Merry Christmas

Wow, is it ever harder to get a good blog post written when the kids are out of school!  But I wanted to take at least a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  I thought, today, that I would share a few of my favorite Advent reflections.  These quotes are forward looking, live Christmas every day kind of thoughts.  I hope you are moved or challenged by something here.

“We prefer to think of ourselves as givers – powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate.  This is a direct contradiction of the Biblical account of the first Christmas.  There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were, but as the receivers we are.  Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we—with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities—had little to do with God’s work in Jesus… We didn’t think of it, understand it, or approve it.  All we could do, at Bethlehem, was receive it.  A gift from a God we hardly even knew.”  William Willimon

So where does that put us, we who love to play Santa?  If we have received, how then shall we return the gift?  One good place to start is to find and read the words to the great missionary hymn, “Joy to the World”.  Ever read that one through?  Can we be part of what God is doing through Jesus?  “He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found!”  The good news is that we can.  We can keep Christmas through our gifts of service, and of giving to the service of others around the world.

Karl Barth explains it so well.  He says, “Just imagine if we were to adapt everything that gratifies and moves us into the life and movement of God’s Kingdom, so that we personally are, so to speak, taken out of play.  Simply love!  Simply hope!  Simply rejoice!  Simply strive!  But in everything, do it no longer from yourself, but rather from God!  Everything great that is hidden in you can indeed be great only in God. “  Doesn’t this one just make you want to shout, YES, God!   I think my prayer for 2010 will be, “take me out of play, God.  Move through me in such a way that people see Jesus, all year long.” 

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.

--Isaac Watts

And from the amazing Marva Dawn, a theologian living right here in Washington, “What’s wrong with Santa Claus… is that the theology is backwards.  Santa teaches children that if they are good, then they will be rewarded.  The Christ Child comes instead to tell us that, even though we cannot be good, God gives us the greatest gift of all anyway.”  I think this is such an important truth, and she says it in such a way that it would be simple to share it with our children tonight, or tomorrow morning, after the jolly elf has left his treasures.

 Nan Van Zwol

Catalog Season by Nan VanZwol

Did you ever have one of those moments when you thought God was telling you something, but you weren’t sure, and, more to the point, weren’t sure if you wanted to hear it?  My Saturday mail brought in an interesting juxtaposition of catalogs.  First was the BE: At the Bellevue Collection, a sparkling display of the best our Eastside retailers have to offer this Holiday Season.  But right under that glowing mag of “must-have HOLIDAY GIFTS” was a catalog of actual needs.  Yup, the annual World Vision Gift Catalog has arrived. 

Now, maybe you get the World Vision Gift Catalog, and you see where this is going.  If you haven’t seen it, it’s a lot like the FPCB Alternative Gifts Market Catalog, which should be coming out soon.  The major difference is that the World Vision folk have these glossy, full color photographs of gorgeous kids from all over the world whose lives have been changed by the gift of a duck, pig, goat, or the like.  The FPCB version has projects like those, as well as some closer to home and various ministries our church supports.  The implied suggestion of such catalogs is that we, who have much, could best celebrate the season by sharing our plenty with those Jesus talked so much about.  I imagine the message of the mall catalog and the World Vision catalog arriving on the same day is not lost on many of us.

After spending a few minutes with the World Vision catalog, suddenly that fabulous blue Coach purse in the BE catalog doesn’t seem quite as much as a “must-have”.  I had both catalogs open together, and flipped through the pages.  For the price of that purse, I could provide three women with microloans, and get a fetching hobo bag made by a group of Thai women who received one of these loans a previous year.   Worth it?  Which one would bring me more pleasure in the long run?  I can see the Thai handbag  as a conversation starter and possible relational bridge-builder.  The Coach bag?  Not so much.

Looking at a sweet-faced Bangladeshi girl with her new duck, I was reminded what Jesus says in Matthew 25, how when we care for those in need we are really caring for Jesus.  What better way to celebrate Jesus’ birthday than to give presents that really are for him?

What would happen if we talked to our children about changing Christmas?  Making Christmas about giving in the way that Jesus gave?  Now those are memories worth making!  I am sure there will still be packages with Legos in them under our tree.  I imagine there will be some pretty package from my husband there, too.   And I’m sure we will still do things to celebrate the season—the boys are already talking about Snowflake Lane—but I do think this is the year that God is calling us to make some changes.  I am ready to find out if we can have a memory-filled, fun Christmas if we spend half our Christmas budget on alternative gifts, and half on toys for the kiddos.   I will be keeping my eye out for that AGM (Alternative Gifts Market) catalog.  Will you?