus in the Bible,
He emerges as a self-made man
Devoted to better the world around him through service.
Jesus grew up with more than the average share of
Challenges and human misery, as some of us do.
He was born in the homeless shelter of a stable,
He became a refugee in infancy,
He grew up as a second-class citizen
Of an occupied territory,
He began his career as an apprentice in a carpenter shop,
For the greater part of his short and turbulent life,
He worked as a blue-collar laborer
In support of a widowed mother and his many siblings.
Yet at the age of 30
He rose above his circumstances
And devoted himself to public service
In helping the under-privileged, often ignored
Common men and women of the society.
As the Bible described him in Acts 10:38:
“He went around doing good…
Because God was with him.”
He found his purpose of life
In serving the common men,
As he live up to these ideals 
“To preach good news,
To proclaim freedom,
To give sight,
To release the oppressed,
To proclaim God’s favored.”
Jesus lived to prove that love is the greatest reality of life,
He reached out to
The deprived and under-privileged elements of the society,
He affirmed the dignity of every person,
Not by what he or she could do or contribute.
One by one,  by helping one person at a time,
Jesus built a better society
Which he called the kingdom of God
In which every person is equally part of a greater family.
Although his family misunderstood him,
His closest friend betrayed him,
His students deserted him
He was unjustly condemned and executed,
He called himself a “prophet without honor.”
Yet his life of service continue to inspire mankind
To this very century.
The moral of this Christmas story?
The last laugh belongs
Not to the bully and the mud-slinger,
But to the person who is totally committed
To better the quality of life of the common men and women.
The paradox of public service
Resonates with the paradox of the life that Christmas celebrates.
This spirit can be best summarized 
In a statement of faith adopted by Mother Teresa,
Which was originally written by Dr. Kent Keith,
A son of Hawaii:
ANYWAY