Biography
Martin Bell is the powerful author of such books as The Way of the Wolf, Nenshu and the Tiger, Return of the Wolf, Distant Fire, and Night Places. He is also an Episcopalian priest who has done it all. He has been a radio announcer and even a private eye. He is a graduate of Beloit College and the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has pastored churches in Michigan and Indiana and now is serving as a diocesan missionary in Paul’s Valley, Oklahoma. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"The Angels Sang for You" 
You are everyone who ever was and everyone who ever will be. Decisions that you make in what we call the present — the here and the now — will validate or invalidate everything that has gone before, and make possible or impossible everything that is yet to come. The whole of the created universe has been waiting for you to show up. This is your moment, this is your time. The world has been waiting breathlessly for your arrival. Your life is of inestimable significance. You are what it is all about.

A little boy, upon hearing the Christmas story for the first time, listened with wide eyes as Mom read from the Bible about the angels, and the Heavens opening and how they sang.... And after she had closed the Bible said, “Oh Mom, did the angels sing for me when I was born?” You know the answer is yes, you know it is. We say they sang for Jesus and we are right. But there’s another message on the edge of that proclamation and it is the message of the life and the death and the glorious resurrection of the Lord. The angels sang for you when you were born. If you didn’t remember anything else that I am going to try to say this evening, I wish you’d remember that I did say that at least, that the angels sang for you at your birth.

I like to listen to radio preachers and I like to watch to television evangelists. No one else in my family likes to do that. I have to do it sometimes quietly. Sneak out in the car, maybe, and turn the radio on. I heard a man say one time, “You know if I didn’t know about the radical, enabling word of the grace of God, I would get me a hunting license and go hunting until fishing season. And then I’d stay fishing until hunting season.” And I had a friend who said, “You know, Martin, without Jesus, the whole world is just one big O’Hare Airport.” I know what he means.

And there is a story, and the story goes something like this: That between three and six o’clock in the morning, the disciples looked out from a boat where they were at that time. They saw what they believed to be a ghost walking to them across the water. And they screamed, and cried out in fear, they said, “It’s a ghost.”

Jesus said, “Courage, it is I.”

Peter it was who spoke up and said, “If that’s really you, call to me, that I might come out on the water, too.”

And Jesus said, “Well, come on. You can do it. Of course, first you have to get out of the boat. First you might have to get your feet wet, but you can do it. Come on.”

And the story goes like this: Peter got out over the side of the boat and started walking on the water. And as long as he kept his eye on Jesus he was alright. The minute that he began to notice the wind and the waves, however, he started to sink down. Jesus reached out and grabbed him, when he cried out, “Save me Lord.”

Jesus said, “Why did you doubt, oh why did you doubt?” And they both got back in the boat and the disciples worshiped Jesus saying, “Surely you are the Son of God.”

Now, is that a true story? What I mean is, is that a TRUE story? I’m here tonight to tell you that is the story of my life. But you know, that’s not the right answer, “That’s the story of my life”. In fact, it wasn’t even the right question to ask, “Is that a true story?” The real question is, “Are you living your life?” Whether you showed up with arms and legs, which you very well might not have, whether you showed up with an IQ of 180, which you might have, whatever your circumstances, wherever you are, are you living your life? Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.” Are you living your life?

I used to be a seminarian. Which means that I went to a seminary. When you are at seminary you have something that is called field work. Field work is where you go out to a parish and you hang around. And the whole idea is that you’ll catch on. And I did that. I went to a parish and they did not let me hang around with the adults. I did hang around with the tiny children. And they didn’t let me teach the tiny children either. They let me watch while they were being taught. And we did the same thing, just about, every Sunday, we colored.

it was Easter Sunday morning and Mom and Dad were upstairs worshiping and the children and I were downstairs coloring. We had pre-made pictures of Jesus and of the rock and of the tomb, and we were coloring them all nice and purple. That is except for one little girl who had gotten herself a piece of manila paper and she folded it down the center. It looked like a very large greeting card. On the front of it she had drawn a picture of a bunny. If you opened it up, inside there was a basket of eggs. Back with the bunny, around his ears, it said, “Happy”, and under the chin it said, “Easter” and the whole effect of the card was Happy Easter. I remember thinking, from where I was coloring, “Nice, very nice.”

Now her teacher, who wasn’t actually an evil person, who was more of a silly person, came to her and said, “Alice, I’m ashamed of you. You don’t draw bunnies and eggs on Easter. Easter is not about bunnies and eggs, Easter is about Jesus.” And Alice took both of her hands and she covered up as much of her creation as she possibly could, and she began to cry. Which made me very nervous. I did not say anything at that time. I did not believe it was my place to say anything. I was there to hang around and to catch on.

Probably because I did not say anything then, I’ve been saying something like this a lot since. Easter is not about — and I use the word carefully — Easter is not about Jesus. Easter is about Alice. And it’s about her bunny. And my authority for making such an outrageous comment as that is the life and the death and the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Yes, he died, and God raised him from the dead on behalf of Alice, on behalf of you, on behalf of me. Easter is about you — and me.

The radical, enabling word of grace that the radio preacher spoke of, that God is at work in all things, redeeming his creation, that the past is accounted as if it were righteousness. It is not righteousness, we know that, you and I are the ones who have fallen down 77 times already. We know about our past. But the radical enabling work of grace is that in spite of sin, grace does more abound. The past is accounted as if it were righteousness. Your own individual past — the time you stole that money. All the brokenness that is in your life that you didn’t think I knew about, but I do, I know about that. That’s accounted as if it were righteousness. And the past of the entire created universe, God is at work in all things redeeming his creation. You are accepted — not acceptable — but accepted. And because we have the boldness, because we have the audacity to proclaim this, we say, too, that the future is open to the coming of God’s kingdom of justice and of truth.

I’ll say something like that and somebody always says, “Isn’t that leaving us out of the picture? Doesn’t God need our response?” And you know, I’m always tempted to say, “No. God doesn’t need our response, God is God. We are not.”

But that’s not a good answer, either. In attempting to answer that I thought of a story. It’s not a true story in the sense of being an historical accounting of something that really happened. In that sense it’s made up. It may, on the other hand, be something of a true story in the sense that an arrow is true. It may go to a mark.

I wanted to tell a story about a child who knew that his father loved him and cared about him. He wanted to give something back. It was the father’s birthday coming up, and he knew that Dad was a fisherman and he knew fishermen used spoons. He took what little bit of money he had and he went out and bought a teaspoon. And then brought it home and put it in a box and wrapped it with wrapping paper and string and put scotch tape on.

At the birthday party of David’s Dad, Dad undoes the package, looks in it, very carefully, taking the top off, and sees a spoon. Being a very wise father indeed, he said, “Tell me about it.”

The kid said, “It’s a spoon, Dad.”

Dad says, “I can see that it’s a spoon, tell me a little more about it.”

Well, the child knows that something is wrong. Almost beginning to cry, the lower lip is starting to go, he said, “Dad, it’s for your fishing.”

Now what human father would not take that spoon and place it in his tackle box and carry it with him always and everywhere as a reminder of the child’s love?

Jesus said if a child asks you for some bread, you wouldn’t give him a stone, if a child asks you for a fish you wouldn’t give him a snake. You know you wouldn’t do that. And if you who are parents, who are human parents, who are evil down to your shoes, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more must it not be true of your Father in Heaven!

You know, I always think I’m going to make it to Heaven. I’m going to get there on a C minus. And as I do so I believe that God is going to be glad to see me. I’m going to knock on that gate — Bang, Bang — and I know God’s going to open it and say, “Martin, get in here. I’m so glad you’re here. Get in here. I’ve wanted to ask you for so long, what was that you were doing down there?”

And I’m going to say, “That was ministry, God.”

And I just know He’s going to say, “Tell me a little more about it.”

Ah, but I believe. I do believe, and I have faith and I have a sure and certain hope. Which is not the same as to say that I am sure or that I am certain. But I have a sure and certain hope based on that life, and that passion, and that resurrection from the dead, and the announcement of the enabling word of grace. I believe that that gift of mine, albeit unacceptable, will be accepted. I believe that. I know that it is in dying that we live finally. That we are the lucid, the nameless, the faceless ones for many, but not for God. We hang on to the love of God. We depend upon it and we stay close to him, and we continue to hope. In hoping we never give up.

We never are going to give up on prayer. We are never going to give up on one another. And we’re never going to give up on those who have given up on themselves. Not you and I, no, no.

You are everyone who ever was and everyone who ever will be. The decisions that you make in this present — what we call the here and now — will validate or invalidate everything that has gone before, and make possible or impossible everything that is yet to come. Your life is of inestimable significance.

The angels sang for you when you were born.