Blessed Christmas Greetings

Christ the Savior is born!
Hope has come to earth
and love breathes life in the darkness of winter.
Emmanuel -
God be with you!

Pastor Christine

Reflecting Love

       Monday, with snow falling so hard that travel was not a good idea, we finally got the boxes of Christmas ornaments out for the tree.  The first thing that I noticed was what a motley assortment of Christmas ornaments we have gathered over the years!  There is a wide variety of taste and personality between some of the collections from sophisticated and artsy to hand-made crafts and from casual to elegant.
       I found myself wondering at what seemed to be a lack of a sense of style and taste.  What had I been thinking?  But I realized as we went through things that the different collections and styles were reflections of the age of our children, the state of our finances, and the people in our lives.  There was a box of crocheted and knitted candy canes, wreaths, and stockings from early in our marriage.  They were gifts and were all we had for a while.  But they also became the main tree decorations we used whenever there was a toddler (or tree crazy kitten) in the house because nothing broke if the tree should come crashing down!
       There are fancy and expensive ornaments received as gifts from  beloved friends and family; handmade ornaments from crafters and from the kids when they were younger and even a couple of boxes of candy canes.  There are also some boxes of ornaments that reflect an attempt to have a color-coordinated and elegant tree.  When my life was full of half-eaten peanut butter sandwiches, scattered toys, and a Christmas tree that had to be safe for little hands, I know there were times when I longed to have a beautiful and stylish Christmas decor.  
       But now I find myself treasuring the miss-mash style of what have become memories of family and friends; even things that I once couldn't wait to replace with something "prettier" or "nicer".   Perhaps that attitude dooms me to a tree on which you may find Garfield, the spaceship Enterprise, angels with yarn hair next to crystal bells, and a plaid catnip mouse by a popsicle-stick nativity.  This Christmas tree may never grace a magazine cover but it is irreplaceable.  It has become a scrapbook of our family garlanded with love, laughter, and tears for those we miss.
       Time and reflection have a way of changing how we view events in our lives and what we value.  Just look at how the time and place of the birth of our Savior has become holy and is seen by many as a pivotal point in all of human history.  Even wars have taken a pause to remember this birth; where and when it happened.  But what we celebrate as grand and holy probably didn't feel that way to Mary at the time.
       I'm sure that given a choice, Mary would never have chosen a stable in a town far away from her family as a place in which to give birth.  She and Joseph had to have been wanting and praying for room in the inn or anywhere clean and decent, quickly and with privacy and help; giving birth for the first time is frightening and overwhelming and often long and hard.  Carols, candlelight, and holy reverence are so different from the scandal, poverty, and hardship of Christ's birth.  Yet we read that Mary treasured everything she heard and pondered their meaning in her heart.
       Take time and make a silent space to reflect on the birth of Jesus; God's own child born here on earth that the world might be saved.  On that night, the light of God's love shone, bringing hope for all people.  As we sing about stables, cattle feed in the trough, poor and nomadic shepherds with their sheep, look past the decorations to the truth.  Out of love, God has come to bring forgiveness, hope, and life to all people.  Do not be afraid but rejoice!  Read the Christmas story, Luke 2:1-20.

Waste Not, There's a Lot of Want

      Often the skills we have as adults are things we began learning as children from playing music or baking cookies to fixing things.  One of the things I am good at that comes in handy this time of year is the skill of wrapping presents.  I not only can wrap presents well, I can do it quickly using a minimum amount of tape and wrapping paper.  I learned that skill on many Christmas Eve days when I was called upon to wrap presents for my mom while she did other things.  
       As one of seven kids, there were a lot of presents to wrap - even though there wasn't a huge amount of money to spend on toys and such.  Many presents were things like needed new socks, sweaters, and other things we needed.  So there I would be late in the afternoon shut in my mom and dad's room with tons of things to wrap.  Sometimes I had to check and make sure I was matching the right gift with the right person and sometimes I would find myself wrapping my own presents.  But all in all, I knew the job well.  Mom had trained me and a big part of my training involved learning not to "waste" paper and tape by using too much. 
       Mom's concern about waste was also evident as the presents were unwrapped.  There was to be no rushing and ripping of paper to get at the presents beneath.  Instead, we learned to carefully take the paper off, minimizing and damage to the paper which was then folded and put away to be used again.  Bows, as inexpensive as they were, were also to be saved to be used again.  Boxes were folded, stacked inside each other and put aside to be used again.  This care went along with the way in which presents were handed out and unwrapped one by one so that notice was taken and thanks given for each gift.  If one of us noticed that our pile was heavy on the socks and underwear and thin on the "fun" side, we learned that eventually (usually as late as June or July) we would get an unexpected gift from Mom with "I thought I had something else I forgot to give you at Christmas".
       I know as a child, I often moaned about the gifting of things I needed like socks and underwear.  I wanted to find other things under the tree.  I wanted all the stuff that everything around me told I should want for Christmas, toys, dolls, a bike, games, and other fun things.  I'm pretty sure I never sat on a santa's lap and asked for new socks and I would have made a good case for needing the fun stuff I wanted.  Yet as I grow older, I find I am less and less interested in getting more stuff.
       This time of year, even while there is an emphasis on buying more stuff, there is also a competing emphasis on Christmas giving.  People often focus on charitable giving towards the end of the year; it makes sense tax-wise and it appeals to our sense of generosity.  Perhaps it makes us feel a little less guilty for what we do spend on toys and luxuries.  Giving to help those in need is an impulse we should follow all year long.  Need never goes away just because we pack away our Christmas baubles.
       The early Christian church saw as completely central to the teaching of Christ the work of caring for those in need: widows, orphans, the sick, the poor, and those in prison.  Gifts of food and money were brought to worship to be distributed to those in need.  It was obedience to Jesus' own command to feed the hungry and to show God's love by loving even the unlovable around us.  Scripture repeatedly teaches that God's love will be made know in the world by how we show that love in our words and actions.  John writes, "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?" (1 John 3:17) 
        The coming King we wait for was born in a stable, beginning his life as a refugee and ending his life hanging on a cross.  It only seems fitting that  we find it easier to meet our Lord in the kind of places he walked and with the lost and the least for which he gave his life.  In reaching out in love, we meet Love face to face.   Read 1 John 3:16-24

Making Room for Jesus

Having just gotten through the after Thanksgiving weekend, I feel a bit torn between two realities.  One reality has been so thoroughly portrayed and focused on in the media.  Everywhere for days has been filled with either the ads or the news about the great deals and sales before and leading up to “black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving) which some stores beat out by beginning on Thanksgiving Day; the sales on Friday and Saturday and Sunday and “Cyber Monday”.  Have we bought and sold enough?  Spent enough money?  Waited in enough lines? 

And then there is the other reality that I was reminded of in several ways this week.  In the midst of all of the focus on spending and having way more than we need, the same economy trying to get us to spend our way into debt has created a lot of people who are truly in need.  Groups like Salvation Army, the New Life Center, shelters and food pantries are seeing a big increase in the numbers of people who need help.  There are a lot more people who are un or under employed, people who are homeless, living in substandard housing, and who are hungry: not just in New York or Chicago but also here in our county and in our town and surrounding small towns.  People are hungry and food pantry shelves are nearly empty all over.

What does this have to do with us or with Christmas?

“And she (Mary) gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.”  (Luke 2:7)

Oftentimes we treat people in need or talk about them as if it is their fault that they are jobless, or homeless, or hungry.  The assumption is that it is somehow their problem that they need to fix.  If they would just try harder, pray harder, be better people, they could salve their own problems.  After all (as I have heard people say), “nobody helped me”.

Have you ever given a thought to Mary and Joseph that December night so long ago?  As Mary groaned in labor, as Joseph worried, what do you think they were praying for but a safe, clean, and welcoming place for Mary to have her baby?  Who more deserved a fine place to be born and good care than God’s own son and the parents that were so faithfully doing what God had asked of them?

But for Mary that night, there was no room but the stable and no bed for Jesus except the hay in the feeding trough.

Near the end of his ministry, Jesus teaches his followers that when he comes again in judgment, people will be divided into the righteous and the cursed.  It should come as no surprise that the king, born in such humble beginnings, cares for people just like him.  “Come, you that are blessed… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”  Then the righteous will say, ‘When did we see you like this and help you?’.  And the Christ answers, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters you did it to me”.

What Jesus is teaching us is that far from being those who aren’t praying enough or working hard enough or being good enough, the people in need around us are Jesus’ family.  And in fact, in meeting them and in caring for them, we meet Jesus face-to-face and care for him.  To love Jesus is to love and care for those in need.  And if that instruction is not clear enough, Jesus goes on to say that those who did not care for those in need, did not care for Jesus.  To know Jesus is to care for others.

It can be easy to get so caught up in the excess of indulgence around us, that we lose Jesus in the wrappings of Christmas.  We can get lured into wanting so much that it becomes impossible to find any joy.  Take some time to step away from the lights and glitter to make way to the manger.  Make room in your heart and your life this Christmas for seeing Jesus and helping him and those in need.

Bring food for the food pantry.  Make donations to the ELCA Hunger Program, Lutheran World Relief, and other programs.  Volunteer your time and effort.  Visit.  Reach out to someone who is facing Christmas alone for the first time.  Reach out in love not judgment and meet Jesus.  Join me in making room for Jesus this Christmas.  Read Matthew 25:31-46