Today's Sermon in a Nutshell:

There once lived a farmer and his family in northern Wisconsin. His wife and children regularly attended liturgy, but the farmer rarely went to church. 

On the Sunday before Christmas, in which the genealogy of Christ from St. Matthew's gospel is read, his wife tried to persuade her husband to come. But the farmer said, "No, I'm staying home. I cannot understand why God would chose to lessen Himself and take on human form. It's utterly ridiculous."

Later that morning, while his family was in church, the weather became quite foul. In fact, it turned into a blizzard with sleet and ice. As the farmer sat and watched TV, he suddenly heard a number of thuds against his house. When he got up to investigate, he saw that a flock of geese had become disoriented and weighted down by the ice on their wings and flew into the house. 

Feeling sorrowful for the geese who now couldn't fly, he was resolved to help them in some way. He put on his winter gear and went out and opened up the barn so that the geese could go in and find shelter from the storm. When they didn't, he turned on the barn lights to attract them, but that still didn't work. So he went into the barn, got dried corn, and made a path for them to the barn...hoping that they would eat and follow the corn. Sadly this didn't work either. Finally, the farmer tried to corral and herd the geese towards the safety of the barn. Yet the geese simply ran around oblivious to his efforts.

As all of his attempts to help came to naught, the farmer thought to himself: "If only I could somehow become a goose, for then I could lead them to safety myself."

Then, there....in that very moment, the farmer had an epiphany: he all of a sudden understood why God choose to become a man!

Fr. John