Monthly Archives: December 2013

Advent Conspiracy – Righting the Wrongs of Christmas

In much of the world, Christmas celebrations are almost over, the presents have been given and unwrapped, and the reality of the fruits of acquisition/consumerism have set in. Many have succumbed to the temptation of debt to satisfy the urge to please. The sad thing it’s not about us! Anchorage Pastor Bob Mather’s words ring in my ears, “It’s not your birthday!”

There is hope for the dumbing down of Christmas through a new movement called Advent Conspiracy. Started by three pastors from Portland, OR and Houston, TX, the movement’s main goal is to replace consumption with compassion. This after realizing their congregations were transiting the Christmas season with no sense of joy. Fully described in an article by Sheldon Good, Reimagining Christmas in Sojourner magazine, December 2013 issue, Advent Conspiracy offers true hope to make a difference in the world. Quotes below taken from this article.

“AC’S CORE tenets are quite basic: Worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. When lived out, however, these principles have subversive power to not only turn Christmas upside down but to transform lives.”

Pastor Mather’s congregation, Baxter Road Bible Church, has for several years courageously donated 100% of its offering income in December to local charities and non-profits who desperately need this help to feed the poor, care for the homeless, shelter the abused, and various other ministries/non-profits nominated by its members. In Christmas 2012, close to $70,000 was raised for these organizations under Baxter’s giving program. What a tremendous feat, and consciousness awakening!

According to the Sojourner article, “In Portland, Ore., multiple congregations have used parishioners’ AC donations to partner with the city on local social justice initiatives, including poverty, sex trafficking, education, mentoring, and foster care. McKinley, a local pastor, (a pastor founder) said the churches always choose initiatives that parishioners are passionate about and can work with long term.”

“We don’t just cut a check,” McKinley states. “We partner with the city around these projects.” Right now, more than 100 churches are rallying around foster care.

Jesus clearly articulated many times that people could not inherit the kingdom unless they devoted their lives to helping their brothers. Many of His parables illustrated and addressed this principle. His interview with the rich young ruler about inheriting the kingdom advised the ruler to go sell everything he had and give it to the poor. The Bible records he went away sorrowing as he found the price too dear. Please take time to read this article on the Advent Conspiracy by clicking the hyperlink above. Clearly it offers a solution that is working worldwide and could work here.

My thanks to Rev. Walt Hays for sharing this article.

Latest Pew Report Shows Christmas Becoming Cultural Only

Last week’s Pew Forum report on Christmas, Celebrating Christmas and the Holidays, Then and Now, (PDF attached) is no longer a shocker but sad nonetheless. Commercial interests and a lackluster church crowd have usurped Christmas allowed it to become more of secular holiday than one of religious significance.

According the report, “Nine-in-ten Americans say they celebrate Christmas, and three-quarters say they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. But only about half see Christmas mostly as a religious holiday, while one-third view it as more of a cultural holiday. Virtually all Christians (96%) celebrate Christmas, and two-thirds see it as a religious holiday. In addition, fully eight-in-ten non-Christians in America also celebrate Christmas, but most view it as a cultural holiday rather than a religious occasion.”

Key Findings
Christmas and the Holidays: What do you most look forward to?
69% – Time with family and friends
11% – Religious reflection/Church
7% – People are happy, joyful

Christmas and the Holidays: What do you like the least?
33% – Commercialism/Materialism
22% – Money/Too expensive
10% – Shopping/Crowds/Crowded Stores

Many research studies indicate Christian religious affiliation and participation in Christmas is dropping rapidly in the U.S. Worldwide, Christmas observance is rapidly being adopted and growing, even in non-Christian cultures. The Advent Reflections published on this blog during Advent show many religious figures decry the commercialism that has overtaken this season. So far I’ve never heard a single sermon in any church where members were admonished and corrected regarding this usurpation of Christmas. Of course, many of their members are heavily involved in commerce that benefits from Christmas, so it would be akin to shooting oneself in the foot to openly try to reset expectations of what Christmas is about.

In the early church, believers stood out from the existing culture of the day, often paying with their lives for opposing the culture. Tonight marks the end of Advent and celebrations of the Lord’s birth commence at midnight.

My hope is that Christians will rerecognize that Advent and Christmas are rooted in fact, and a sincere belief that mankind’s redemption sprang from events of this night that happened over 2,000 years ago. I long for Emmanuel’s return in God’s time.

A Christmas Prayer

Emmanuel, thank you for so loving this world
… that you came to live among us,
… not as a wealthy, overpowering ruler,
… but as a poor, refugee carpenter,
… inviting imperfect followers to join your project
… of world transformation.

Bless all who gather in your name today,
… that we may choose to follow you
… and spread your self-sacrificing love
… to friend and foe alike. Amen.

from www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com

Latest Pew Report Shows Christmas Becoming Cultural Only

Last week’s Pew Forum report on Christmas, Celebrating Christmas and the Holidays, Then and Now, (PDF attached) is no longer a shocker but sad nonetheless. Commercial interests and a lackluster church crowd have usurped Christmas allowed it to become more of secular holiday than one of religious significance.

According the report, “Nine-in-ten Americans say they celebrate Christmas, and three-quarters say they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. But only about half see Christmas mostly as a religious holiday, while one-third view it as more of a cultural holiday. Virtually all Christians (96%) celebrate Christmas, and two-thirds see it as a religious holiday. In addition, fully eight-in-ten non-Christians in America also celebrate Christmas, but most view it as a cultural holiday rather than a religious occasion.”

Key Findings
Christmas and the Holidays: What do you most look forward to?
69% – Time with family and friends
11% – Religious reflection/Church
7% – People are happy, joyful

Christmas and the Holidays: What do you like the least?
33% – Commercialism/Materialism
22% – Money/Too expensive
10% – Shopping/Crowds/Crowded Stores

Many research studies indicate Christian religious affiliation and participation in Christmas is dropping rapidly in the U.S. Worldwide, Christmas observance is rapidly being adopted and growing, even in non-Christian cultures. The Advent Reflections published on this blog during Advent show many religious figures decry the commercialism that has overtaken this season. So far I’ve never heard a single sermon in any church where members were admonished and corrected regarding this usurpation of Christmas. Of course, many of their members are heavily involved in commerce that benefits from Christmas, so it would be akin to shooting oneself in the foot to openly try to reset expectations of what Christmas is about.

In the early church, believers stood out from the existing culture of the day, often paying with their lives for opposing the culture. Tonight marks the end of Advent and celebrations of the Lord’s birth commence at midnight.

My hope is that Christians will rerecognize that Advent and Christmas are rooted in fact, and a sincere belief that mankind’s redemption sprang from events of this night that happened over 2,000 years ago. I long for Emmanuel’s return in God’s time.

Advent Reflection – Pastor Dan Bollerud

This Advent I’ve asked a cross-section of Anchorage pastors, representing a variety of faith traditions, to submit a brief Advent Reflection under this year’s theme: “Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?”

The next featured Pastor is Dan Bollerud, Pastor of Christ Our Savior Lutheran in south Anchorage. Pastor Dan constantly challenges his parishioners and guests by involving them in fresh ways of worship and acts of reimagination. His words below are an example of his fresh thinking, a clear voice to contextually counter the sellout of Advent and Christmas.[img_assist|nid=163256|title=Pastor Dan Bollerud|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=350|height=350]

Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?

Advent is a time of preparation for the Christmas season, and therein lies the problem. In days of yore, when Christmas began on December 25th and extended for twelve days to the January 6th Epiphany, the liturgical time of Advent made sense. The days were dark and the nights darker as we moved toward winter solstice and the texts of the common lectionary reflected both the theology and the mood of the day. The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) with its emphasis on thieves in the night and John the Baptist’s is a bit reminiscent of a Christmas song, but not one we sing in church. “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why, Jesus Christ is coming to town…. And he is a bit torqued off”. It is a theme however that is best left in a Dickens tale and time. As the church stubbornly holds onto its Advent traditions, some even to the point of not singing any Christmas carols until Christmas day, or in some flights of Gospel freedom, Christmas Eve, those in our pews and those who wouldn’t be caught dead in them, go off to embrace the theology of the local shopping mall or on-line store. In the process, the church in general, being painted with the broad brush strokes of some, is deemed quaint at best, and irrelevant to most. But there is something about that darkness.

The days, at least for a few more weeks are indeed getting shorter and the nights are getting darker. At the same time the quest for the false memory of the Hallmark Christmas past in the midst of an ever shrinking middle class and the constant beating of the news networks drums of fear, makes relevant, perhaps even more than in the time of Dickens, the need for a new Advent theology. But any good theology, in order to be heard, must also be contextual. We in the church must speak to the darkness in the midst of the cheap glitter of tinsel and this year’s ‘must have’ purchase. It is time to both shed and confront the false memory of the Hallmark Christmas as well as the “you better watch out” theology of Advent past.

In the Advent season in our world, Christmas carols connect with where people’s heads and lives are at. In our world today, Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving. I know there are some stores who start on Thanksgiving Day, but they for the most part are representatives of the anti-Christ and are destined to burn in hell for all eternity anyway so I will just ignore them, as should you. Needless to say, our communities are bombarded with Santa theology from Black Friday on and while there heads are in that space, they need to hear a bit of ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’. Failure to provide this simply hands the theology over to Santa and commercialism while we in the church bid our time until the 25th to present our Babe in Bethlehem theology to a world who is so “over it” they could care less.

I certainly do not claim to have the answer, but for the above mentioned reasons this is what I am trying to do. At Christ Our Savior Lutheran we use the Narrative Lectionary (NL) and start singing Christmas carols the beginning December. As mentioned before, Christmas Carols connect with where people’s heads and hearts are at and, at the very least, inject a bit of Babe in Bethlehem into the theme of spending on better and newer Christmas bells, sleigh rides and Xboxes. The Narrative Lectionary is a four year series of readings, which this year includes the fiery furnace, the valley of dry bones and the return from exile before landing on the word made flesh the Sunday before Christmas. These are stories of hope in the midst of darkness and despair. These are stories that remind us that even when the reality of Christmas is but a faint glimmer of that false Hallmark memory, we are not alone. The God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is with us in the midst of the heat, breathes life into those lifeless old bones and brings us home again to the grace, love and life of the word of God made flesh.

So I would ask you to confront the darkness, which is indeed darkness. But do so in a language and style that is where people are at, and where in the midst of that darkness, are able to hear and feel the love and the presence of God.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

ACC’s Holiday Pops Concert – Restoring Christmas

Looking to restore the true spirit of Christmas this year? Look no further as the Anchorage Concert Chorus’s Holiday Pops Concert promises to restore your faith in Christmas celebrations. Performing at the Atwood Concert Hall at the PAC on Sunday, December 22, 2013, 4 p.m., one performance only, this concert will help you reimagine Christmas. [img_assist|nid=163917|title=Holiday Pops – 2013 – Anchorage Concert Chorus|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=297|height=490]

Drawing on new Christmas music, and fresh new arrangements of traditional favorites, Conductor Grant Cochran will take you on a wonderful journey featuring the Anchorage Concert Chorus and Chorale. Ably assisted by gorgeous orchestral treatments, the chorus and chorale will breathe new life into Christmas.

Selections will include:
Snowflakes
A Christmas Gloria
Myn Lyking
What Sweeter Music
Sleigh Ride
Silver Bells
Joy to the World
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Angels We Have Heard on High
How Great Our Joy
Gabriel’s Message
Twas the Night Before Xmas
We are Lights
Sing along
What Child is This?
Hallelujah Chorus

This concert promises to be most memorable. Tickets are still available at centertix.net or the PAC box office.

Advent Reflection – Pastor Bob Mather

This Advent I’ve asked a cross-section of Anchorage pastors, representing a variety of faith traditions, to submit a brief Advent Reflection under this year’s theme: “Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?”

The next pastor to be featured is Bob Mather, Pastor of Baxter Road Bible Church. Bob also comes from a non-Advent celebrating tradition.[img_assist|nid=163924|title=Pastor Bob Mather|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=324]

Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?

It can make a difference if, in celebrating the arrival of our Lord Jesus to this world, we truly comprehend who He was and why He came to earth. When we understand that the only sacrifice, valuable enough to cover the sins of the world, is God Himself, we begin to understand what a wonderful thing it truly was that a member of the Trinity came to earth to make this sacrifice for us.

The prophecy made in Zechariah, the ninth chapter about Jesus coming to earth, was made 500 years before His birth and tells the people to “rejoice greatly” at this good news. So Advent is not only a time of sober reflection but is also a time of festivities and rejoicing. Most of us are good at the festive part, and celebrating Advent helps us remember the reason for the festivities and rejoicing.

3rd Advent 2013 – Christ Our Savior Lutheran

It’s always a joy for me to visit Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church on Old Seward just north of DeArmoun. I consider it a premier neighborhood church with a difference. COSLC’s liturgical order helps guests make sense of the worship service, as opposed to those many Anchorage churches who believe that’s “old style”, tossing service order out of the window. This leaves many guests wondering exactly what is happening. Linked to a guest-unfriendly service, guests quickly decide to not revisit those churches.

Pastor Dan Bollerud is an innovative servant who has unusual services, shaking them up, helping you understand the true purpose of specific church services. This service was not an exception.

COSLC is a warm friendly church that makes all guests feel welcome and part of the church family. One feels valued in this congregation. The service last Sunday was based on Isaiah 55:1-11 which recounts Israel’s return from Babylonian captivity.[img_assist|nid=163922|title=3rd Advent Candle Lighting|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=350|height=314]

3rd Advent Sunday’s theme was Joy. This service dwelt on the joy and restoration theme, in all aspects. The lighting of the 3rd Advent candle of Joy came early in the service with the congregation responsively saying
“Whatever we face in life, God will make joy possible. When we light the candle of Joy, we celebrate the One who has come, is coming, and will come again
.”
Two young acolytes lit the candle of Joy as Pastor Dan led the readings.[img_assist|nid=163923|title=Pastor Dan Bollerud Preaching|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=350|height=467]

During the service a number of Advent hymns were sung by the smaller-than-usual congregation, no doubt daunted by the heavy snowfall we received last Saturday. Pastor Bollerud’s theme dwelt heavily on the key texts cited in Isaiah 55.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come buy and eat!
Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.

Bollerud then extended God’s invitation to the communion table in an unusual exercise of devotion to God’s liberating gift. The communion tables were supplied with bread, wine, sparkling cider, and sweet breads. We were invited to partake of the Lord’s Supper in the same manner Jesus asked us to in remembrance of him. The congregation was asked to serve each other in “body and bread” language, e.g “The body of Christ, broken for you”, “The blood of Christ, shed for your sins”. In all of my years of church-going, this was certainly one of the most memorable communions I’ve had. We lose so much in our services by doing the same thing, in the same way, for years. Our beliefs need to be infused with new experiences from time to time. It truly awakens us to a different perspective on our beliefs.

I highly recommend Christ Our Savior Lutheran for its constantly challenging perspective of examining our beliefs, the warm and engaging members, and Pastor Dan Bollerud who walks with them as friend, and leader.

Advent Reflection – Pastor Steven Vicaro

This Advent I’ve asked a cross-section of Anchorage pastors, representing a variety of faith traditions, to submit a brief Advent Reflection under this year’s theme: “Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?”

The next pastor to be featured is Stephen Vicaro, Pastor of the Hillside-O’Malley SDA Church. Stephen comes from a non-Advent celebrating tradition.[img_assist|nid=163916|title=Pastor Stephen Vicaro, Hillside O’Malley SDA Church|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=350|height=403]

Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?

I would have to say a resounding “Yes!” There are at least three great events in Christian history that should be celebrated whole-heartedly by the church: 1) Christ’s First Advent, 2) The Crucifixion, and 3) Christ’s Second Advent (still in the future).

All three of these events represent the giving nature of God. With the first Advent God gave His own Son to the human race, to be One of us, or as the Bible puts it, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). With the Crucifixion, Christ gave Himself as the ultimate Sacrifice on our behalf. He made atonement (or at-one-ment) for our sins, that He might save us from our sins. With the Second Advent, God will give us eternal life in its completed form. Speaking of the redeemed, Revelation 21:3 declares, “God Himself will be with them and be their God.” All of these greatest of events in human history have to do with God giving to each of us the opportunity to be reunited with the Creator God of the universe. That’s a reason to celebrate!

To be clear, there is nothing special about the particular time of year, nor the date December 25. Many Christians know that Jesus was not born in the Winter, but in the Fall. Though there is merit in all of Christendom celebrating in unison the birth of our Lord, it is important to remember that Jesus, the Gift, is the focal point, not the date or the time of year.

Our secular culture celebrates Christmas, not as a recognition of God’s Gift, but of materialism and the “spirit of Christmas.” Our culture has put a magical mystique to December 25 that has more to do with reindeer and elves than with the baby Jesus. I think that this is why God distinctly excluded the exact date from the Scriptures. He didn’t want us to view the birthday as more important than the One born on the day.

For example, in John 11, when Jesus approached Bethany on His way to resurrecting Lazarus, we find this dialogue:

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live…”

Martha had misunderstood the Scriptures teaching about the resurrection. She wrongly understood that the resurrection would happen on a certain day, and that was wherein her brother’s hope lie. Jesus had to explain to her that it wasn’t the “day” that would bring about Lazarus’ restoration of life, but it was Jesus, Himself, that would resurrect him.

In the same way, as we commemorate the First Advent, let us remember that it is Christ, Himself, that is to be celebrated.

Advent Reflection – Pastor Rick Benjamin

This Advent I’ve asked a cross-section of Anchorage pastors, representing a variety of faith traditions, to submit a brief Advent Reflection under this year’s theme: “Does Celebrating Advent Really Make a Difference?”

The next pastor to be featured is Rick Benjamin, former Sr. Pastor of Abbott Loop Community Church. He is now is the Director of Organizational and Spiritual Wellness at Hope Community Resources.

An Advent Reflection from a “Non-Adventer”

Our church and my heritage are in the Protestant/evangelical/Pentecostal tradition of the Christian faith. We did not follow the liturgical calendar; we didn’t even have services on Good Friday. (We were somewhat religious about how non-religious we were!) So we did not follow the tradition of Advent. I knew the word “advent” meant “coming,” but that was usually applied to the Second Coming of Jesus. Of course we had our own church and family traditions for celebrating Christmas.

Along the way God has blessed me with many new friends and colleagues in the broader body of Christ. Through these relationships I became aware and intrigued by the liturgical calendar and I learned about Advent. A year ago I was guest speaking for a new church that followed Advent. To do those messages I learned about the four Sundays of Advent, the candles and the colors.

I really appreciate the logic and sequence of Advent: Hope, Love, Joy and Peace. Hope came from the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament. Love was the motivation for God sending his Son. Joy happened at the birth event of Jesus. Peace is the result of his coming. I suppose this logic and sequence fits my linear way of thinking.

I also appreciate the anticipation through the month, leading up to Christmas. I learned that Advent can even be a “mini-Lent,” a time of fasting and self-denial. One Advent expression I still don’t understand is “preparing ourselves for the coming of the Christ child.” He already came; I don’t need to prepare for his coming, but I do celebrate that he came. Maybe what is really meant is “preparing ourselves for that celebration?”

I have benefited from Advent, even though my understanding and observance are admittedly incomplete. And to all the other “non-Adventers” like me out there, I suggest you give Advent a try. But since it includes all four Sundays in December, you may have to wait till next year.