Provocative thinking, maybe…

Epilogue – November 27, 2011 November 27, 2011

It was a full day at the Austin Avenue church this morning. It was the 1^st Sunday of Advent. We celebrated the Hanging of the Greens. The kids decorated the Chrismon Tree and then learned a new song about the animals at the manger. We were blessed to celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. All that was in the first 15 minutes.

Somehow, I even managed to squeeze in some preaching. I introduced the theme for this Advent season; music, or more specifically, the things we can learn from music. Today’s preaching song was In the Bleak Mid-Winter. We talked about how Christ enters into a bleak world and “un-bleaks” it. I introduced our Christmas Mission Project, shoes for the children of Swaziland. I gave everyone a little snow globe, a gift to help us remember how some people are experiencing a winter of discontent. And I invited everyone to imagine then difference we could make in a child’s winter by virtue of the Advent of Christ in our hearts. It really was a wonderful day.

The one thing I just ran out of time to talk about was the challenge. I’ll say more about it next week, but our Advent challenge is simply this: match the spending you do on yourselves this Christmas with a gift for a mission project beyond yourself. You’ve all heard me talk about how Christmas is a celebration of Christ’s birthday, not ours, and how utterly inappropriate it is for us to receive all the gifts at someone else’s birthday party. The challenge simply takes it one step further.

I love getting Christmas presents. I love giving Christmas presents. But the truth is I don’t really need too much more stuff. Stuff is getting to be more of a burden than a blessing. So Brenda and I have decided, once again this year, to (1) buy even less stuff for ourselves and to (2) make a matching gift (equal to the total amount we spent on gifts for ourselves) to the Austin Avenue shoe initiative. It’s a cause that would make Jesus smile, I think.

We still give gifts. We enjoy it way too much to stop. But the experience of giving thoughtful, less expensive gifts that enable us to be generous in mission giving is a gift in itself. It’s one we’ll give to ourselves this Christmas. And it’s one that feels really good. Don’t you deserve a feel-good gift this Christmas?