Advent Struggles

Advent Struggles

More on Jesus and Christmas

Some Christians just say No to the whole thing
[12-15-07]

Pastor John Foster, of the United Church of God, follows what used to be the norm for many Christians, “rejecting the celebration of Christmas on religious grounds.”

In fact, the massive celebration of Christmas that we are used to today was not the norm through much of the 19th century. “Schools and businesses remained open, Congress met in session and some churches closed their doors, lest errant worshippers try to furtively commemorate the day.”

"The whole culture didn't stop for Christmas," says Bruce Forbes, a religious studies professor at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa. "Government went on as usual, business went on as usual, school went on as usual."

But family and commercial pressures have made the holiday a big deal. Meanwhile, some individuals, like Phillip Ross, an elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Vienna, West Virginia, know the church has historically been dubious about the holiday. But as the father of two, even though he decided as a teenager to reject Christmas, he has had to deal with the demands of his children, which have include gifts, decorations, and a tree.

"I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas," says Ross. "It seems obvious to me that there's nothing scriptural about it, but that's a hard sell with children."

The full article >>

Jesus sends a letter about Christmas

This has been circulating on the Internet for at least a year, but if you haven’t seen it, we have it here. Here's one place where it has been posted >>

For what seems to be an earlier version of Jesus’ letter, a lament that “they’re leaving me out of Christmas,” here’s one sample >>

"You Can't Steal My Christmas"

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you've forgotten that I wasn't actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don't care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just GET ALONG AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn't allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn't be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks are. If you have forgotten, look it up: John 15: 1 - 8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers or others who away from home and separated from those they love. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, because they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don't have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don't you write and tell him that you'll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can't afford and they don't need, spend time with them. Tell them the story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone who has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that there are people in your town will attempt to take their own life during this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don't know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile; it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren't allowed to wish you a "Merry Christmas" that doesn't keep you from wishing them one. Then stop shopping there on Sunday. If the store didn't make so much money on that day they'd close and let their employees spend the day at home with their families.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary-- especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name or who are serving among my truly poor children across the country and around the world.

9. Here's a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no "Christmas" tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don't know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to one of the many charities who will make the delivery for you. And while you are at it, you might ask your congressional representatives why there are still so many hungry and homeless people in your very rich country.

10. Finally, if you really want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine. Treat others the way you want them to treat you. Avoid hurtful stereotypes of people whose race, language or lifestyle differs from yours.

Don't forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Really, I can. Just love Me and do what I have asked you to do. I'll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I'll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love and remember :

I LOVE YOU,

JESUS

Shopocalypse now

The real enemy of Christmas is the mall
[12-11-07]

Looking for a clear and accessible critique of the marketization of Christmas?

Here’s one nice bit a material to ponder, partly because the author, Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News, offers a few well-aimed barbs at both the Left and the Right

He begins:

If it's December, it must be time for that recent American holiday tradition, the Christmas Wars, in which secular Puritans and politically correct fellow travelers set out to take the Christ out of Christmas, while simultaneously providing conservative talk radio and TV hosts with plenty of material. Ho-ho-hum.

To be sure, as exploitative as the right-wing outrage sometimes is, it really is appalling to have to endure the pettiness of the American Civil Liberties Union and sundry village atheists, who seem deathly afraid that somebody somewhere might have some theistically inclined fun this time of year. That said, I can't recall an actual ACLU lawsuit or politically correct blue-nosery interfering with my celebration of the holiday. Can you?

The whole essay >>

For the First Sunday of Advent
[12-1-07]

We just received this very helpful listing of resources for the First Sunday of Advent -- and for all of Advent -- from the Rev. Bruce Gillette. He serves with his wife Carolyn as co-pastors of Limestone Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, Delaware.

For my busy friends who might have a little work to do on their sermons for this first Sunday of Advent, here are some online resources that could be useful…

Resources for the First Sunday of Advent, for Peace and for Creation Care

My favorite hymn writer has a hymn inspired by the lectionary texts from Matthew and Romans (to a well-known tune) that Church World Service and the Presbyterian Hunger Program have posted on their web site: There is a Mighty Question

The Isaiah 2 text gives title to a fine book by a favorite author; the book is now posted completely for free at Religion-Online: Ain’t Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and the Abolition of War by Albert C. Winn with a Foreword by Walter Brueggemann See the end of Chapter 6: The Prophets: Champions of Shalom and the end of Chapter 8: Promises of Peace for comments on Isaiah 2. This is a great Sunday to remind everyone about this online book by great author.

How to Preach Peace (Without Being Tuned Out) written by the Rev. Richard G. Watts and revised by the Rev. W. Mark Koenig, July 2003 is filled with lots of sage advice.

Beyond Just War and Pacifism: Jesus' Nonviolent Way by Walter Wink is a good online article with some biblical insights.

Good Online Videos: Ben Cohen, of “Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream” fame, has been trying to help people look at the American military spending (now over $400 billion). He has an amusing video using oreo cookies to help people get a handle on how much we spend: Click here to view the animation. See also Ben's new demonstration on how crazy our nuclear stockpile has become. It's just Ben, 10,000 bb's, and some startling facts about nuclear proliferation. Click here to watch. Mark Twain’s The War Prayer is now a YouTube streaming video.

Concerning this Sunday’s Psalm 122 (pray for peace for Jerusalem), Isaiah 2 and Christian Zionism, the Presbyterians have a good two-page resource on it: Christian Zionism and there is also a whole ecumenical web site www.christianzionism.org dedicated to it with our denominational statement and lots more (including two Bill Moyers online videos) as well as the The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem. These resources are good post-Annapolis meeting for peace in the Middle East and for December 9th’s lectionary texts.

My understanding of biblical shalom includes caring for God’s creation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s synthesis report in November was very alarming. “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late, there is not time,” said Rajendra Pachauri, a scientist and economist who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “What we do in the next two, three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.” BTW, the Society of Environmental Journalists has an excellent web site for background on this and many other environmental concerns.

On the Sinking of the Titanic by Karl Barth is in the new issue of The Princeton Seminary Bulletin Vol. 28 No. 2 (2007), Page 210-217. Karl Barth was then a young pastor and quite prophetic: “It is arrogance, because mind and body and money are being expended upon luxury and frivolities instead of on safeguarding against such disaster. Dancing and putting on plays and fishing, when one has not yet made sufficient provision for being caught out by icebergs: that is called acting in total assurance, as if there were nothing left to discover.” This old sermon speaks today to our failure to address global warming. The Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Tony Auth has an editorial cartoon on our arrogance and global warming with death/global warming pointing a startled President Bush at a tombstone that reads “Life as We Know It: Killed by Inaction.”

The newly-released DVD "Amazing Grace" movie's message of hope is that people of faith can change the world. This DVD should be shown to church groups, youth groups, individuals, and donated to church and public libraries. There is a free faith study guide for the movie.

Blessings on you and your ministry.

Grace and Peace,

Bruce

Bruce & Carolyn Gillette, Pastors

Limestone Presbyterian Church, 3201 Limestone Road, Wilmington, Delaware 19808-2198

Office Phone: (302) 994-5646
Church website: www.limestonepresbyterian.org

Home Phone: (302)-994-0220
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net

Friends have shared two more perspectives on Christmas -

"God rest you merry, Congressmen" is an updating of the old carol, reminding us that the children of Iraq don't have much to be merry about.

And someone else has given us a new take on 1 Corinthians 13, comparing our Christmas frenzy with the meaning of love.

[12-19-02]

Christmas isn't materialistic enough [12-17-02]

The Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, vicar of Putney and lecturer in philosophy at Wadham college, Oxford, has said in The Guardian that the real message of Christmas is that God affirms the material (the "profane") world by joining it in the birth of the Christ child.

So Christmas is much more than an offer of sweet spiritual peace. It's a call to "a stubborn engagement with the brute facts of oppression and violence."

Want a little variety in your Christmas messages?

Take a look at "I'm dreaming of a green Christmas," with the subhead: "What's wrong with commercialization? Nothing." We hope it's written with tongue in cheek, but since it's published in the Wall Street Journal, we're not too sure.

Advent Struggles

Reflections from Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries

Dated 12/6/02, posted here on 12-10-02

The folk in our parish were often mad at us during Advent. They wanted to sing Christmas carols, and we insisted that it wasn't time for that yet.

But, they said, Christmas had come to the grocery store and the shopping mall. Joy to the World and Silent Night were part of their daily soundscape. Why wouldn't their co-pastors let them sing out these favorite songs in church?

We tried to explain some basic ideas about the church year, and the different roles played by each season. Advent is a time of preparation. The celebration of Christmas begins at Christmas Eve. While most of them understood the theory, they didn't like the practice.

In the end, as our pastoral sensibilities began to temper our theological absolutism, we relented somewhat, and mixed Advent hymns with Christmas carols through much of December.

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I still like the idea of keeping Advent pure. It is a richer season when we can immerse ourselves in a few weeks of self-examination.

Of course, it is usually difficult and painful to enter into that spirit of real reflection. We're likely to discover -- or, even more likely, to remember -- things about ourselves and our world that we don't like. We'll become aware of the need for profound personal and social change.

And that's just the point about devoting Advent to such distressing preparation. The good news of Christmas isn't very profound if everything is just fine already.

The first verse John Wesley's classic Advent hymn reads: Come, thou long-expected Jesus, Born to set thy people free; From our fears and sins release us; Let us find our rest in thee. The incarnation has a message about freedom and liberation. The birth of Christ among us is tied to release from our sins and fears.

If we dredge up the commitment and courage to take a close look at ourselves, we may be able to see those things that we'd rather deny and ignore. We may be able to see how we are enslaved by the powers and principalities of the world, by economic systems and social values. We may come face-to-face with the deep-seated fears and anxieties that keep us from living fully and joyously. We may be forced to admit to our own sin and guilt, our all-too-eager participation in corrupt and oppressive systems, and our all-too-common sins of omission as we fail to stand up for our deepest beliefs.

If we take Advent seriously, we might come to Christmas with the realization that we are finite, sinful, hurting beings who are held captive by powerful forces that are beyond our control. And that is not a nice place to be.

But then, come Christmas, one of two things could happen.

1) We could reclaim the wonderful good news of Christmas, and discover with a vivid awareness how the saving work of God in Christ provides hope and healing for the very things that have hurt us. We could come to a fresh appreciation of the forgiving grace of God that frees us from sin, and the liberating power of God that frees us from our bondage.

2) Or, after confronting all of those painful Advent realities about ourselves and the world, we could find that the Christmas message doesn't really help us with our hurts and fears after all.

Therein lies a great danger for the pastors and preachers of this world. If we invite our folk to delve deeply into the Advent disciplines, if we call upon them to confront the demons within and the threats out there, then we'd better have a message of hope and salvation that can handle what they find.

Do we have a gospel of forgiveness that is powerful enough to heal people who participate every day in a globalized system of exploitation? What word of grace do we have for those who knowingly buy clothes made in sweatshops, and feed their children food drenched with chemicals?

Do we have a believable word of hope for those who know that the rich diversity of life on Earth is being decimated? Do we have any genuine comfort for those who live in stark terror about climate change, the super-bacteria that resist antibiotics, or epidemics of chemically-induced cancers?

Do we have a message of liberation that can free people from their bondage to a global system which weaves economics, culture, technology and politics into a powerful web of seduction and control?

If we call upon the members of our churches to wrestle with Advent, then we have a responsibility to have a genuine proclamation that they will recognize as good news.

I'm convinced that the saving power of God in Christ is equal to that task. But I'm not so sure that the pastors and teachers and counselors of the church know how to give voice to such a radically transforming gospel. And there are not many who seem willing or able to take the revolutionary step of living the counter-cultural life that is tied to being a follower of Christ (myself included!).

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Advent and Lent are not the only seasons when people wrestle with sin, fear and bondage. Christmas and Easter are not the only times that we should proclaim the hopeful and healing promises of God.

But the issues do come to a head for us in Advent's penitential days of preparation.

May we all find the deep trust in God that will enable us to look deeply and honestly at ourselves and our world. And may God give us the faith and the discernment that will enable us to proclaim genuine a message of hope and healing. Shalom!

Peter Sawtell, Executive Director, Eco-Justice Ministries
On the web: www.eco-justice.org
E-mail: ministry@eco-justice.org