Christmas Is Coming

     Advent is defined as the arrival of a notable person, event, or thing. What could better fit this definition than the arrival of Jesus into the world? At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the incarnation of God, Jesus, born of Mary. Advent for the church is the expectant waiting and preparation to welcome Jesus into our hearts once again. It is not that we somehow lost Jesus since last year; it is more like an anniversary of one of the most profound moments in history. It is one of my favorite times of year when people are a little kinder, a little happier. People smile more and call out greetings more often. Laughter peals from the lips of children. People hum, whistle, and sing some of my favorite songs, the songs that tell the tale of Christmas.

 

     Hark the Herald Angels Sing of Joy to the World. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear above Oh Little Town of Bethlehem that Angels We Have Heard on High sang Gloria about The First Noel. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night the baby Jesus was Away in a Manger. O Holy Night when the Infant Holy, Infant Lowly was born for Love Came Down at Christmas. Come thou Long Expected Jesus sang the Angels from the Realms of Glory. Do You Hear What I Hear then Go Tell It on a Mountain about what happened that Silent Night Once in Royal David's City. What Child is This? It is none other than The Sweet Little Jesus Boy. Mary Did You Know that Gabriel's Message would bring such Glory to God? There's a Song in the Air for Mary's Boy Child has been born. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel and change our lives forever.

 

Enjoy the true meaning of Christmas as together we approach the wondrous date. www.fcccarrollton.org

Generous Heart

       I believe that generosity is directly tied to gratitude. When you feel the warmth of God's love in your daily life, you know you are blessed. When you know you are blessed, you are grateful. As Thanksgiving approaches I am always reminded of all I have to be grateful for. Being blessed by God's love does not mean you are protected from all the bad things in the world. You still get sick, lose jobs, have loved ones die, lose your possessions. The difference is that as I face the trials of life I never feel alone. I live daily life in touch with that which goes beyond daily life. I live in relationship with the eternal, and this changes my perspective on the transient nature of most experiences. In having an eternal love relationship I feel overwhelmed with thankfulness. From this root of gratitude swells a desire to give back. Since God doesn't need anything from me, I turn a generous heart on God's world and the people within it. Since God loves all so should I. Since God generously blesses the world, I want to be a part of that flow of loving generosity. It just happens naturally; I don't even need to think about it. What I have I give -  sometimes it is my money or resources; sometimes it is my time, and sometimes it is the sharing of my natural gifts or skills. I share not because I have to but because I want to. I might even say I need to; it completes me. To be grateful to God and give nothing back leaves an incomplete circle. I have participated in receiving, I want to participate in giving. My heart swells with the need. If I kept all to myself I think I would explode. I'd set off a generosity bomb...not pretty. Thankfully opportunities to be generous are all around me. If I maintain awareness, someone who needs what I have to offer is always near by. It feels like this is what it means to be in partnership with God, to put a generous heart into action. www.fcccarrollton.org

Spiritual or Religous?

       I finally decided to weigh in on the modern phenomena of people describing themselves as spiritual but not religious. Unfortunately "religious" has become a dirty word for the modern progressive. The term religious has been tied to conservative ritual or dogma. I define dogma as human thought given divine status it doesn't deserve. Their are many people who have been wounded by the dogma of the conservative or traditional church. They feel quite strongly about not giving the church power over their sense of being ever again. Who can blame them or judge them? Unfortunately many do. Religious people have given religion a bad name. However, not all religious people deserve the infamy. The wounded past church members and/or the never churched who still seek the divine presence place themselves on a path calling themselves spiritual but not religious. To answer the needs of the modern seekers, there are new spiritual leaders who do seminars, lectures, and group meetings, any kind of gathering, as long as it isn't called church. Because the church is where that nasty religious stuff happens. I've attended some of these gatherings and listened to some of these lectures. Interestingly enough they sound a lot like church to me. They don't use the traditional words but the meanings are similar. They don't do the old rituals but they have actions they repeat at each meeting that are becoming new rituals. They really are trying to reinvent the wheel.
       The truth is that all not churches are dogmatic; not all churches are judgmental. Not all churches will  wound the progressive soul. There are many churches that are very spiritual and religious in a non-harmful way. There are churches that are very open and accepting of  all people. Churches that create positive community and support for each other. Churches that reach out to the poor and oppressed. There are churches that respond to desperate needs in areas of disaster and war. I belong to one of those churches. We are a very spiritual people who reach out to the world and to each other. Our community does not draw a circle to exclude but creates a circle to include. This reminds me of the Edward Markum poem,                   They drew a circle that shut me out;
            Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
           But Love and I had the wit to win,
           We drew a circle that took them in.We are a denomination of accepting people and we are not the only ones. We are Disciples of Christ. I pastor a local church of the Disciples of Christ called First Christian Church. We are not about judgment; we are about loving God and each other. We are about loving all people, even people we disagree with. We are Christian and believe in God the three in one -- Parent, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. But we are not dogmatic about how each should believe. We believe God is big enough to individually tailor a relationship with each of us, creating a unique faith or belief for each person. Any one of our churches can have people from any spectrum of life and still be a cohesive community of spiritual seekers of the divine presence. Here you can be religious and spiritual or just spiritual. Here the terms have not  been damaged by misuse. We welcome you as you are!

Spirit of Grace

God's message to the world is all about grace. Grace is not about judgment or condemnation. Grace is all about love and acceptance. When one feels totally accepted there is no fear in the relationship. We can be totally honest in our relationship, no need for lying or subterfuge, for we have no need to hide anything. Who we are is totally known by God and God loves us completely. There is no hate in God. The amazing element of the spirit of grace is it makes us want to better ourselves. When we are put down or ridiculed, we run away from the pain or try to hide from our feared inadequacy. When we are loved and accepted, we are able to love our self as we are and what we can become. We live in hope of what we'll develop into rather than living in fear of failure. The world often wounds or criticizes; God heals and strengthens. The world puts us down; God lifts us up. If we follow God's role model, our behavior will achieve the same results with our children and in our other relationships. Live in the spirit of grace and achieve your fullness of being! www.fcccarrollton.org

Freedom

        The 4th of July will soon be upon us when we celebrate our nation's freedom. Our ancestors fought against England to preserve personal rights and freedoms. Freedom of religion was one of the many guarantees our people fought to create and preserve. Freedom of religion should still be something we fight to preserve in our country. If we try to legislate our personal beliefs or in other ways try to pressure others to accept our religious point of view, are we not eradicating the very freedom for which we fought? It is either freedom of religion for all or none. We cannot say you are free to practice your religion any way you want just as long as it agrees with mine. Freedom of religion is also freedom from religion. I am a Biblically based believer in Christianity--I am a Christian. However, I am aware that this is still is a very broad statement. They are those who can make the same statement from the far left to the far right of theology. I would love for our nation to have strong Christian ethics. With Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and some 33,000-40,000 other protestant denominations , whose standard should be used? We can teach and preach and share our faith to our heart's content, but when we try to manipulate the law of our nation through legislature and lawsuits to fit our particular brand of faith, we have stepped over the boundary. We become religious oppressors. We would like people to believe just like us, but that is unlikely to happen. We humans are very independent sorts. If we try to force people to believe like us, then we are taking away their religious freedom.
         God gave humanity free will. God gives us guidance on how to best live through scripture and through God's spiritual presence, accessed through prayer. However, God does not force God's will upon us. Perhaps that is a good role model for us as we continue to stand for freedom of religion as our ancestors did who helped shape this country. Happy 4th of July, Happy Day of Independence, Happy Freedom!  www.fcccarrollton.org

Indefatigable Love

         God's love never quits, never gets tired, never gives up. God is love and is pouring God's self on us all the time. It is easy to feel God's blessings when all is going well with our lives. Yet many people miss the blessings of God's love in their lives simply through inattention. Some people are just unobservant, like a friend I see a couple of times a week who just noticed I shaved off my beard two months ago. Life is passing people by and they don't even notice. Others miss the truth of what is going on around them because of perceptual blindness. They believe they are the creator and sustainer of their wonderful life and thus are blind to any exterior support. They miss out on the fact that God rejoices with them in times of joy and success. God, who is love, helped create that positive result in your life and finds joy in watching you enjoy your gift. Awareness of this God-joy enhances the experience for both of us.
              When things go bad in our life, or at least from our perceptual bias, this is normally when we miss God. We call out for help. We ignored guidance that may have prevented our perceived downfall and yet call out with all our might when the inevitable occurs. We may have had little to do with our bad moment but instead be experiencing the ripple effect of the free will of others. Perhaps we simply stumbled into one of the random pitfalls of life. I have no doubt that if we had allowed ourselves to be guided by God, many of these disastrous experiences could have been avoided, but probably not all.
            When things are hard, we have a tendency to think God has either done this to us or allowed it to happen in order to test us or punish us or discipline us or to force guidance upon us. God does not force God's self upon us, for God believes in free will -- God created it. God's love never quits, never ends. God does not do bad things to us to test us or guide us; that is not love. God does at times allow us to reap the consequences of our own actions. God, in untiring love, is there with us in the midst of even the worst situations.  God, in love, does try to help us make the most out of a bad situation. Sometimes a bad situation opens the door for a new direction in our lives. However, God did not create the bad situation. It is difficult to see and feel God when things are bad, but God is there loving us continually. It is often easier to see when we look back on our life than it is in the midst of the experience. Allow God to pick you up. Allow God to embrace you. Allow yourself to experience God's love even in the midst of hard times, and you will find the times more bearable and shorter in duration, even if just in your perception.
            In good times and bad times God is always with us. When we are happy God rejoices with us; when we are sad God commiserates with us. God's love is empathic. God's love never tires or quits. It never goes away, even for a little while. We are never separated from God's love. Watch for it, be aware, and be surprised! www.fcccarrollton.org

No More Rules

          
            It seems like a lot of people have the erroneous concept that  Christianity is all about following a lot of rules. Many believe that to be a Christian you have to sign up for doing this and not doing that - a standardized set of rules handed down from God to humanity through the church. In truth, historically the church tried to control its congregants through lists of ethical and moral standards. This church dogma was for the most part well intentioned. The church wanted us to avoid falling out of relationship with God and thought these rules would keep us out of trouble. The problem with these sets of standards is they don't fit. People are not standardized. What each of us needs to avoid is that which separates us from God. All of us unique human beings have different weaknesses, different issues that can get between us and God. Therefore, there is no one standard that fits all people. As in any relationship, the standards are unique to the individuals and the situations in which they find themselves. God handed down very few commandments - love God and love one another. The ten commandments and all other laws are encapsulated within these simple two.
               During a lifetime of considering how best to live and love God and others, I have discovered what it takes for me to be involved in these love relationships and have developed my own personal standards for living. There are things I need to avoid and there are things I need to do in order to keep my life on the right path. However, to try and apply my personal standards to someone else would be absurd. We are all different and our relationships with God and others will also be different. To try to force the world to follow my life rules makes no sense. What is right for me is not necessarily right for anyone else. For the church to try to force human dogma on all people with the threat of damnation if anyone wavers is a sin in itself. Forced dogma separates people from each other and makes people believe God has turned God's back on the individual who believes differently than the church. The dogmatic church breaks the two great commandments of loving God and each other by driving a divisive wedge between us. To quote the Rev. Phil Snider, "I believe in the separation of Church and hate." We need to stop being so concerned with who is in and who is out and follow the role model of inclusivity lived out by Jesus as He revealed God to us. www.fcccarrollton.org