Good morning!
Turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor, are you ready for the holidays?”
That time is upon us. The time is coming when we look forward to family and friends coming over to the house to join us for dinner, to watch football games galore, to buy and open presents. The time is coming when we are both busier than normal and more relaxed than normal. The holidays will shortly be here.
I remember growing up as a kid, I used to watch the school calendar. When we’d get the calendar the first week of school, I’d mark the days off with a red crayon. And I loved this time of year! Not only did we have three days off from school during Thanksgiving Week, and another day off for Veterans Day, but we usually had another couple of days off for Parent-Teacher Conferences. November was my favorite month for (not) going to school!
But then I grew older. When I was single and lived in Tennessee, Thanksgiving Week meant that I was junior in my department. I had a 6-hour drive back home to St. Marys, which meant I could either leave around 6 pm and arrive at my parents’ home at midnight, or get up early and get home shortly after noon on Thanksgiving Day. My car had a cassette player and an FM radio that I had installed. The AM only picked up the car’s static. At that time, I don’t think there was an FM station that reached more than 5 miles from Princeton, another local station in Beckley, and another station in Charleston. That meant I had to listen to the one Jim Croce cassette I had. Over and over again, about 9 times on the trip home and 9 times again on the trip back to Tennessee. I can’t remember what was on it….
One Thanksgiving morning, I got a speeding ticket just outside of Charleston. I suspect that state trooper was bored stiff that morning and wishing he was home – he was the only other car I saw on the road headed my direction for 20 miles. Just like me, he had to work while others took vacation time.
Driving up the turnpike and then cruising up I-77 gave me plenty of time to think and plan. Who would I visit over the weekend? Who would I talk to? What would be for dinner – in those days you were lucky to find a gas station open on Thanksgiving Day, and the fast food restaurants were all closed and I was getting hungry!
And so I began to think about who would be there at Thanksgiving. It was always the same cast of characters – my father and mother, my grandmother, my sister. We’d drive to New Cumberland, because Thanksgiving dinner was at the home of my uncle and his family, which was constantly expanding with grandchildren being born to his children. We’d listen to my uncle tell stories of working at Weirton Steel. And we’d eat dinner with traditional foods – turkey, ham, deviled eggs, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, pies, pumpkin rolls, biscuits. We’d watch the Lions and the Bears play football afterwards until we finally drove home.
At Christmas, we’d hold the celebration at my parents’ house, and my uncle’s family would drive down the day after Christmas. The food was lighter fare – a deli meat and cheese tray, some appetizers, deviled eggs, recently thawed shrimp, cookies. But we always started this meal with Granny Boley saying grace.
Every family has traditions during the holiday season. Growing up, we always took a night, drove around, and “saw the lights”. Later, for a while, this became an evening going up to Oglebay Park in Wheeling and looking at their professional light displays. I preferred the evening in St. Marys.
Another tradition was putting the giant star up on the television antenna tower. In those days, there was no cable, so my father, whose home was already on top of the highest hill around, had a monster television antenna on top of a 30 foot television tower, and eventually he decided to build an 8-foot lighted star. It folded up for easy storage, so we’d dig it out, unfold the legs of the star, check all the bulbs and hoist it up the tower and tie it off. It could be seen for five miles. But we stopped displaying it when the oil embargo hit and everybody was saving energy.
Every family has traditions during the holiday season. You probably have some.
As we move into this time to prepare for the holidays, it is important to understand what those traditions are – and what new traditions you’d like to make. People, particularly young people, can quickly grow fond of traditions.
For example, I grew to love deviled eggs. It was a tradition in our family that every holiday meal had deviled eggs. I don’t know why – but that had become a tradition.
I’m sure that for many of you, roasting a turkey in the oven is a tradition. You know, turkeys just don’t microwave well. They are too complex and they don’t fit. You have to thaw them out slowly in a cold refrigerator– it takes days – and if you try to thaw them at a higher temperature, with more heat, it ruins them. Then, you have to cook them on low heat for a long time. Once again, if you put too much heat on them, they’re ruined.
You know – people you’re leading to Christ are a lot like roasting turkeys. It takes a long time to thaw them out and if you put them under too much heat, it ruins them. Allow plenty of time for your friends, neighbors, and family to come to Christ – you can’t microwave them. And there’s nothing worse than a poorly roasted turkey – either type, the bird or the human type.
Another tradition for us at Christmas was that the youngest child there who could read handed out the presents to everyone else. And each person opens one gift at a time, in order around the room, thanking the gift giver as each gift is given.
Still another tradition was the tradition that Granny Boley said grace before the Christmas meal. After she passed on, Saundra took over that job. I never really understood how strong a tradition can be until one year, our family could not be in West Virginia that Christmas. As everyone gathered to begin to eat, my young niece, who was perhaps 12 or 14 at the time and who almost never had attended church, interrupted and said, “Shouldn’t someone say grace or something?” And you know, the entire group stopped and worked their way through a simple prayer, giving thanks to God for the food that He had provided. The tradition had reminded them of God’s blessings.
As you prepare for the holidays, keep in mind your traditions – the ones you have and the ones you want to have. After we began ministering to the International Students at Marietta College, we almost always had several students at our home on Christmas Eve. After the service at the church, we’d all go back to our home, and then we’d take turns reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke, the 2nd chapter, with a reading of the chapter in each language that was represented there that night. We have listened to the Christmas story in our own English, but also in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and – I think – Arabic.
At Thanksgiving, it was traditional for me to tell the story of Squanto that I told in a sermon last year – you can find it on my sermon blog if you want to use it.
You see, these traditions help us to understand when we are connected to each other, and what is important in our lives. Traditions are how we teach our children about life. If our Thanksgiving tradition is to watch football, that’s what’s important in our lives. If our Thanksgiving tradition is to go around the table and ask for a recitation of blessing from the past year, it becomes important to look for those blessings.
Consider carefully what traditions you want to set for your family. You may want to create new traditions – and you may want to eliminate some old traditions that send the wrong messages. Foods are a source of tradition, places are a source of tradition, movies and stories are a source of traditions, and songs are a source of tradition. We always try to watch “A Christmas Story” around this time of year – you know this movie as “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid” – and “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and “Harvey”, a Jimmy Stewart movie about a 6 foot tall invisible rabbit. For us, these are the ideal movies to watch at the end of the year, just as deviled eggs are to be eaten at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
In ancient Israel, different Psalms were used at different times of the year and for different events. Different parts of the scripture were used to help mark the seasons and events also. The early Christians continued these traditions with the development of the lectionary, a series of readings that cycle over three years, which suggests which readings are best for which part of the Christian year.
The Christian year is coming to a close. You see, the first Sunday of the Christian year in 2014 is November 30, the first Sunday of Advent, a period of 4 Sundays that precede Christmas Day, a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.
In our readings today, we are looking toward the future. We see all the readings looking toward the end of the age. The world as we know it will soon end.
(Gary Auvil’s Sunday School class has just begun a study of Revelation, that book that is mostly focused upon the End Times. Try Gary’s class, especially if you haven’t attended Sunday school for a while.)
The “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” is coming soon. The Prophet Zephaniah has God’s words for us:
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
and punish those who are complacent,
who are like wine left on its dregs,
who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing,
either good or bad.’
13 Their wealth will be plundered,
their houses demolished.
Though they build houses,
they will not live in them;
though they plant vineyards,
they will not drink the wine.”
As the Christian year comes to an end, we are reminded that we must not become complacent. It is so easy to assume that because the Lord has not been dramatically visible in 20th and 21st century America He will continue being quiet. But there were those who said that you need not worry about tornados in West Virginia. As the people of Johnstown whether or not you need to worry about tornados in West Virginia. It is so easy to ignore the Lord when your life is easy.
“But Pastor, my life isn’t easy!”
Oh yes....
- You have a difficult boss – there are people with no job.
- You have trouble paying the rent or making your house payment. There are people who live under highway overpasses.
- Your car isn’t running well. There are people who don’t own bicycles. There are people who don’t have working legs and can’t possibly afford a wheelchair.
- You have health problems. There are people who are dying from Ebola today and half of them will be dead by this time next week.
- You have problems with your in-laws or your ex. There are people in the last year who have been told to convert to Islam or their children will be beheaded. And they were. Beheaded.
God has been good to us. God has been good to all of us in this church. In the greater scheme of things, we are the wealthy. We are the healthy. We are the ones that have been blessed beyond all measure. We have been given great treasures by God.
Yet, we are also the ones that are most prone to look to ourselves for our strength instead of God. We are also the ones that are most prone to ignore God in our lives and hope that if we spend time in His temple each week, we hope He will ignore us. And we are also the ones that are the most prone to try to evade God’s call upon our lives.
For God has a call upon our lives. Just as a King could call upon every person in the Kingdom to fight for the Kingdom, God has a call upon us. What is God’s call upon your life?
The end of the Christian year is near – and the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord is coming soon. And God has trusted you with great treasures, just as the master in our Gospel reading trusted his three servants with great treasures.
The reading from Matthew talks about the master giving bags of gold – some older translations talk about “talents”. The amount of money is enormous. Each bag of gold or talent was worth about 20 years wages for an average laborer, or roughly the equivalent of a half-million dollars in today’s money.
So the master gives one servant two and a half million dollars, another one a million dollars and the third servant a half million dollars and goes away for a few years. When he returns, one servant says, “I doubled your money for you – here’s five million dollars.” The second servant says, “I also doubled your money for you, here’s two million dollars” The master says to them both “Well done, good and faithful servant!” and gives them a promotion and a raise and an expense account and a corner office.
The third servant says, “I was afraid, so I just buried the money in the back yard. Here it is, safe and sound.”
The master is livid. He’s really, really angry. He says “You could have at least put the money in the bank and earned 1 percent interest! Take the money from him and give it to the guy with the five million. Take his keys to the executive washroom from him, take away his 401k, and give him a pink slip. YOU’RE FIRED!”
So what is this story really about? What was Jesus talking about with this story? It seems like things are turned upside down – Jesus is happy with the guys that are making a fortune and upset at the little guy who kept his master’s money safe. That seems odd, doesn’t it?
The message, you see, is that God is looking for His kingdom to grow. He has plenty of money and other resources. God doesn’t want his resources buried where they can’t do any good. Instead, he wants his resources risked wisely. God has given you great, wonderful resources:
He has given you the ability to pray – to ask Him for guidance and then listen to the Holy Spirit to answer your prayers.
He has given you a presence in this world. You are able to listen and talk with people, to find out where the hurting people are, where the troubles in this world are, and where things need changing. And you are IN this world, living in it every day. You are here as God’s hands and feet and eyes and ears. You are present in this world.
He has giving you fantastic gifts of wealth and material. If only 10% of Americans are making less money than you, then you are making more than 90% of the Russians, the Brazilians, the Mexicans, those who live in Turkey, and even the Italians. And we haven’t even begun to look at the third of the world that lives in China and India.
He has given you a tremendous ability to serve. You have academic and practical education which is far above what most people have had throughout time. We have access to TV shows and videos which other people will never see. Even if you only completed 6th grade, your education is far above what a majority of the world’s population has.
And He has given you the ability to witness, to testify to God’s goodness. For years, you have heard stories of God’s miracles and God’s grace that have been given to your friends here at this church. Other people have never had these miracles and graces pointed out to them. Yet you have seen them personally. Look at Izac. Look at Brooklyn and Blake. Look at Deanna.
God doesn’t want all these resources going to waste. He doesn’t want these resources buried in the backyard of your mind.
Let me give you an example.
Let’s imagine that someone in Washington DC announces that the FBI is going to put a second center, as big as the existing center, where the Bel Meadow golf course is today. And let’s assume Dennis/Roy decides that he will go to McDonald’s Burger University in Chicago and come back and build a McDonalds on Route 20 in Quiet Dell. If he gave you the chance, would you put a spare $100 into that investment? Of course! You know it would pay off.
In the same way, God wants you to take what you’ve been given – your chance to pray, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness – to change this world for the better. You really CAN change the world – you really can improve the resources that God has given you. Invest in the things of God!
Let’s look at something. $15 is the cost of a Pioneer Club Bible. How long does it take you to set aside $15? Could you put aside $15 a week to bring children to Christ?
10 minutes a day is the time it takes to pray for our ministries to grow. You can do it in your morning shower, another blessing you have that most people have never had.
1 hour a week at the nursing home or with a homebound person is all it takes in presence to lift someone’s spirits. 1 hour a week after school helping with homework and talking about God is all it takes to bring God’s love to two children.
And so, look at your great blessings. Take your time and money, your materials, and your skills and put them to use changing the world.
One way we will work on this as we prepare for the holidays is what we did last year.
We need to keep in mind that Christmas is not our birthday. It is not the birthday of your child, it is not the birthday of your spouse. There are a few people who happen to have been born on December 25th, but Christmas is not the celebration of their birthdays.
Instead, we celebrate the birth of Christ.
At Thanksgiving, we need to keep in mind that we are not giving thanks mainly for the large amount of food on our table, but instead we are giving thanks for the great blessings that God has given us this year.
So I will once again challenge you to “gift-tithe” this year. For every dollar you spend on yourself and your family for Christmas, put ten cents aside for a special collection. For every ten dollars you spend on yourself and your family for Christmas, put 1 dollar aside for a special collection. Take 1/10th of the money you spend for gifts and food and trips and other things for your family, and put that money aside for a collection we will take up the Sunday before Christmas and on Christmas Eve. Continue your normal giving, but take 1/10th of the money you would normally spend on yourself and your family and divert it to the special collection.
This year, the money collected will go to two worthy causes.
One-half will go to the children’s ministry at this church. It will be used to continue and expand all aspects of the children’s ministry, from Sunday School to children’s church to Pioneer Clubs. We will use it to reach more children, to teach them better about loving God, and to show them how to love other people as Christ loves us.
(For Monroe Chapel: One-half will go to the Clarksburg Mission, which supports the poorest, neediest people in Harrison County. )
The other half will go to the Upshire Parish House, which has significant needs this year to repair their buildings. The Parish House is a core ministry of the WV United Methodist Church – Many of you may know Roy “Sonny” Mick, who is their onsite chaplain.
The holidays are coming. For most of us, the holidays are a time of rest, abundance, and joy.
For many people, though, the holidays are a time of trouble, a time when the weather turns bad, when life turns nasty and difficult, and when it is hard to live.
In the same way, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord is coming. For most of us, that will be a time of celebration, a time of rest, a time of feasting with the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, a time of the greatest joy that we have known.
But for many people, the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord will be a time of trouble, a time when things turn bad for them, a time when living will be difficult, and a time when eternal sorrow will be upon them.
Prepare for the great Holiday of the Lord. Prepare your household by establishing wonderful holiday traditions that point children – and your unbelieving family members – to God and Christ. Prepare yourself with every purchase you make by setting back 1/10th of the purchase price to help those key ministries. Prepare others by taking your resources that God has given you – not only money, but time, presence, service, prayer, and your witness – to growing the resources of the Kingdom.
I get tired of people who complain about the condition of the world and don’t do anything about it. You see, with God’s help you can change the world around us. You can make a difference. You can completely change the world, one person at a time. Figure out what you want changed and develop a plan. God will back you up!
Imagine what would happen if everyone in this church invited someone who lives alone to their home for Thanksgiving. Imagine what would happen if each family in this church brought someone who lives alone to their home for Christmas? And then, while they were there, they told them that this is what real Christians do – they reach out and do great and wonderful things in the world that change the world. They show God’s love to those who don’t know God’s love. They pray for those who are unlovely, and lift up those who are down. They see needs in the world and use their talents to repair the world.
Real Christians take the riches that God has given them and invest them in other people. And that is how the Kingdom grows rich and strong and changes the world.
For the primary resources of the Kingdom, the real bags of gold, are the people who worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and do His will. Do not bury your Spiritual gold in the backyard of your mind. Instead, be one of the people who, through carefully investing in the Kingdom to come, through doing things wisely, through helping people live joyous lives, will be told one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few. Now be faithful over many.”
So turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor, are you ready for the holidays?”
And go to your neighbor this week and say, “Neighbor, I have God’s bag of gold and I’m investing it in YOU!”
No comments:
Post a Comment