| Lots of my friends are tweeting and facebooking about their shopping for Christmas gifts.
This week I'm in worship mode leading 8 services in 6 days. When I surface from notes and scripture, (today is the one day without a service) I realize that I've been shopping for gifts as well. When I asked for help, our music director completely planned one of the services in addition to playing at 7, and bringing brunch to one! We unwrapped a new recruit who will operate the sound system for worship. Calls went out and members rallied the week of Christmas to provide a home cooked meal for 50 people after one of the funeral services. |  |
Other members this week have chaperoned strangely reluctant boiler repair people toward the goal of keeping our buildings warm. Members have quietly stepped up to commit intentional kindnesses and Christ inspired acts of beauty. All while I've been caught up in preparation and presentation.
I don't know what will be under our family's Christmas tree Friday, but the gifts given by the good people at Goodyear Heights Presbyterian are piled higher than the tallest tree.
I hope the gifts of love and faith you experience are greater than the ones that fit under your tree.
Gifts for a King
When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. - Matthew 2:10-11
Bible quotation from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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| Planning for Something Great Tonight our church board meets to finalize the budget for next year. Dreams will be herded into a spreadsheet corral and branded with a line item number. Necessary but difficult for both the herders and the dreamers. According to babycenter.com, a couple like my wife and I should expect to spend just over $300,000 if we plan on having a baby in 2010, but that is over 18 years, (ignoring college). The 2010 cost is just under $17,000. |  |
A heartless person just considering finances might question putting $17,000 in a 2010 budget anticipating a final cost of over a quarter of a million dollars before any monetary return on investment is possible, almost two decades away from that 2010 budget commitment. Thankfully, most parents don't budget with a quick or financial return in mind.
I hope our budget meeting participants act like loving parents giving to the next generation even though it doesn't make sense in a yearly budget.
Maybe thinking about the great cost God invested in us when he came as a baby long ago in Bethlehem will help us plan for the next generation's babies in next year's budget.
Great Cost for Great Benefit
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Philippians 2:3-11
Bible quotation from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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We want presents but You give presence. We want programs to enjoy and You give us the joy of justice. We search for deals when You call for zeal in dealing rightly. Forgive us for settling for the package of Christmas instead of opening Your presence in Christ. Help us put a bow on our hearts and give ourselves to others living Your love to the world delivered in Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, in whose name we pray, Amen.
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| Closing in on an Open Door Well meaning folks sometimes open a door for a friend of mine that uses a electric cart. He rather they didn't help because as they hold the door they stand in the doorway blocking the opening they created. Very few open the door and then step out of the way behind the fully open door. Groups that want to grow in numbers, including church congregations, focus on opening doors; but seldom see how they are standing in the way. Leaders are not exempt from blocking the way forward by taking up the space that others need to enter to continue on their way. Maybe Thomas Paine's saying, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" needs to be updated to, "Lead followers by getting out of the way." |  |
I hope when you are in a position to open an door as a leader, parent, or an "abled" person; you invite others forward by getting out of their way.
Being in the Way of the Way
'But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. - Matthew 23:13-15
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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| A Light in the Darkness Marj Carpenter told a story about a light in the darkness at her election to moderator of the nationwide Presbyterian General Assembly that she repeated later in her book, And A Little Bit Farther. She went to visit a church in Serbia. Fighting had ruined the power grid so they were traveling in complete darkness. Finally, in the distance they could see flickering candles. Members of the church were waiting for them outside in the cold, dark night, holding candles to light their way. Marj cried a bit telling us that she realized they did not know when they were coming, so they had been standing in the road for hours, lighting the way, hoping that the travelers would see the way to a warm welcome in the great darkness. |  |
I sometimes think of Marj when I see Christmas Lights on houses lighting up the darkness. I always remember her story on Christmas Eve at our Candlelight services as I look out on the congregation lighting up our part of the world.
I hope you are a light for those searching for you. And when you are searching, I hope you find someone waiting with the light on.
You Are Light to Others
"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.- Matthew 5:14-16
The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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