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This is a season of giving. People are not only thinking about giving gifts to friends and loved ones but are also making donations to charitable causes in the name of someone as a gift, and simply giving to organizations and movements that are making a difference. Year end charitable giving is encouraged for some as a tax advantage. [Please know that LUCC would be happy to receive additional charitable gifts as the year ends.]

Giving is important. Giving of money. Giving of time. Giving of forgiveness. Giving of knowledge. Giving of love. Giving a listening ear. Giving encouragement and support. Giving helps us to know how fortunate we are and how much we have to be grateful for. And it makes a true difference in the lives of others.

But giving is more than that. I got an email recently from a Christian group promoting “Live to Serve.” I think what we see from Jesus might better be described as “Serve to Live.” We think of the teaching that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it remains just a seed. And to save your life you must lose it. The implication here is that serving gives life; the abundant life that Jesus is offering to all people. Serving makes that kind of true life possible. It is the path to joy, community, and wholeness.

In this season at LUCC we are celebrating that The Light Still Shines. This season of giving is a time to remember the light of Jesus’ teaching about giving and serving. It is not just a feel good add on to life when it is convenient. When we follow the light of serving and giving, we find the gifts of joy and peace.

Prayer: In these dark days, may I look for the light of Christ shining in the world. Amen.

In your journal, maybe you want to note something that you did for someone else today and how that felt. You were letting someone know that The Light Still Shines!

And don’t forget your donations to The Micah Center. Jim Andrews mentioned in church today that the need is great. This highly successful program is in dire need of funds.

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock have been shining a light for all of us to see. They are shining a light on fossil fuels. Yes, fossil fuels have been great and have made a huge contribution to the progress of humanity but it is time to turn to other sources of power. Fossil fuels are no longer feasible to be used as a power source. Standing Rock is shining a light on a new future powered by renewable and sustainable power.

Standing Rock is shining a light on water issues and the importance of protecting the water supply for sustaining human life. This is close to our hearts here in Florida where we have lots of water issues – sewage dumping, Mosaic fouling the water supply, rising sea level, the Sabal Point pipe line, etc. It’s easy to take water for granted as we just turn on the tap and the water flows. Standing Rock is reminding us that water is sacred, it is part of creation, and it is necessary to our survival. We must honor its importance and value.

Standing Rock is also shining a light on respect for First Peoples. After hundreds of years we still do not have a healthy relationship based on mutuality, respect, and dignity between indigenous peoples and Euro Americans in the US. The people gathered at Standing Rock are shining a light on this woeful situation. We need to see what is being exposed by that light.

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock are shining a light of the importance of taking action. It’s easy to sit at home and complain about what is going on in the world. It’s easy to sign an online petition. The people at Standing Rock are reminding us to get involved, stand up and be heard even when it is not convenient or we don’t have the time. The people at Standing Rock have left home, family, jobs, and livelihoods to be part of the encampment. Now they are facing extremely cold temperatures and the discomforts and dangers of winter weather. They are making a huge personal sacrifice for what they care about; for what truly matters. They are shining a light on the need to be directly, personally involved in creating the future we want to see. Someone else is not going to do it for us.

As the days darken this month of December, we give thanks for all the light coming from Standing Rock.

Prayer: In these dark days, may I look for the light of Christ shining in the world. Amen.

NOTE: In the coming weeks, LUCC will be creating a banner for the Water Protectors at Standing Rock. This is one of the things that they have asked for on their donation list. They find great encouragement in banners of support and solidarity.

Even though the election was almost a month ago, I still have people telling me that they are “recovering” from the election. They are still “getting over” the election. Instead of it being over and done with and feeling relief, many are still enmeshed in the election and its aftermath.

In this Advent season in thinking about the images of darkness and light there was a lot of darkness that was exposed during the election season. There was plenty of bias and intolerance on all sides. The election exposed a dark underbelly that some hoped wasn’t really there and that others were ignoring and that still others are glorying in.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, a house in our area was “egged.” The home owner thought he might have been targeted because he still had his Trump sign up. Evidently, he thinks there are deplorables in the Clinton camp, too. Plenty of ill will and bitterness to go around – on all sides.

In some ways, the election was like turning a light on. We saw a lot of things that were hidden in the darkness. We could choose our information streams to see what we wanted to see and not see what we didn’t want to see. The election broadened our view – like it or not.

What we see at Christmas is Jesus, the light of the world, shining the light on the world as it is. He shows us the truth of our reality. He exposes what is truly there. But he does not leave it at that. Jesus then shows us how the world could be, how the world is meant to be, and what the Divine intentions are for the world.

The election might have shown us more about how the world really is but as Christians we look to Jesus to show us how the world should be and how we are called to work with God to create that world.

Prayer: In these dark days, may I trust that the light of Christ still shines. Amen.

Is there something you would like to write in your Advent journal today about seeing light in dark times? Maybe there is something you want to note that is lingering with you about the election, something you need to let go of.

And don’t forget your donation to The Micah Center to help shine the light for a student in need of support.

This week several people from the church participated in the annual Cities of Light observance shining light on the death penalty and the moral and religious imperative to end capital punishment. The death penalty is certainly a place of darkness in our society. And since this policy is implemented by the government, and “we the people” are the government, this terrible practice implicates all of us.

This past summer when I was in Wisconsin visiting family at their cabin on a lake, we enjoyed catching up on past issues of the New York Times Magazine. There was one issue with an article about the death penalty. The article focussed on the five counties in the US with the worst records relating to the capital punishment. With trepidation, I opened the magazine, and sure enough, out of this whole big country of ours, our county, Pinellas County, was one of the five countries featured in the article. I was afraid of that. So, we here in Pinellas have even more work to do on this.

Will we just turn away from this darkness and ignore it? Is it someone else’s problem? Since we may not have direct involvement with anyone on death row, do we think we can just bury our heads?

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with our 21 year old son, Malcolm, and I told him that when I was young we didn’t have the death penalty. There was a moratorium. It was not being implemented anywhere in the United States. He did not believe me. He actually thought I was lying or mistaken or something. He couldn’t believe that this terrible practice had been abolished in the relatively recent past.

That memory, that knowledge, is our hope. It is our light shining in the darkness. Our society put this practice to an end once and we can do it again. It is possible. We must make sure that the light still shines on the horrors of capital punishment and on the realistic hopes of its abolition once again.

Prayer: In these dark days, may I trust that the light of Christ still shines. May that light shine especially for those on death row and those involved with implementing capital punishment. Amen.

Is there something you would like to write in your Advent journal today about seeing light in dark times? Or maybe you want to note something related to capital punishment.

And don’t forget your donation to The Micah Center to help shine the light for a student in need of support. People who end up on death row tend to be poorly educated. By supporting the students at The Micah Center we may be helping to keep them out of the criminal justice system.