![]() “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary you have found favor with God. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. Luke 1:26-43 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Our primary scripture lesson is Luke 1:26-43. This morning’s message is called The Ghost of Christmas Past. The name of Jesus is never mentioned in the book, but his fingerprints are found everywhere. We are looking at various scenes from the classic short story, A Christmas Carol. This is sermon number two of my six-part sermon series, Christmas According to Dickens. How do you live the rest of your life knowing you caused your family’s death? Maggie Campbell’s story reminds us that Christmas isn’t always merry. Every year on Christmas Eve I pray for Maggie Campbell. It has been over forty years since that tragic night, but every Christmas Eve I think about Maggie Campbell. At first he had escaped the flames, but returned to the house to save his parents. On that Christmas Eve, she lost her parents and her brother. ![]() She was the one who lit the candle and left it unguarded. The investigation revealed she was the cause of the fire. The only one who survived was their daughter, Maggie. The family that died on that Christmas Eve was the Campbell family. The loss of property is hard the loss of lives is unbearable. A house on the parallel street had caught on fire and had burned to the ground. It wasn’t until the next morning that we got the news. The police routed us around the block as we tried to see what was happening. There was a yellow haze around the area, only interrupted by the red lights of emergency vehicles. The air was thick with smoke and the sky was filled with color. We were a block from our home when we noticed something unusual. On that evening, we took the same route home from church that we had taken every Sunday morning. The family car was filled with my loved ones. I was twelve years old and I can remember returning home from the midnight candlelight service at my home church. Opening words: It was Christmas Eve 1969.
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