Tertius’ Christingle

Christ Church, 7^th January 2001

Hello there. My name is Tertius. It's a Roman name-not very common these days. Anyway, I want to tell you a story about when I was in prison. Because I was in prison for quite a while, and I had a very special job. My job was to write down letters that other people wanted to send. They would tell me what they wanted me to write, and I would write it down for them. The prison I was in, well you couldn't have found a more terrible place-it stank, it was dark and dirty, and we hardly ever got any food. Not only that but they had some real strange people in there-real criminals who you wouldn't want to meet on the streets.

It was horrible, but I didn't mind. Why didn't I mind? I was with the best man you have ever met. He was called Paul, and he was like a chariot of horses-there was no stopping him. He's dead now-he ended up having to give everything for Jesus-even his life. But the funny thing is that he was almost more powerful in prison than out of it. some people are like that-they can turn their difficulties into something which makes others lives become better . Paul did it through his letters. Because the letters he wrote to a few people in this or that group of Christians around the world have been read and read and read.

Anyway, back to the story. Because the reason I wanted to talk to you today was because this thing you are making reminds me of him. One day we were sitting in the prison-it was a miserable day and we were expecting him to be taken away any moment, but Paul was full of it-he used to say funny things like, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." We had just been given a little parcel by one of the sisters in the church in Rome. It had an orange for our health, at candle for light in the cell, some fruit and some nuts. Anyway, I started playing around with them. I wanted to make something that would remind me of Jesus whenever I looked at it. Paul got very excited about the idea. He said that the orange could be like the world which God loves. He said it could show that God's plan was about everything we do and are. And then he found four little sticks on the floor and he stuck them in the orange and put the fruit and nuts on them. "God makes all the seasons - spring summer autumn winter," he said. And he makes the fruit grow, and gives us food to eat." See, even though we didn't have much in that prison cell, we still believed that God gave us life. And Paul wasn't too worried about prison cells anyway.

Then I had an idea. I had a red shoe lace which I wrapped around the world (or the orange). Paul said, "What's that for?" "That is to show that Jesus' blood covers the whole world and everybody who wants to know that he loves them and forgives them," I said. "Brilliant!" said Paul. Then he looked a little bit sad. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "Well, he said. "I just had a brief memory of when I used to go around causing peoples blood to flow. It was such a waste." Then he sighed. "I'm just so glad that God has got me out of that."

You see, Paul had a bit of a past. He wasn't in prison for killing people. But before he had met Jesus he had been quite obsessed with what he thought was sorting the Christians out. You see Paul had genuinely thought that the Christians had got God wrong. He thought that they were breaking all of God's laws by trusting in Jesus. It seems bizarre now, but Paul used to go around dragging people out of their houses, throwing them in jail, trying to make their life a misery. He even got people to stone