Author: lakewooducc

The classic image of Santa involves the critical question – Have you been naughty or nice? The answer determines your fate with Santa. Many people project this kind of thinking on to God and feel God makes a similar determination the result of which accounts for our destiny with God.

So, are we naughty or nice? The vast majority of people want to be or intend to be nice. Basically, people want to be good and do the right thing. But does that intention really make us good? And can being good actually make us bad?

Apparently, doing good can give us the impression that we are good people. We’ve done the right thing. We have been generous. We have helped someone. So, we feel good about ourselves and we feel that we are good. That’s all fine. But we start to think of all this good like “money in the bank.” Then when the opportunity comes to do something morally questionable, we think, “Well, I’ve done all this good, it’s ok if I do this bad thing. I have done plenty of good to make up for it.” We think of our good as the counter balance to the bad thing we do.

A minor example could have to do with eating. Say we are trying to diet. We eat a low calorie salad and flavored water for lunch. In the mid afternoon, we are feeling a bit hungry. So, we have some chips and dip to tide us over, thinking it’s ok because we only had a salad for lunch.

But this kind of thinking also happens with regard to moral decision-making by individuals and corporations. We may donate a lot to charity. Then when we are doing our tax returns, we think we’ve been generous, we have been good so, we’re entitled to cheat on our return and not declare something we should really be disclosing. Or a company may do all kinds of things that are helpful to the environment and then feel that that makes it ok for them to ignore an EPA regulation and dispose of waste inappropriately.

With this kind of thinking, we convince ourselves that being good makes it ok to be bad once in a while. Being good earns us the right to to be bad.

So as we prepare for Christmas, beware. Pay attention. Are you being nice or good or generous and then using that as an excuse to do something selfish, or wrong, or bad?

The message of Christmas is that we are loved naughty or nice. Naughty AND nice.

When you do acts of charity, for example, don’t have it trumpeted before you; that is what hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets, that they may be praised by others. The truth is, they’ve already received their reward in full. But when you do acts of charity, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing; your good deeds must be done in secret, and your Abba God – who sees all that is done in secret – will repay you.
Matthew 6: 2-4

Prayer: This Christmas season and all year, we pray for hearts that are pure. We want to be good and we want to do good, not as license to do bad or out of self interest, but in response to the unconditional love at the heart of life. May we forgive ourselves and others with the same abandon God extends mercy to us. Amen.

In the musical, “A Christmas Carol,” which many of us saw at the FreeFall Theater this afternoon, Scrooge sings of his heart being broken and exposing all the evil inside. Yes, our hearts broken open by life’s circumstances, by tragedy, by crisis, can expose us to the truth. We may see the worst about ourselves. It can be jarring. It is natural to resist such exposure.

As the old saying reminds us, “The truth hurts.” It can be very difficult to see our shortcomings and our character defects. Realizing that long cherished perspectives are simply wrong and possibly hurtful can be like having the rug pulled out from under us. To see the harm we have caused ourselves and perhaps others can be quite painful. It is heart breaking to see the truth, to come to terms with our identity and our faults and weaknesses.

A broken heart is an open heart. Open to expose the bad. Open to let the bad seep out. A broken heart is also open to God, open to being filled with love, open to receiving goodness and grace. So the image of the broken heart is ultimately a path of healing as we see in the case of Ebenezer Scrooge. His heart has to be broken open so that he can be healed and made whole.

In this season, may we be willing to have our hearts broken, so that they are open to receive the coming of Christ.

God heals the broken hearted,
and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3

Prayer: By nature, we seek to avoid pain. But just as the remedy for a physical malady may be painful but ultimately lead to health, so it is with our spirits. The healing process may be painful. May we allow our hearts to be broken open so that love may flow freely. May our broken hearts release the Christ within us. Amen.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the naval base in Hawaii. It was the worst attack on American soil of the 20th century. The attack demolished all US resistance to entering World War 2 and this country plunged into war across the Atlantic and the Pacific.

This past week, US vice president Joe Biden visited Asia engaging in discussions about foreign policy and foreign relations. Part of Biden’s agenda was protecting the interests of the US and its allies, chief among them, Japan. That’s quite a commitment when you remember Pearl Harbor. China and Japan have been at odds for centuries and the tensions continue. Japan attacks the US and just decades later, we are tightly linked as allies. It truly is remarkable that the US is able to have this kind of relationship with Japan today.

When we look at Europe, we see more surprising alliances. In fact, the entire European Union is an amazing leap in the direction of harmony and peace. Today we think of Western Europe as one big, happy family. They use the same currency. They cross borders without passports. These countries, within the lifetime of many alive today, were the most bitter of enemies with conflicts going back generations upon generations.

May Pearl Harbor be a reminder for us of how far the international community has come. And may that inspire us to make the sacrifices necessary to increase the peace in the world.

Always strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one can see our God. See to it that no one falls short of God’s grace, and that no bitter root starts growing, causing trouble and spreading defilement as it grows.
Hebrews 12:14-15

Prayer: May peace prevail on earth. Amen.

 
Yesterday we learned of the death of one who is remembered as one of the greatest leaders and statesmen of the 20th century. So much has been said about him that eloquently captures his spirit and his commitment to what is right and good. He is admired for his leadership during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. He is extolled for embodying forgiveness and reconciliation.

So much of what we revere about Nelson Mandela stems directly from the teachings of the New Testament which is not surprising since he self identified as a Methodist.

Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.
Turn the other cheek.
Bless your persecutors – bless and don’t curse them.
Don’t repay evil with evil.
Be concerned with the highest ideal in the eyes of all people.
Do all you can to be at peace with everyone.
Don’t take revenge.
If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them drink.
Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by doing good.

We see these teachings and many others from the New Testament embodied in the life of Nelson Mandela. He took the moral high ground. He looked at the long term result that was desired. He knew, as did Jesus, that if you win through violence, then you must rule through violence and intimidation. And then you have lost the battle for true freedom.

So many times I hear people say that the teachings of Jesus and Christianity are all well and good, but that they are utopian; not realistic. They can’t be incorporated into the actual workings of society and government. They are not practical for every day life in the world of today. And yet we see so much of Christian teaching put into practical application in the life of Nelson Mandela and he is rightly receiving due adulation and praise for his courage and vision.

We have so many leaders in the United States in government and business from the White House on down who claim to be Christian, to be followers of Jesus, who go to church, who pray, and who read the Bible. May they do more than praise Mandela; may they follow his example.

Prayer: We have been given a rich heritage of wisdom and teaching which is intended to lead us to our highest good as a human community and as individuals. And yet so often we settle. We settle for what is easy. We settle for what is quick. We settle for what is cheap. And we deny the riches and the value of our inheritance. May we have the courage to pursue reconciliation and justice. In this season as we prepare for Christmas may we refocus our lives on Jesus, the reason for the season. Amen.

A famous industrialist of yesterday year was asked how much money was “enough.” His answer suggested, “just a little more than I have now.” Wouldn’t we all like just a little more money? Or maybe a lot more money? Then, we would be happy. Right?

As it turns out, research shows that once a person is earning $75,000 a year making more money does not significantly increase happiness. [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html] That means that many, many people in this country are not going to be made happier by making more money. And if more than $75,000 doesn’t make us significantly happier why not give generously of the excess and make the people with less than $75,000 happier!

At Christmas we are encouraged to think of giving people gifts that will make them happy. If we want to give gifts that increase happiness, can we think about how we can impact our economy in ways that create more jobs paying $75,000 and fewer jobs paying multi millions and minimum wage? Can we think about how to create a economic climate that rewards and encourages less damage to the environment? Can we think about using all that money over $75,000 to fund education, healthcare, transportation, libraries, free internet, and so many other things that might actually contribute not only to increasing the happiness of some individuals but also to making our society more stable and cohesive as a whole, increasing everyone’s happiness, even those making over $75,000!

Having our needs met for shelter, transportation, healthcare, food, safety, enrichment, expression, relationships increases our happiness. It’s difficult to have a high level of happiness if you don’t know where your next meal is coming from or if you will have a place to sleep tonight. It is hard to be happy if you don’t know how you are going to pay the rent or buy a needed prescription.

We think about bringing gifts to the baby Jesus. May we remember that he was poor and he lived in circumstances that did not offer much in the way of economic opportunity. What did Jesus need? What can we do to serve him today?

Hopefully some of our Christmas giving can truly be oriented toward making others happy, especially those who are experiencing significant economic scarcity through direct giving as well as through transformation of the economic mindset of our country.

“Sell what you own and give the money to poorer people. Make purses for yourselves that don’t wear out – treasures that won’t fail you, in heaven that thieves can’t steal and moths can’t destroy. For wherever your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be.”
Luke 12:33-34

Prayer: We pray for a sense of appreciation for all that we have. May we learn to experience happiness through service and generosity. May our eyes be open to needs of those around us and to our own needs. Amen.