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Dusty and Broken
Read: Romans 3: 21-26
God so loved the world, that God gave God’s only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
I collect Nativities. I have about 12 now. Last year I was given a lovely Nativity with the Holy Family and the word Noel above them. The scene lights up with a small LED light. When I moved this fall I came across the nativity in one of the boxes I was unpacking. The N in Noel was broken, and the LED light wasn’t working. The figures were coved in dust. I had kept the nativity out because it was small and wanted it out to remind me of the presence of Christ in the everyday. However in the year past I forgot it. It sat on the shelf in the living room among the books on the bookshelf. I had begun to take it for granted. It just became a part of the everyday clutter. Now it brought me up short.
Had I done the same thing in my relationship with Christ? Was there dust on my commitment? Was my faith broken? Carefully, I took the figure out of the box. I found the broken piece and glued it back together. I dusted it off and found a new battery so that it lights up again. As I did these small tasks I rededicated myself to God and gave thanks for the gift of Christmas that helps me see beyond the everyday to the work that God is doing to redeem the world. It now sits on the desk in my apartment where I see it every time I sit down to work on the everyday tasks of answering e-mails, writing sermons and putting together worship services.
Advent and Christmas are opportunities to join in the work of redemption and share in the birth of the Prince of Peace and participate in our own rebirth.
Song: “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus”
Prayer: Dear God, as we again approach Christmas, let us see beyond the glittering tinsel to the steady light of your gift to us. Amen.
Thought of the Day: The spirit of Christmas can be with us all year if we remember Christ.
A Change of Focus
Read: Luke 18: 1-8
If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8: 36
The time from Halloween to Christmas is a busy time for most families. From School programs, sports, to Holiday parties and dinners we are constantly on the go. We wish we had more time to spend with our families, but with shopping and working to buy those presents we sometimes don’t find the time to even decorate or get our minds on Advent and Christmas and its meaning.
Every year it was a war between us and our kids getting the Christmas decorations out and set up. I remember one year in particular when we were busy with getting the house cleaned on the only weekend we had free between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our youngest came running the stairs and asked breathlessly “Can we put our tree up? Tariq has his up and all their decorations up, too.” I just ignored him. I was too focused on getting the laundry done and the carpets vacuumed. He stomped back up stairs and asked his mom the same question. Exasperated, she snapped at him saying “NO! Not Now!” Unfazed he just stood there and looked at her and said, “Well if you won’t do it, I will.” He stomped off down the hall and got his brother. They tumbled down the stairs in a rush, through the garage door laughing and racing to see who could get there first. Our oldest grabbed the Christmas Tree box, while the youngest got the other boxes down from the shelf. They carried everything up stairs to the living room. For the next three hours all our tasks were forgotten. We spent a wonderful afternoon decorating and remembering as we hung ornaments on the tree, set out Great-Grandma’s Nativity, and listening to and singing along with Christmas carols. The mood in the house had changed, the friction and tenseness had dissipated. And surprise, when we were done, the house was clean and ready for Christmas.
Looking back, I realize that our focus changed. Our world is full of busy-ness to take care of, duties, social activities, and housework. We often feel the load is too heavy for us. But Advent reminds us that Christ came to relieve our burdens and refocus our lives on the presence of God qne to fill our lives with love and joy. Sometimes it just takes a little push to refocus our priorities.
Song: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
Prayer: Lord, teach us to come to you, and teach us to learn from one another patience and forbearance.
A Gift for Us
Read: John 4: 5-14
One Icy December morning just before Christmas I watched my grandfather put a pail under the spout of the old iron water pump in the side yard. He lifted the handle and began to pump. Nothing happened. He worked it up and down for several minutes but still nothing. He set the bucket down on the ground and clomped through the snow back up the stairs to the kitchen. There he took the old coffee pot sitting on the back of the woodstove and filled it with water that was still sitting on the floor next to the sink. He then put it back on the stove, lit the firebox and waited. I said with curiosity, “What are you doing?” I wasn’t used to not having plumbing in the house. Heatin’ some water!” in that gruff voice that always seemed to terrify me a little.
“Why?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, with a look like don’t you know nothing, “I gotta prime the pump.” “
Why?” I asked again, every other time its worked. Why not today?”
“Cause, the blame thing is frozen solid from the cold. That’s what happens when its really cold out, The pipe from the well gets frozen.”
“OH!” okay.
Suddenly the pot started to whistle. Grandfather took his gloved hand and grabbed the hot handle, and with his other hand grabbed my hand and dragged me out the door too. Clomping back across the snow path he had made earlier we walked up to the pump. He lifted the lid on the pipe above the pump and poured the boiling water in and said, “Start pumping, fast.” So I did. As the hot water moved down the pump through the underground pipe, the ice began to melt, the melted ice was brown with rust. Grandfather said “Quick dump the water that’s coming out now, And put the bucket back before it refreezes. Don’t stop pump’in’!”
I quickly did as he said, in just a few more pumps clear clean water came pouring out of the pump with a happy gurgle. Grandfather smiled, rumpled my hair and then said git on in the house before Grandma catches you without a coat and kills me for taking you outside. I ran back. A few minutes later he came in with two full buckets of clear clean well water. To this day when I think about that well, I can still taste that water, Cold and sweet.
Sometimes, like that old iron pump, we are unresponsive, our lives are spiritually frozen. But God doesn’t mean for us to endure a barren, frozen, unproductive spiritual life. God gave us Jesus so we could have an abundant, joyful and hope filled life. God is waiting to pour love into us, to prime the pumps of our lives, to make that love that is frozen inside of us flow freely and bountifully through us. It is up to us, though, to keep the pumps working, priming them so that God’s love can flow through us to others. That is what Advent is for to unfreeze our hearts, to prime the pumps so that we can respond to the world with love and justice and compassion.
Prayer: God of love, bless us with your presence. Rouse us. Refresh us so that we may share your love with others. Amen.
Song: “In the Bleak Midwinter”
Thought for the Day: The water of life is offered freely to all.
Interruptions
Read: Luke 2: 15-20
It was a busy time, those days just before Advent, Thanksgiving was over, and the 1st Sunday of Advent was three days away. I needed a break. I had planned to take the two days between Thanksgiving and Advent to spend with my kids, hadn’t spent a lot of time with them because they were away at School. I thought it would be a perfect way to unwind from the previous weeks stresses and to reenergize myself for the weeks to come leading up to Christmas, a chance to get some Christmas Spirit.
The phone rang on Thanksgiving night. I groaned, “who is calling me now?!” It was a member of the youth group, they were going caroling to the shut-ins and they wanted me to come too. I said no, but then my oldest interrupted me and said, “Let’s do it!” I looked at him a rolled my eyes, another interruption to my quiet weekend. I looked at my youngest. He said “Why not!” Outvoted, I reluctantly agreed and said we would meet them Saturday evening at the church. We drove to the church Saturday afternoon, a 45 mile trip one way. When we got there we found some thirty youth and Adults drinking hot chocolate and making s’mores over a bonfire in the side yard of the church. Laughter and happiness seemed to fill the air. I was still grumbling about having to come out. But I soon found as we began our trek through town, that what we were doing was sharing the true spirit of Christmas with many people who where alone, hurting, and just waiting for life to end. What had started out as an upsetting interruption suddenly filled me with great joy and happiness.
As we sang the familiar carols, I began to reflect on that first Christmas, when the Shepherds were interrupted in their daily routines and their nightly chores with news of something new and exciting, something that would bring great joy to all the people. I thought about the Magi, who interrupted their studies of the heavens to come and find a child, who would one day be a king. Think of what they would have missed if they had not followed that star. Think of what the shepherds and the Magi would have missed if they had not been open to God’s invitation. Take time to think about what we miss when we refuse to allow God to interrupt our lives.
Prayer: Lord help us to prepare for your coming as we share the Christmas message with others. Amen.
Song: “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks”
Thought for the Day: Lord Let us be open to the interruptions.
