Working on Christmas

December 25

Anyone who has been around a newborn baby knows that the work doesn’t stop. Labor is aptly named—it is labor. And once there is this baby…the ―labor continues. The day to day-ness, the hour to hour-ness of newborns is a wonder and an obligation.

I’ve always wondered about those of us in churches. All the work, all the events leading up to Christmas—all the work to get the baby born…and then? Then, small numbers in worship, days off, a lessening of excitement and attention—even though we know, with real babies, the adventure has just moved to an even more urgent level!

So, with a hope that our attention does not wane, Christmas greetings to all! And a hope that we continue our work: our holy work to understand who we are as God’s children, and who this Jesus is to us.

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If you’re looking for a Christmas ―assignment, here is a Christmas gift from writer Frederick Buechner – ―Emmanuel.

"Christmas is not just Mr. Pickwick dancing a reel with the old lady at Dingley Dell or Scrooge waking up the next morning a changed man. It is not just the spirit of giving abroad in the land with a white beard and reindeer. It is not just the most famous birthday of them all and not just the annual reaffirmation of Peace on Earth that it is often reduced to so that people of many faiths or no faith can exchange Christmas cards without a qualm.

"On the contrary, if you do not hear in the message of Christmas something that must strike some as blasphemy and others as sheer fantasy, the chances are you have not heard the message for what it is. Emmanuel is the message in a nutshell. Emmanuel, which is Hebrew for "God with us." That's where the problem lies.

"The claim that Christianity makes for Christmas is that at a particular time and place "the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity" came to be with us himself. When Quirinius was governor of Syria, in a town called Bethlehem, a child was born who, beyond the power of anyone to account for, was the high and lofty One made low and helpless. The One whom none can look upon and live is delivered in a stable under the soft, indifferent gaze of cattle. The Father of all mercies puts himself at our mercy. Year after year the ancient tale of what happened is told raw, preposterous, holy and year after year the world in some measure stops to listen.

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. A dream as old as time. If it is true, it is the chief of all truths. If it is not true, it is of all truths the one that people would most have be true if they could make it so.

"Maybe it is that longing to have it be true that is at the bottom even of the whole vast Christmas industry the tons of cards and presents and fancy food, the plastic figures kneeling on the floodlit lawns of poorly attended churches. The world speaks of holy things in the only language it knows, which is a worldly language.

"Emmanuel. We all must decide for ourselves whether it is true. Certainly the grounds on which to dismiss it are not hard to find. Christmas is commercialism. It is a pain in the neck. It is sentimentality.

"It is wishful thinking. The shepherds. The star. The three wise men. Make believe.

"Yet it is never as easy to get rid of as all this makes it sound. To dismiss Christmas is for most of us to dismiss part of ourselves. It is to dismiss one of the most fragile yet enduring visions of our own childhood and of the child that continues to exist in all of us. The sense of mystery and wonderment. The sense that on this one day each year two plus two adds up not to four but to a million.

"What keeps the wild hope of Christmas alive year after year in a world notorious for dashing all hopes is the haunting dream that the child who was born that day may yet be born again even in us. Emmanuel. Emmanuel."

Advent Advice

Among the single best advice I have ever received in ministry came from one of my first supervisors: “Never forget that people are different” she told me.

Simple, obvious, often overlooked or underestimated. Can this wisdom ever be more true than during Advent? For every household that fills these days with Christmas carols and the smell of baking, there is a family where the pain of loss still hangs so heavily that everything seems to be in slow motion. For each ad enticing us to consumption that reaches our mailbox or inbox, there is a village thousands of miles away where a mother is figuring out how to stretch 3 days of food rations to feed a family for a week or more. Advent under the tree at Rockefeller Center feels distinctly different than another December spent in a prison yard in Texas.

“Never forget that people are different.”

Advent offers a way through this. It offers a way with all these differences. Advent discipline – the quiet, the watching, the waiting – leads to joy. But it is a joy that is rooted in humility and in a sense of expectation that we cannot create that joy on our own. Sometimes the frenzy and busyness of this month seems to create the myth that if we work hard enough, shop long enough, bake diligently enough, we can create the joy we so desperately want.

“Never forget that people are different.”
 
If this Advent finds you in harmony with your life, thank God. If this Advent finds you disrupted or even shattered by where you find yourself right now, you too can thank God. The thanksgiving for the harmony is gratitude for a God who fulfills promises. The thanksgiving for the disruption is a greater challenge, but it is the gratitude that a God whose love was borne out on the cross will go to any length and plunge to any depth to give us a hope that will not fail us, even in the hardest times.

How is Advent going for you so far?

How is Advent going for you?

No, not how far along are you on your gift-buying list. Not how many cookies you have baked. Not whether your tree is up and decorated yet. Those can be wonderful things at the heart of any celebration. But, they are not Advent.

Advent is the gift of time we are given for watching and waiting. For being stretched in expectation that comes from the contemplation for what God may be doing today or may yet do tomorrow. Advent has always been meant (well, at least until that last century) to be the quietest, least frenzied season of the year.

Everything in life requires some compromise and accommodation. I doubt if we could shut down the Christmas machine of our culture even if we wanted to. So, how about this: one day in the next three weeks of quiet and contemplation with all the “to-do lists” put in a drawer for the day. Too much? How about 20 minutes each day the rest of the month where you do nothing but quietly take a walk or stare out a window.

The end of all this is not with ourselves. It is that we be given time enough to contemplate our place in God’s world and in God’s purposes of love and justice so that, having considered such important values, we can act on them. We can be the love, the justice, the peace, the comfort for which our world is so desperately hungry.

(Photo credit:  freefoto.com)

Health Care Discussion at church this Thursday

This Thursday – December 3 – from 7 to 9 p.m. at Grace Covenant we’re going to gather folks to talk about health care. What we’re NOT going to talk about is which current bill is the best or whether The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times editorial page as it right. What we ARE going to talk about is how we, as people of faith trying to follow Jesus, should participate in this national discussion. What theological, ethical, moral values are at stake here?

We’ve got seven members of our congregation working in different areas of the health care system to start us off by talking personally about their values and their challenges.

More information is on the web site (www.gcpcusa.org) under the “What’s Happening Now” tab. I hope you can join us for this important discussion.

Heath Care and Faith

I wonder how many column inches in papers and video minutes have been consumed in the last few months on the debate over health care in the United States?  With all the talk and all the opinions, the role of our faith in how we view this issue has been mostly ignored in the national discussion.  Much of what is being discussed - from every political perspective - has faith and ethics values quietly laced into their commentary. 

At Grace Covenant, we are going to gather on Thursday December 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. to discuss health care from the perspective of our faith and values.  Several of our members who are active in or related to the heath care field will offer their thoughts and we'll use their thoughts as a guide to discussion.  We will follow up with future meetings to get more focused on individual topics, but thought this was the place to start.  I hope you can join us.

A Mid-November Slice of Life at Grace Covenant

There are so many things bouncing around our community life right now.

This Sunday is Children’s Sabbath which is an opportunity to draw on our children and youth more intentionally for leadership in worship. That is something we’re trying to do beyond one special Sunday. Many of you commented on how meaningful it was to have our children bring the communion elements forward on All Saints Day. We are looking for ways to include children and youth more deeply and broadly as a regular practice.

There is lots of conversation going on in our community, partially led by Grace Covenant, about trying to do more with homeless women and their children during the day. Most shelters in town “empty out” early in the morning and don’t receive people until the evening. What those who are homeless do between morning and evening is crucial to their getting out of homelessness. There will be much more on this important initiative very soon.

Someone asked me this week if I “sweat out” stewardship pledge totals at this time of year. It’s been a challenging time, to be sure, but I am excited about everything Grace Covenant is doing both within our walls and out in the community right now. I am hoping and praying that we have the resources to do everything we need to do. I am grateful for how everyone has responded. Thank you.

Our Deacons-elect had another training/orientation meeting this morning. I am really looking forward to how this ministry will enhance our church life. Care-giving is happening everywhere at Grace Covenant and these deacons are not inventing caring nor are they “taking it over” from others. They will be there to help us go deeper and to give a breather to those who have worked hard to this point. They also have their eyes open for new opportunities to get all of us doing more in support of those who call this church home.

Defining "saints"

I don't find anything comparable to the magnificent beauty of a soul and its marvelous capacity.
- Saint Teresa of Avila

Every year for our All Saints’ Day bulletin, I pick a dozen or so pictures of people to put on the cover. Some are public figures, famous and well-known. Others are known only to a few. They are a random scattering of “saints.” But by what criteria to we identify saints? Rosa Parks and Mr. Rogers were on the cover a couple years ago. That seemed right. There was a piety and a striving for justice that seemed evident. This year’s choices provoked more thought and soul-searching. The civil rights crusader and singer Odetta is on the cover. She was inspiration for so many and for a movement. Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity is there. He started such an important enterprise, but also struggled with allegations of his personal behavior in the last decade of his life. Ted Kennedy? By his own words, Ted Kennedy considered himself a flawed child of God trying to do better over a lifetime. Eunice Kennedy Shriver is pictured. The Special Olympics. Enough said. And just to balance the political spectrum, Jack Kemp. He did more than most in government over the last 25 years to try to bring equality and dignity to the disadvantaged . Tammy Faye Bakker is there. If you haven’t seen “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” watch it and we’ll discuss. John Hope Franklin, an African-American scholar and historian died this March at the age of 94 and influenced multiple generations of scholars and students in understanding human behavior and oppression. And Norman Borlaug is there--the scientist, inventor, and humanitarian, whose discoveries are estimated to have saved one billion lives worldwide. Borlaug once said: “Almost certainly, however, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all.” Norman Borlaug died just a few weeks ago.

It’s an unlikely company, along with Walter Cronkite, Molly Ivins, Dith Pran and Mary Travers. Are they all saints? Do their lives shine with the light of God? I think nearly all of them would say: “some days, yes; some days, not so much.” Just like us. We try, we hope, we strive, we vow to do better, to be better. We live our lives in such need of grace. We also live confidently because though we may never found a movement that improves the lives of millions, or win the Nobel Peace Prize, or inspire throngs through song or word—we live as God’s children. We live halting lives of obedience, trying to be kind, just, peaceful, and loving. Our souls have the capacity for beauty. That’s sainthood.