A Little Christmas

 

^" Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."  Isaiah 7:14

   I  spent the morning having a tire checked for a leak with a local mechanic.  It wasn't going to take long so I sat down in the lobby to wait. My intent was to get any work done while waiting. However it became obvious this wasn't going to happen, given the cell phone conversations going on around me.  I am not, by nature, an eavesdropper, but  they made it difficult not to be drawn into their conversations.

  One lady, in particular, spent the entire time I was there talking to people about her flooded basement. It seems her sump pump chose this past weekend to go out. A heavy snow fall, followeed by unseasonably warm weather that melted all of the snow in a few hours, plus a long torrential down pour has caused a lot of flooding.  

  Apparently this woman owned a home with a beautiful finished basement.  Or at least she did.  Now that it was flooded the beauty was lost.  While I did my best not to listen to the details, it became obvious  just how much this had changed her plans. You try getting an insurance agent in to look at things two days before Christmas. She called family telling them she couldn't hold Christmas at her house, she called others trying to  make arrangements for people to stay elsewhere. She  called companies to come and clean up her basement. 

  Having lived in areas that received frequent flooding before,  was sympathetic to eh plight.  Floods are difficult to deal with the water goes everywhere. I damages flooring and walls, carpets it destroys memories as heirlooms and photographs are damaged.  If the oncoming water doesn't do enough damage, the left over moisture in the walls will cause rot, mold and mildew.  When a flood comes everything is affected by it.  

     It's not that water is a bad thing.  It's a very good thing. We need it to subversive. We like enough to drink water our lawns keeps our food growing. We like water, at least in small doses. We just don't want too much of it.

  I thought about that as I returned to my office and heard this Christmas song playing "For We Need A Little Christmas, Right this very Minute"  Do you know it?  It's a catchy tune. Nice little song. Not terribly religious or Christian. But certainly harmless.  It's also hard to get out of your head. For to those of you who will be humming the tune for the rest of the day, I apologize.

  But as I hummed the song in my office, it occurred to me just how right it is.  That's what we all want. A little Christmas.  Because a little Christmas is a good thing. We like a little break. We want enough Christmas so we can get a few days off work. We want just enough so we can have an excuse to get together with family and friends. Have a nice party.  Just enough Christmas  to get and give some presents.  Its a nice excuse to light up the home and feel a little festive. We even like a little Jesus. Cute baby, wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. Peace on Earth because well, babies are peaceful (Unless of course you have babies in your house. Babies bring a lot of things into one's life incl ding  joy. Peace is rarely one of them).

  We want  a little bit of Christmas, but t not to much. I dont' want so much  Christmas it might cause me to really think about what it means to have God born in flesh.  I don't want so much Jesus and Christmas that I'm reminded the whole incarnation was part of the process to destroy my sins on the Cross. I don't' want so much Christmas that the ramifications of a real personal God  actually changes the way I think and live. Changes my framework of how I understand the world.  Change... well... me.

  In short I want a little bit of Christmas, I just don't want a flood of Jesus affecting everything in  my life.  Of course the problem is this. God doesn't want to give you just a little bit of Himself. he doesn't want you to have just a little bit of Jesus. He wants to flood  your life with Him.   There  is a reason why Jesus is called Immanuel, God with us.  Not a little bit of God near us for  a few days, or just 24 hours. But God Al that God is with us.  Jesus came to flood our souls with His love, with His presence. 

  What might happen his year if instead of just having a "little Christmas" you actually allowed Jesus to flood your life? If you allowed Him to flood your lifer with His love so that love we carried with you all year?  Peace on Earth would become more than just a nice sentiment on a Christmas  card. It could become a reality for you. And who doesn't need more peace?  God will to others? Who wouldn''t want to be able to look at others and love them  and not be soured on life? Joy to The World" It becomes less a song and more the foundation which you operate in the world.

  The more I think about it, what we need is not a little Christmas. We need a flood of Christmas a deluge of the Christ child in our lives.  This year may your life be flooded with the presence of the one we call Immanuel. 

In Christ,

Rev. Dr. Brian Jones <><

World Changer

"This will be a sign for you; you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth lying in a manger" (Luke2:12)


  The headline on Twitter read: " UFC Champion Ronda Rousey named as a person who will change the world" For those not in the know, UFC stands for the Ultimate Fighting Challenge". It is the premier organization that oversees Mixed Martial Art competitions.  For those further not in the know Mixed Martial Arts consists of striking and grappling techniques. One can win by being ahead on pints or a knockout just like boxing, or if ones opponent submits and taps out (either tapping their opponent or the ground several times).

   And Ronda Rousey is at the top of the heap. She is the first women's champion. She is undefeated in her fights.  Her mother was a champion competitor in Judo. Rousey herself is not only a national champion in Judo but also won a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics. She was one of, if not the first, US Woman to medal in the sport.

  When you are first in a sport, and can maintain a high level of success fame and fortune come your way.  That's just how it is. Ms. Rousey enjoys lucrative endorsement deals, appeared as a coach in a popular television show and will be in a movie this coming summer.

  And I certainly wish her all the best. She is an entertaining fighter.  I like to watch her fight. But world changer? I suppose you can make a case that she has opened a path way for other women in her sport. But world  changer?  I wondered how someone who fights for a living and bread and butter move is to bend other people's arms into unnatural positions can change the world. It makes me wonder if  we have either lifted the power of athletes and athletics to a too high position or if we have lowered the bar of what it would take to truly change the world.  Probably a little bit of both.

     We have a tendency to believe those who are famous have some sort of mysterious power to actually effect and change the world around us.  Many years ago it was fairly common to see movie stars address congress because they had played a certain role in a movie. If a move dealt with  an issue congress was debating you could rest assured that the star would be there to testify.  Of course it's absurd, but hardly anyone batted an eye Why? They are famous therefore they can change the world. And we certainly do this with athletes as well.

  I also think we have lowered the bar as to what it means to change the world.  Almost any technology that comes out is touted as something that will revolutionize and change the world (Segway anyone?).  I don't question that much technology has changed the way we do certain things in the world. But has it really changed the world?  We haven't even begun to look at if those changes are good or bad.

     The problem of course is that  while people and things can change a part of the world, people fall out of popularity and some day pass away. every technological advance becomes old and useless at some point. And yet we still seem to have a hope that the world can change.  We have a dream that eh world can be different. Where will we find someone who truly changes the world?

  We find Him, oddly enough in a manger over 200 years ago. There in that dirty stall the Incarnation was witnessed. God laid aside His heavenly glory and was born into the world. Jesus of Nazareth. The Messiah, the Christ, The Son of God. The Lamb who would take away the sin of the world.  He would receive no lucrative endorsement deal and would be abandoned by his friends a few short hours before His crucifixion.  His death destroyed the power of sin His resurrection that first Easter morning destroyed the power of death.  Anyone with a relationship with Jesus can live a life free from the power of sin and the fear and power of death.  That's world changing.

  But consider how small it began. Oh momentous to us as Christians. But the birth of Jesus went unnoticed by those who lived in Rome.  Why most of the good people of Bethlehem missed it as well. While we get caught up in what happens on Good Friday, I doubt many beyond Jerusalem and Judea took notice when Jesus was crucified.  The Romans crucified a lot of people.

  Its a good reminder that When God sets out to change the world, its not always noticeable by the powers that be.  Its not usually done by those in power or by the celebrities of the day.  And yet God sues them to change the world every day as he continues His work of redeeming our world. Who are the world changers today? Not the star athlete, but the volunteer who gave up four hours on a Saturday night to ring bells for the Salvation Army. Its eh child who buys an extra toy to give to a toy drive. Its the parent who read a Bible Story to their children last night.  It's that dear saint who has taught Sunday School for the past thirty years and never had a class of more than five kids. It's the wife who prays for her husband's salvation. Its the husband praying for his wife as she leaves for deployment over seas to serve her country.

  Every day you and I have the opportunity to change the world. Everyday we are given a chance to share the incarnation of Jesus with someone. Please don't pass them by because you think either the gesture is too small, or you are too small in the grand scheme of things.  If Christmas teaches us Scythian it teaches us that God often changes the world through the smallest moments.

In Christ,

Rev. Dr. Brian Jones <><

The Longest Season

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors" (Luke 2:13-14)


    The Christmas Season has become almost as long as the Hockey Season.  It seems like we just finished up last Christmas, (or at least got the Christmas bills paid) and it's on us again.  Now it may be that some of that is simply perceptual and  time just seems to fly by in life.  But as I look around I'm not so sure.

  Our retails stores begin celebrating Christmas mid summer with Christmas in July. Then the displays begin to crop up late September, to early October.  Macy's tells us the Christmas Season officially begins when Santa is sen in his sleigh during the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Which says something about our culture in the United States when we allow a department store to dictate to us when the Christmas season beings.

  And we buy into it. We've moved from Black Friday to Thanksgiving evening with the early Christmas sales.  Millions of people leaving their  families, shaking off the tryptophan stupor in order to get the good discounts. There were this year, as there are every year reports of peel tramping one another fist fights and this year the introduction of pepper spray. can you imagine trying to by a sweater and some sweet looking octogenarian pepper sprays you because she is planing on buying that sweater for her granddaughter/ It happens.

  The television stations get in on the act as well. First came the "25 Days Of Christmas", a  modern day prepacked Advent calendar of cartoon, movie and Christmas specials.  But apparently that's not enough.  This year they  had a 25 day countdown to the 25 days of Christmas.  It's only time before ted Turner has a 365 days of Christmas which will begin with a 24/7 showing of the Christmas Story every day for six months straight.

  If we were to look at the world we would have the impression Christmas is about buying and giving presents and the more we buy and give the better. It's about the Grinch, The Kranks skipping Christmas, the Griswold's incredible light display, and a hundred just awful Hallmark Christmas movies that tell us  Christmas is about snow , lost love found, happy children and curmudgeonly old men. All who somehow discover the "meaning of Christmas"

  If we were to believe the world the meaning of Christmas lies in presents, crowded malls, rude drivers in the parking lot. its about taking your lights outside while bringing a tree inside your house. its about a green monster who has tries to steal Christmas by taking stuff but realizes you just can't squelch that darn Who-ville Christmas spirit.

  Please don't get me wrong. I like presents, both receiving and giving.  I like Christmas lights and Christmas cookies, Charlie Brown's little tree and the Grinch's too small heart.  I'm just suggesting that these things alone are not the way I want to begin the Christmas season.

  Rather I prefer what happened in millions of churches across the globe this past Sunday.  Someone, a pastor, a child, a family, lit a candle for the first Sunday of Advent. Just that just one candle. Oh there may have been a devotion or a Scripture read. it may have been an object lesson in a Children's Message. But it was just one small candle.

   That candle reminds me of the birth of Jesus. So easy to miss in the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem. And really what's the big deal? Just one more poor young mother having a baby in less than ideal circumstances. But in that moment in the darkness of the world the small cry of a baby shouted to the world the light of the world had come. He who would free us form sin, shatter the power of death, and  break the gates of Hell had been born.

  It's that one light that gives me hope. Not the shopping, the crowds, the tinsel or wreath. But the light of Christ being born in my heart again in-this season.   I hope if you have been in a dark place lately you will allow the light of Jesus into your heart and world. Because that, indeed is something to celebrate all year round.

In Christ,
Rev. Dr. Brian Jones <><