Christmas Sermon Nothing to Say - HS2023 (non-writer)

Ray Johnstone sat thinking of former, simpler times, before the information super highway of constant information brought every distant tragedy into everyone's every day life. The constant bombardment brings a normalizing influence to the psyche, as if human brutality is the norm rather than the exception.

Yes, there was a time when the death of 270 people in one terrorist event was a shock that took several weeks to process.

It was on Christmas Morning 1988, that by some mishap of scheduling, Ray was asked to deliver the Christmas sermon. He hadn't planned on it, he had been working on a sermon about something not quite Christmas themed, but at least he thought that he could spin something on the spot. So he agreed to give it a try.

Christmas morning 1988; only four days since Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player in one of the plane's luggage compartments, killing a total of 270 people.

Standing behind the pulpit, Ray's mind was not focused on Christmas though, it was on bombs in music playing devices. "I'm sorry. I just can't focus yet" he told the congregation, "Lockerbie and all, how about some silence."

After a lengthy pause, Ray then said "I would like to sing a song that I've been playing for some time now, by Paul Simon."

"This is what I think when I hear the line 'the way we look to a distant constellation, dying in the corner of the sky.' I think of the Age of Aquarius, and that song by The 5th Dimension.
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions."

"It's like that hopeful dream from the past is dying. Not to be depressing or anything, but Christmas! Peace on Earth. Goodwill toward man. Is that something God does with us or without us? I better just quit talking now. I had a sermon about what it means to be a Christian, but I don't remember how it goes. Maybe another time perhaps."
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[ Disclaimer: The name Ray Johnstone was picked at random. Any similarity to anybody actually named Ray Johnstone is purely coincidental. ]

The End

a reply to: FullHeathen

This is really good! S/F!

a reply to: JJproductions

Thank you.
Shifting through various time periods. Things feel different.

a reply to: FullHeathen

A thought-provoking story, FullHeathen. Silence has become a precious commodity in all the mayhem and 24/7 information overload. So many tragedies we are privy to that there is no time to contemplate them fully and our emotional armour hardens.

I love the musical interjection in the story.

a reply to: FullHeathen

nice one, like a time machine in words

a reply to: Encia22

So many tragedies we are privy to that there is no time to contemplate them fully and our emotional armour hardens.

That's it in a nut shell.

Thank you.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Well: '60s, '80s, 2000s, 2020s
Seems to skip the odd decades.
Thank you.