Dear friends,
When one of my kids was in kindergarten
(seems like several decades ago now!), I was on the campus at Bell Hill School
one day. As I walked toward my car, a little tyke came tearing across the
playground. He went right past me, then suddenly stopped on a dime, wheeled
around, and with great exuberance cried out to me, "Hey, mister! Know
what? Christmas isn’t about getting; it’s about giving!"
I never approach this Advent and Christmas
season without thinking about that little boy, and the remarkable discovery
that he seems to have made at such a young age! Christmas is about giving: it
is, above everything else, about the great gift that God gave to us in the
birth of his Son. It is about the gift of Christ.
Of course that is why Christians give.
That is why giving is at the very center of our live as Christians. Every year,
almost without fail, as we walk through our fall stewardship program in one way
or another, I hear it from somebody: "I don’t want to hear any more about
stewardship. It seems that all we hear about lately is giving." Of course
I’ve heard the comment a few extras times this year, as we think about Building
Peace for You and second mile giving.
I never quite know how to answer that kind
of comment. Giving is what it’s all about. One might as well say, "I’m
tired of hearing about prayer," or "I’m tired of hearing about
compassion." What should we be hearing about, if not giving? What else is
there when our God is the one who "gave his only Son"?
Yes, we need to talk about giving. This
fall I’ve had two different people say to me, "I’m glad to hear us talking
about tithing." Now THAT’S a comment that surprises me! Many people get
very nervous when we talk about tithing, Lutherans especially. Sounds too
"legalistic," some say.
I’ve never felt that way. It seems to me
that tithing should be something we want to do, something we do with joy and
thanksgiving. Of course it isn’t easy; few good things are. But it’s a practice
that blesses the giver.
Here’s an idea: if you’re not currently
tithing, and if you’re still contemplating how you might respond to our
Building Peace for You campaign to build a new Fellowship Center and kitchen,
why not make it part of your commitment to try a tithe? Figure out what percentage
of your income you currently give to the work of Christ and notch that up just
a tad to help meet our 5% increase in our Ministry and Mission budget. Then
figure out what a real tithe—10% of your income—would be. Make the difference
between those two figures the foundation of your Building Peace for You pledge
for the next three years. See what a tithe feels like for you.
So often we think of ourselves as unable
to give. I know I do. One of my favorite hymn stanzas is the last one of
Christina Rosetti’s beautiful "In the Bleak Midwinter": "What
shall I give Him, poor as I am?/ If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb./ If
I were a wise man, I would do my part./ But what I have, I give him: Give him
my heart."
And, to turn a familiar phrase on its
head, where your heart is, there your treasure is also.
May the gifts of the Child Christ fill you
with peace and joy in this holy season!
Peace
to you,
Pastor Richard O. Johnson
Classic Prayers
O Lord, hear our prayers not according to
the poverty of our asking, but according to the richness of your grace, so that
our lives may conform to those desires which accord with your will. When our
desires are amiss, may they be overruled by a power greater than ours, and by a
mercy more powerful than our sin. Amen.
--Reinhold
Niebuhr
20th
century American theologian
Liturgy Notes: Christmas Carols
Many customs have grown up around the
Christmas season, but none is more pervasive than the Christmas carol. Wherever we go during December, we hear carols
being sung or played. We generally use
the term “carol” to apply to any traditional Christmas song, though technically
speaking most of our familiar carols aren’t carols at all but Christmas hymns. A hymn is a composed text, written generally
for use in church. A carol is a folk
song--less solemn and more dance-like.
Indeed, the term “carol” comes originally from a Greek word meaning
“dancing with flutes.” But that
distinction is lost today, and we think of many of our Christmas hymns as
carols.
It is interesting to realize that the most
popular Christmas carols represent many different time periods, many different
nationalities, and many different church traditions. For example:
“Joy to the World” comes from the pen of
the English hymn writer Isaac Watts, the “father of English hymnody.” A congregationalist from the early 18th
century, Watts shows the influence of the Puritans, who banned hymn-singing in
favor of the Psalms. Joy to the World
is actually a paraphrase of Psalm 98.
“Silent Night” is Roman Catholic in
origin. Written by Joseph Mohr, an
Austrian priest, the song was first sung in 1818 in the small village of
Oberndorf. It wasn’t published until
twenty years later, but by that time had been spread by “word of mouth”
throughout all Europe.
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written
by the great American Episcopal priest and bishop Phillips Brooks. He wrote it for his parish’s Sunday School
children in 1868.
“Hark!
The Herald Angels Sing” was the creation of the other giant of English
hymnody, the Methodist Charles Wesley.
One of the most theological of the popular Christmas hymns, the hymn is
filled with Biblical phrases and allusions to Christ as God “veiled in flesh”
who comes among us “late in time” and whose love bursts upon us as “the Sun of
Righteousness.”
“Angels We Have Hear on High” is one of
the few popular Christmas songs that is a genuine carol (folk song). It comes from 18th-century France.
There is a very rich body of Lutheran Christmas hymns, but not many of them have become popular in our American culture. Perhaps the classic is “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.” Written by Luther himself, this beautiful hymn was originally written for a family Christmas pageant in 1534, and was patterned after a favorite children’s song of that time. Another from the German Lutheran tradition is “All My Heart This Night Rejoices” by the greatest Lutheran hymnist Paul Gerhardt. This hymn approaches the Christmas story with the classic Lutheran pietist view of the personal significance of the events; it isn’t just the ancient shepherds that hear the angels, but it is I!
Other
Lutheran ethnic traditions have their own favorites--”I Am So Glad Each
Christmas Eve” (Norwegian), “The Bells of Christmas Ring Once More” (Danish),
“When Christmas Morn Is Dawning” (Swedish).
This rich heritage gives a certain distinctiveness to our Lutheran
celebration, while at the same time we have freely borrowed and come to love
the carols and hymns of other nations and churches.