It was a week ago last Tuesday. It was early morning and I had just gotten to work when I saw a call from my daughter in New York. When I answered she was so distraught it took a minute for me to know what bad thing had happened. What had happened was the sudden death the night before of her good friend’s father. The friend is Catherine Scott, whom Mary Olive has known from childhood and with whom she now shares an apartment in New York City.Catherine’s Dad, Monty, Mary Olive told me, had had a heart attack. I turned around, left the office and went to see Monty’s wife Becky.

This morning finds us pouring water over several peoples’ heads. Why?

The Rev. R. Ewing Jackson, Jr. served as guest preacher.

Guest Preacher, Rev. Sandra Curtis delivers the sermon on December 27, 2015.

The Rev. Dr. Christoph Keller III, Dean & Rector of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, delivers the Christmas Day sermon.

Bishop Larry Benfield delivers the Christmas Eve sermon.

Let’s pretend.We can pretend for a moment that we are all perfectly happy. None of us quarreled with our children or our spouse over whether we would come to church this Sunday morning. None is divorced or unhappily married. None are worried about their children. No one has cancer. All are sexually well adjusted and content. No one feels remorse about a past mistake. We all make good money or good grades. Our debts are manageable; all bills are paid. No one has lost a mother or a father since last Christmas. None of us has ever lost a child. We are all pleased with our careers. None of us receives threatening or abusive emails, texts, or calls. No one has the blues. No one drinks too much or uses drugs or lives with someone with those monkeys on their back. We all look back to happy childhoods with loving parents in safe and stable homes. We are lucky at love. None of us thinks he is too short, too tall, too this, too that. “The world is so full of such wonderful things” . . . and here we are, all as happy as kings.

John the Baptist was ranting in the desert. Ranting at these people who had left town and come out to hear what he had to say and to be baptized. John was extraordinary. He would say anything to anybody who misunderstood religion or had suspect ethics, and that’s what he was doing in our gospel lesson today.