Entries by Rev. Stephanie

We've all seen railroad tracks. Now in case you've never measured before, the distance between the rails is exactly 4 feet, 8 inches. But why would that distance be such a strange number like that? Well, train tracks in the United States are 4 feet, 8 inches apart because that's how far apart they are in England. And the first railroad lines that were built in this country were built by people from England. But why are the English train tracks that odd size? Well, it's because that's the size that they used in England for the tramways, which was sort of the forerunner of the train.
And the tramways used that size of 4 feet, 8 inches because that was how far apart the wheels were on wagons. And when they built the tramways, they were mainly using the same equipment that they used to build wagons. But then, why were wagon wheels made 4 feet, 8 inches apart? The answer there is that they wanted the wagon wheels to match up with the ruts that had been made in the roads. Well, who made those roads in England? The answer is the Romans, about 2000 years ago. And those same roads have been used ever since. But why were the ruts 4 feet, 8 _ inches apart? It's because that was the width of a chariot back then. So it seems we’ve been in a rut for quite some time, doesn’t it?
Lead us not into the rut, O God.
Thor Heyerdayl, Norway’s most famous adventrer is internationally known for his sea travels and for the balsa raft he built called Kon Tiki. He sailed Kon Tiki from Peru to Polyneisa to prove a point about animal migration patterns. But what he found was that the dangers on his trip were not the ones the lie far out at sea, but the ones that lie close to the shore. Near the shore a boat can run aground on a sandbar, it can get dashed against the rocks, or swamped by pounding surf. But at sea, Thor felt freedom, and life of the wind, and the mystery of the deep water and the unknown. Thor knew that the joy of his sea travels was meaningless if he only stayed in the safe places.
Lead us not into the rocky shore, O God.
The Dean of Duke Chapel tells the story of his youth remembering a book he had about the Lord’s Prayer. Each page was outlined with a picture describing a section of the prayer. He distinctly remembers one page with a boy and his hand in the cookie jar with his head turned backward to see his mother’s disappointed face looking onward.
Lead us not into temptation, O God.
Where on earth is it that we do want God to lead us?
We stand here in worship on this second Sunday of Lent and I have to admit that Lent always seems like such a long and dusty road. At least until you get to the very end. It isn’t nearly as sweet and loving as the virgin birth at Christmas. It isn’t nearly as exciting as the Resurrection on Easter. There aren’t any wild flames of fire causing disciples to break out in foreign speech like Pentecost. No, Lent seems like this long and often somber road of contemplation and introspection. 40 days of analyzing is a long time, even for me. But as we trek on this journey together, where do we want to end up?
Where is it that we do want God to lead us?
We hear in the gospel of Luke today that Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness for forty days and while he was there he was tempted by the devil. He was hungry and the devil challenged him to turn a large stone into a loaf of bread. He was alone and the devil led him to the mountain top and promised him authority over all people. He was weary and the devil told him to throw himself off the temple for the scripture promised that God would lift up the Messiah with his angels who would never let him fall.
Jesus knew where he wanted God to lead him and when the temptation for the simple life came,
Jesus replied: Man does not live by bread alone.
When the temptation for personal glory came,
Jesus replied: Worship the Lord your God and worship him alone.
When the opportunity for doubt came,
Jesus replied: Do not put the Lord your God to a test.
But as we sit in the wagons, in the trains, in the cars, as we dwell in the path of this life that we lead, the moment we are in right now, doesn’t it sometimes feel like we are just in some sort of holding pattern that isn’t really headed anywhere?
When we begin lent, even planning for lent, there is a collective groan. Oh… what do we have to give up this year? How many Sundays do we have to endure before we get to hear the trumpets again? Some churches go as far as stripping the church of all vestments and adornments during the season. Others light 8 candles at the beginning of Lent and week by week extinguish a light to draw us nearer to the crucifixion.
The amusing part of it all is that the word Lent has nothing to do with our religious season. It comes from the Latin lengthen referring to the lengthening of days as the spring equinox approaches and the northern hemisphere grows closer to the sun again. Lent is actually the process of drawing closer to the light, instead of wallowing in the dark. How fitting.
The way I see it is that we are leading lives of the 4 foot 8 inch variety. We wake up each day, eat our favorite cereal, plow through our routines, cook something for dinner, watch our shows, and head to bed. Over and over again. And don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about some consistency in life, even some preferences for a few of your favorite things over and over again.
But when it comes to Christ, and to our faith, and to the church, eating the same meal over and over again, watching the same show over and over again, these things can cause us to wonder, how did we end up on this road? Why does it seem like we keep banging into the same rocks along the shore line? Why does the cookie jar look so appetizing?
One minister made the mistake of asking the children how they felt about being in church on Sunday morning and a five year old raised his hand and shouted “It’s so boring!!!!”
Boring is not a new word around the church, for sure. How many people do you think we’ve lost from our pews and pews all over the world, because folks thought church was boring? Folks who sat in the same seat in the train for miles and miles and never saw anything new. Never experienced new life, never felt God lead them anywhere.
How many people attend worship regularly and agree with the sentiment of the little boy? Who wish they could speak up and share how incredibly bored they are?
I was that little kid. Not in church, I always loved to be in church, but at home. I was constantly bored, constantly nagging my mom for something to do, for some game to play, for some activity. And yet, as a child, the best times you can have are the ones where you venture off on your own and find a few random things, and make a fort, or invent a game, or build a kingdom or meet a friend.
But how many of us instead tug at God’s shirt sleeve and whine, I just can’t get up, it’s my day to sleep in, it’s boring, or nobody will miss me, or it just isn’t very exciting, god. How many of us sometimes feel that our faith is in that rut, that our life seems to bang against the shores again and again, and that the cookie looks a little more enticing than a church committee?
Folks always say that the world is so different now… that they are so many more options for families and children than just church and Sunday school, there’s too much competition. But as Jesus sat in the wilderness temptations came at him from every angle, experiences that might have looked a lot more exciting than sitting in prayer and contemplation but Jesus knew where God could and would lead him. He sacrificed the easy things for the things that truly satisfy.
And so when we are bored, stuck in a rut, God says, open the bible – have you read the stories in there? They are a million times more exciting than reality TV! Have you prayed like you really mean it, like you actually believe God can change your life? It is so easy for a faith that doesn’t know where it’s going to become bored and reach for something quick and easy and unsatisfying.
This is why we are here together in lent. Perhaps to use the original meaning of the word – to draw ourselves closer to the light – to sacrifice the darkness carries more meaning than intended. Lent is a time for new beginnings, new discoveries. Lent is the time to see how far you can go, how much you can endure, to see how far you can push your faith so that you can experience resurrection, taste new life.
You see, here’s the rub. We prefer to stay close to the shore just in case, so that we can run to solid ground quickly when something is more challenging then we are prepared for. But when we do this, when we choose what we know over the new adventure, we will become bored!
But for Jesus, he knew that to do what God wanted for his life, he couldn’t stay in his regular routine. He couldn’t stay with his disciples who professed their faith in him. He couldn’t stay in the towns and perform miracles, no, he had to leave what was familiar in order to give new life to the world.
In The Present Age, Soren Kierkegaard tells the story of skaters on a large frozen lake. There is an enormous treasure resting in the middle of the lake where the ice is most thin. While everyone would like to obtain the treasure, no one is courageous enough to skate out there. So instead, the skaters have learned to skate around magnificently near the thick ice near the shore of this lake. Instead of obtaining the treasure, their obsession becomes ever more intricate and skillful skating, until thoughts of that treasure are lost. This is Kierkcgaard's picture of the church. The church has forsaken the cross in its mission. Growing comfortable and not taking chances, the church has an impressive appearance in the midst of the abandoning its original purpose.

Where do you want God to lead you?

The answer is so totally up to you. How close you want to become to God, how much of the darkness of your life you want to sacrifice is in the palm of your hands. Many people say they don’t know how to experience god or the holy spirit,, they don’t know how to know jesus. Well, it starts by making a sacrifice… perhaps just 10 minutes a day of commitment to prayer. I promise if you do that you will notice God working in your life. If you sacrifice a half hour of your night to reading bible stories with your family, I promise that you will see your children learn and grow from the best role models they can ever have. If you sacrifice one magazine in the bathroom and replace it with a devotional, I promise you will leave every moment in the toilet more focused. Celebrate all of these little ways that you can make sacrifices to draw yourself closer to God, farther from the shore, farther from the rut, and closer to the light in your life!!!!!

I believe that we want God to lead us someplace holy. I believe that each and every one of us wants to experience the divine, to sense God’s presence in our soul. I believe that each one of us longs to be the person God has set out for us to be.

And we have really good intentions, but to do this lent thing, to really do this, we must sacrifice, we must take risks. We must break out of the rut that we have been in for god knows how long, turn our back on temptation, sail out in the deep wide open and risk falling through the ice, because I know, I am sure, I promise, that what we will find will wash over us in a way that will give us new life and new breath, a way that will show us salvation, a way to celebrate all that God is doing through our sacrifice so that we too can experience resurrection.

Where do you want God to lead you?


Amen

As a part of the curriculum of the seminary that I attended, we were required to go on a cross cultural trip to a third world country. My class was slated to head to Israel and Palestine but when the planning began in 2002, the middle east was once again in violent conflict. Our trip was rerouted instead to the Island of Cuba. No one had any idea what to expect, including the leaders of the group, but we plowed forward and entered the land of our southern communist neighbor to study their people and their religion. Most of our trip was filled with lectures and workshops, church studies and social system analysis. But there is one particular event that stands out in my mind when I listen to the words of scripture we hear today.

We were in the outer lands of the island, far from the capital city, on a huge tour bus. We moved farther and farther away from civilization and after quite a while on the road we turned into some sort of compound. There were children everywhere enjoying the sunshine and eagerly awaiting our arrival. We got off of the bus to be greeted by these lovely kids who simply waited, as if trained, to shake our hands. As it turns out it was a facility for children with special needs. The schools were not equipped to deal with non-mainstream children and so parents were forced to send their children to live at this school if there was any hope for them to learn and grow. We looked through all of the living quarters, learned about the organic farming on the site, and then we were ushered on to a concrete slab arranged with plastic white lawn chairs. We took our place, still not sure what was happening around us, but soon enough, a dozen beautiful young girls, dressed as ballerinas, all with downs syndrome scurried out of a nearby building holding trays with ceramic espresso cups for us. They struggled to carry the trays and hand us the drinks and they waited with anticipating eyes to see if we were pleased with our gift.

Now if any of you have had regular espresso you would know how incredibly potent it is. And if any of you have traveled, you would know that many other countries prefer their coffee products much stronger than those served in the US.

The girls waited anxiously with their trays to take the glasses from us as we finished, but so many of my fellow seminarians scowled at the taste of the drink, making terrible faces, some even spitting out the drink once it reached their tongue. Some people asked, in English, if there was cream and sugar for the drink, Some refused the drink all together and left it on the tray. The girls were markedly saddened by our response as a whole, as if they had done something terribly wrong. Once they had collected all of the cups they quickly ran back inside to put them down and scurried out again to perform a ballet piece they had prepared just for us.
Many of the seminarians again expressed their discomfort, this time with the plastic chairs, some waived their books to create some air in the scalding heat, some started chatting as the dance seemed to drag on and on. But the girls continued on as planned, offering all that they had to us, in a simple attempt at providing hospitality and welcome.

He who welcomes you, welcomes me. He who welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me.

It seems as though the welcome mat might just be an accurate expression of hospitality in our modern world. It’s always there, we see it every day, and yet, we pay little or no attention to it’s message or importance. The word is displayed boldly as you enter a new state on the highway, there are paid people inside of wal-mart to welcome you as you enter the door, even as you enter the automated car wash, a mechanical voice shots over the loudspeaker, Welcome to Brite Wash, please select your preferred service.

The every day and perhaps dulled word welcome has much more spirited origins. Well, coming from the word weal, the origin of wealth – to be blessed. Come from the English comer, to enter in. Our commonality translates to … come and be blessed. How lovely is the sound of that? Come and be blessed….

Perhaps the marker we use today for hospitality and welcome is the ability to make someone feel at home. There are some places you can always go and feel like you are at home… some diners, some homes, some places that just feel right. They may look or smell different than home and they may be full of strangers, but there are just those places where you feel like you belong.

For the people of the bible, welcome and hospitality has always been part of the job description. The call to welcome the stranger is anchored in the Old Testament. It was a measure of the community’s faithfulness to God. When a traveler came to town, someone was always waiting at the well and it was required that the townspeople find a house to provide food and rest for the visitor for the night.

Of course, these travelers were rarely family. These were folks unknown to the community. They were foreigners, people who had different foods, different clothes, different languages, different gods. Opening one's home was risky. Today we'd describe such a thing as unsafe and foolish. It seems that just as much as we each have the need and desire to be truly welcomed, we also carry the innate suspicion of the stranger. But it was such radical hospitality that was central to the identity of the biblical people. It was not the risk or the fear that defined them. Their ability to welcome was the marker of their worth, because they knew that in receiving others they were living out the behavior of the God that they worshipped.

In the new testament the apostle Paul urges hospitality to everyone, promising that you would be entertaining angels unaware. In the early church in Acts, it was the deacons who were always the first to welcome people into the community, even to go out and gather those who were outcast or sick and make sure they felt as welcome as the insiders.

In his book, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, Arthur Sutherland says that hospitality is under attack from all sides. The art and practice of welcoming for the sake of welcoming is no longer part of the mainstream of our culture and in many facets is looked down upon. We find ourselves annoyed when people won’t stop talking to us, we find ourselves off put when we receive an invitation we don’t want to attend, we seek ways to avoid people in stores, we dodge phone calls by checking our caller ID first. We as a culture have separated ourselves from so many human interactions that we struggle to receive or be received.

Sutherland defines this hospitality concept for Christians in this way:
In the light of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and return, Christian hospitality is the intentional, responsible, and caring act of welcoming or visiting, in either public or private places, those who are strangers, enemies, or distressed,…. Welcoming without regard for reciprocation.2

It is by these qualities, Sutherland states, that a church stands or falls.

The book probes the question that has been resting in my mind all week…. Why should we bother? What difference does it make if we take the cup of espresso with a smile or a scowl?

For me personally, when I read the words of Matthew that tell me to offer this cup of water, I am reminded that I don’t do enough and by allowing me to focus on giving without any regard to what I might receive in return, I am challenged, once again, to refocus my actions and my assumptions.

Let me tell you what put it all together for me this week. You might know, I’m pretty slow to make connections sometimes. That joke, about what’s black and white and red all over? I just figured that out a few years ago. In any case, I’ve always understood what the gospels were referring when they said that there was a physical blindness and a spiritual blindness, that some people were unable to see what Christ was doing in the world. But this week, I heard a radio show about leprosy in biblical times and for the first time a connection triggered in me. You see, I’ve always equated leprosy in biblical days with things like aids in modern days – diseases that we want to quarantine. But it hit me like a ton of bricks this week when I realized the spiritual aspect of leprosy for modern day. A world full of people that are unable to feel.

Unable to feel the pain of the neighbor, unable to feel compassion for the sick and homeless. Unable to move outside of ourselves, because there is so much pain in our own lives and in our world. Just this week, four more people in my life lost their jobs. Just last week, a woman who is suicidal sought me out to find any purpose in this life. Over the last few months, more and more couples have come forward and asked for help with their failing marriages.

When I look at the world through these lenses, it feels as though all of these very painful and difficult things too often cause us to create a protective shell around ourselves that does not allow us to receive the life that Christ has prepared for us. We feel unable to participate in the dance that our God has so carefully designed for our lives. We often feel plagued by this spiritual leprosy, unable to feel much of anything for the world going on around us.

It is easy to hear a story about espresso and ballet and wonder how callous those future ministers could possibly be. Couldn’t they see all that was being painstakingly provided for them?

But today, this glorious morning, our God is seeking each one of us, inviting us in, and asking us to receive the welcome and hospitality of Christ and of the Church. In Christ is where we find our true home, a place where no pain, no death, no disease, no anger, nothing can tear us away from the boundless love that God has waiting for us.

In our modern world, hospitality and welcome are things set aside for entertaining. I think there is even a decree in hospitality at some universities. Hospitality is a task to be completed, often in order to receive a more profitable outcome.

Kathleen Norris, a well known preacher, says that that only people who are basically at home, and at home in themselves, can offer hospitality...hospitality has a way of breaking through our insularity" (267).

We had to spend 21 days in Cuba discovering much about the country and about ourselves. Each day we climbed on the bus with out teeny tiny little tour guide who spent 7 am until very late at night with us every day, despite having a family at home. Over that time span we were blessed to get to know her more and more each day. We found that she had a husband and a son and lived in a one room apartment that she hoped to renovate into smaller rooms. We learned that her family had a combined income of 8 dollars a month and that often the rations of food provided by the government did not last long enough. We grew to love her and feel compassion and care for her. At the end of the journey we decided to take up a tip offering for her, as is customary on most tour bus travels. Each one of us gave at least $20 to the pot for this small woman who had come to be our guide. With 30 people on the bus the amount totaled over $600 – more than 8 years pay for her household. We did this because we had built a relationship with her, we learned to receive what she offered us about her life and her country. She made us feel at home.

But it did not happen overnight. We plowed through day after day, being uncomfortable and nervous and afraid. But we learned hard lessons about being received and then receiving others. This is the way it is with our God. At this very moment, God is opening his loving arms to provide welcome and care for you. Perhaps there will be many moments of rejection, where you simply don’t have it in you to feel anything. But if we make the commitment and get on the bus day after day, we will learn about this God who is always willing to receive us and nurture us and inspire us and love us. And our lives will be transformed.

He who welcomes you, welcomes me. He who welcomes me, welcomes the One who sent me.

Never before has it occurred to me to compare the gift that God has given us with the gifts we give one another. I’ve often heard that we give because God gave or we give because we are celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus. But I have never considered trying to understand the logic behind the type of gift or the manner in which it was given.

Our God is so wise and so all knowing that he really did give us the perfect gift and it just amazes me how long it takes us to grasp the nature of this gift.

God didn’t give us a package with bows and ribbons. He didn’t give us something temporary. He didn’t give us something that could ever be thrown away.

Instead he gave us the gift of himself. And in sending his son, in sending Immanuel, “God with us” he gave us a person with whom we can have a relationship.

Relationship or relational ministry is a big buzz word right now in churches. It is the concept that all ministry that happens really doesn’t happen in meetings or in events, but that ministry happens in the relationships that we build with one another. When we truly get to know one another and care for one another, when we learn how to love no matter what and spend our time feeding and nurturing, both physically and spiritually, that is when we learn about who Christ is and what Christ has to offer each one of us. This new way of thinking has caused churches everywhere to re-evaluate how they do church. Churches are cutting back on programs and committees and increasing small groups and experiences.

You see, we come here each week to work on our relationships – the primary relationship for all of our lives is the one that we have between us and our maker. We come here to put that back in focus and to have our lives put back on track week after week. And when we tend to that relationship with Christ, we should seek to have all of our relationships mirror that openness and joy and service.

But, as I’ve said so many times before, we are skilled artisans at keeping church in church and keeping the “real world” functioning as it should. And I see my job as helping all of us to find ways to have the two cross over. That is exactly what God did in Christmas. He crossed over from the only God world of the heavens into the ordinary and mundane world of earth and when he did that he proclaimed to us that there is not one speck of our lives that is off limits to the power of God.

This relationship is for all people. Between you and every single person you meet. Between all of the people who you can’t wait to see at Christmas and between you and those people you wish you didn’t have to see.

When the Advent Conspiracy asks us to give more, it is asking us to think specifically about the God who gave us everything in taking the greatest risk by sending his son to earth and then to take risks in our own lives. Reaching out to those who need some companionship. Giving the gift of time and of love.

You probably remember a few months back a dear friend of mine lost her four year old to cancer. She struggles every day to just make it through the ordinary things. But occasionally she still posts on her daughter’s website the things that are going through her mind. This week she posted that she was talking to her friend about the people who are hard to shop for on her list. The friend responded that to those people she always gives time. To the nieces and nephews who have everything, to the grandmother who is late in years, she always finds a way to give a gift that involves spending quality time with the person.

When my friend Amy heard the response she was stopped motionless in her tracks. Here she was worried about silly presents when all she had prayed for over the last year was more time with her daughter. She quickly recalled the countless hours of puzzles and coloring and doll play that they enjoyed in her daughter’s hospital bed when there were no other activities they could do. She herself needed a reminder that time is the greatest gift we have to give, even in the midst of our harried schedules and frantic lives, there are moments that someday we will wish we would have had and wish we would have taken.

Give More. Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More.

This is what Christmas is all about. Giving of yourself in a way that honors what God gave to us. The very nature and design of his gift must be the primary model for all of our gifts.

I pray that as you receive the gift of the Christ Child this year, you, perhaps for the first time, think about God’s logic and wisdom in the way he gave the perfect gift and reconsider the gifts you will give because of the gift we have all been given.

Amen.

Not sure about our testimony

What is your favorite legal drama? Did you grow up on Perry Mason? Or did you become addicted to Law and Order reruns during the writer’s strike because there was absolutely nothing else on? One of our members reminded me of an old legal show that I used to love as a child – Night Court.

There is one episode that I have always remembered and I can’t really tell you why. But, there was a sweet old lady who ran into the court with a grenade threatening to blow up the courtroom if her husband isn’t released from prison immediately. The court staff try to calm her down and try to remove the weapon from her hands but she is frantic and demands her husband’s release. After they check for his name on the roster they quickly find that no one by her husband’s name has been tried in the court or is being held in prison. She is insistent but after some time the court guard Bull who was one of my favorites is finally able to have a conversation with her.

What he finds is the part I remember the most. The woman had religiously watched a certain soap opera on TV and had come to claim one of the characters as her husband. The soap opera was filming a court scene where her imagined husband was put in prison. She immediately came to the courthouse to demand his release. She was devastated when she couldn’t find him and became angry when Bull tried to tell her that her husband was an imagined character on a tv show.

She believed her own testimony… that she was married to this soap opera star. But the truth is that the world that she lived in was so distorted that she couldn’t tell the difference from the real truth and a grand story that she had concocted in her head.

The best part of all of the legal dramas, however, is trying to figure out who is really telling the truth. Some of the more modern court shows like Judge Judy have turned the entire court procedure into a farce. Not only are people presenting ridiculous stories that may or may not be true, sometimes you have to wonder if they are even real people and not simply paid actors.

In a good court scenario there is a testimony that seems absurd. A witness shares an inside secret that throws the whole defense. But, eventually if the witness sticks to the original story consistently, everyone comes to see the truth of an honest testimony. If the witness stumbles or waivers, the story loses its validity and power.

The gospel today tells us that John was such a witness. A witness that came to testify to the light so that all might believe through him. There were people ready to jump all over him and find holes in his story. People trying to make him falter and slip up about the story not being true. He was interrogated over and over – who are you? What facts do you base your claims upon?

But John did not waver. He was crystal clear and utterly steadfast about his testimony. He had come to testify to the light, and he did not back down, even though the state of the world appeared to contradict his claim, even though the thick gloom of human conflict and brokenness seemed to discredit his witness.

John came to testify, to proclaim from the witness stand that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. That he has come to earth to give humanity light and life and salvation. That yes, there is darkness in the world but the darkness will never ever overcome the light.

Perhaps that’s why we come here. To hear a reliable testimony, one that will forever be true. In the midst of all that is false and unreliable and untrue, when we gather here to worship we know that we can hear news that we can depend on.

It makes me laugh to think about what it would be like if we had a little court room skit after we opened all of our Christmas gifts. If each one of us had to get up on an imaginary witness stand and tell the truth about what we think about the gifts we received.

I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God….

Yes, I asked for that sweater, but any color other than lime green would have been great.
I know dad’s are supposed to get ties, but I hate them and I don’t even have to dress up for work.
Does anybody realize how many things in those grocery store fruit baskets are really gross?

What if the only gift you got this year was the gift of the baby Jesus? Could you, would you stand in the court and say honestly that you were not disappointed that you didn’t receive more?

Think about gifts you’ve received in the past that if you were questioned honestly about their value and meaning to you would cause you to squirm because you simply didn’t like your gifts. Perhaps they weren’t enough or weren’t right or just didn’t fit.

Ok, now some of you would classify this sort of behavior as rude. We are taught to always smile and show gratitude whether we liked the gift or not.

But what would happen if we changed our gift giving so that it would be easy to testify to how amazing the gifts you have received really are.

So, perhaps your thinking… yes that sounds nice in theory, but I don’t want to see complete and total disappointment on my children or grandchildren’s face on Christmas morning.

Will the kids get excited if all of their gifts are homemade? If everything they received is crocheted? Will they even get out of bed? If they get Jesus for Christmas will they be ridiculed in school?

One set of parents sat down with their children at the beginning of advent and explained why they were going to do Christmas a little different that year. They explained that large material gifts were not the focus of why God sent Jesus and they wanted to do something that came from the heart instead of from the toy store. The kids got it much more quickly than the parents. Then they loaded the family in the car and off to the craft store they went. Each person was given a $15 budget to buy supplies for whatever they wanted to make for another family member. Then, every night after dinner each person scurried into their own room frantically working on making the perfect gift.

On Christmas morning, everyone wanted to go and get the gift they had made instead of waiting to see what they were going to receive. They were so proud to give that that became the focus of Christmas.

One teenager daughter with a much younger sister gave her the gift of an entire afternoon together, doing teenager things. The young child was thrilled to spend the day in her sister’s room and playing with her older sister’s things she couldn’t imagine a better gift. One dad who couldn’t muster up the gumption to go into the craft store bought his son a baseball bat and ball and vowed to play ball with him three nights a week.

Perhaps this still sounds a little unrealistic to you. Let me share with you the alternative:

This year there will be a little known movie coming to some theaters. It is called What would Jesus Buy? And it is a documentary by the same producer of the recent film SuperSize me that came out a few years back. In the story a fictional character named Rev. Billie goes around trying to get people to repent before Christmas by asking them What would Jesus buy. Billie is assaulted everywhere he goes and even arrested at one store for trying to sing gospel music outside. He opens a church called the Church of Stop Shopping and he speaks loudly about how God is against what we have done with the birth of his son. In the front of a Walmart store, he tries to talk to a woman about how much she has purchased asking her if she really has the money for all of her items. She looks at him and says – I don’t care if I have the money, I’m going to go broke but my kids will be happy.

The movie has been rejected by most major theaters and large retail stores because there is fear that it will inhibit sales by these retail giants.

But when we give in to the shop til you drop mentality of Christmas we lose the purpose of giving, we lose the joy of knowing someone and we ensure that we will have a Christmas that is easily forgotten perhaps only days after the wrapping paper is thrown away.

I’m not going to ask who has a testimony to give about a Christmas when they bought too much. I can certainly sit on that witness stand. I know that in the past I have over purchased, purchased out of guilt and obligation, and purchased because someone got something for me first.

And I’m pretty sure that most people don’t remember those little cheap gifts I got for no reason. And so this year, I will try to cut back on obligation giving and try to buy with simplicity in mind. What is the simplest and most effective way to testify to the light of Christ that has entered the world… by giving gifts of heartfelt love, genuine compassion, by giving gifts that truly honor the person’s life and celebrate what God is doing through them. Vow to give no junk this year because it will only cheapen the gift that God has given you.

I think kids give better gifts than we do. If left to their own and without a pressured trip to
the mall, they would wrap up things like pictures that they made us, and it wouldn’t insignificant, either. It would probably be a picture of the family. Each person lovingly drawn out in stick figure fashion and you giggle a bit when you see how oval shaped they made Daddy’s head…because you know, it is rather oval shaped! But he is holding a Bible because “Daddy likes to read about God.” And big sister has purple nail
polish, because they remember how much she loves purple. And you’ll notice that everyone has a heart drawn on their chest – and if you ask – you’ll probably hear your child tell you that it’s “because we all love each other”. That picture is worth a $10 picture frame and will be remembered your whole life as a family. Would you remember the BBQ set that was “From Johnny” that cost $50 in the same way?

It couldn’t have been easy for John to give his testimony. To speak about Jesus in a bold and believing sort of way. He could have softened the edges and said, well, maybe this jesus guy is going to be something special, but I’m not so sure…and if he’s not, don’t hold me accountable. He wasn’t wishy washy. He wasn’t confused. He knew the distinct line between a message that honors god and one that defames god. And he chose to testify to the light.

To proclaim the goodness and holiness that lives in each one of us.

John chose to sit on the witness stand of the eternal court show and say, if you invest in this one, and only this one, I promise you, the darkness will never ever ever overcome what you do in God’s holy name.

Now it’s your turn… This Christmas, do you swear, solemnly swear to be a witness to the light that has come into the world?

Long after we had chosen the title of the stewardship campaign this year, we looked into finding images that followed our theme. The passion flower was a quick item that came to mind and each one of us thought the flower to be tropical and magnificent, though none of us was exactly sure which kind of flower it was. After some quick research we found that it was an intricate and detailed specimen and you can see a sample picture of the flower on your bulletin and insert card.

The passion flower was named not for its wild beauty and exotic color, but for the way that its many parts reminded Spanish missionaries in the 15th century about the Christ. The missionaries saw the outburst of petals to resemble the crown of thorns, the wiry tendrils reminded them of the whips used in Christ’s flagellation, the tip of the flower comes up in a chalice like shape that reminded them of the cup that Christ pours out for us and the colors of blue and white were constant reminders of the purity demanded in this life that would lead to the eternal live in heaven.

How amazing that such a simple thing as a flower held so much significance for the missionaries of a time long ago.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Last week I sat down to read one of the clergy magazines I get and the opening story from the editor was sharing an experience he had with this very scripture. He was a pastor with many friends, both in the church and out of the church. He did his best to be a living example of the gospel wherever he went. His neighbor, John, was not a church goer, but the two got along quite well, enjoying barbeques and community events together. One Sunday afternoon John came up to the pastor and shared with him that he was out on his boat the day before and all the guys were drinking and he had a bit too much to drink. He got in a fight with a friend and fell and broke his arm. He came to his neighbor the pastor and told him the whole story, chuckling the whole time. At the end of the conversation he asked for the pastor to say an extra prayer for his arm to heal quickly because he needed it to drive and to work. The pastor did not answer at first, but sat solemnly. He looked to him after a pause and said, I’m sorry John, but you reap what you sow. Until you are willing to change what you reap, I cannot ask for blessing upon what you have sown.

His neighbor was stunned. They had been friends for so long and there had never been any hard feelings between them. The pastor told him to come back and ask for a blessing when he was ready to change his ways.

Months passed and the two men didn’t speak. Finally John came back to the pastor and asked him to explain more about what he meant. His words had haunted him the entire time. He sat him down and showed him the scripture and explained that if he invested his time and energy and loyalty in things that worked for God’s kingdom, he would notice God’s blessings showing up in his life.


Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

An old farmer who was about to die called his two sons to his bedside and said, "My boys, my farm and the fields are yours in equal shares. I leave you a little ready money but the bulk of my wealth is hidden somewhere in the ground, not more than eighteen inches from the surface. I regret that I’ve forgotten precisely where it lies." When the old man was dead and buried his two sons set to work to dig up every inch of ground in order to find the buried treasure. They failed to find it but as they’d gone to all the trouble of turning over the soil they thought they might as well sow a crop, which they did, reaping a good harvest. In autumn as soon as they had an opportunity they dug for the treasure again but with no better results. As their fields were turned over more thoroughly than any others in the neighborhood they reaped better harvests than anyone else. Year after year their search continued. Only when they had grown much older and wiser did they realize what their father had meant

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

Last Sunday in the first session of the new small group Living the Life You’ve Always Wanted, the lesson focused on transformation. An old concept was made new for me as I listened and studied the words presented to us. John Ortberg, the author of the study shared that there is a key difference between training to do something and trying to do something. If you work diligently week after week to train for a marathon, chances are you are going to be able to complete the task, achieve your goals, and feel that you worked hard for a specific outcome. But if you walk out this door and “try” to run a marathon without any previous training, you are likely to fail, to let yourself down, and to possibly even cause harm to yourself and others.

You see, practicing passion isn’t about being impulsive or risky. The name actually comes from a book used in youth ministry to teach teens and adults alike how to put all of the energy and passion of youth into a spiritual practice that will last a lifetime. This is exactly what Paul is talking about in Corinthians. How can we reframe our lives so that we are sowings seeds of passionate generosity --- because when that is what we sow, we will reap the benefits of lives rededicated to the work of Christ.

When you sit down to think about your personal budget for next year and when you think about your time budgeting for next year. How you will spend your money and your energy -- name each seed that you are sowing and think about what that seed will grow into over time.

If you put $20 week in a sock and hide it under your pillow, 10 years from now you would have $10,400 dollars. Notice, I didn’t say invest it in the stock market! If you don’t put it away (if you don’t sow) you will have nothing!!

If you put a family budget of $100 a month toward eating out and entertainment, at the end of 2009 you will have nothing more than a bigger belly.

I can’t tell you how many of you have already told me these stories in your own words. I can’t tell you have many of you have said to me—I feel so much better when I go to church, or I feel like I am missing something, that I am off kilter if I am not in worship on Sunday morning. You have trained yourself to see the fruit that grows from sowing God’s seeds. Your life is better for it.

A few years ago we were at a small church in Piggott, Arkansas. I was watching TV one afternoon and they had this segment called “in the garden” – it was right before the first freeze of the season. He looks straight at the camera and says, “If you to have tulips in the spring – you must plant them NOW. You have to plant them before the first freeze. So like the mindless person that I am, I dropped everything and bought some tulip bulbs. I didn’t just buy a few I bought 50 of them – they came in this big bag. Amanda thought I was nuts. For some reason, I didn’t get them in the ground that day. We were at Amanda’s parents house and If you can picture Barney Fife bragging about being a tulip farmer – that was my attitude. I told her dad – I’m going to plant tulips, but not just a few – I’m going to plant 50. He looks at me, and says – I’ve tried to grow them here, and they just won’t grow. I wake up the next morning – I dig some holes for the tulips, but instead of planting 50, I planted 15 – way less than 1/2 . When spring came – we had this pretty flowerbed of 15 tulips. I kept the 35 bulbs as a reminder – when you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. When you give to God believing that he will not bless your gift – you will hold back, and he has less to bless. I want to live a life that God will bless – I want to give God the chance to pour out his blessing in my life – so that I can bless and give to those around me.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.