Category: Holidays and Commemorations

Celebrating Uncle Sam

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A good way to celebrate America on its birthday (and other times) is to learn about good ole Uncle Sam. Where did he come from, what did he do, and where is he going? How much better is it to celebrate in 2026, the year of America’s 250th birthday!

By Mark D. Harris

The 250th birthday of America is only a week away. Raleigh County (WV) has a county fair, a baseball game, several fireworks displays, special dinners, a golf cart parade, and activities at our veterans and first responders museum, to celebrate the occasion. For these events, some of us will become Uncle Sam, entertaining others and telling them about our great nation. If any of our readers wants to serve as Uncle Sam for this, or any other Independence Day activity (in any year), the information  following can help.

Materials

  • Uncle Sam costume – basic costumes cost $30-100. High quality, custom made costumes will cost over $1,000.
  • Uncle Sam poster 24×36 – This is the classic portrayal which most people remember

What about weapons? Uncle Sam has been heavily involved in defending the nation.

  • Revolutionary and 1812 (west) Virginia Rifle (flintlock) – Brother Jonathan and later Uncle Sam (1812) would have had such a rifle.
  • Civil War rifle (caplock) – Springfield model 1861/3.
  • World War 1 – typically without a weapon at all, but reenactors can use the 1903 Springfield or the 1917 Enfield.
  • World War 2 – Uncle Sam could be portrayed with an M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle or the M1 Garand.
  • Vietnam – M16, standard issue rifle

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Isaiah 53:3-5 What Jesus Carried for Us

easter performance of jesus christ on cross
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An Easter Sunday Homily

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, PhD, ThM, DBA

Musical Prelude

  • Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent
  • O Sacred Head Now Wounded

Congregational Hymn

  • The Old Rugged Cross

Scripture Reading – Isaiah 52:13-15, 53:1-12

Homily

Jesus was not despised and rejected because He personally short and ugly. Jesus was despised and rejected because He carried the ugliest, deadliest, and most terrifying parts of mortal human life in Himself. Everything which was dark and deadly, Jesus took. He took the agony not just of man but also of all creation. Every calamity in the universe fell on Him. Just as people fled from the Black Death, the Great Influenza, the guns of war, and the face of a corpse, so mortal man flees from Jesus.  His visage was too horrid to glimpse, much less endure.

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Go Your Way

old man on the beach
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Memorial Baptist Church, Beckley, WV,

By Mark Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Wildwood Cemetery Resurrection Service

Brass Prelude – Trombone and Horn in F, Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

Congregational singing – Up from the Grave He Arose

Read Daniel 12:8-13

The Story

An old man sat on a rock by a river and said to himself, “The superpower is dead.”

“More than 70 years ago, the mightiest nation in the land destroyed my tiny country. Then they moved me hundreds of miles away from my homeland,” the old man remembered.

Now, that superpower was destroyed, hacked to pieces by an enemy younger and more vicious than itself. The old man had seen great and terrifying things in his years.

He knew that his death was near, so he asked God, the One he had served so faithfully for so many years, what would happen in the future.

“Go your way,” came the divine reply. “You are not to know what will happen after you.”

“Many will suffer, but I will purify and refine them through their suffering”, says the Lord.

“The wicked will not cease their wickedness, and they will not understand what I am doing. Worship as you know it will end, and terrible times will come,” the Lord concluded.

But the Old Man knew that he would not live to see it. God repeated His command.

“Go your way to your end. Then you will sleep with your fathers and rise again into eternal life. You will receive what God has allotted for you…forever.”

The Application in Our Lives

The Lord calls us to do the same thing.  Our world seems more unstable than the old man’s world. But we know what the old man did not. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He has secured our future, both in this life and the next.

We can ask God about anything, but we should not always expect an answer. What we need to know is Christ. God commands us to follow Him and go your way.

We serve Him, we love Him, we worship Him, and we enjoy Him.

God says to us…Go your way, and you will rise again in Christ and receive the portion allotted to you in eternity.

Go your way.

Prayer

 

Up From the Grave He Arose                  Robert Lowry, 1874 [Key: F]

Verse 1
Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus my Savior,
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Verse 2
Vainly they watch His bed,
Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Verse 3
Death cannot keep its Prey,
Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away,
Jesus my Lord!

Chorus
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever,
With His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 

 

Christmas Caroling

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Christmas carols are among the most beloved parts of Christmas. Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and many other carols teach Christian truths and amplify the Advent spirit. Past generations learned carols in their families, but present generations do not. Music ministers sometimes add carols to Sunday morning worship. One venue where you can learn carols is Christmas Caroling. This article describes how churches can add caroling to their Christmas calendar.

By Mark D. Harris

Webster defines caroling as “to go about outdoors in a group singing Christmas carols”.[1] Caroling is a wonderful tradition in the Christian faith, though it seems to be declining in recent years. Growing up in Southern California, we never had a white Christmas, but we caroled. Now in West Virginia, we have many white Christmases, and we still carol. Annual caroling has become an important and consistent part of our holiday season.

History

Many of the origins of Christmas caroling lie in pagan singing and dancing around the winter solstice, usually December 21, the day with the least daylight in the year. However, as Christianity grew in Europe, followers of Christ kept many heathen traditions but transformed their meanings. For example, songs and dances to the Roman god Jupiter or the Norse god Odin become songs and dances to the real God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Fun With Santa

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Some Christians object to the modern celebration of Christmas, believing it to be too grounded in pagan rituals and secular mythmaking to be of any use to modern believers. While some of the influences surrounding Christmas were indeed pagan, that is no reason that followers of Jesus can’t enjoy the season. As long as we give glory to God in appreciating His work in the Incarnation, we can enjoy the secondary parts of Christmas. Santa Claus is one example.  

By Mark Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Christians know that the coming of Jesus Christ is the reason for Christmas. We know that Santa Claus is the American version of a generous and jolly character, an amalgamation of Father Christmas (England), the Christkind (Germany, known in America as Kris Kringle), Pere Noel (France), and others. We also understand that the modern Santa is based on a very real Christian leader in Rome, Saint Nicolas (270-343). Santa Claus existed, though much differently than the modern stories. Lastly, we know that Saint Nicolas is a servant of God in Jesus Christ.

Christians can enjoy the traditions around Santa Claus. We can track Santa’s location on Christmas Eve on a Santa tracker. The USPS takes letters from children who want something and matches these letters with people who volunteer to buy the requested present and send the gift to the child. Or you can go all in and become a Santa.

Resource Links

  1. How to be Santa Schools – Charles W Howard Santa Claus School, International University of Santa Claus, Northern Lights Santa Academy,  Worldwide Santa Claus Network,
  2. Operation Santa (Christmas Gifts for Children) – US Postal Service
  3. Santa Tracker – North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)
  4. Santa Tracker – Flight Radar 24
  5. Santa Tracker – Google

 

Lessons and Carols

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Church tradition is rich with rituals and methods for teaching the timeless and precious truths of Scripture to hearers over the generations. The service of Nine Lessons and Carols reveals God’s acts throughout history for the salvation of man.  Enjoy Lessons and Carols and consider adding it to your church Christmas traditions.

By Mark D. Harris, MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv, ThM, PhD, DBA

Christians around the world celebrate Christmas in a glorious variety of ways. Handel’s brilliant oratorio Messiah reveals the story of salvation from the Fall to the Triumph of Christ in music. The Service of Lessons and Carols does the same through Bible readings, Christmas carols, and pastoral writings.

History of Lessons and Carols

Prior to the late nineteenth century, parishioners sang hymns in church but Christmas carols in members’ homes, since carols were considered more secular than hymns. As hymns grew in popularity throughout Victoria’s reign, carol-singing seeped into worship. Meanwhile, ministers worried about the riotous living and drunkenness in Cornish pubs during the Yuletide season. The Bishop of Truro, Right Rev Edward White Benson (1829-1896), and co-workers combined Christmas carols, Bible readings, and pastoral homilies into the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.[1] The first service was done at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, 1880, in the hopes of attracting revelers into the church.  It worked…over four hundred people attended. The service grew popular after it was conducted at King’s College in Cambridge on Christmas Eve, 1918, just after the end of the First World War (1914-1918) and the influenza pandemic (1918).

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