Christmas is Not Over

Did you know that there are twelve days of Christmas?

I love singing the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Recently at the Hammond Kiwanis, we not only sang the song but acted out the parts. It was quite entertaining. There were ladies dancing, maids a milking, and lords a leaping. You get the picture. It was quite a festive occasion. You see Christmas does not end as quickly as some believe.

At the Christmas Eve service at my church Monday night, I was paid the highest compliment as a preacher. One of my elementary aged little boys ran up to me after the service smiling. He said, "Dr. Jack that was a great service! Let's do it again!!!"

There are Scrooges that try to minimize the Christmas season and the Christmas Spirit. They want to just pick up the paper and then get back to life. Scrooges are all too quick to remind us that the work of the world waits for us. Then there are some of us still playing. I think that the northern part of the country benefits from "snow days" when you just have to continue to stay at home.

I often wonder about the shepherds after they left the manger seeing the baby Jesus. The scriptures tell us that they were praising God. But what about the day after? Things always look different the day after.

Do you think the shepherds just went back to the fields and went about their business? Do you think that perhaps one of them might have seen that God was inviting them to a new life? Or perhaps they remained a shepherd but gained the shepherd's heart like David—one that sought the Lord. Do you think that maybe one of them might have tried to keep up with the baby, Jesus and their family? Maybe they made an annual journey to where Jesus lived just to see how he was grown. Do you think that maybe, just maybe one of the shepherds was in the crowd when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey? Do you believe that one of them could have heard the excitement of Jesus' disciples telling about the resurrection of the Lord?

The Bible just does not tell us. But it invites us to wonder. If you read the life of Jesus, you will find that there are many uncompleted stories about people that Jesus cured or Jesus met. Time and time again we simply do not know.

I believe that the great events or holy spaces in life do not simply come and go. They linger. The meaning and significance are too great to be a fleeting moment. Christmas, IF Jesus is born in your life again, does not simply after the presents are opened, trash cleared out, and the tree taken down. The Christmas of the faith is just a beginning.

May the birth of Jesus stir you into a living relationship with Jesus! Christmas is just beginning! …and a partridge in a pear tree…

Pray for me as I pray for you.

 

God Does Not Leave The Building!

Sometimes life does not make sense.
Sometimes life sucks.
Not something you would expect to hear from a preacher type. At this time, you will just have to get over it. Tragedy and sadness cannot be expressed in terms lightly.
Let me share what I feel are one important theological misconception made in times like this. Not everything that happens in life is God's will. God did not will this to happen. God is not punishing anyone by this event. If this is your picture of how God works in life, I would suggest you break the frame and start all over.
There is a good and bad part of God's gift we call free will. Free will at its best is when creation yearns for goodness and beauty. Free will at its best is when a person stops to help a stranger in need. Free will at its best is when love wins. Free will at its best is when one sacrifices "MY rights and privileges" for greater good. Free will at its best is when the world makes a conscious decision to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Free will at its best lays down one's life for the sake of others.
Free will at its worst is the world's worst nightmare. It is a darkness that is void of conscious or meaning. It is a world of selfishness. It is when creation chooses to participate in behavior that destroys life. The consequences of this are more destructive than one can ever imagine.
God does not leave the building when tragedy occurs. In fact, I believe that God tries in every way to magnify God's presence. God is shouting for those who can make a difference. God is weeping. God is lifting. God knows what it is like to see senseless suffering and death. If you do not believe this, simply look at the cross one more time. I believe that God absorbs the pain of the innocent.
So what good can come from tragedy?
Our world can become a bigger world. The pain of the world becomes my pain and suffering. I no longer insulate myself from the senseless sufferings of children and families whom I will never meet. The world is God's world. If I want to be a part of God's world, I also must see God's world.
We can break through the isolation that occurs to families in crisis. When families go through crisis, the human tendency is to isolate. Families struggling with mental illness or depression do not know where to turn. Families in crisis try to appear normal in every sense while their world falls apart. We can open ourselves to our neighbors, coworkers, and friends in their struggle. We connect ourselves to helping them find whatever resources are available. We pray for them and with them. We remind them they are not alone.
We can begin a needed shift in our culture. We need to learn how to cope with our problems in a nonviolent manner. This is a learned skill. We teach our children that violence only brings more violence. We need wisdom in our culture as to the best way to manage the resources of life for goodness. We need to create the mantra that we will do whatever it takes to change our world so that THE CHILDREN WIN! The win for the sake of the children of our world trumps every other privilege we might claim. We will do whatever it takes for the children of the world to win!
I invite you to join me in choosing one of the persons whose life was cut short. Pick one. Put their name on a small sheet of paper that you will carry with you. Mine is on the backside of my cell phone—Dylan Hockley (6). From now through the Twelve Days of Christmas (Epiphany, January 6), I will pray each day. I will give thanks for Dylan's life. I will pray for his family and friends.
God has not left the building. The sufferings of this world are not borne alone. In fact, this season of the year assures us that God is present. God will be present. Come Jesus! Be born again and again! Even when life does not make sense.

Good Friends Never Leave

The death of good friends is a tough time. It brings to mind all that you have done and also all the things you wished you would have done.  During the season of Christmas, it is good to remember good friends and family members that you will miss.  This year I have had two of my good friends pass away.  Though they are not present, they are not gone.
My friend, Robert, called me twice about joining him in a Holy Land tour. He thought it was a great way to share our friendship in faith. You see we had journeyed together for quite a while. Our daughters played together when they were young.
I met Robert as he was grieving from the fall of his first marriage. He was a romantic at heart. Romantics usually are not very good in relationships though. The romance gets in the way.
He came to be a part of the Singles group at the church I was serving. The group was just starting. One of the pieces of advice I give to persons ending a marriage relationship is to date as many different people as you can as you recover. It will teach you much about yourself. Go out with people that you never would have dreamed going out with. Ask people out who you would never have had the courage to ask before. Robert took it as a challenge. We laughed about this. You see, Robert asked every woman who came to the singles group out on a date. And admittedly, he learned much. Robert loved to learn, even through the difficult times.
So the romantic fell in love—twice. He fell in love with God first and another woman second. I performed his second marriage service. His second marriage failed but his new first love did not.
His love affair with God led him to Cursillo—a retreat that changed his life. Robert invited so many folks to be a part of that experience. He helped create a New Orleans group of people whose lives have been changed. He fell in love with teaching youth. Robert became a part of a youth movement called The Happening. Through the Happening, God has given more joy to youth than you can imagine. This love affair with God opened Robert's live to teaching the Bible. For years, he led youth Bible studies searching for the "AHA!" moment of God illumination and inspiration.
So Robert took a group of Christian disciples to the Holy Land—and died leading people closer to Jesus.
When I learned of Robert's death, I was making plans. The message had gone out that there would be a need to have persons who might travel to the Holy Land to care for him if he recovered. I had figured out that I could leave Christmas day and my schedule would allow me to be with Robert until January 4^th. So I called to put my name on the calendar and was met with the news that it would not be necessary.
As we celebrated Robert's life, I laughed and then I cried. I cried some more and then I laughed. It is the cycle of grief that we all have in some way or another. As I celebrate this season of Christ coming to the world, I remember the sound of Robert's motorcycle coming towards the house for a visit. Then I remember watching him ride away.
Good friends do that—they come and go. But they are never gone.
Pray for me as I pray for you!

Give Gifts That Always Fit

So what is the worst Christmas gift you have ever given? Some of you will balk at such a question. Some of us know immediately the gift that was just not what it should have been or was meant to be.

I think there is a game that some workers play in the retail stores. It is when the worker knowingly helps a customer (usually of the male species) buy something that is really gonna make him/her look stupid. Or maybe the information they were given was not clear. Maybe it was just a mistake—an honest mistake.

One Christmas I go into the women's clothing store. I describe my petite wife to the clerk and even point out a woman that is almost the same size as my lovely wife. "I am looking for a coat to fit that size person." It seemed like a pretty good description to me. So she shows me a coat that looks really nice. I like it so I ask her to give me the correct size. Unfortunately for me, I did not ask the person the same size of my wife to try it on. I took the coat given to me, wrapped it and thought I was safe. Wrong!

Christmas Day my wife opens her package and loves the coat---for a while. The coat was large enough that BOTH of us could have gotten into it. Now for some strange reason, unknown to me to this day, you can give a woman something that is too small and still be loved. However if you go the other way you lose body parts! I STILL hear of this gift on a regular basis.

So what are some gifts we can give that always fit?

Here's a list for you: cards that are filled with goodies( i.e. good for one backrub, a night out, or "let me clean the kitchen!"), playing checkers at the local nursing home for an hour or so, an evening of babysitting for a young couple, a car wash for someone who is handicapped or elderly, cupcakes for neighborhood children, a vacuum the house or mow the lawn card, a gift card for a restaurant or show, or let me teach you how to use your computer, etc. The list goes on.

These gifts are not going to have to be returned. These gifts are gifts of the heart and soul. These gifts are timeless. These gifts are gifts about relationships.

The Christian faith teaches us during this holiday time that God does not want stuff—God wants relationships. God invites us to experience the relationship of love that God began with the birth of Jesus. Emmanuel means "God with us". Give gifts of presence to those you love. They always fit!

Pray for me as I pray for you.