Hello, Pulp Fiction listeners and Merry Christmas. Today we are rereleasing our Christmas Eve episode from last year. So if you're looking for references to Cove in 19 or all of the crazy things that happened this last year, you're not gonna find that. But what? You are going to find some great commentary on Luke 21 through 20. And we hope that this is helpful to you in your Christmas Eve planning. And we hope that you have a wonderful, blessed and very merry Christmas. You are listening to the pulpit fiction podcast for those who look up Ezekiel 25 17 and we're sorely disappointed. Hello and welcome to the pulpit Fiction podcast Election Eri Podcast For preachers, seekers and Bible geeks, this is Episode 357 for Tuesday, December 24th 2019 It's Christmas

Eve. Today we're gonna be doing the gospel reading. It's Luke, Chapter two verses one through 20 and that's all we're gonna be doing. It's gonna be a fairly short episode because it's Christmas Eve. Let's face it, if you want some of those other readings, you could go back to some of our older podcasts. I am robbed McCoy United Methodist pastor here in Rock Island, Illinois, and I'm joined, as always, by my good friend and co host from the shining shores of Crystal. Like Eric Whisler. How you doing, Eric? Good. Yeah, it's Christmas. Well, it's almost Christmas. So tell of you who are listening in there. It's almost there. It's an exciting There's a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's called, like 1 a.m. on Christmas morning. Um, except for those of you have Christmas morning services, in which case, it's like noon. But either way, um, yeah, I got to know I'm excited. I'm excited for Christmas. I hope that it's a busy time for everybody and crazy busy. So I hope that for all of our listeners that in the midst of the hectic craziness of the season, you still have time to just reflect and enjoy Christmas and the joy

and hope and wonder of what Christmas is. Yeah, you know what? One of my favorite times of the year. Every year we always finish our service with silent night and lighting the candles and, uh, just that moment of being up at the pulpit and and seeing the whole congregation, light those candles and sing Silent Night. It's really pretty remarkable. It's one of those places of privileged, like just the the fact that I'm, you know, my angle on the congregation, right being able to stand there and look out at all these faces with those candles. It really is one of my favorite times a year, and I always take a moment in that to really look around and see those faces and see that that joy. And you know what? Family members Sometimes it's, uh, you know, people that you don't often see. Um, it's just a great thing. And, you know, it reminds me I wrote a block post. I'm we'll go ahead and share it. It's called something about to see

any Christians. We're so glad you're here because I get a lot. You know, we get a lot of it's kind of a Christmas tradition to sort of disparage those that only show up on Christmas, even Easter And man, that's a horrible attitude. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those were, like, be happy when people are there as opposed to like just like constant complaining about people like Ah you know, like, you know, finally, you know you're here and things like that. I mean, I honestly I don't even think joking about it, referencing it or anything because it just make people feel bad. And then maybe next, like, there's a good chance that they may not come next year. You know what I mean? They like whatever encourages people that whether it's Christmas or Easter or any other time to come to church rejoiced that there there be happy that they're there. I think you're absolutely right. Yeah. I mean, if your response to someone you haven't seen before is anything other than I'm so glad you're here, check yourself. Merry Christmas. I'm talking about you anyway, so I'll

share that. And you know what? I think most of our listeners probably have that attitude. E Think it for the most part. It's just some of those I don't know those other kinds of Christian, this other kind of groups that that have that. But I'll share that anyway. Just because it's it's a good resource for people toe. It's a good reminder, I think. Yeah, absolutely. It's always a good thing to kind of have for most of our head. I think also, it's a good thing. I mean, talking about good reminders, like other things. Length of Christmas Eve. Sermon. What do you think? 45 minutes. 15 minutes? Well, you got to get your money's worth, man. I mean, this is the big This is the big one. You gotta make it. Make it count. Like the last. Yeah, make it last. You only see him once a year. You better give them. You know, 45 sermons and one that'll That'll teach him. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh I don't know about you, Rob. I mean, I I'm typically, like a 20 minute preacher, but not on Christmas Eve Christmas. He has got to be short. Yeah, I struggle with that. To be honest, I I probably go longer than I should

, but that is one of those one of those services. There's so much other stuff going on. I wanted to be I wanted to be impactful like extra impactful. So I put all sorts of pressure on myself, and I think sometimes that can be counterproductive. Yeah, I mean, I I think that, uh, 10 minutes, I think, is the good is a There's a people. Remember, if your sermon was too long, they will not be upset if your sermon was too short. But at the same time, it's not just how the sermons received. I think it also, as you said, How do you How do you? I think it's really hard. I think that's what makes it makes. I think Christmas Eve really hard is how do you preach a really good sermon in a short period of time? It's It reminds me of the old Mark Twain thing is that you know, I wanted to write you a short note, but I didn't have the time. So I wrote you a long letter, right? It's a lot harder. I find it. Maybe I would be able to Great. I find it a lot harder. Thio. It takes me at least twice, if not longer, to write a 10 minute sermon than it would for Meteo

. Put together a 20 minutes, sir. Yeah, that makes sense, especially on Christmas, because there's so I mean, there's so many. I mean, just looking at let this look to one through 20 and again. This is the whole story. And in some traditions obviously going to split this up between Christmas morning and Christmas Eve. But there's a lot in here, and it's so familiar to I mean, there's a lot and it's familiar. So that's that double, you know, double edged sword there. My question to you is how Maney preachers out there How maney Christmas sermons, eyes, baby Yoda gonna make an appearance? Yeah, I just feel like every year there's like, a pop culture thing every year that, like connects, and I just feel like that. This year I've heard I've already seems to me was going around. I mean, he's exploded on Facebook and, like the idea of the coming child that is changing the universe and you know nothing will ever be the same. Its's baby Yoda, my favorite is the little, uh, little cross stitched. What

child is this ornament really want? E. It's so awesome. It makes me want to take up cross stitching, but alright for everybody who's been like yelling at their thing, we should jump into this. Let's jump into the text. All right? We got Luke to one through 20 buckling friends because it is a long reading for those of you, Uh, this this episode because it's same for its election recast reading as well as the other one. So so for all of our our narrative cast, for all of our narrative cast folks, everyone's like, Oh, yeah, you're used to this these long readings. But for the revised common dictionary buckle in, It's gonna be 20 verses. Here we go. This is the common English Bible. In those days, Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. This first enrollment occurred when corneas govern Syria. Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. Since Joseph belonged to David's house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David City, called Bethlehem. In Judea, he went to be enrolled together with Mary, was promised to him in marriage and who is pregnant

while they were there. The time came for Mary to have her baby. She gave birth to her first born child, a son, wrap him snugly and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them. In the guest room nearby, shepherds were living in fields guarding their sheep at night. The Lord's Angel stood before them, and the Lord's glory shone around them and they were terrified. The angel said, Don't be afraid. Look, I bring good news to you. Wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David City. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you. You will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and laying in a manger. Suddenly, a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. And they said glory to God in heaven and on peace among those whom he favors. When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let its right now go to Bethlehem and see what's happened. Let's confirm what the Lord has revealed to us, and they went quickly and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby laying in the manger. When they saw this, they reported

what they had been told about this child. Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. Mary committed these things to memory and consider them carefully. The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen everything happened just as they had been told. All right, that old familiar story, the greatest story ever told. Told again. Yeah. And as a side note, Wow. I was not, um I was not prepared for how familiar I am with the new revised standard until I was reading that as the non new revise as the common English Bible. Yeah, well, just that is a good I think it's, you know, translation shifts can help stir up. You know, those things that we think are familiar can kind of give us, um, new eyes, a new lens to see it again. And I think that could be a helpful thing. Um, you know, for to

see the story do is to see it through that new translation lens, even though it's an old translation. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's just one of those to just, like, get familiar with it, because it's one of those You just don't realize how like Oh, yeah, like when you know, I'm so used Thio. You know, in the days of Caesar Augustus, like, it's just, um yeah, yeah, it's just you get so used to some of those rhythms of of how things come out. All right, So let's look at this. First of all, um, this a little bit awkward. Luke is always known us being like the right and accounting, you know, inaccurate accounting. Uh, looks terrible, historian. Let's just hit that right off the bat. There's no indication that there was ever an Empire wide census decreed by Caesar Augustus. There was one done by Quirin ius um, that was done later. Um, but anyway, it wasn't done. And also Quirin ius There's also some other weird things here. So if you're looking at the gospel of Luke and obviously the gospel of Matthew in terms of our

our Little Nativity, um, this There is no time, period. And where which corneas was the governor in Syria and Herod was King. Herod dies in, um, for B C E. Corneas doesn't become governor until six ce, so it's a little bit weird. So, um, but I think that, you know, getting into those details, Mrs, uh, the overarching piece of these opening kind of sentences that we have here, Um, which is both the lead up to a juxtaposition between Caesar, Augustus and, uh and Jesus e. Think also because Luke has a global perspective on Christ, Andi and the story of Jesus, as opposed to Matthew, who's a little bit more focused on, um uh, the Jews and on Israel. And so, whereas, you know, in Matthew's gospel, we start with, you know, when when Herod was king, Um, Lukes it's gonna be all encompassing. So we're gonna start with Augustus. And there's this, um, you

know, this kind of zooming in that I always think about that. You know, I mentioned every year, but whenever I hear this, I see the zooming in of like, we're Where do we start? Well, we have the story about the savior of the world. So clearly it's gonna be in Rome. Caesar Augustus? Nope, not there. Okay, Well, it's not there, then. Maybe Syria. Corneas? Nope, not their weight. Where we going? And we're zooming down into Bethlehem like, even even like passing over Jerusalem. Right? David City. Oh, we know David City. That's true. Some? Nope. Not that one. The other David City Bethlehem. Tiny little about them is where the story is gonna take place. And so I think it kind of sets up, you know, it's not the historical accuracy of this. It's the, um I feel like rabbits. It's digging into the absurdity of the incarnation happening in this tiny town, right, This Bethlehem, which is small even in Palestine standards, which is also a dusty backwater when compared to the rest of the Holy

Roman Empire. Yeah, and that zooming it, you know, it starts with Cesar Thio. Emperor, Governor, Uh, you know David's house to David's little town. And yeah, I mean that, uh, recalls even, you know, last week we talked about Matthew's genealogy that goes back to Abraham and mentions that you know, the mothers of Jesus. Well, of course, Luke's genealogy goes all the way to Adam. Right? So this is this is ah, grander scale. This is a global scale, and you can fast forward to act where the the the zooming in that happens here at the beginning of Luke gets reversed at the beginning of acts. Right? The second part of Luke, where it goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria, toe all the world. And so you can kind of see that zooming in here on Jesus and then acts. Is that active zooming out, then to the rest of the world

. And I think, um, that is absolutely appropriate and again not focusing on the, uh, those historical details because that if you get hung up, you can definitely get hung up in that kind of stuff. Um, but these are recognizable names, even if they're not, um, you know, even if the line doesn't work exactly. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, when we talk about the census, too. I mean, we have this. I think it's interesting where we have there are clearly some traditions that air happened that are that are arising in the early apostolic witness the early church there, And one is that Jesus. There's obviously a tradition of Jesus being born in Bethlehem, calling back toe the Prophet Micah Micah five. And so you've got that piece, which is explicit in in Matthew, Um, but also, uh, but there's also the knowledge that Jesus was from Nazareth, and that's a problem, because

this is not a time where people didn't move that far from where they were born. So how do you have somebody who was born in Bethlehem but is a Nazarene grew up in Nazareth, and Matthew and Luke disagree on this. Right? So in the gospel of Matthew, they live in Bethlehem. Are they? Yeah. They live in Bethlehem, and then after Egypt, they go and then they settle in Nazareth. Whereas here you need the census, which is not mentioned because they are from as opposed to Matthew, them being from about them in the gospel of Luke there from Nazareth. But they have to go to Bethlehem because of the senses. Right? So So there are all sorts of, like, interesting things, so that the entire purpose of the census really does two things here. The first thing that it does is it gets the family where we need them to be, which is we need to get the royal family though the Holy Family, I should say to Bethlehem, for Jesus to be born. So it does that. And the second thing does, it also does so using, um, this system of oppression, which is this, um

, ex credibly oppressive taxation system. It puts them in their place right, both literally and figuratively puts them in their place geographically, and it puts them in their place socially to that they are under the whim. of that, Caesar. You know, we we name them at the beginning, Uh, the one who called himself Son of God, Right? And I e think Cesar Augusta started some of that stuff. But, I mean, there's clearly, you know, so much of the gospel is, you know, putting Jesus up and against Caesar, Um, and he's not, You know, the Caesar is this kind of king, but Christ is a different kind of king again. Fast forwarding all the way to the cross where he has labeled king of the Jews, You know. So this this original setting, like you said, puts the puts them in their place geographically, it puts them in Bethlehem. But it also reminds them that they are under the whim and the wishes of Caesar, right? Yeah

. And as you said, you know that that juxtaposition between Jesus and Augustus is really heavy handed in here because we have, um you know, Augustus was known as the Prince of Peace. Augustus was known as the savior of the world. Augustus was known as the son of God. So when you hear these attribution especially from the angels, right? A savior is bored. You and David City. He is messiah. He is, um the Lord. Um, you know, this is a, um this is a really big deal, and it's it's kind of a shot across the bow off off Augustus and basically holding him up as the true bringer of peace. Augustus was the Pax Romana was, uh, considered the Prince of Peace. After establishing the Pax Romana, which was, he defeated, violently defeated and suppressed all of his enemies and civil wars. And and so that's how he was known as the Prince of Peace. Well, that's obvious. Gonna be very different from the true prince of Peace who non violently dies on the cross. Um, I guess this was known throughout Asia Minor as the savior

of the world. His birthday was celebrated as New Year's Day, which is kind of, you know, so it's obviously very different from this savior who will who will show us a different way to salvation through nonviolent grace and love and the currency, you know, later we'll hear that piece. You know, um, on whose image is the coin? Right when we have that that kind of interlude in the temple. Um, and that image would have been Caesar, Augustus Caesar. And the other thing that would have said on there is Son of God, which, of course, is blast. Must I have that kind of the temple to begin with? But also, um, right, we have this. It's very clear that there's the juxtaposition between the false Prince of Peace, the false savior of the world, the false son of God And who? Jesus, actually, it's alright. And that's all. Just setting it all up. We haven't even gotten toe any of the heart of the story here. Um, you know, this isn't the first time we've talked about, you know, there's so much in the show notes I wanna before we get too much farther and we built the show notes a little differently than last year

. I went through and has, ah, verse by verse. Every, uh, you know, sort of pulled out. And then our comments, um, that way, and I don't know if we're gonna have time to run through all of this stuff. There's it really is so much we we'd end up having, uh, you know, an hour or longer. Podcast. Um, but one of the one of the really interesting things. And this was, you know, last year we had an amazing conversation with Katie's a who is the author of Last year we talked about the upcoming book. Now it has been released book Women rise Up, and she's done a lot of working with maternal health and and other things. She's been a friend of the show for a long time. Um, but she mentions, uh, you know, in versus 6 to 7, um, Universe six. While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby Verse seven. She gave birth to her first born child. And the whole labor any kind of, um, story

about, you know, midwives or, uh, you know, the struggle that childbirth might have been is just completely skipped over. And, uh, you know, it's one of those things that were it was good to have a woman with us last year to remind us of this because there's a lot that happens in that period between she gave between it's time for her to, and she gave birth to her first child. And there's this understanding. I think that, um, you know, Mary and Joseph would have been all alone And they were, you know, they were shut out of the in and they were all by themselves and this poor, you know, woman and man had toe give birth, you know, with nothing. And and there's just it's not a fair understanding of what was happening there. Um, she would not have given birth by herself. There would have been midwives there would have been, You know, if this is Joseph's family, there would have been hospitality like that whole. You

know, they're turned away and they're searching in the night for some place to go just doesn't seem realistic. And it doesn't have a much biblical supporters, we think, either. Yeah. I mean, it's it's a really, um, Now, although most most of our images of what happened that night our historic at least historically way off, right? I mean, and I think that you're absolutely right. I mean, it's, um e think the fact that we forget that Mary went in tow labor. I mean, the this birth is like a TV birth, right? Which I don't know about about you. I know that every time we see somebody give birth on TV, my wife like she's like, That's not how it is. We'll give birth to, like a three month old baby. Most of the time it's a three month old baby and it takes, like, five seconds. Yeah, I mean, it's just, um, you know, everybody has their different birth stories and, you know, But Lord knows, I know When my boys were born, it was loud and it was messy and it was

bloody. And it was There was just there was a whole lot going on at both of those. It was not a silent night, which I think it is. A book by Adam Hamilton. But the e mean as much as I love the song Silent Night in that moment, Uh, the actual birth there is nothing silent about it. Yeah, I mean, it's not that's not part of it. And as you pointed out to the whole idea of like, there was no room at the inn as if they roll up, you know, to the Howard Johnson's and oh, sorry, we sold our last like No, that is not, uh, and you can look at more of that in the show notes. That's not what was happening here. NASA was happening here at all. In fact, what happens is is that most likely this family, which may have been Joseph's family because he's going back? Or it was just a family that welcomed them into their actual house because the guest room was full so they would have been welcomed into the main room of the house. And the main room of the house is Actually, there's an area of the main room of the house where, yes, the animals are fed, so he might have been placed in a major. It's

, I think, often we put this into the context of Ah, Western, Western, European, North American idea of like, Well, there's a farmhouse and and there was an in next to the farmhouse, but there wasn't there. So then they were in the little red bar next door. Uh, no, that's that's not, you know, in a nice little peaked roof with some snow on top. Like No, that was most likely not what happened. Um, it was very different. It was very messy. Um, there was They weren't As you said, Rob, they wouldn't have been alone. In fact, they were probably surrounded by the family and other people as well as they would have called a midwife. They would have just let this woman just give birth on her own, but would have most likely helped out. So it's just kind of interesting toe to dismantle that. The one thing rob, though, is Christmas Eve the time to shatter people's, uh, images of their, uh, their Nativity. Absolutely. Yes, this is the teaching moment, right? Because I think that this is t

lift the stuff up because we've heard the story so many times we can share it a new. But it's not that it's not about them being, uh, because, I mean, there's a aspect of that that does fit right there, rejected by the world. And they're they're lonely in there, poor and and it's this moment of isolation. But what if instead, we lifted up the fact that they were actually born in the inner sanctum of the home, flush with radical hospitality and surrounded by love? Doesn't that make the story better? Can't we make Christmas even better by reclaiming that that radical hospitality of it, that this was a They were welcomed in a way and that it was overflowing. There was no room in the Catalona cattle, UMA because it was overflowing with love and hospitality and people already, and I just feel like that makes it. Yeah. And yes, they were poor. And, yes, they were travelers, but they were poor travelers that were welcomed, and And we can be a part of that now, too. I don't know. I just feel like that's absolutely could be

Yes. Shatter. Go ahead, e Like it? Yeah. I mean, I hear you. I think I would say yes. Um, yes, I I agree with you Be prepared for just I mean, this is this is people do not like and I'm not saying that's a reason not to With generally, people do not like having their, um, images broken. You know what I mean? Like these childhood, the childhood image of like what it is. And so I think that I think you're absolutely right. I think there's a great way toe educate to teach to reframe in a beautiful way. Um, but know that they're gonna be people that are just like, No, there was no room for them at the end. They were all alone. I know. I saw the picture of my childhood Bible like that's how it waas. Um and it's gonna be really hard for people to let go of that image. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying it's gonna do so do so tenderly. Well

, yeah, e guess. And he wasn't. He wasn't white either. How's that? Yeah, well, come on, let's not get crazy here. I mean, he did have blonde hair, though, right? Blue eyes? Yeah, definitely. No Swedish. Jesus. Okay, um uh, there's cash. All right, This is the problem, right? This is the issue with With that we talked about Christmas. There's a ton here. There's a ton of stuff about the, um, Shepherd's It's really, you know, here's the whole point. Like we often talk about like, Well, they knew he was a king because the three kings and David come toe worshiping. Well, first of all, they weren't kings. And I'm sorry, Matthew, they weren't kings in Matthew that came to do it on. If anything, that signifying aspect that Christ would be king was the fact that the Shepards came because the shepherds represent both kind of the people. The hoi polloi, if you will, um, they represent the outsiders, the marginalized, those living away from

settled community. And yet shepherds throughout Scripture are the Are the references to who king what king should be. And so we have You know, the reference to King David or Ezekiel, Um, rebuking the e the bad shepherds and dreaming of what a good shepherd will be. And so the fact that the shepherds who are often the standings for for what good kings, those who take care of ones that they come and see Jesus. It is really powerful and often, and I think, actually speaks to Jesus is Majesty Mawr than the fake kings that we have in our pageants. Yeah, that again goes back to that introduction. When we're in the midst of the emperors and the governors, we have shepherds that show up, and that double nature of shepherd, I think, is really important. And of course, the shepherd was so much, um, understanding of who Jesus was. You know, I've been researching a little bit, um, doing some stuff with the gospel of Mark because of the narrative election. Eri moving into it and you know, one of the very earliest

depictions of Jesus that we've found, you know, in like, the third century, like the two hundreds is a picture of Jesus carrying a sheep. All right, the the image of Jesus, the shepherd, you know, because for the first couple 100 years, mostly when they depicted Jesus, it was the Cairo, you know, it was symbols. But one of the very first, you know, symbols of Jesus that looked like a person was that of the shepherd and the fact that the shepherds were there from the beginning. That is who Jesus will be on. That's who you know. He's the good shepherd. Onda connections back to David Wright, the shepherd who is king and the prophet so often talked about, uh, the kings who, you know, the people are like a, uh, sheep with no shepherd, right? That's Jesus words. And it's, you know, right out of the profits as well. And so, um, so much could be done with that idea of who was there. Yeah, they were. They were the

, you know, the dirty, smelly, marginalized shepherds. But the shepherds also the symbol of what a king is supposed to be, right? Yeah, I think that's that's absolutely the case. And and also I think there's an interesting piece and which probably close out here. This is otherwise we are going to keep going for several hours, but again, check out the show. Notes papa fiction dot com or public fiction dot com slash narrative. You can find the show notes that both of those places, but I think they also you know, let's round it out with the Angels, which I think is interesting. Um, because the angels again I mean, you have this this beautiful this heavenly chorus that is coming. Um, but what is their their message? It's interesting because Christmas is always one of those, you know, we've got the quote unquote war and Christmas and all these things. And sometimes it's thought of as being, uh, Christian centric. Um, but actually, this is supposed to be. This is a message of good news for everybody. For all people. Joy to the world. It's Yeah, it should be a joy to everybody and and true joy

. Not an abusive joy, not a beating down joy, not a joint that says You don't believe what I believe. What else you're gonna burn in hell, But but a true joy. And And the message of that that joyous message of angels right, is, um, is interesting because of what happened. So it says this verse 15. I love it, Says, uh, I'm sorry. Now, verse 15, it's, Ah, verse 20 because the angels come and bear this incredible message of joy and hope, peace and love. And then the shepherds go in the experience. Jesus. And then it all comes down, I think, to this verse 20. The shepherds returned home glorifying God praising God for all they had heard and seen everything happening just the way they told. So the shepherds return home doing what? Becoming angels. They have become the messengers of the good news that Christ has been born. They are now going returning, declaring everything that they have seen. And what is a messenger declaring the good news. But an angel? It's a messenger from God. I mean, that's what the word Angelos

means is to be a messenger. And so I think it could be a really positive message. Um, Thio too many on Christmas Eve, who are gathering there to remember that the messengers of God don't always meet us in church. They meet us in life and that that is good news for your every Sunday church tenders or the person who's never walked in the doors of your church that just like the shepherds, the angels meet the shepherds in the field, God meets us in life. And when we hear the good news when it transforms us, then we cannot remain the same. And we are actually transformed into being angels ourselves as we share that good news and, you know, and then to go back to the beautiful Howard, her Thurman, uh, prayer and poem. And then the work of Christmas begins to share that good news and thought word. Indeed, when you bring up Howard Thurman, I wanna bring up Charles shows real quick. Um, because I think it's one of those beautiful things and it's probably been shared

. I think most people know this by now. But in that famous, uh, you know Christmas Charlie Brown Christmas story, where we all know in love where you know Linus gets up, you know, lights, please and reads the Christmas story. And, you know, of course, Linus is the one that's known for having the security blanket for carrying it around. Everywhere he goes, Um, and he's there on stage. And as he's reading the story, he comes to the part where he says, Fear not where the where the angels say to the shepherds. Fear not, And he puts down his blanket. Yep, and it's just one of those subtle things that I feel like it's probably two e think most people have heard it already, but now it's been shared so many times, but I still love it, and I still get choked up every time I think about it. You know, I love the Peanuts as a kid and love the that that Christmas special. But that understanding of fear not, you know, the worlds of scary place. Um

, but the messengers come and we don't have to fear anymore. Um, and and that moment of, you know, letting it go. Putting down that security blanket and knowing that there's something else that that has us covered is a pretty powerful moment as well. Well, thanks for joining us for this special episode of the pulpit fiction podcast we'd love to hear from you. You can go to our Home and Web page of pulp fiction dot com. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook of Pulp Fiction can tweet us at Pulpit F podcast. Find us on Google. Play soundcloud iTunes. Wherever you do, leave us a review. Emails show a pulp fiction dot us and support the show by going to pulp fiction dot com slash donate. We wanna thank Scott Fletcher for the voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for a theme music. Nikolay Hide Lis for a transition Music and Brian Odin for a closing song. Please have a very, Very Merry Christmas way. Hate to say it's time to go, but it happens every time

you know. So now you're free to go about your day We've heard the word invoice and song you wondered, and we've laughed along. Go and preach the good news on your way. This is the pulpit fiction podcast for creatures and seekers and Bible geeks. This is the pulpit fiction podcast. We'll see you back next week. Yeah,