They Spoke Not a Word, but, Got Straight to Work

Magi from the East, travel (for two years) guided by a significant astrological event. Along the way (in the opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors)they stop at the home of a poor widow and her son; before finding their way to the chaotic home of Mary, the harried mother of toddler Jesus in Dustin’s dramatic interpretation of the familiar tale.

Paralleling that energetic telling of the journey of the Magi with the somber story of the small French town of Dieulefit, who sheltered and saved its Jewish community from the Holocaust, Dustin calls on us to listen for the silent messengers.

Sermon begins at minute marker 9:10
Scripture: Isaiah 60.1-6, 11; Matthew 2.1-12

Image: https://holymassimages.blogspot.com/
Hymns: Voices Together 267 & 268, What Child is This, music, traditional English, words, William C. Dix Christmas Carols New and Old, 1871, and Child of the Poor, words and music - ©1994 OCP Contributors: Scott R Soper, Greensleeves, Scott Soper. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.
Resources

A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church (Year W): A Multi-Gospel Single-Year Lectionary, Wilda C. Gafney, Church Publishing Incorporated, 2021.Menotti, Gian Carlo, Frances Frost, and Roger Duvoisin. Gian-Carlo Menotti's Amahl and The Night Visitors. Andrew Dakers Ltd., 1953. Obituary: Gian Carlo Menotti, The Daily Telegraph, February 2, 2007.Barnes, Jennifer. Television Opera: The Fall of Opera Commissioned for Television. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2015.

This sermon was written for Seattle Mennonite Church as part of their Advent-through-Epiphany-long series on Mary, Messages, and Messangers 

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