Sermon by David Niven
does anyone have the words spoken by David Niven at the very end of the movie when he is addressing his concregation...it's a sermon about Jesus's birthday...
charles
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MovieChat Forums > The Bishop's Wife (1948) Discussion > Sermon by David Niven
Run the video tape or DVD and transcribe the sermon, then you'll have it.
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Hello!
I too have been looking for the sermon at the end of The Bishop's Wife movie. Googled several different variations about the sermon and got nothing. Then it hit me and I tried...Empty Stocking sermon and BINGO!!! There is was!
Here it is:
Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wise men came with birthday gifts.
We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.
We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled…all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we are celebrating. Don’t ever let us forget that.
Let us ask ourselves what he would wish for most…and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
Hm. 'and the stretched out hand of tolerance.' That sounds a little fishy. "Tolerance" promoted in this decade, is many times an "intolerance" to anything Christian. Would be interesting at the time of the writing of the script to know what meaning the writer(s) had attached to that.
Can you fly this plane?
Surely you can't be serious.
I am serious,and don't call me Shirley
Well, it was just after the end of WWII when racism and segregation were very much alive in the US. That definitely might have been one of the meanings. . .although I don't think I saw one person of color in the film. There are plenty of non-Christians who could think of a lot of meanings to attach to the phrase.
shareJust looking over some of the comments on this film. Actually the sermon isn't exactly as Dudley dictates it. Dudley says You give me a tie; I give you a book. In the sermon, it's switched. Or it's the other way around, depending on whether the sermon you found is at the end of the movie or during the dictation. I just remember they were slightly different.
shareExactly -- I always think of Niven's "tolerance" line in the context of WWII and its aftermath.
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