Engaging Scripture

Is your church keeping you from loving one another?

Yesterday we finished The Advent Conspiracy series. Over the past four weeks we have been challenged to Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and yesterday Love All.

All? That can seem impossible. If we see the extreme difference between ourselves and others, it can seem like a chasm we could never cross and don’t want to. People can be so hard to love. The people we just don’t like or find offensive or beneath us or disgusting.

But everyone was beneath Jesus. Imagine the gulf he had to cross! It was incalculable. And yet there he is, becoming human. Born as a baby into the lowest of circumstances. And not only that, dying for us.

If he went the ultimate distance for us, we have a great impetus to cross that gulf for the people in our world.

Consider this:

What does that look like? To grow in love? Especially loving the unlovely?

Jesus told his disciples that we should be known for how much we love one another.

A question that I have been wrestling with is this: Does an institutional church keep us from loving one another? Let me explain a bit more. An institutional church is heavy on structures, programs, building-centered. The answer to nearly every need, whether it be “how do we make disciples” or “how do we reach the poor” is a program. The conclusion is that if church is about programs, then being a good Christian is about showing up at programs.

Have a need? Here’s a class! Want to be a good disciple? Show up at the program. Reach the needy? Start a ministry.

But what about relationships? “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.”

Look at the early church in Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37. Love for one another was the focus. They were especially generous toward those in need! How far will we go to show our love for those in need?

A skeptical world needs to see us practice what we preach, and that is primarily love.

Who do you feel is unlovable in your life? Will you reach out to them like this man?:

Love All? Really? It’s impossible.

Seems impossible, doesn’t it?

Love all? The scope is too wide. Wouldn’t it be more realistic to scale the sample down a bit, or a lot? Maybe it would be more acceptable to say “Love your family, your friends?”

Then there is the issue of how freaking difficult it is to love some people. You could probably think of a few people in your life. Who comes to mind when you think of the word “difficult”? When we think of those people, we don’t want to love them, and we don’t feel we need to. Or if we have a sense that we should love them, we can justify not doing so because they are so difficult.

The needy person, the long-talker, the negative person, the complainer, the arrogant one, the know-it-all.

The person who always raises their hand to answer every question. (I didn’t plan on writing this many examples…I’m on a roll now, so as you can tell, I have some complaining going on inside me!)

These are difficult people to love! We would rather not spend time with them. We would rather avoid them.

And yet Christmas is about an amazing act of love to a people that were not lovely.

Loving the unlovely. Is this not what the birth of Christ is all about? The Bible describes it this way: “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” Praise God that he did not turn his nose up at unlovely people. Praise him that he lovingly gave himself to reach out to his people who needed his love.

Christmas is a time for worshipping God because he loved the unlovely. It is also a reminder to us to do the same.

Who are the unlovely in your life? What will it take to love them?

Give More…coupons?

This past Sunday the theme was Give More, and AC suggests that, instead of giving presents, we should give presence. Give the gift of spending time building relationships with people. This idea flows from the example of our Lord who gave us the gift of himself. In John 1 we learn that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” In Philippians 2:5-11 we read, similarly, that Jesus emptied himself, being made in human likeness. He gave us the gift of his presence! One of his names is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” We talked about how to give the gift of presence.

So at sermon roundtable, one of our people had the brilliant idea of creating a coupon exchange where we give gifts like “1 hour of babysitting” or “teach you to make a pie”, etc. We handed our blank coupons, and asked people to write their gift and name on the coupon, then come forward and hang it on a Christmas tree. When they hung a coupon, they could take a coupon.

What give did you receive? How can you give the gift of presence to your family and friends this Christmas? Maybe you can give more coupons!

(One guy came up to me, as I was sitting in the front pew waiting for people to be done, singing along with the praise team, and he handed me a coupon. It said “I will clean your toilet for four hours.” It was signed by his wife, but in his hand-writing. I chuckled immediately, looked up, and he was smiling while she was shaking her head.)

The Most Obnoxious Christmas Commercial of All Time

Before you read further, stop here and think to yourself: what is the most awful, obnoxious Christmas commercial you’ve ever seen? Maybe write it down. Maybe comment in the comment section below. Take a few moments and get some options in mind.

The commercials I am referring to have become a staple of Christmas television for the last ten years. One author calls them the most obnoxious of all time. Here’s an example from 2011 (2013’s version is not much better):

Did you guess Lexus?

As we continue our study of The Advent Conspiracy, this Sunday we will talk about giving more. So we’re going to learn how to give our loved ones luxury cars for Christmas!

Or maybe not. Is there another way to Give More?

Whenever pastors start talking about giving more, people get nervous. They get “sick” and have to stay home from worship that Sunday. Let me tell you from the other side of the pulpit (which I never use anymore), that pastors hate preaching about giving. How can we convey biblical teaching so that it doesn’t come off as self-serving? It is awkward all around.

Perhaps we can look at it differently. In the Advent Conspiracy, we have already talked about how the focus of Christmas is to worship God, and so we worship him by spending less, in order that we might be able to give more. If we spend less, though, won’t we have less to give? Come find out!

When spending less means spending more

Christmas and spending less are two concepts that don’t mix in our culture. Spending more? Now that’s the idea!

From the pulpits and the prophets we hear a lot each year about spending less. But what if spending less means spending more?

Phil Bartelt preached the second Advent Conspiracy theme yesterday: Spend Less. He mentioned the following video:

While SNL was being very funny, they were also pointing out a grim reality. When we think about all the great deals on Black Friday that drive people like herders driving cattle into stores, creating a stampede-like chaos, have you ever considered how a store can sell a TV so inexpensively? We thrive on the idea of paying less. We’re getting a deal! But how are we able to get that deal? Is the store willing to make less money so we don’t have to spend as much? You know the answer to that is a big fat “No!”. We call these deals “steals”, but is it possible that we are stealing from someone?

The sad answer is “Yes.” All too often it is the unseen worker, usually in another country, that is making it possible for us to get our cheap TVs. Remember the factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed 1000 workers?

Apparently there are still problems. Perhaps a large part of the ongoing problem is that we, the consumers of the clothing, just keep buying them, no matter that the workers are paid a pittance they cannot live on, and their working considers are literally deadly.

James, the brother of Jesus, and leader of the early church in Jerusalem, said that the Lord is very concerned when we don’t pay workers their due. Read James 5:1-5. His strong words should give us pause before going to the mall at Christmas.

Lest this start to turn negative, there is hope! Spend MORE! That’s right. More. More wisely. More justly. And, yes, that might mean more money too. If we know that a dress could be had for $15, we like that price. But when the $15 dress was made in a falling down factory in Bangladesh with workers paid a wage that keeps them in poverty (sounds like slavery, doesn’t it?), perhaps that $15 isn’t enough? Instead, we need to find clothes and other products that are actually fairly made, even if it costs us more. And once we start looking, once we make the commitment to honor the Lord and pay workers fairly, what we find is amazing! There are companies dedicated to fair trade, direct trade, fair wage employment. One such company is Imagine Goods, which sells many kinds of clothing and home goods. You can even meet the people who make their products! There are other similar companies as well.

This Christmas perhaps you’ll experience the joy of spending less by spending more!

YOLO!!!!!

Over the last year I became familiar with a new acronym. Our digital culture loves acronyms!

Have you heard of YOLO??? While YOLO is true, how should we think about it?

From the Advent Conspiracy:

Quick question for you: What was the one gift you remember getting for Christmas last year?

Next question: What about the fourth gift? Do you remember that one?

Truth is many of us don’t because it wasn’t something we necessarily wanted or needed. Spending Less isn’t a call to stop giving gifts; it’s a call to stop spending money on gifts we won’t remember in less than a year. America spends around $450 billion dollars during the Christmas season, and much of that goes right onto a credit card. By spending wisely on gifts we free ourselves from the anxiety associated with debt so we can take in the season with a full heart.

But how do we do this? And what does it really matter? Why not just enjoy life? YOLO! Right? Have any ideas? Come prepared to think and discuss deeply as Phil Bartelt teaches our Second Week of Advent theme: Spend Less.

(By the way, what is YOLO???)

Signal Jamming Worship

My mother’s side of the family used to have a large Christmas Eve gathering at my grandparent’s home. I loved that event more than I can describe. The food was awesome. I loved hanging out with my cousins. The gifts around the Christmas tree were bountiful. My grandmother always got us cousins the most bizarre gifts. In later years, for example, the men would be hooting and hollering about the zany neckties that she found and somehow thought we would like.

Tradition was that before we could get to the gift opening, my grandfather read Luke’s version of the Nativity from the King James Version, and then we would sing a carol or two. Maybe some of your families practice this as well. How many of you had the thoughts that I so often did, “Can’t we get through this quicker so we can open the presents? I already know the story! It’s the same every year!”

I was feeling physically torn up by this story. It wasn’t just emotional. It was like a jamming signal that made me unable to hear the story, and barely care. I could hardly think straight.

The gifts were blocking the worship.

I still feel a bit of that disturbance each year, even as an adult. How about you?

I need to meditate on the story. Christmas is a supreme time to worship. So light up your houses and worship. Make the family dinners and worship. Give gifts and worship. Make worship central to your lives this Advent. Perhaps it can be a conspiratorial worship of sorts. Maybe worship needs to jam the signal being sent by our culture. Maybe the worship can help us see the Lord’s purposes for the birth of Christ in a whole new way.

Worship Fully is the first in our advent series The Advent Conspiracy.

How to turn Christmas upside-down

This Advent we are going to turn Christmas upside-down! Will you join us?

By now we hope you’ve heard a bit about The Advent Conspiracy, but have you picked up your copy of the book yet? Advent begins on December 1^st, so there is still time. The Advent Conspiracy is a very easy-to-read practical book that will help you think about Christmas in a whole new way. An upside-down way.

I was driving by Rockvale Square outlets in the beginning of November, and I noticed all their Christmas decorations were out already. Then I passed The American Music Theater, and they were advertising showings of their Christmas Show that were happening later that day. After I got over my surprise that these businesses were in full-Christmas mode before Thanksgiving, I realized I shouldn’t be surprised. It has been a trend for years now. Christmas is a wonderful thing, and we can be supportive when people and businesses make a big deal about it.

And yet we all know that businesses are advertising Christmas earlier and earlier each year, not because they are committed to the Good News of peace on earth through Christ, but for an entirely different reason altogether. They want to make money! And they want you and me to spend our money at their businesses. They would be just thrilled if we actually spend more money than we have to spend.

So goes the story of how Christmas got turned upside-down.

Now, by us taking Christmas, as we see it today, and turning it upside-down again, we are actually making it right-side-up. But when we do that, when we return Christmas to that state it is supposed to be in, it will look upside-down to the rest of society. That is, however, as it should be, with Jesus’ birth and the Kingdom of God as the focus.

Are you ready to turn Christmas upside-down? Get the book. Visit the website. Pray for the Holy Spirit to show up in a mighty in your life and in your family’s life. We are going to have great opportunities for you to participate in: Now that the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes are on their way, will you begin filling Christmas stockings for Joe Toy in Philly? Then how about joining us for this year’s Christmas Stocking Drop on December 7^th? We’ll drive to Philly and work alongside Joe, sharing the Gospel as we hand out our stockings to kids he works with in inner-city Philly. Maybe you’ll consider helping a CV family celebrate Christmas through CVCCS Adopt-a-Family program? See the Community Happenings bulletin board for more details. Will you join us on December 15^th as we sing carols to homebound members of Faith Church? Or perhaps you help CVCCS with their Christmas food box giveaway on the 21st? There are so many ways you and your family can participate in the Advent Conspiracy, turning Christmas upside-down!

Follow-up to Not Feeling Thankful on Thanksgiving

It was wonderful to sing songs of thanksgiving to God this past Sunday. Great to celebrate communion together, to give thanks (which is the meaning of the word eucharist) to the Lord for his amazing gift of love to us. It was also great to talk more about growing the discipline of thanksgiving at sermon discussion group. We also had a great gathering of area churches for our community Thanksgiving service.

But still, some of you might be feeling like this quote that I got from a friend of a friend:

Friends,

It’s great to see all your “thankful” posts as we march toward the holidays.

However, I’m reminded that in the midst of all these posts about what we are thankful for, there are some among us who feel pain stronger than their thankfulness. Those who’ve lost loved ones close to them… people who celebrated these holidays with them last year or the year before that. Our family lost a friend and neighbor this year and know others who may be headed into their final holiday season this year. There are those who have families that are broken and dysfunctional, for whom this season is full of stress and heartache. If that is part of your story this year, know that we are with you and that it is okay to feel sad when everyone else seems to be rejoicing.

There are also those who feel unable to participate in all the ‘festivities’ because of the pressure to spend, spend, spend, and consume, consume, consume. For those without means, the ‘gift-giving’ season is just another reminder of what they do not have and cannot provide. My family is fortunate to have the means by which we can participate in the gift economy this year. However, we know plenty of people who struggle to pay their bills every month and for whom the idea of spending any money at all on gifts is out of the question. Do not feel ashamed or inadequate. We are with you.

There is much we can all be thankful for, but thankfulness doesn’t always erase all the pain. If you are hurting, my prayers are with you and for you. I am thankful for you.

Does that resonate with you? What will you do to cultivate the discipline of thankfulness?

On not feeling thankful during Thanksgiving

I found this quote that made me wonder how you might be thinking during this season of Thanksgiving.

There are plenty of people who don’t feel thankful at Thanksgiving. Life is very hard. Maybe you’re one of those people who is struggling. Know that you’re not alone, and there is hope!

Sometime you might consider doing a study into the history of holidays. When and why were they started. You might be surprised. I was surprised to learn that this year is actually the 150th anniversary of Thanksgiving, despite the fact that we attribute its beginning to the Puritans in 1621. Along with the Battle of Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address, Thanksgiving hits a major milestone, thanks to Abraham Lincoln.

In the church we make a big deal out of Christmas and Easter as the two most important days in the Christian calendar, as we should. For me, Thanksgiving makes a great case for coming in third place just behind those two days. We see over and over again in Scripture how vital an attitude of thanksgiving is. So how are you doing with being thankful?

This Sunday we look at how to cultivate the discipline of thanksgiving.

Then join us on Sunday evening at Zion Lutheran Church in Leola for a Community Thanksgiving service, 7pm. And then again on Wednesday evening for our annual Thanksgiving prayer service, 7pm.