Christmas is Over

            I am writing this article the day after Christmas. Christmas is over. For some people there are many different emotions on this day. Some may feel relief, that the festivities and activities of the day are over, or at least that they survived another round of Four Christmases. Some may feel sad, a feeling that might come from the constant joyous parties and comings and goings, and now all that is over. Some might feel regret, that another Christmas season has come and gone and there was that thing that was wanted or needed that didn’t happen. Some might just feel overwhelmed, looking at the mounds of wrapping paper strewn across the house and the sinks piled high with dirty dishes. And some might just feel lonely. Whether this loneliness had been there all season making this just another Blue Christmas, or whether this feeling has come about since all the family has gone back to their own homes, jobs, and lives.

            Maybe you find yourself in one of these feeling today, or maybe you feel a mixture of these, or maybe more.

            Today I just want to start by saying own it where you are. Don’t deny how you’re feeling. Don’t pretend that you aren’t feeling the way you are, and don’t feel worse because you aren’t feeling how you think, or others think, you should be feeling.

            On Christmas Eve I had to go to Dollar General. That’s not a new thing for me, every Christmas Eve I have to make a run to a store for something that we need. And I am thankful for everyone working on Christmas Eve so that I can get the batteries, or cheese, or trash bags that I need. One thing that surprised me this trip, however, was that all of the Christmas items had been moved to the front of the store and marked down for reduced pricing and the seasonal shelving area was full of Valentine’s Day decorations, gifts, and chocolates.    

            This really got me thinking, so I am just asking can we extend some of the Christmasness this year? Do we have to start packing up the decorations and get everything back to normal, whatever that is, by December 26? I know we are already into a new year as you are reading this. Maybe you have already packed up your decorations, maybe you’re already decorated for Valentine’s Day, and that’s OK.

            When the angels appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.” (Luke 2:14)

            And when Mary brought Jesus to the Temple when he was 8 days old, a righteous and devout Jewish man named Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms, and knowing that He was the long awaited Messiah, proclaimed, “I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations and he is the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2:31-32. And before Mary and Joseph could leave the Temple area there was a prophet, Anna, who “talked about the child (Jesus) to everyone” (Luke 2:38a).

            During Advent, the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas, the church where I serve as pastor lit a candle every week on an Advent wreath. Each candle had a different “theme”; Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

            I guess this is what I am wondering today is if we can just not pack up so quickly this year. Nothing, in fact, can ever really gets “back to normal” after Jesus has arrived. So maybe we don’t need to leave the Christmas tree up until but may we can stay in the “Christmas Spirit” a bit longer this year…maybe even permanently. But it starts, as everything does, with our attitude today.

            May you be filled today with the hope, peace, love, and joy of Jesus and may this filling spill out into you family and work, your hobbies and school. And may this last, not just for Christmas, but every day throughout the year. Amen.

The Great Gift Exchange

            Every December at the church where I serve we have a Christmas gift exchange party. I have heard these referred to by different names, one of the most common is a “White Elephant Gift Exchange”. The way the game goes is that you bring a wrapped gift and then everyone draws a number and you get to either select an unopened gift and see what’s in it, or you can “steal” a gift that someone before you has already opened. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes someone else takes what you want and you get the leftovers.

            The week after Christmas retail stores, both online and brick and mortar stores will be overrun with exchanges. Gifts will have given, opened, and then taken back to be exchanged for something else.

            That’s part of the Christmas season.

            Interestingly enough, our Christian life is much like this. And what better time than this Christmas season to make an exchange?

            Read this passage from Isaiah and then you’ll see how it works:

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
   and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes, the oil of joy, instead of mourning, and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.”

--Isaiah 61:1b-3a

            Exchange your ashes for beauty. Cash in your mourning for joy. Take your despair to the return desk and walk away with praise.

            Did you catch all of that?

            Your ashes, your mourning, your despair need to be placed in the exchange bin. You’ve carried these things around long enough. It’s time to give them back. These are the gifts you’ve been given, perhaps, but you don’t have to keep them. The Christmas gift exchange has begun!

            Jesus has some new gifts for you: Beauty, Joy, and Praise.

            That sounds a whole lot better than what you’ve got now doesn’t it? But here’s how this works, you can’t hang on to old gifts and get the new ones. You have to give the old ones up first. You have to give up the despair, the mourning, the ashes of this temporal life. That sounds like something that we all want to do, but deep down you know that it really isn’t that easy, right?

            I agree with you. It’s not easy. But it is simple. It is the way that God has created us to live in this life. We are burdened down with things that are just part of this earthly existence, but not part of who we are.

            Everyone has experienced pain, hurt, and disappointment. That’s why we have the ashes, despair, and mourning. But today you can trade those things in. You can give up the ashes of the past for the beauty of eternity. You can exchange the mourning of loss and death for the true joy that a relationship with Christ Jesus brings to life. You can let go of the despair of regret and put on new clothes of constant praise.

            The past is over. But your future is awaiting.

            Welcome to God’s Gift Exchange. It’s your turn.

A reflection on Hope

 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:22-25)

               WARNING: The following contains completely honest reflections on Hope from a Methodist pastor…

Hope. It’s an important word in our daily lives. It’s an important word in our Christian faith. It’s been an important word to me over the last few weeks. My mom had been in the hospital for three weeks, and over a week ago she went into hospice care. She didn’t want any more tests, no more procedures, no more blood transfusions. She was tired from years of battling physical issues. She was a fighter, for sure, but she was tired.

               “It’s like putting new oil into an old cylinder,” she told me, “I just want to go home”.

               Of course by “home” she meant heaven. The one true and real home that we are all created for. Billy Graham said that we aren’t citizens of this world, we are just passing through. Mom was prepared for her real home.

               And I had hope. Hope that God would take his faithful daughter soon. Hope that God would comfort our family in this loss. Hope that promises of God’s presence would be recognized and felt.

               And so we waited. Day after day, night after night. As she grew weaker, and more tired, then as she was non-responsive most days and as the morphine increased.

               And I had hope.

               During this time I was with five other families who lost loved ones. Most were quick deaths, unexpected, even. I sat with families that wondered why their brother/mother/aunt was taken in death, while I was wondering why my mother wasn’t.

               These families didn’t want death to come, and yet I prayed for death to mercifully come quickly every day and it didn’t. My mom wanted to see Jesus, and yet Jesus was seeing plenty of other people every day, but not my mom.

               Why is that, God?

               Nothing that I was hoping for was happening.

And then 11 later days it did.

               While my wife, Heather, who has been my rock and my best friend during this entire process, and my sister, stood around my mom’s bed she had a moment of direct and focused eye contact with me. I could see her love, and then she blinked…and she was gone.

               What I had prayed for had happened. And in the midst of the pain, in the middle of the loss and beginning of grief, there was that Hope again. 

               It had never left. 

               I had pushed it away a little, I think, but it was still there. A Hope that had redeemed her body and given her a new life. A Hope that saved her, and saved me. A Hope that “we wait for it with patience”.

               And that’s where I hadn’t been doing a good job. Oh, I am pretty good in reminding others the need to wait for the perfect timing of God, but when it came to my mom and her daily slow process of actively dying, I wasn’t patient. I wanted God to act, and act now. And He didn’t.

               And I am thankful for that. 

               I am thankful that we were right there with mom when her last breath was breathed here on this earth and her spirit soared to eternity. I am thankful for the Hope that my mom had in Jesus and in the fact that she is in the presence of God right now. I am thankful for the Hope that I have, even when I wasn’t paying attention to it, even when I was more focused on “my will” than “Thy will”.

               And this Hope is here for you too this Advent season. After all, Advent is about waiting. And none of us are good at it, maybe that’s why God gives us opportunities to do the things that we aren’t very good at.

               Hope is available in Christ Jesus. And God knows we need it.

Merry Christmas mom!