A Children’s Sermon Series from Pastor Brooks…
Part IV: The Fourth Candle
A week came and went, so Kirstin plodded through the snow back to Skag’s home. She knocked on the door three times with her small little hand. Skags answered the door with a great big, “Hello there, little girl!” He then invited Kirstin inside. As Kirstin drank some hot chocolate Skags made for her, Skags lit the first three candles. Skags then told Kirstin a story about a people who are often misunderstood: pirates. Now, there are some mean pirates who go around saying things like “gr-r-r-r-r,” but there are also some friendly pirates.
Among the Vikings, these friendly pirates were men who had been forced to leave the everyday world of the Vikings because they had refused to fight in any of the Viking wars. These friendly pirates lived on the ocean, and often these pirates felt really sad because they had been rejected by all the other Vikings. To make it worse, they felt all alone because they were a long way from their families who lived on the land. The pirates got especially sad around Christmas because not only were they far from their families but they did not have any children to whom they could give presents and even worse they did not have any Christmas cookies to eat.
One year a few days before Christmas, most of the pirates were asleep except for a young lad named Leo. Because Leo was the youngest on the ship, he had the least desirable job. He had to stay awake all night to make sure the ship did not run into any rocks. As Leo sat on the deck looking out into the sea, he moped about how he was on a ship full of the unlucky and how he was the most unlucky of the unlucky because he had to stay awake while everyone else slept. But just as he was in the middle of some serious moping, he suddenly heard what sounded like someone calling his name. “Leo-o-o. Leo-o-o.” “Who can that be?” he thought. The sound seemed to be coming from some place very near, but he couldn’t see where. He looked straight ahead, but saw no one. He looked to his left, but saw no one. He looked to his right, but saw no one. He looked behind him, but saw no one. He then looked up, and guess what? He saw someone. In fact, it wasn’t just any someone. It was someone special. It was an angel.
Leo couldn’t believe his eyes, so he said, “Hello, are you uh-uh a real angel?” The angel said, “Yep, I am a real angel.” Then, Leo said, “But, but what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be up in heaven? Or, visiting the King?” The angel said, “No, the King would not like the message I have to give. I have come to bring news of peace for you and your friends. There is a town not far from here that will welcome and accept each of you as you are with open arms. You do not need to live on the sea any longer.”
Leo was skeptical. He said, “How do I know what you say is true?” The angel said, “Call all of your friends to the deck, and they shall see not just one angel but a host of angels.” Leo got very excited, and he yelled really loud waking up all of the other pirates. Pirates don’t like to be woken up in the middle of the night, so they came to the deck feeling really cranky and crabby, but as they arrived to the deck one by one, they stood there with their mouths hanging open as they watched a band of heavenly angels singing to them from the sky. The angels sang of peace and the pirates were filled with joy.
Having told this story, Skags lit the fourth advent candle, and said, “This candle represents joy. When you light this candle, think of the joy experienced when the good news of the birth of Jesus was first heard from the angels of heaven.” Skags then said, “Come back on Christmas Eve to find out the meaning of the fifth and final candle.”