Here is an interesting take on the star of Bethlehem.
http://www.reformation21.org/Reformation_21/20/
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Notes from Parents Meeting
Parent & Youth Meeting
December 3, 2006
• I have asked for both parents and youth to be here because I want each group to hear what the other group is being taught and told about. I want each of y’all to know what responsibilities I am laying out for each group. Youth – know what your parent’s responsibilities are. Parents – know what your youth’s responsibilities are.
• First thing, my area of responsibility is K-12 grade participants and their families. This is my congregation – and I am your pastor. Please utilize me as such – I have been called to be your pastor, so please use me as such. I am here for you.
• Philosophy of ministry – this revolves around the covenantal family.
• Jeremiah 31.33 - I will be their God, and they shall be my people… this is the crux of the covenant that God has made with His people, and this is the foundation from which I am building this ministry.
• In particular, my focus is on helping and aiding the covenant family, because God works through the covenantal family structure.
• I am here to aid the parents in their role of raising their children… please understand, I am not a miracle worker – I do not walk on water, nor do I turn water into wine – and I cannot snap my finger and make your kids good and your family ok. That is not what I do – my calling is to come alongside the family and to help you along.
• This ministry will be built to aid the parents, not to do those things that you don’t want to do. Which means this – my ministry to your family will look just like how you minister to your family.
• So far, we are off to a good start – because you are here this evening, and that shows me your seriousness in this ministry and your part in it.
• But, parents please understand that I am here to aid you as you seek to raise your family according to the covenant.
• Think about the way our week is scheduled at this church – I have an hour every other week with your kids. They spend a little less than one hour in Sunday School.
• Who do they spend a majority of their time with outside of the church? It isn’t with us – so which means that we are limited to what we can do.
• We aren’t there every day – we aren’t in the homes with them – we aren’t family.
• The burden of ministry falls upon your shoulders – and we are here to aid you in that.
• Hughes Oliphant Old, a professor at Erskine College and Seminary, said that the family is a little church – I believe that, and I want to aid you in that.
• How are we going to do that? Through teaching and relationships.
• Here are some of my goals in how we are going to structure our ministry – sometime in the next year, I want youth group to be a weekly meeting instead of every other week.
• This time will be spent in singing songs, praying for each other and being taught from Scripture on a number of issues and topics. We will also use our time to social with each other, to build relationships with one another.
• Our teaching will be heavy – meaning that I will focus on the Bible and to bring your youth along in their understanding of it – that from this teaching, we will be preparing Proverbs 31 women and Ephesians 5 men.
• Also, I would like for us to do some more singing in the groups – which means that I need some musical people to help out with this! I play guitar, but my voice scares more than it helps!
• This will be our main way of helping the family.
• We will also schedule social events – right now, I am looking at a ski trip for the winter break in Feb.
• We will do some big events scattered around smaller events – all of them aimed at building relationships with one another.
• Another thing we will start in the New Year is I would like to come and visit each family under my care – to pray with you, to fellowship with you, and to help you out anyway that I can… I will let you know more about that as I try and get that together.
• Finally, I hope to have parent’s meeting set up periodically – probably quarterly – to give you the opportunity to have a hand in all of this.
• Now, the best way that we can minister to your youth and child is if they are active in the church – in Sunday School, morning worship and in youth group… this is where our main exposure to your youth will be… if they aren’t involved, then we cannot minister to them.
• So, we need the youth to be involved in order for us to be able to minister to them.
• Parents, I encourage you to make this ministry a priority in the life of your family…I know that families are busy with different things at different places… but, what we are talking about here isn’t another extracurricular activity – we are talking about the care and nurture of your child’s soul and salvation… please make this ministry a priority in your life.
• Another idea for parents – your children model your behavior… this is proven over and over again… model for your children what a Christian should be, both in & out of church.
• I am amazed at how many parents think they can do what they want to and for it to not affect their children.
• Your children will model your behavior – so give them good behavior to be modeled after.
• Be active in church – come to church and be a part of the community.
• When you encourage your youth to come to youth group, why don’t you also go to evening worship? What better way to model this priority than for you to be a part of the evening activities here?
• Youth – you need to make this ministry a priority in your life, because each person working in this ministry is doing so for your benefit.
• I am the only paid worker here – the rest are volunteering to do this – and that shows you how much care there is for you in this church.
• Please make this a priority in your lives – get your homework done ahead of time, get your chores out of the way – and come and be a part of this time with each other.
• I am excited about the opportunities here – we have a good core of youth! There is no limit to what this ministry can do in the lives of each other.
• But, we all have to be dedicated to this in order for it to work… I have never seen a truly successful youth ministry that doesn’t involve the family in all ways, and that is what we aim to do.
• As I end my part, let me read to us a passage that explains to us the fundamentals of the covenant family – Deut. 6.4-9, 20-25
• I would like to give our other youth workers a moment to say a few words, and then open up the floor to any sort of discussion.
December 3, 2006
• I have asked for both parents and youth to be here because I want each group to hear what the other group is being taught and told about. I want each of y’all to know what responsibilities I am laying out for each group. Youth – know what your parent’s responsibilities are. Parents – know what your youth’s responsibilities are.
• First thing, my area of responsibility is K-12 grade participants and their families. This is my congregation – and I am your pastor. Please utilize me as such – I have been called to be your pastor, so please use me as such. I am here for you.
• Philosophy of ministry – this revolves around the covenantal family.
• Jeremiah 31.33 - I will be their God, and they shall be my people… this is the crux of the covenant that God has made with His people, and this is the foundation from which I am building this ministry.
• In particular, my focus is on helping and aiding the covenant family, because God works through the covenantal family structure.
• I am here to aid the parents in their role of raising their children… please understand, I am not a miracle worker – I do not walk on water, nor do I turn water into wine – and I cannot snap my finger and make your kids good and your family ok. That is not what I do – my calling is to come alongside the family and to help you along.
• This ministry will be built to aid the parents, not to do those things that you don’t want to do. Which means this – my ministry to your family will look just like how you minister to your family.
• So far, we are off to a good start – because you are here this evening, and that shows me your seriousness in this ministry and your part in it.
• But, parents please understand that I am here to aid you as you seek to raise your family according to the covenant.
• Think about the way our week is scheduled at this church – I have an hour every other week with your kids. They spend a little less than one hour in Sunday School.
• Who do they spend a majority of their time with outside of the church? It isn’t with us – so which means that we are limited to what we can do.
• We aren’t there every day – we aren’t in the homes with them – we aren’t family.
• The burden of ministry falls upon your shoulders – and we are here to aid you in that.
• Hughes Oliphant Old, a professor at Erskine College and Seminary, said that the family is a little church – I believe that, and I want to aid you in that.
• How are we going to do that? Through teaching and relationships.
• Here are some of my goals in how we are going to structure our ministry – sometime in the next year, I want youth group to be a weekly meeting instead of every other week.
• This time will be spent in singing songs, praying for each other and being taught from Scripture on a number of issues and topics. We will also use our time to social with each other, to build relationships with one another.
• Our teaching will be heavy – meaning that I will focus on the Bible and to bring your youth along in their understanding of it – that from this teaching, we will be preparing Proverbs 31 women and Ephesians 5 men.
• Also, I would like for us to do some more singing in the groups – which means that I need some musical people to help out with this! I play guitar, but my voice scares more than it helps!
• This will be our main way of helping the family.
• We will also schedule social events – right now, I am looking at a ski trip for the winter break in Feb.
• We will do some big events scattered around smaller events – all of them aimed at building relationships with one another.
• Another thing we will start in the New Year is I would like to come and visit each family under my care – to pray with you, to fellowship with you, and to help you out anyway that I can… I will let you know more about that as I try and get that together.
• Finally, I hope to have parent’s meeting set up periodically – probably quarterly – to give you the opportunity to have a hand in all of this.
• Now, the best way that we can minister to your youth and child is if they are active in the church – in Sunday School, morning worship and in youth group… this is where our main exposure to your youth will be… if they aren’t involved, then we cannot minister to them.
• So, we need the youth to be involved in order for us to be able to minister to them.
• Parents, I encourage you to make this ministry a priority in the life of your family…I know that families are busy with different things at different places… but, what we are talking about here isn’t another extracurricular activity – we are talking about the care and nurture of your child’s soul and salvation… please make this ministry a priority in your life.
• Another idea for parents – your children model your behavior… this is proven over and over again… model for your children what a Christian should be, both in & out of church.
• I am amazed at how many parents think they can do what they want to and for it to not affect their children.
• Your children will model your behavior – so give them good behavior to be modeled after.
• Be active in church – come to church and be a part of the community.
• When you encourage your youth to come to youth group, why don’t you also go to evening worship? What better way to model this priority than for you to be a part of the evening activities here?
• Youth – you need to make this ministry a priority in your life, because each person working in this ministry is doing so for your benefit.
• I am the only paid worker here – the rest are volunteering to do this – and that shows you how much care there is for you in this church.
• Please make this a priority in your lives – get your homework done ahead of time, get your chores out of the way – and come and be a part of this time with each other.
• I am excited about the opportunities here – we have a good core of youth! There is no limit to what this ministry can do in the lives of each other.
• But, we all have to be dedicated to this in order for it to work… I have never seen a truly successful youth ministry that doesn’t involve the family in all ways, and that is what we aim to do.
• As I end my part, let me read to us a passage that explains to us the fundamentals of the covenant family – Deut. 6.4-9, 20-25
• I would like to give our other youth workers a moment to say a few words, and then open up the floor to any sort of discussion.
Yes, Virginia, There is a God
Yes, Virginia, There is a God
Isaiah 7.14
Scripture
The grass withers & the flowers fade, but the word of God endures forever. Amen.
Prayer
Introduction
Eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon was having a crisis – some of her friends were telling her that Santa Claus didn’t exist. Like most little girls, the first thing she did was to go to her father… and she asked him – was there really no Santa Claus? He told her that she should write their local newspaper, The New York Sun, and ask them this same question. This letter came before Francis Church, and he responded with the column that has become famous, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. In this editorial, Mr. Church sets forth an argument that a belief in Santa Claus is warranted. Here are some of his reasons he sort forth of why we can believe that there is a Santa Claus…
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They do not believe except [what] they see… Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
His argument is based upon believing in the unseen and the unproven – basically, if you want to believe in Santa Claus, then you can, without any sort of proof or evidence… and this same logic also applies to fairies dancing on the lawn.
Thankfully, Santa Claus and God are not equals, because in the Christian faith, our belief that there is a God isn’t based on the unseen or unseeable or unknowable, for God has made himself known and seeable to his people.
We see God proclaimed in the nature around us…
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Nature declares to us that there is a God – from a sunset to a fresh snow to leaves falling to a spring evening… all of this declares that there is a God.
We also behold God in mankind…
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
When we look at each other, we see the image of God in each other – in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
God has made himself known to us… especially in what we celebrate in the Christmas season.
Our passage this evening is found in the Old Testament, and was given as a prophecy of the coming Messiah. What is interesting to note is the name given to the coming Messiah – Immanuel, which literally means God with us. Some 700 years before the first Christmas, God’s people are promised that God himself will be with us. This same prophecy is retold in the birth account of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1.
Matthew 1:20-23 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
This promised Messiah, who we are told will be God with us, is said to be Jesus Christ.
Now, if this was the only instance of this claim for Jesus as the Messiah, then we would have some right to be suspicious.
But, the Scriptural proof that this Messiah is Jesus Christ, the son of God, is overwhelming. First, we have the birth account – Isaiah foretold that the Messiah will be born of a virgin… and this Messiah was born of a virgin. The prophet Micah says that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem… where this Messiah was born. Isaiah tells what the life & death of the Messiah will look like in chapter 53… and it is the life and death of this Messiah.
It is also interesting to note how this Messiah considers himself…
In Luke 4, Jesus goes into the synagogue, and began to read from the prophet Isaiah…
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus clearly identifies himself as the Messiah as prophesied in this reading from Isaiah, that he is the fulfillment of the promised Savior.
In John 10, Jesus says this about himself…
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."… 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Jesus considers himself to be God – he says explicitly that he and the Father are one… meaning that Jesus is God.
This is a constant theme in his ministry, even when faced with persecution, beatings and stonings. But, he isn’t the only one who proclaims him to be the Messiah.
When Jesus asked his apostles who they thought he was, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” When Jesus was on the cross, his manner of death so impressed the centurion that was supervising his crucifixion that he uttered, “Truly, this was the son of God!” Even the demons and unclean spirits would proclaim Jesus to be the son of God! Paul and the other New Testament writers always made reference to this Jesus as being the Messiah, the son of God. Even the apostle John, when taken into heaven, continues to reference Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God.
But, what is most telling that this is the true Messiah was his manner of death as prophesied in Isaiah 53.
Jesus, as an innocent man, went upon the cross and suffered a cruel death – so cruel that at one point he is pushed to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As he was being crucified, the earth shook, the night turned into day, and the veil in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. He died on this cross, was buried in the tomb of a rich man, and on the third day he rose from the dead. After his resurrection, he was seen by more than 500 people, some who were still alive during the writing of the New Testament.
He then ascended into heaven, which was witnessed by his disciples. When God entered into our world, people knew… it had been prophesied, and they saw these prophecies fulfilled.
The Messiah proclaimed himself to be the true Messiah, God incarnate on earth to save his people – and his people recognized that their Messiah had come to save them. They saw him… they touched him… they were healed by him… and they talked & wrote about their experiences. There is overwhelming proof that God entered into our world in the form of a man who was named Immanuel.
For Mr. Church, when we wanted to answer the question of proof of Santa Claus for little Virginia, he had to turn to the proving of nothing – all he could tell her is that you can’t prove that Santa isn’t real. For Christians, this same logic doesn’t hold true – we know that there is a God because of Christmas. With this season, we celebrate that the son of God came to earth to save his people – he was born of a woman… seen, touched and heard by a multitude of people… died on the cross and resurrected… and ascended into heaven.
On Christmas, we celebrate that God is real – so real that His son was born to us and beheld by many, and his saving work is experienced to this very day.
Yes, Virginia, there is a God – and we can be sure of that because of Christmas.
Isaiah 7.14
Scripture
The grass withers & the flowers fade, but the word of God endures forever. Amen.
Prayer
Introduction
Eight year old Virginia O'Hanlon was having a crisis – some of her friends were telling her that Santa Claus didn’t exist. Like most little girls, the first thing she did was to go to her father… and she asked him – was there really no Santa Claus? He told her that she should write their local newspaper, The New York Sun, and ask them this same question. This letter came before Francis Church, and he responded with the column that has become famous, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”. In this editorial, Mr. Church sets forth an argument that a belief in Santa Claus is warranted. Here are some of his reasons he sort forth of why we can believe that there is a Santa Claus…
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They do not believe except [what] they see… Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
His argument is based upon believing in the unseen and the unproven – basically, if you want to believe in Santa Claus, then you can, without any sort of proof or evidence… and this same logic also applies to fairies dancing on the lawn.
Thankfully, Santa Claus and God are not equals, because in the Christian faith, our belief that there is a God isn’t based on the unseen or unseeable or unknowable, for God has made himself known and seeable to his people.
We see God proclaimed in the nature around us…
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Nature declares to us that there is a God – from a sunset to a fresh snow to leaves falling to a spring evening… all of this declares that there is a God.
We also behold God in mankind…
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
When we look at each other, we see the image of God in each other – in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
God has made himself known to us… especially in what we celebrate in the Christmas season.
Our passage this evening is found in the Old Testament, and was given as a prophecy of the coming Messiah. What is interesting to note is the name given to the coming Messiah – Immanuel, which literally means God with us. Some 700 years before the first Christmas, God’s people are promised that God himself will be with us. This same prophecy is retold in the birth account of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1.
Matthew 1:20-23 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
This promised Messiah, who we are told will be God with us, is said to be Jesus Christ.
Now, if this was the only instance of this claim for Jesus as the Messiah, then we would have some right to be suspicious.
But, the Scriptural proof that this Messiah is Jesus Christ, the son of God, is overwhelming. First, we have the birth account – Isaiah foretold that the Messiah will be born of a virgin… and this Messiah was born of a virgin. The prophet Micah says that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem… where this Messiah was born. Isaiah tells what the life & death of the Messiah will look like in chapter 53… and it is the life and death of this Messiah.
It is also interesting to note how this Messiah considers himself…
In Luke 4, Jesus goes into the synagogue, and began to read from the prophet Isaiah…
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 20 And Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus clearly identifies himself as the Messiah as prophesied in this reading from Isaiah, that he is the fulfillment of the promised Savior.
In John 10, Jesus says this about himself…
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."… 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Jesus considers himself to be God – he says explicitly that he and the Father are one… meaning that Jesus is God.
This is a constant theme in his ministry, even when faced with persecution, beatings and stonings. But, he isn’t the only one who proclaims him to be the Messiah.
When Jesus asked his apostles who they thought he was, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” When Jesus was on the cross, his manner of death so impressed the centurion that was supervising his crucifixion that he uttered, “Truly, this was the son of God!” Even the demons and unclean spirits would proclaim Jesus to be the son of God! Paul and the other New Testament writers always made reference to this Jesus as being the Messiah, the son of God. Even the apostle John, when taken into heaven, continues to reference Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God.
But, what is most telling that this is the true Messiah was his manner of death as prophesied in Isaiah 53.
Jesus, as an innocent man, went upon the cross and suffered a cruel death – so cruel that at one point he is pushed to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As he was being crucified, the earth shook, the night turned into day, and the veil in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. He died on this cross, was buried in the tomb of a rich man, and on the third day he rose from the dead. After his resurrection, he was seen by more than 500 people, some who were still alive during the writing of the New Testament.
He then ascended into heaven, which was witnessed by his disciples. When God entered into our world, people knew… it had been prophesied, and they saw these prophecies fulfilled.
The Messiah proclaimed himself to be the true Messiah, God incarnate on earth to save his people – and his people recognized that their Messiah had come to save them. They saw him… they touched him… they were healed by him… and they talked & wrote about their experiences. There is overwhelming proof that God entered into our world in the form of a man who was named Immanuel.
For Mr. Church, when we wanted to answer the question of proof of Santa Claus for little Virginia, he had to turn to the proving of nothing – all he could tell her is that you can’t prove that Santa isn’t real. For Christians, this same logic doesn’t hold true – we know that there is a God because of Christmas. With this season, we celebrate that the son of God came to earth to save his people – he was born of a woman… seen, touched and heard by a multitude of people… died on the cross and resurrected… and ascended into heaven.
On Christmas, we celebrate that God is real – so real that His son was born to us and beheld by many, and his saving work is experienced to this very day.
Yes, Virginia, there is a God – and we can be sure of that because of Christmas.
Monday, December 11, 2006
C.S. Lewis on Christmas
I found this about C.S. Lewis and his thoughts about Christmas...
From "What Christmas Means to Me":
The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it [in the commerical sense] in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?
3. Things are given as presents which no mortal ever bought for himself—gaudy and useless gadgets, ‘novelties’ because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?
4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it. We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
Taken from C.S. Lewis, “What Christmas Means to Me,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 304-305.
From "What Christmas Means to Me":
The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to ‘keep’ it [in the commerical sense] in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out—physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
2. Most of it is involuntary. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost a blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?
3. Things are given as presents which no mortal ever bought for himself—gaudy and useless gadgets, ‘novelties’ because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?
4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it. We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write it off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
Taken from C.S. Lewis, “What Christmas Means to Me,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 304-305.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Senoir High Happenings
Here is a reminder that the Senior High Youth Group Christmas party is this Fri, the 8th, at 6 pm in WOH. There will be dinner (something good I hope- Peggy is in charge of it!), then an exchange of white elephant gifts, some games - & then we will head into town to watch 'The Nativity' - be ready to spend some time in discussion of this movie come Sun morn! I hope to see y'all there, and if you need any info, please call me, Daniel or Peggy!
Pastor James
Pastor James
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