The Advent Conspiracy
|
The Advent Conspiracy 2011 I was digging back through messages I have given in the past around the Christmas theme and came across a message (or group of messages) from 2007 which just seem to track with me this year as well. For some time now I have been uneasy about Christmas. I have a lot of happy memories about Christmas… I also see a lot that disturbs me today… There’s a lot of stuff out today talking about what has been dubbed the War on Christmas. You may (or may not) be aware that there seems to be an effort on behalf of some to remove any reference to Jesus out of the Christmas festivities. Some of this is spurred on by a more militant form of atheism, who don’t want any reference to anything religious. Some also stems from those who don’t want to offend anybody. They think that making reference to the birth of Jesus will offend Muslims and those of other religions. So, they don’t want anything that focuses on Jesus. Some don’t even want to use the word Christmas because it contains reference to Christ. The whole reference to a War on Christmas makes this day of celebration into one of aggression and warfare, something I am uncomfortable with. For others, Christmas becomes a time of madness. There is more rush, more tension, more spending, more eating and not all that much enjoyment. I was reading this last week about a group of pastors who were talking together one day, when it became apparent that every single one of them was dreading the upcoming Christmas season (not a good thing for a group of Christian pastors). It was going to be so full of rushing from one activity to another that the sense of anticipation and joy had been lost. Have you ever felt that way? What’s gone wrong? I’m not really surprised when secular people treat Christmas like any other holiday. How can we expect people who don’t acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour of the world to celebrate Christmas as a holy day? What I find more disturbing is when those who name themselves among the followers of Jesus get caught up in the secularisation and materialism of Christmas. Back in 2007 I came across this movement called “The Advent Conspiracy.” It is a movement aimed at Christians, with the view to getting them to slow down and rethink their priorities at Christmas. It is built on four encouragements: Worship fully… Spend less… Give more… Love all… Let’s have a look at the Advent Conspiracy video…
What I want to do, on this first Sunday in December, is go back through those four encouragements to help our own preparation for Christmas 2011.
ADVENT CONSPIRACY ENCOURAGEMENT 1 Worship Fully How many have found yourselves so caught up in the hype of Christmas that when you get to Christmas Day you find your heart is some place other than focusing on the birth of Christ? You show up in church on Christmas morning, but in reality you are thinking about something else? Or maybe you don’t even make it to church because you have so much other stuff going on. Isn’t there something disturbing about Christian people becoming distracted from acknowledging the birth of Jesus at the time set aside for doing just that? As I said, it doesn’t really concern me when people who don’t acknowledge Jesus find other things to occupy their time and energy at Christmas. What I find troubling is the number of Christian people who become distracted. Those who don’t follow Jesus have a good excuse Christmas is different for the believer! · For us, Christmas is not just about the birth of a baby (even though we celebrate the birth of Jesus). · It’s not primarily about family (as important as family is) · It’s definitely not about trees, mistletoe, decorations, and presents.
Christmas is all about God entering the world in the form of a man. In theological terms, this is called the Incarnation. When Joseph found out that Mary, his fiancé, is pregnant, he plans to end the relationship. That’s when, according the Bible, an angel appeared Joseph in a dream. The angel tells Joseph to go ahead and take Mary as his wife because the child is conceived by the Holy Spirit. He tells Joseph that Mary will have a son, who is to be named Jesus, and he will save people from their sins. Matthew adds this note to his account in Matthew 1:23 All of this happened to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet: "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us)." Matthew 1:20-23. NLT John 1:1 says this… In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 NIV Then a few verses later, we have this announcement… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. NIV One of my favourite Scriptures lately has been 2 Corinthians 5:19. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. 2 Corinthians 5:19. NLT That phrase “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” is an amazing thought! Christmas for the believer is a celebration of the entrance of God into the human experience! We celebrate the incarnation! We worship! That’s the first part of The Advent Conspiracy – worship fully. Here’s the next part…
ADVENT CONSPIRACY ENCOURAGEMENT 2 Spend Less According to the video, Australians spend $37 billion on Christmas every year. One source I read put it at $23 billion. I’m not sure why there’s such a gap. Maybe one is counting gift spending while the other adds up all spending. The national credit card debt stands at $49.4 billion. Four years ago, it was $41 billion, up nearly $8.5 billion. I was sharing that statistic with someone, and they came up with exactly what I was thinking. 1. A lot of that is on stuff that isn’t needed. We buy presents because we think we have to buy presents. A lot is just junk stuff that we buy for the sake of buying. 2. Much is bought using money we don’t even have. Many people will spend the next several months paying off the presents they buy this Christmas. Some are still paying now for what they spent on last Christmas! The big idea here is not to stop buying Christmas presents. I still happen to think that anything that promotes generosity is a good thing. The big idea is to get us to think about how much we spend and then make a conscious effort to spend less. Now for the third part. This goes hand in hand with the spending less idea.
ADVENT CONSPIRACY ENCOURAGEMENT 3 Give More In saying “no” to over-spending, we can also say “yes” to giving in more relational ways. God didn’t become a man so that we can have Playstations and Ipods. He came so that we can have life, so that we can live in harmony with the divine. What would happen if parents, instead of a Xbox, gave their kids vouchers that entitled them to 1 hour a week of their undivided for the next year? The kids would probably say they’d prefer the Xbox. The gift of time would pay greater dividends in the future. There are all kinds of ways in which you can give relational gifts. All it takes is some creativity. My sister-in-law, instead of buying Christmas cards, hand makes each card. Those who get one know that they were thought of specifically. Some crafty people make presents that they give away. That way they are giving something of themselves. That works for people who are good at craft. People like me (who are crafty in other ways) have to think of something else. How about these? Things you can make. · Home made bread, biscuits, Christmas cakes · Photo album (for relatives) · Food hampers · The ideas are unlimited Creative Vouchers. I like this idea of creative vouchers. These are gift vouchers that offer time or services which you can do to help and bless others. · Babysitting · Yard work or lawn mowing · Car wash or bike wash (hint!!!) · Lunch or coffee (you take them out or invite them over) · Time (give someone the gift of an hour a week) · Massage (for someone who’s been working too hard) · Help with a project You don’t have to do this for every present at Christmas. The whole idea with relational giving is to recapture something of the heart of God who gave relationally through His Son. When you spend less and give more relationally, you might find you have some money left over. Here’s where part 4 of The Advent Conspiracy comes in…
ADVENT CONSPIRACY ENCOURAGEMENT 4 Love All Look at this Scripture. You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was very rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9. NLT This is not a Scripture that tell us how to become financially wealthy. It’s a description of how Jesus gave relationally in order to enrich our lives – both for now and for eternity. A big part of The Advent Conspiracy is that we take the money we might save by spending less and giving relationally and use that to enrich the lives of those who live in poverty. Think about it like this. The money we spend indulging ourselves at Christmas, in Australia alone, could provide sources of clean drinking water for every person on the planet. I’m not going to suggest that we cancel all Christmas spending, but just a ten percent cut, when channelled to those who are poor and marginalised, could do a powerful lot of good. One of the things I love about this church is the way people give so generously for our annual Christmas Dinner. I am continually amazed when people come up and give me money (large amounts of money) to provide a pleasant experience for people who would have been spending Christmas alone. Then we have those who make salads and invest their time serving. It’s good stuff, and it is exactly the spirit of The Advent Conspiracy – showing practical love to those outside our own circles of family and friends. What has been really humbling too, is the number of people who volunteer to come and help serve simply because they want to do some One project The Advent Conspiracy website promotes is called Living Water International – a ministry that seeks to provide clean drinking water to places that don’t have it. Their website has some interesting statistics. More people die each year from drinking dirty water than from the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes combined. More than half of all the schools worldwide lack safe water and sanitation. (UNICEF, 2005) More than 150 million school-age children are severely affected by waterborne parasites like roundworm, whipworm, and hookworm. These children commonly carry up to 1000 parasites at a time, causing anemia, stunted growth, and other debilitating conditions. Nearly 90 percent of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Every year, there are 4 billion cases of diarrhoea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water; this results in more than 2.2 million deaths each year—the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing every day. Source: http://www.water.cc/
That got me to thinking.
According to the Samaritan’s Purse website (samaritanspurse.com.au) just $100 will provide a community with a biosand water filter allowing people to drink clean water. $1000 will provide a filter mould, allowing them to make many biosand filters. And for a little over $3000, a well can be provided for a whole community.
In Churches of Christ in Australia, we have Churches of Christ Overseas Aid (COCOA). According to the COCOA Christmas Catalogue, there are many giving opportunities, starting at $3 for kindergarten books in Thailand and going up to $4000 for a bore hole in Zimbabwe. The reality is, there are so many things that could be done that the hard part is knowing where to start. Tomorrow night, I will be talking to the Elders to see if we can come up with a project that we, as a church family, can do together.
For now, I’d like to you to consider the four encouragements of the Advent Conspiracy
Prayer
|
|
