From that experience, or your own, you can probably identify some answers drive religious people crazy: Santa, gifts, Elf on the Shelf, and so on. They will shout – it’s about Jesus!
You can also probably identify some answers religious people would love. Jesus is the reason for the season. A saviour was born. God is with us.
You can see how polarizing Christmas can be! It is a religious occasion that is solemn, deep and meaningful, and yet it is also a cultural reality with rampant consumerism, time with family, funny traditions and oddities like eggnog and mistletoe.
You might think Chiristmas shouldn’t be polarizing, and that this is a new reality. But Christmas and its effect on the world was polarizing not just today, but 2000 years ago. We’ll see how later this week.
Question: How much of Christmas do you think is religious, and how much is cultural? How much Santa, how much Jesus?
Reminder: We have a great Christmas event coming December 14th, 2013: The Original Christmas Party. Hope you’re coming!
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Yesterday we saw Jesus saying the way we treat a hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, or imprisoned person says something about our desire to join his kingdom. What is the consequence of this story?
The story makes it clear that Jesus’ kingdom is based on generous sacrifice. Our motivation for compassion and care is not to be someone else noticing, or that we’ll get thanked, paid back or will otherwise benefit. It’s not even entirely about the other person’s benefit.
It’s simply the right thing to do, and it’s the overflow of a relationship with God in Jesus.
The deck-building neighbour I described on Monday was also married to a great neighbour. She was a nurse, and one day she came over to check on my wife, who’d fallen asleep laying on the grass resting from gardening. This was part of that nurse’s vocation, it’s not just a job to help people in need, it’s actually part of who she is, and what she is called to do.
Christians have the same kind of vocation to love our neighbours, with friendship, words, and also our actions not because there’s something in it for us, but because it is who we are as citizens of the kingdom of God.
Sometimes this isn’t as easy as checking on a friendly neighbour – not everyone finds visiting prisoners easy, it can be scary. Serving the thirsty can mean travelling places we’d rather not see. Helping those with no clothes can be awkward!
But this is how Jesus challenges us to dispay kingdomliness. He calls us to overcome our fears, prejudices, anxiety for the sake of his kingdom and its values.
Q: List the six needs Jesus wants his followers to meet:
+ The hungry
+ The thirsty
+ The stranger
+ The naked
+ The sick
+ The imprisoned.
Who do you naturally have the most compassion for? Who do you find most challenging to show compassion for? Why?
Remember, we meet for coffee every Wednesday night at Starbucks in the Chapters Store in Ajax, in Durham Region just East of Toronto. Maybe we'll see you there?
