How Many Ways

Since the first Sunday of Advent my wife and I have attended thirteen worship services focusing upon the hanging of the greens, children's programs, and musical presentations. No two were alike. None tried to duplicate what some other church was doing. Scenery was different in each church. All age groups were involved. Senior adults participated in most. A four month old baby did quite well, thank you, in the manger in the last one we were able to attend. Each service told the biblical story of Christmas in a beautiful and creative way.

Just how many ways can you tell the story of the birth of the Messiah, the Savior of mankind, the Son of God? The gospels of Matthew and Luke each had its own unique record. Traditions seemed to have blossomed once Christianity became an acceptable religion a couple of centuries later. Since then many cultures have added different expressions of celebration to the occasion of remembering the birth of the Savior of the world.

Trees and wreaths, lights and ornaments, ancient and modern scenes set in miniature have added color and wonder to the season. Music has played an important role from early years. The biblical record has maintained a central part of every presentation of the beginnings of the Story. Yet each year the story of the birth of the Messiah remains rich and magnetic in its power to draw people to the image of a baby lying helpless in a stable manger while people of the lowest social order pay homage.

During the season of Advent leading up to Christmas Day itself, we see part of the Story told and retold in readings, drama, music, and nativity scenes. It is told in churches, in homes, in front yard scenes, and even in some businesses and schools. During these four plus weeks, the beginning of the Story is told over and over again and we never grow tired of it.

When the decorations are taken down, the living tree is not so living any more and has to be left on the roadside, when the presents are no longer new, and the nativity scene that sat on the sideboard is packed away, how do we tell the rest of the Story? What happens to the Story the rest of the year? One of the earliest ideas of Advent was not a celebration of a birth in Bethlehem but a diligent alertness for a second coming. Has that part of the Story taken the place of the first appearance of the Son of God?

It is now approximately 360 days until Christmas. It may only be one day until the Second Coming. The whole Story still needs to be told. I doubt if there are any Christmas cantatas or children's plays currently in rehearsal. I doubt if any church's calendar has a caroling party scheduled in the coming weeks. I doubt if anyone is planning to keep their not-so-living tree in their house for another six months. People have few if any plans to tell the portion of the Story about the Messiah's birth in the near future.

Yet the whole Story must be told! How will we tell the Story between Christmas Day, 2011 and the first Sunday of Advent, 2012? The shepherds without a doubt continued to talk about the experience for months to come. The magi from the east had it in their plans for years. You know Herod lost sleep over it until he died, wondering who this new threat was to his throne and if he had eliminated it.

Ebenezer Scrooge promised to keep Christmas in his heart throughout the year. So he gave Bob Cratchit a raise, helped Tim get healthy, and made a big donation to the benevolence society. When did he tell the Story? Helping others is all well and fine, but if the Story stays in your heart, then you have denied others the greatest Gift of all.

In 2012 we must tell the Story. The Story is all about Emmanuel, God with us. It is not about trees and wreaths and decorations. It is not about presents and gifts or even coins in a red kettle outside a store. It is about Emmanuel, God with us. We have not told the Story until we have told about a manger, hungry crowds being fed, hurting people being healed, a cross, and an empty tomb. Then we will have told the Story. We must give the thirsty a drink of water, but we must be willing to do it in the name of Emmanuel. We must be willing to feed the hungry but in the name of Emmanuel. We must be willing to provide a roof for the homeless but in the name of Emmanuel. We must give hope to the hopeless but in the name of Emmanuel. Then we will have told the Story, and there are lots of ways to do it.

Christmas Was Risky

God became a human being. That human being gave up being equal with God the Father and took on all the weaknesses of a typical mortal including the ability to be tempted by the wiles and ways of this world. God did this to show us how much he loved us. Jesus, the Son of God, became Emmanuel. I call that risky.

Apparently God did not have a Plan B. If Jesus failed to meet the requirements for the job while existing in full human nature, there was no back up plan, at least none that scripture seems to imply. Jesus had to be sinless to finish the plan. I call that risky.

To add to the high stakes that God was seeing, when the job that Jesus had come to accomplish was finished, God created the Church out of a bunch of weak, sinful, and rebellious human beings that said they would follow Jesus anywhere. He put the entire task of spreading the news about what Jesus had done in their hands. He made no provision for any back up plan if they failed or just lost interest. Again there was no Plan B. I call that risky.

Another year is about to begin. The Church has had the same marching orders for 2000 years. Holy Spirit continues to be our one source for strength, wisdom, and boldness essential to carrying out the task received so many years ago. God took a big chance subjecting his Son to the temptations that surround every mortal. He took a big chance giving a world mission responsibility to those first disciples. He continues to take a big chance on the Church's willingness to take a risk as well.

In 2012 the Church must take some big risks. We must do ministry with less money than we will think we need. We must do ministry in a culture that is less interested in what we have to say. We must make sacrifices in ways that we cannot imagine at this time. We must make decisions about what we must maintain and what we will allow to disappear before 2013 arrives. We must start living in a much riskier fashion.

Christians must decide if they will be safe or faithful in 2012. It is terribly difficult to do both in this world. Associations must decide whom they can help, how they can help, and what they must let die in the process. State and national conventions must decide why they exist, eliminate what does not support that purpose, and be honest in their reasoning. In 2012 taking the necessary risks will mean some things must die or disappear. Taking the necessary risks will mean division and realignment of priorities and support.

Taking the necessary risks always follows determining God's will. Simply taking risks does not make a fool any less a fool. The Church God established at Pentecost takes risk because faithfulness to his Plan demands taking risks in this world. You count the cost. You weigh the sacrifice. In the end it is faithfulness to God's Plan that must come out on top.

Christmas was risky, but then God being God, he knew what was involved from the beginning. The Plan it initiated concerned the spiritual eternity of mankind. As we enter 2012, we will find ourselves having to decide if we are willing to take the risks. There will be sacrifices that bring discomfort and loss, but faithfulness demands risk, and we do still believe that the God who started this Plan is still in control. The Church, to be the Church that cost the life of the Son of God, has no other choice but to take the risks. I hope we all enjoy stepping into the dark!

I Suggest We Keep the Fourth Candle Burning

The Advent Wreath is almost complete. It lacks only the Christ candle lit on Christmas Eve (or Day if you prefer) and the fourth purple candle on the wreath itself, the love candle. During Advent churches and individuals have moved the emphasis from hope to peace to joy and now to love. All of these lead to a primary focus on the central candle, the Reason for the Season, the Christ candle.

Some time on Christmas Day all of these candles will be extinguished. When all the decorations are boxed up and stored away, the Advent Wreath likewise will find itself placed in tissue or styrofoam peanuts, set in a box, and stored in a closet, the attic, the garage, or wherever until a day or two before Advent begins in 2012. Sad to say much of the spiritual focus of the candles on this wreath will be packed away as well.

I suggest a radical idea. Keep that fourth candle burning all year. Let the love candle stay lit as a reminder that God's love is available on more than a seasonal basis. God's love is just as much present in the rough times as in the party times. God's love endures through more than a season of festivity. It still brings its power to bear when resolutions are made and broken, when human love reveals itself in paper hearts and chocolate candy, and when God's love itself takes the form of a cross.

Somehow we need to be reminded during the rest of the year that divine love is the foundation for self-sacrifice and compassion and random acts of kindness that look beyond simple physical need. We need to see the light of God's love reflected in our conversations with our neighbors, in our business practices, in how we treat our families, and in how we do church. God's love should shine through those dark nights of frustration and despair. One candle can dispel a lot of shadows.

Keeping one candle burning all year might be a bit impractical. That's more than a few pennies worth of wax. An option might be then to decide that you will love others as God loves you which is all the time. You will show that love in attitude, word, and action. You will smile when you don't feel like it. You will say kind words when the person doesn't deserve to hear them. You will do acts of kindness knowing that you will never receive a thank you. That would keep the candle of love burning all year.

Our families would have an easier time getting along with each other and encouraging each other when situations got difficult. Our workplace would lose a lot of its frustration and political tricks. Just think about our churches! We would actually think more of others than of ourselves. We would honor others above ourselves. We would act more like the Savior who loved us enough to die for us. We would work together to build His Kingdom instead of trying to build our own. All because we refused to blow out the love candle.

God is love. Maybe in 2012 we could try to remember that for an entire year.

Finding a Reason to Rejoice

The third Sunday of Advent carries the traditional theme of joy. It has been preceded by Sundays emphasizing hope and peace. The fourth Sunday will focus on love. We have been called to fill our hearts with hope. We have been called to seek peace in our world. Now we are called to find reasons to rejoice. That is not always an easy task.

Advent throughout its history has at times emphasized the Second Coming of Christ rather than celebrating his first. It also carries a tradition as a time, not for celebration, but as a time of repentance and contrition. After all Christ did not come into the world to tell us we were doing a fine job of things. He was born to die because we had done such a lousy job of things. Perhaps a little more repentance and contrition would do us good.

Nevertheless this Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent and our current tradition says that it is the day we emphasize the joy in our faith. The Apostle Paul felt he had every reason to rejoice in spite of all the mess he had experienced. He tells the Philippian Christians to "rejoice...and again...rejoice"  (Philippians 4:4). They weren't rich and powerful. They had no reason to believe that the Roman government would bless them above all other citizenry. They were ordinary folks trying to find enough to eat each day and have enough money left over to pay their taxes, not a whole lot different than common folks today.

Finding reason to rejoice in the midst of less than joyful times has been a recurring problem for thousands of years. The almost innate need to rejoice has been the basis for many of our annual celebrations. We create a reason even when we may not feel like it. Weddings and birthdays are naturals. Look at the times our banks and post offices close each year and you find many other reasons to celebrate. If that is not enough, Hallmark cards will create a hundred more reasons to "send the very best".

The short book carrying the name of the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk ends on one of the greatest calls for joy we find in all of scripture (Habakkuk 3:17-18). Our joy is to be independent of life around us. Abundance in neither flocks nor crops should be the source of our joy, but rather the relationship we have with God. That is also the heart of what Paul was trying to convey to his readers.

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the words for "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", there was no great joy in his country. The terrible suffering of the American Civil War was being experienced by the nation. He wrote out of a deep grief for what his fellow citizens were enduring. His conclusion, however, was that God was greater still and human suffering, terrible as it was, would not endure. God's healing love would win in the end.

The third Sunday of Advent serves to remind us that joy can be experienced when the stalls and fields are empty. That special day serves to remind us that joy can be experienced when persecution envelopes us. The Sunday given to an emphasis upon joy should remind us when the fires of war seem ready to overcome our world that will not be the final word for our lives.

Christ came once before to bring us hope for our future, peace to carry us into that future, and love that is the foundation for that future. We can rejoice, we can find joy today in spite of all the news that comes to us, because the One who came once before is coming again. May we find joy in that promise throughout the year.

They May Not Tell You Beforehand

A few weeks ago I had the unexpected experience of a brief stay in the hospital due to a blocked artery in my heart. At 95% blockage the doctors told me I was lucky to have gotten through the situation without a heart attack. With no damage having been done, I could go back to my regular schedule with a new awareness of how things can happen with no warning.

I had felt a strange pressure in the middle of my chest and a burning in my throat. Those were the warnings my body gave me that my heart's arterial system was about to shut down. For years I had focused on a heart healthy diet. I had exercised every day. I had kept my blood pressure under control and cholesterol levels in the healthy range. I took comprehensive vitamins to supplement the already controlled diet. I still developed a blocked artery.

We all know that these things can happen. Cancer is well known for being discovered in stages too advanced to make treatment successful. Other diseases can give us the same problems. We find out too late a problem exists. Our options become limited. In the end we sometimes have only one option. Accept the end as it comes.

This same scenario is too often visible in our relationships among family members and between friends. It also occurs in churches, associations, and conventions. We are not sure what is going on, but something feels unusual. Something is wrong. We sense a deep and serious problem exists, but we cannot define it. The end result could be fatal if preventive action is not soon taken. Yet we have little warning of the coming crisis.

The medical personnel found nothing on ECGs or blood tests that would show anything was wrong around my heart. Only when they went into the arteries with a camera did they find the obvious cause of the unwanted pain. Once discovered the problem was evident and the cure obvious. A procedure to insert a stint took less than a hour and a day later I was home. Sometimes we must look deeper into our relationships to make sure that possible trouble is not hiding and building into something deadly.

I told my doctor that I felt I had a problem and did not know what to do about it. That started the process of treatment. We must do the same with family members and friends. We must communicate! My health was valuable. I wanted to do something about keeping it in the best condition possible. Our relationships are likewise valuable. We must do whatever is necessary to keep those relationships healthy. We must communicate!

I didn't blame the doctor for my condition. I went to the doctor because I knew that any help I needed must begin there. Don't blame a family member or friend when you sense trouble in the relationship. Express your concern and ask for help from the only one who can work with you to solve the problem, the other member in the relationship.

Within the church we too often push felt problems under the proverbial rug. We don't want to hurt someone's feelings. We don't want to make something big out of something that appears small. We operate as if we can ignore a problem and it will go away. It almost never does.

We must communicate! Redemption is a foundational aspect of good communication. You want to restore what may appear to be damaged or broken. In redemption you think of the needs of others. In redemption you express value. In redemption you take action to restore that which you had before. Few church, association, or convention conflicts would exist for long if redemption was the goal in every discussion.

Only through an emphasis upon redemptive and open communication can reconciliation be reached and healthy relationships restored. Only as we seek the divinely defined health of God's people through reaching out to others, by considering others better than ourselves, and by honoring others (Romans 12:3-16) will we be able to maintain the family relationships within the family of God that he intended.

Trust is the key to reconciliation and spiritual health. I trusted my doctors. I will again. When others know they can trust me, they will be open with me in their communication. They will reveal their fears and their pains. They will explore with me how I can help. Sometimes I will have to ask and hope that enough trusts exists that they will share what they had planned on keeping hidden. That is when the blocked arteries are discovered and healing/restoration can begin.