THREE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS

It's three days to Christmas. I actually finished my Christmas shopping last night, but this morning I received these words from Scot McKnight on his blog Jesus Creed.

"On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh" (Matthew 2:10-11). Christmas, the original one, had gifts.

Some are torn about giving gifts at Christmas because they protest consumerism.
Some are torn about giving gifts because they are unemployed.
Some are torn about giving gifts at Christmas because so many are poor.

But giving gifts transcends a Dickens kind of Christmas. Giving gifts, regardless of whether or not we can offer the royal gifts of gold and incense and myrrh, are natural to Christmas because God "gave" his Son to us at Christmas. Christmas is gift and our gifts mirror God's gifts to us.

Perhaps we should see all of our gifts as "regifting."

We give worship to God at Christmas as regifting what God has given to us.
We give gifts to others as regifting what God has given to us.

We regift to God, not because we are cheap but because all we have to offer to God is what he has given to us: our possessions, our money, our lives, our very selves. Even our worship is participation in the perichoretic worship of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

I don't mean to sound cute with this idea that Christmas is about gifts and regifting. I mean only to say that all we have has been given to us and at Christmas all genuine gifts are participations in what God has given to us. We pass it on.

DON'T HOLD ONTO THE PAST--LEARN FROM IT

Last night I watched one of my top ten Christmas movies, George C. Scott's version on A Christmas Carol. During his visit from the ghost of Christmas Past, he is shown all of the things about his past--good and ill, finishing with a disturbing picture of love and life lost to Ebenezer's greed and obsessions. Scrooge demands the ghost depart him, but as it evaporates, the spirit cries out. "Truth will win!" Denial and rationalization does not change the consequences of our past choices. The truth will work through and we will have to live with the truth. We cannot change the past.

But we can change the future!

How so? First, by not holding onto the past but by learning from it. Are there persistent patterns of thought and behavior in your life that consistently fail and rarely satisfy? That might be the first clue as to what you need to face. Does your personal story always begin with the disappointments in your life, is your default mode a victim mentality? You may very well be holding onto the past. The only thing you are learning from the past is how to stay there.

Second, make a relentless moral inventory. What is there about your values and your character that create negative, self-defeating, destructive patterns? Don't trust simply our feelings (your feelings often lie to you). Don't trust your own capacity to see the truth. Find someone you trust and invite them to speak the truth in love to you.

Third, seek the help of God to see what can be changed and to empower you to be changed. Ebeneezer Scrooge wasted a lot of his life, and caused a lot of suffering to others along the way. But because he made those changes, he was honored because "he always kept Christmas in his heart."

"Behold, I am making all things new!" - Jesus

FOUR DAYS TO CHRISTMAS

It is now four days until Christmas. Unless you have been swamped at work, or immobilized by depression, or just a major procrastinator; I suspect your Christmas decorating is complete, Christmas cards have been sent, presents to distant relatives have been sent, menu for Christmas dinner established, and you are preparing the house for a family time.

Let me ask a simple question. Are you ready for Jesus?

This is not one of those "turn or burn" evangelistic questions. It is a simple question about your focus and your openness. In our culture, it is very easy to let the reality of Christ to be lost in the observance of Christmas. Not totally so since researchers tell us this is the number one time people go to church--it's both a family tradition and politically correct. But are you making a point each day as Christmas approaches to remember the message, "God is with us." Are you thanking God for the most essential and awesome gift ever given--Jesus Christ? Are you going about your holiday business in the name of Christ?

And openness? How about this prayer ...

Heavenly Father, I know that You have loved us unconditionally and unasked.
I know that You sent Jesus into the world--first to the cradle and ultimately
to a cross-so that we might no longer be separated from You.
I know that You desire to make us a new creation, to give us a fresh start.
Help me to be open to what Jesus wants to do in and through me,
At Christmas and beyond.
Amen.

A SUNDAY MORNING WITH NO PLACE TO GO

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is a beautiful place to live. Yesterday's snowstorm added to its beauty. It is also gave me an unexpected day off. Don't go me wrong, despite being a recovering workaholic, I enjoy a day off. But I confess, I don't like Sunday being that day. I live to worship God and live abundantly because I worship. I know theologically that I can worship God alone in a golf course on a Tuesday afternoon enjoying the sweet sound of a warm breeze passing through the trees. But I worship best in the company of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Sharing their joys, uniting our hearts and voices in praise to God, hearing read scripture and say "This is the Word of God for the People of God", feeling their hand upon my shoulder as they pray for me, listening to someone share their personal God story--these are the things that enrich my worship time and multiply its blessings.

Plus, I am a preacher and God had given me a message for His people. It's hard to be overflowing with the Good News of Jesus Christ and have to save it for next week.
Really thankful that Christmas Eve is Thursday. Won't have to wait a whole seven days before experiencing the power of worshiping with God's people.

I HATE THE NFL NETWORK

Some of us try to keep our budgets under control. 70 channels of basic cable is enough. But I like sports, including professional football. I know it's a business, but frankly it makes enough money that it really doesn't need to reserve some of its product for a special network, for which it can charge even. It was bad enough my a meaningless game between the hapless Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers was scheduled on a Thursday night so only people who wanted to pay more for cable could see the game.(That stuck in my craw because my beloved hapless Browns finally beat the Steelers and I had to settle for a few clips from ESPN.) But when a truly important game like the unbeaten Colts versus the Jaguars on Thursday night and Saturday night's contest between the Cowboys and the unbeaten Saints was also denied the general football public because both were on the NFL Network.

It seems like a mark of our persistent falleness that someone is always figuring out how to make some people "haves" and others "have nots."

FIVE DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS - A PRAYER FOR ALL OF US

I am Irish by ancestry and thought this little prayer would help you as you focus on your final preparations for Christmas.

THE FIRST MAJOR SNOW STORM IN LANCASTER COUNTY

The first major snow storm of 2009 hit Lancaster County (and the entire Middle Atlantic region) early Saturday morning. They had been watching it develop and storm track projections had it pretty much making where we live Ground Zero. Coming on a Saturday, most of us welcomed the event as it gave us an excuse to abandon work projects, the crowded malls and stores, and just cocoon without guilt. I went to the office before the storm had begun do its major damage and in the solitude finished most of my preparations for Sunday morning and completed a project or two that needed to be ready Monday.

I also sent out email on the "contingency plan" for the storm's impact on our Sunday morning worship schedule. Emails went to all the persons who have leadership responsibilities reminding them of our cancellation policies and letting them know we would not implement any plan until six a.m. Sunday morning. We posted (per our practice) initial information on the church web site.

By policy we do not cancel worship services unless a snow emergency is declared or our church parking lots are unusable. Too many of our people consider worship so important that they prefer to be at church honoring the Lord and encouraging one another if at all possible. In this church and others, we have always found people who came. When the weather is bad and cancellation conditions have not met, we simply ask them to use their best judgment. And many a time, given the unpredictability of weather and the efficiency of road crews, a cancellation made on a Saturday has turned out to be premature--as the wind died down, the sun came out, and people were out and about to the malls, to the restaurants, snowmobiling--just not at church.

As a pastor, I am always inclined to be available for whoever needs to worship instead of canceling and being available to no one who needs to worship. More than one time, although attendance was slim, it was that morning that some one who did make it church heard a message that was vital to their lives, or someone else desperately needed to connect with caring Christians for prayer and support. Or given the "changes" required by a worship service on those days--the Spirit prompted some important opportunities for people to connect.