What Now?

What Now? It’s time to begin to make plans to put Christmas away. Some of you have already done this. It is the tradition in some families to being to de-decorate the house Christmas afternoon. There is a desire to “get things back to the way they belong,” to put the furniture that had been moved to make room for the Christmas tree back in the proper spot. We need to throw all those wrapping paper and gift bags piles away.

I am not that kind of person. I’m not as bad as the choir director who served a church with me in South Carolina, who would keep his Christmas tree up past Valentine’s Day.  

It feels like those who want to get things packed away run from the manger too quickly, something along the lines of a spiritual Scrooge. Get it over with and get back to reality! In that way of thinking, those of us who like the trappings of Christmas to stay around just a little longer feel a sense of running from the sacred, the mystical, the spiritual and back to business as usual.

Something amazing has happened and we need to take time to process it. We would be the disciples who would stand with Peter at the transfiguration, hammer in hand, and agree that the three tabernacles should be built as soon as possible and that we conduct regular pilgrimages to the spot and bask in the glow and weight of Divine history.

To those on the other side of the de-decorating issue, Christmas is a day. That day has now passed us and we need to get back to living the life that surrounds us. We feel we are more practical. Jesus didn’t come into the world to keep the shepherds at the stable forever.

No, they returned to their flocks that very same night, glorifying and praising God all the way. The purpose of the birth of Christ is not to draw us out of the world to dwell in some spiritual dream land. It is to equip us with the spiritual, that we might take the wonder of the Christ with us into the world, not hide from the world in our ritual.

The key is somewhere between the rush to take things down and the desire to leave them all up until they are totally irrelevant. Maybe the shepherds had the whole thing right. Get back to work as soon as possible but go as a totally different people from this point forward.

Pastor Craig

Christmas Eve? Or, Christmas Day?

ANTICIPATION? Which is better, Christmas Eve? Or, Christmas Day? I, myself, have a hard time choosing. Christmas day brings with it all the excitement of the day itself. For many of us it holds fond memories of family and friends gathered around our table and tree. It holds the fulfillment of the perfect gift given or received.

Ahhh, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve holds in its grasp all the hope of Christmas Day! My most favorite time of the church year is Christmas Eve. It is contained in the few moments of quiet after the Christmas Eve service. It is after the parties, after the dinners, after the special services, music, and programs. It is five minutes in the quiet sanctuary with the scent of the candles still lingering in the air and only the lights from the tree softly glowing. It is after everyone else is gone and right before I go home myself. It is a handful of fleeting minutes to contemplate the Infinite God in the tiny manger, to think of the one who deserves the rulers of the world to bow low before Him also accepting the lowly, lonely, outcast shepherds into such a humble throne room. 

Christmas Eve requires patience, something many of us are in short supply of during the holiday season. We use it all up waiting in lines, making our list, checking it twice, wrapping, hiding, more wrapping, and on and on. Christmas Eve requires faith, faith that God will indeed deliver on the promises He has made.

Christmas Day has, at times, been a let down for some of us, a dear relative that couldn’t come, a present that did not arrive on time or was not given at all, or the less than perfect Christmas dinner. However, the prophets did not promise disappointment, but fulfillment. God does not deliver something unwanted, but that which is most needed. The quiet of Christmas Eve just gives us a few more moments to wonder at the marvel of such a timely and necessary gift!

Pastor Craig

To the Ends of the Earth

To the ends of the world . . . Greatness, it is something so fleeting. You or I may be well known within our small community, or within our sphere of expertise of vocation and totally unheard of beyond that immediate sphere of community.

I would guess that each of you could name one Nobel winner from the most recent round of nominees. However, the winner for physics, medicine, etc. is probably something we would not remember even though we may have heard it several times.

Greatness to the end of the world involves more than fame. Fame, even if it is widespread, is still only for a moment in this world. In a few weeks or months, a more recent news item or scandal will grab our attention, and the previous tabloid attention getter will quickly disappear from our memories.

The greatness that refers to power is even less than universal. There has never been a worldwide empire. There has never even been one that really came close to true, worldwide domination. Even the might of the British, Spanish, or Mongol Empires never had control of more than 10% of the world’s landmass at any one time. Each of them had their moment in the sun and quickly faded into legend.

So, to speak about one whose name is great even to the end of the earth. . .well, what exactly does that mean? Certainly, there will indeed come a day when all the word, even every atom of the entire creation, will sing the praises of our Savior. Certainly there will come a time when Christ shall truly rule as King over every corner of his creation and every knee shall bow. However, I think that is just a part of the Good News. The part that truly stirs my soul has little to do with headlines or geography. The part that stirs my soul at its greatest depths is the part that addresses completeness.

You see, we experience the kingdom of God, as the Apostle Paul, wrote, “as one looking in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as also I am known.”

Completeness. The name of Christ will be completely great, great in every possible sense of the word, great beyond simple fame or power. Christ’s greatness will be comprehensive and complete. There will be no corner in any part of the earth where his Glory does not shine. That is the coming of Christ we long for now.

The Babe in the manger, for all its majesty and wonder, is simply a dim mirror compared to the splendor we shall one day see face to face. I can’t wait!

Pastor Craig

Powerful!

Powerful! Very few of us know what true darkness is like. Even on the most cloudy of nights there are the lights from our house, the street, the occasional passing car. Shut yourself in your closet and turn out the light. Most times you can still see some things. The light from the room filters under the door. You really have to try hard to be in total darkness!

How powerful is the darkness? The darkness contains our fears, it steals our sight, and it limits our vision (both literally and figuratively).

When we were small, the darkness was the place where the things we were afraid of lived. It may have contained a nightmare of two. Not all darkness was evil, but it did seem that most of the things that were evil lived somewhere in the darkness.

So, what is more powerful than the darkness? Yes, you’re right. The picture to the left did give it away, didn’t it? Darkness goes running away when one candle is lit. One little flickering flame is all it takes.

A candle flame seems so vulnerable. A puff of breath can blow it out, so we look for other images of power. Do an internet search for pictures of power. Do you know what image showed up more often than any other? It wasn’t a picture of military might. It wasn’t a picture of a powerful waterfall. It wasn’t an image of an Olympic weight lifter. It wasn’t a picture of any of the presidents of the United States. It was pictures of Oprah.

It seems sad that very few of the pictures could have been labeled as religious, or even inspirational. Probably more than half of them were of different celebrities. And by far, the favorite celebrity was Oprah.

I like the image of the candle though. That little baby in the manger was vulnerable too. He needed to be rescued from an evil King Herod. God needed his diaper changed. He was hungry. He got tired. Young baby Jesus needed a nap just like a much younger version of you and I did.

Yet, because this young, tender light had come into the world, the world would never be a dark place again. History changed on that dark night. God’s relationship with his creation was redefined when the first rays shone from the manger.

Fear and anxiety were dispelled. Emmanuel, God with us, had brought peace. God did indeed come near.

Pastor Craig

Open the Door

Busni Me Ing Pasbul (Open the Door)

The phrase comes from the Pampanga province of the Philippines and has the idea of being prepared. Open the door! it says. It can have many different contexts. It might be spoken by one standing on the outside desiring admittance. It might just be spoken as a general command or request. However, here, it has the context of expectation. Open the door! because something good is coming. We need to be ready for it.

This second Sunday in Advent we think about John the Baptist and the phrase Prepare the way of the Lord! It is time to make things ready, simple things like opening the door to welcome him in. The problem when we open the door is that we can’t always control what comes in. During the summer, open doors invite all sorts of flies, mosquitoes, and other bugs. During the winter the frigid air rushes through every opening, regardless how small. We don’t want to open the door TOO wide.

If we open it all the way, what happens if a Jesus comes in that we don’t particularly care for?  I spent some time talking to a person who desires to bring Christmas to those less fortunate. So far the call for others to care as well and open the door of their hearts has not been met with enthusiastic response. One person offered an explanation that it could be the season. People are saving their money to spend on themselves. Aren’t you glad Jesus chose differently? Another offered that it was the particular condition of the audience to which she was talking. Either way, the door remained closed, Jesus locked safely on the other side.

Jesus Christ comes into our world and turns everything upside down. He might just ask us to sacrifice something dear. He might call us to move beyond fear and anxiety to boldness and hope. He might require us to be a little less self-centered and a little more other centered. And, somehow in the process, we just might find out that we like it.

We might recognize that peace on earth comes from God but, often, is delivered by us. We might catch on that the Christmas presents that appear under the less fortunate’s tree might have to find their way there from our tree first. We might learn that the inconvenient visit to the shut-in or nursing home resident is appreciated so much simply because they know it is so inconvenient. Prepare the way of the Lord!

Open the door, but look out when you do, blessing may just find its way in!

Pastor Craig

Be Alert!

Alert! A state of watchfulness, of wakefulness. A state of being aware of one’s surroundings. A state of paying attention.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The theme for this week of advent is Be Alert! We think about the coming of Christ, not just in the manger, but returning for us.

Are we ready for it? Were the shepherds ready? The magi? Mary and Joseph? Is anyone every REALLY ready for the Divine to walk into their life? How does one get ready for Jesus? Do we pray more? Become more regular in our church attendance? Read through the Bible in a year? Everything I can think of seems so inadequate. It’s sort of like preparing your little studio apartment for the President’s state dinner.

But, you know? It doesn’t say that we should be prepared, does it? It says we are to be alert, to be in a constant state of trying to GET prepared. You don’t always have to know the destination to pack your suitcase.

Think how many people missed the birth of Christ entirely! The innkeeper. The census takers. The other people in the inn who only knew that a poor woman had to have her child in a stable because everyone in the inn was too rude to give up their room for even one night to someone in such need. Think what they missed.

Think what people will miss if they fail to be alert the next time around! The people who heard about the birth of Jesus had other opportunities to welcome Him into their hearts. They heard him from the mount, they heard Him from the boat of Peter, and they saw His actions in the temple.

We hear the Gospel of Christ each Sunday. How do we respond? Do we go forth rejoicing and praising God as the shepherds did? Or do we respond as the philosophers did to Paul. “We wish to talk to you again about this matter.” In other words, when do we quit talking and start doing? We love to hear the Christmas story, but are we ready for it to be happen in our own lives? It’s one thing to think how nice and cute it is to have God born in the manger. It is something entirely different to have the Savior of the universe born again in our own hearts. Be Alert! Christ is coming!

Pastor Craig

Christ the King!

The Pastor’s Page

Today is the last day of the year, the liturgical year that is. It is Christ the King Sunday. We start anew next week as we begin the anxious wait for the coming of Jesus Christ. We relive the wait of the people of Israel, and we meditate on our own wait for Christ to come again.

However, it is on this Sunday we are reminded, once again, that Jesus Christ is Lord of all; that all things have been put under His feet, that everything, even death itself, is subject to His will.

You see, Christ isn’t King of all only when he sits on His heavenly throne, banishing all injustice, hatred, sickness, and heartache. No, Christ is King when the prayers for healing don’t result in healing. Christ is King even when the poor are still poor. Christ is King when the oppressed are still oppressed. Christ is King when the bill collector calls again, or when the power company sends the disconnect notice. Christ is King of the hospital and the nursing home.

Christ is King in the face of the Ft. Hood tragedy, and Christ was King on Friday, November 13^th, when one child of the King, L Cpl Shawn Hefner (USMC), stepped on an IED in Afghanistan just two weeks before he was scheduled to come home for the holidays. In fact, Christ is King for L Cpl Hefner in a more real way now than ever before.

It is SO easy to shout ALLELUIA when all is going well, when the unexpected financial gift helps us beat back poverty for another day, when a friend comes alongside us and banishes loneliness, or when we benefit in any unexpected way.

The challenge for most of us is to continue to give God the glory when we would really like to give Him anything but glory. We can get very angry with God. We, at least sometimes, think we deserve better than what Christ seems to dish out to us. Yet, a follower doesn’t just follow only when the road is straight and level, when the temperature is just right, when the wind is at our back. Disciples seek to follow Christ with every step of every journey. It has never been easy, and it won’t be for those families who sit down with an empty chair at the table this Thanksgiving. Hopefully, they can take comfort that their loved one sits at the Thanksgiving table of our Lord for a feast like has never been offered before.

L Cpl Hefner ended his journey home on Friday, November 20, 2009, when he was laid to rest in Hico, Texas.

Pastor Craig