What brings joy at Christmas? It’s not just one thing. It’s a combination of many.
Family get-togethers
We started the season early, heading out to Keely’s and Mark’s in mid December as they go West for Christmas. Their large townhouse was elegantly decorated and it was so good to spend time with them; exchanging gifts, playing games and going to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Then there is my annual birthday dinner; always a joyous time with friends from church who come to help me celebrate another year with a big dinner. We also try to drive down to Bath and Haskinville, NY too. That way we can touch base with JoAnne’s side of the family and also attend the big extended family Christmas celebration at my Mom’s house. I think there were just shy of 30 people in Mom’s house this year. There is always a program at that Christmas celebration, which JoAnne discovered is very Victorian.
This last Sunday at Community Wesleyan was a festival of gifts. In the Nativity Story (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762121/), the old shepherd tells Mary that each one of us has a gift. This is a biblical truth. He also tells Mary that her gift is the baby within her. Later, at the stable, Mary repeats the line to him as he reaches to touch baby Jesus; then as she holds out the child, she says, “He is for all mankind.” As with Mary, our gifts are not given us for ourselves but to help others. That’s what I saw happening this last Sunday at Community Wesleyan.
To begin, it was the day when many brought the gifts they had purchased for those less fortunate and placed them around the brightly decked Christmas tree on the platform. It was stacked with gaily wrapped presents. They represented the generosity of so many, a noble gift to the Christ-child indeed. The gifts were made more beautiful by the decorations—the result of Leah’s behind-the-scenes touch.
Then there were the gifts of talents. I am always so appreciative of those who take the time at this busy season to make sure that they give their talent back to God. So many just bury it or use it only for themselves. But always there are some faithful ones who will offer their musical and other talents back to God in worship. We enjoyed two beautiful instrumental pieces. One was a string trio, a classical sound so fitting for carols and brought to us by Josiah Durfee, Alex Paige and Carmen Hunn. Another was a contemporary touch – two guitars, drums, and piano playing “Go Tell On the Mountain” (Mark Cloutier, Shaun Harrington, Aaron Wilkinson, and JoAnne Jones). We reveled in the quiet of the carol, “Silent Night” sung a cappella in a perfect family blend by Licia, Cassie, and Kaitlyn Swain. Mike Lamb, unofficial poet-in-residence, read a new, thought-provoking work he had written and the choir directed by JoAnne Jones inspired us with Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and the striking “In the First Light.”
Then there were the personal gifts – probably some I will not know about who gave gifts to a teacher or friends. I received some. I helped to collect and give one special one to someone who has helped us so much here at Community Wesleyan, our webmaster.
It all blended with the theme of the message too – if we, as imperfect as we are, know how to use our gifts for others and give gifts that are appreciated; how much more will our heavenly Father give good gifts to those who love him!
advent wreath on the fourth SundayJoAnne leading choir on a fourth Sunday of Advent while we served in Bentley Creek PA
How do you describe the Sunday before Christmas? From my observations over the years, at church, it’s one of the most musical of the year. Many churches put on special dramatic presentations on this Sunday. Special groups such as vocal or Handbell or brass choirs are more likely to sing or play on this day than any other except perhaps Easter. Here we will enjoy a string trio this Sunday–what a treat. It is also the most likely Sunday of the whole year for children’s dramatic and choir events – those memorable times when the Wallace Purling’s of the world add their own unforgettable touch to the Christmas story (http://www.santaclaus.com/christmas-stories/wally.html).
From a decorations point of view, it’s always one of the most beautiful Sundays of the year at church too. Christmas wreaths, lights, ornament, candles, a Christmas tree stacked with gifts for those-in-need, and lots of poinsettias all combine to create a wonderfully inspiring scene. Our talented decorator, Leah, has accented richly with red! Here in Syracuse area, there’s about an 80% or more chance that it will be snowing outside too for that extra touch of romanticism – did I say that?
The sense of anticipation is heightened as the Advent wreath burns brightly– all four outside candles lit, waiting only for the coming of Christmas Eve and the climactic lighting of the center candle, the Christ candle, that proclaims again that Jesus is indeed the light of our world too. The whole motive for this Advent emphasis is to help us keep the main thing the main thing in the Christmas season; to assist us in keeping the reason for the season, the reason for our own celebrations; to remind us that giving to others happens because “God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).” So as the light of the wreath burns brighter, our spiritual eyes brighten too with joy looking forward to celebrating again the arrival of the one who is the light of the world, the light of our lives, and who is also the light of that eternal city that He is preparing for all who love Him.
At our extended family Thanksgiving dinner for the Jones clan yesterday, I received a couple really neat ideas for young families.
1. My niece, Pat, and her family who hosted this year and did a great job, have a tradition called the Thanksgiving box. Each year, each member of the family writes down the thing or things they are most thankful for on a piece of paper with their name and the year. Then they put it in a special box labeled “The Thanksgiving Box” and save it. Then in following years, if the family wishes, they can look at what each person gave thanks for. It provides a kind of family history of Thanksgiving.
2. My nephew, Doug, and his family have a different variation on the same idea. They have a designated Thanksgiving tablecloth that is only used on Thanksgiving. Each year they get out markers and each family member writes on the tablecloth what they are thankful for. Then they have Thanksgiving dinner using that tablecloth. This idea sounds like a real children’s delight to me.
I thought these were wonderful ideas to help children participate in the true meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday and build family togetherness at the same time. .
Thanksgiving is one of the great holidays of the year. These days when so much is determined by commercial value, it is being swallowed up between Halloween and Christmas. I will do my best to see that never happens because Thanksgiving has so much to contribute to our lives.
So the question is how do we keep Thanksgiving real and prevent it from going by in a blur between November busyness and Black Friday shopping sprees. Here are my suggestions.
Don’t let the busyness of the season crowd out the family dimension. Thanksgiving is still one of the holidays of the year most associated with family togetherness. Let’s take advantage of that by sharing activities together in addition to the meal.
Decorate for Thanksgiving, not just for fall or Christmas. Even if you are starting to put Christmas things up afterwards, let the Thanksgiving table decoration remain for a few days to remind everyone.
We also must remember the sacred dimension of the season. Thanksgiving requires that we humble ourselves before God and honor the bounty of his hand, both spiritual and physical. Thanksgiving is an attitude commanded for all seasons anyway so in this season we remind ourselves of those commands and we take special care to practice them. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Ps. 107:1 NIV). “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts” (Ps 105:1-2 NIV). This leads to two more suggestions.
Attend a service at your church that is especially set aside to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our service is tonight at 7 pm.
At your Thanksgiving Table, take time to give thanks to God by sharing things you are thankful for and then having a prayer of thanksgiving. Many families go around the table quickly before the table grace and have each one share one thing they are thankful for.
Another dimension of true thanksgiving is generosity. If we are truly thankful to God for all that we have, we will want to share with others. So another great part of every Thanksgiving is giving. I wonder if Christmas would be as powerful in giving if it were not preceded by Thanksgiving. So more suggestions come to mind.
At Thanksgiving, share with someone locally who is in need. Many local churches give baskets to those in need. I also highly recommend the Syracuse Rescue Mission at http://www.rmsyr.org/Home/Main_Page.htm.
Help someone in the third world. We in the United States have so much that our Thanksgiving should overflow to help others in our big world who suffer. I recommend World Hope at https://www.worldhope.org/.
I have been participating in the national Pray & Act emphasis led by Jim Garlow and Chuck Colson. October 30 marked the formal end of this forty-day fasting and prayer effort on behalf of sanctity of life, sanctity of marriage and religious liberty. While some key leaders such as Jim Garlow were on a liquids-only fast for the entire 40 days, everyone was asked to fast in some way as health requirements and God’s leading dictated. Daily emails and attached video clips have edified and inspired participation.
Prayer & Action
My fasting commitment was one 32-36 hr fast (water/apple juice/tea only) per week. I have completed that and have decided to continue it until the week before Thanksgiving. I have not talked about my fasting, but have decided I needed to write about it for an example. Other actions included signing the Manhattan Declaration, praying much in public and private about marriages and our country, becoming more knowledgeable on political candidates, blogging about issues such as sanctity of life and sanctity of marriage, standing up in the annual Life Chain demonstration, speaking for the causes in public messages and prayers, and voting with them in mind tomorrow, God willing.
Deeper Renewal
I have found some things happening that I did not expect from my prayer and fasting commitment. First, I have felt a greater closeness to God in prayer and a stronger identity with his cause in the world. At the same time, I am hungry for more of Him. Second, I have found myself praying more at times that were not particularly scheduled times of prayer – just talking to God about the issues on my heart – crying out to him for needs that came to my attention or that were impressed upon me to pray for. Third, I noticed as I and we as a congregation and people across the nation prayed for God to uphold the sanctity of marriage in our nation, God moved mightily during these forty days to expose deep needs in marriages in our own church. We felt the fruit of this overall effort. I have had multiple opportunities for counsel and correction. These are opportunities for me but especially for the couples involved. That is one reason I am continuing the fast. I see the need for much more healing of relationships by God’s power. I believe this period of prayer and fasting was a big part of why these breakthroughs are happening. God is answering prayer for the sanctity of marriage.
As a pastor, you never quite know what the congregation will do for pastor appreciation Sunday, a verbal roast, a vacation you weren’t planning on, a hearty dinner or…? And they like to keep us in suspense too. But it is always worth the wait.
This year there were so many wonderful parts of it. There was, of course, a great meal — a multi-course Italian dinner. But there were also many cards of appreciation. And so many people came up to us personally too and expressed private words of thanks for our help, support, discipleship and leadership in their lives. That is so meaningful. These would have been enough reward to last a long time, for as Paul said, you are our crown (1 Thess. 2:19).
But the congregation added more. They brought thoughtful gifts too. Knowing that we enjoy going out to eat but seldom do, the congregation gave us gift cards to restaurants including my favorite fast-food lunch spot –Subway and JoAnne’s favorite “my-birthday-treat” place – Red Lobster. Then they brought out 2 huge bags, one for the Jones’ and one for Paashaus’. Inside were gorgeous handmade quilts lovingly completed by the quilting fellowship group, done in our favorite colors. JoAnne got it out nearly as soon as we were home and put it on our bed. She loves it. The ladies said that I had wandered through downstairs at church one day when they were working on it and remarked that it was a beautiful one. But I had no idea it was for us. It is the Dresden Plate pattern, one of my favorites too.
As I thought later about the wonderful day, I was humbled as I was reminded that I have tried to build into our church leaders a climate of appreciation. I frequently write notes thanking them for their work. I encourage them to do the same for others. I teach how important it is to look for the gifts God has given to others and how God wants to use them in his work. And now, on pastoral appreciation day, this climate of appreciation was coming back to us as pastors. Perhaps in some way I am experiencing what Solomon was talking about, “He who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward” (Pr 11:18 NIV). It seems I am reaping multiples of what I have sown. It’s a God thing! Awesome!
Fall is a great time for family fun. On our recent two day trip to Keely’s and Mark’s house, we took time for a couple typical fall activities. The most fun one was a big surprise to me. I thought I was just going along but ended up really enjoying it. Life often works that way doesn’t it. It’s one of the reasons God gives us friends and family to push us a little out of our ruts.
Back to the story—we went through a huge corn maze. And we had the pick of days for it too – a sunny fall beauty in the Connecticut countryside with autumn colored roadside hedges, pumpkin fields and grazing cattle. Looking at the map of the field, however, I just knew they used modern technology to cut it. Inquiring, I found out I was correct; a GPS was used to mark the cuts. I never did find out exactly what the paths were originally cut with, though I confirmed my observations that they were cut some time before so that they could be made smoother. In this maze were hidden posts that we needed to find. Doing a crayon rubbing of the emblem on the top of the post proved that you found it. This made it more of a puzzle as you found yourself guessing where they would have hidden the thematic posts; traversing unlikely parts of the maze; and generally getting about twice as much exercise as you had planned–which is probably a good thing.
We also went apple picking. The trees were the new size – only about twice as tall as I am so most of the branches I could reach. I knew I would love that and the rest of the crew had to drag me away before I filled the car and spent too much money. Orchard-ripe Mac’s are just too good. Keely, Mark and JoAnne were happy to pick a half a bag apiece. But I filled three and…well, I might still be there if JoAnne hadn’t warned me that I didn’t have that much money.
I’m always encouraging couples and families to find activities to do together besides watching movies or TV; activities that prompt conversations and laughter, that create memories to cherish and talk about later. Such times help to bond us together in loving families. Apple picking and solving corn mazes together are two are great examples I can personally recommend.
I usually enjoy my trip to Houghton for the fall Trustee meeting, but this time, something really exhilarating happened. I was privileged to be invited late one evening to give a devotional message for the guys of 2nd West. Jed Boswell, a young man from Community Wesleyan, who lives on that dorm floor, extended the invitation. With joy, I learned that such meetings are a regularly scheduled event. Sometimes they were used for Bible study; sometimes to hash out ideas. They are well organized and include worship time and praying for each other. I shared briefly on the phrase Paul uses “until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19) and focused on the Greek verb which comes directly into English as the verb ‘to morph.’ We discussed together how Jesus is changing us, why it is a more difficult process than expected and how we can cooperate with what God is doing. The evening ended with reciting the 2nd West creed pledging to represent Christ well and singing the Doxology– typical Houghton tradition, deftly mixing traditional and contemporary in the informal liturgy of the evening. I encouraged the young men that what they were doing was a positive example of the words, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV).
I could not help but reflect on how different this was from what went on in hall corridors of the secular college I attended as an undergrad. For one thing, most of those who lived on my corridor sophomore year, I didn’t even know. My roommate smoked (strictly tobacco), another guy on the corridor had his girlfriend as his roommate. I felt isolated socially. That was a contrast from the year before but my previous roommate had flunked out and I nearly had. Neither of us had disciplined our time well—too many distractions. Thankfully, in my second year, some graduate students founded an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship on our campus and I started attending. It gave me the gift of positive spiritual encouragement that these guys in 2nd West are giving to one another regularly. Because of their growing relationships, they will form lifelong friendships with their dorm friends.
This evening experience reminded me why I make no apologies for encouraging parents strongly to send their teenagers to Christian colleges. Not everything is perfect there, for sure. But there are so many possibilities for spiritual encouragement and discipleship enrichment and growth that either do not exist or are not as accessible on a secular campus. Instead, on a campus such as I attended, the student encounters both direct and subtle pressures of various kinds to fall away from the faith. Before our daughter was very far in high school we told her we wanted her to choose a Christian college. She was completely free to choose which one, but since we were paying so much, we wanted to invest our money in something we could believe would be truly good for her. We have always been glad we took that position. It was an unexpected blessing when she chose her Mom’s Alma Mater – Houghton College.
We have just felt so blessed on our trip west. So I decided to make a list of some of the special blessings we have noted. The messianic blessing promised to Israel and received also by the church is pronounced in Isaiah 65:23 (NIV), “They will be a people blessed by the Lord!” We have certainly felt His care and provision on this vacation. Here’s a small list to celebrate the last Sunday of our vacation.
It was a special joy to connect with loved ones on the West coast. At the beginning of our trip, we so enjoyed our stay with our son-in-law’s parents in Eugene, OR. We had not seen them since the wedding. We were also happy to meet Mark’s brother, Bill and his wife Fatima for the first time. Then at the end of our trip we had the privilege of seeing our nephew’s wife, Kim and their son, Lincoln, who is not quite 2, in Seattle, WA .
We sighted so many animals on this trip including elk, moose, black bear, grizzly bear, pica, prairie dog, ground squirrel, marmot, mule deer, and mountain goat. I’ll be blogging more about this.
We had unusually good weather – very few clouds on our trips to places that usually have clouds like Olympic National Park and Mt St. Helens. We had almost no rain at all.
We found safety while driving about 3100 miles in a little cherry red Nissan Versa the trunk of which surprising swallowed our large suitcases perfectly. We had a couple close calls on the road, but God rescued us.
We worshipped on August 15 with Staters and it was communion Sunday at their church. It is special refreshment for me to be able to receive communion while on vacation.
We were able to find places to stay that were quite nice. The first night at Glacier was a little problematic because there was a state fair in Kalispell. Montana. But we ended up at an East Glacier guest house, the most luxurious housing of the trip. It was only available because the person renting it missed a plane for that evening.
We repeatedly commented how much we enjoyed traveling together. We work together while we travel. JoAnne plans, reads tour books and maps and navigates. I drive, handle luggage, and make choices that she hasn’t already figured out. For us, it was a joy to be away from our routine, away from our responsibilities, and doing something we love for vacation – seeing national parks. It is a great way to celebrate our 40th summer together as a married couple.
