Mysterious Givers

One of the things our church does this time of year is participate in a program called Operation Christmas child that is sponsored by Samaritans Purse.     Members of our congregation, like many other churches and groups, pack a shoebox filled with various gifts for children in faraway places.   Why I am supportive of the program, I must confess that I have left the preparation of shoeboxes to my wife, Ann, with some assistance from our grown children.   Collection week for Operation Christmas child was held just a few weeks ago and I was astonished at the response in our congregation.   Why, there were more packed shoeboxes present that Sunday than there were people filling our pews.

One of the options that Operation Christmas Child has offered in recent years is that you can pay a small fee to track your shoebox to see in what country it arrived.    My wife, Ann, has paid the small fee a few times and we are excited to get the news about where the shoebox arrived.   When we got the news, we look at a globe seeking to know a little more about the place.    Though we have been fortunate to know something about the place where our family shoeboxes arrived, we know nothing about the children receiving those shoeboxes.    We know nothing about their names, their families, or their community.    All we know is that we gave, and they received.

There is a mystery in life so often about the origin of what we give and what we receive.    You probably do not know who grew, picked, and shipped the banana you ate today if it was bought in a grocery store.    If your generosity led you to put monies in a Salvation Army kettle during these days, your probably will not know the name of the person that will eat a meal or receive a basic need because of your generosity. 

  

In John 6, we hear the story of the feeding of the five thousand by Jesus.   This story is the only miracle of Jesus that we find in all four gospels.   While we know that Jesus feed thousands not including the women and children, we know not the name of the boy who gave the few fish and loaves of bread he had.    His name is remembered in the kingdom of heaven, but it is not known by us.     Every day, each of us are the beneficiaries of basic needs in life provided for us by people whose names we know not.     Though we know not their names, let us give thanks to the God who is the giver of all good gifts.   Have a joy-filled week. -- Pastor Randy Wall

  

Prayer:    O God, we give you thanks for the opportunity to give and the many, many gifts we receive.  Thank you for the opportunity give and the bounty we receive; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

Eating with the Enemy

I got my hair cut the other day.   People talk to the people cutting their hair, and people cutting hair talk to the people in their chair.  As the hair stylist clipped away, I asked her,  “Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?”  After heaving  a heavy sigh, she exclaimed,  “Yea, I do.  Our family is getting together.  I am cooking.  I will be glad when it is over because I don’t like some of those people.”

Grocery stores are full on this Thanksgiving Eve with people picking up foods prepared or to prepare.   Highways and airports will be full this day with people heading to Thanksgiving gatherings near and far.  Sometimes, those gatherings are approached with great joy.   Sometimes, those gatherings are approached with fear and trepidation because of the truth that sometimes people even in families do not get along.

 

Like that woman cutting my hair, there are many reasons why people do not get along in families.    Those reasons include wounds that cut deep… words that should have been left unsaid… actions that have not been forgotten… discussions that escalated into arguments… and on and on.   As I read Psalm 23 recently,  one of its verses leaped out at me that says:

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Though I have read those words many times, they spoke to me as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach.   Perhaps eating with the enemy (even with family members who seem to be enemies) is a God-given thing to give us something we need to know and learn.

Most of us know that the first Thanksgiving in what we now call  the United States happened in November 1621 when Pilgrims and their neighbors, the Native Americans, gathered for a meal together.    I am very certain that the Pilgrims and the Natives had their differences in language, faith, and viewpoints.  Historians tell us that there were around 50 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans together.     Despite their differences, they came together.   Though there were ways they differed,  there were many things that united them.  One of them was knowing they had been blessed by their Creator.

Is not the same true in the story we will ponder during Advent and Christmas?    Wise men, royalty from a far away land, will join with lowly shepherds at a stable in Bethlehem to worship a child from a lineage of peasant parents.     Though shepherds and wise men were different, they were united in their worship at the One born of Mary who would make all the difference. 

Perhaps in eating with the enemy in these days   despite our differences we will learn to more fully live together.  Have a joy-filled week.—Pastor Randy Wall 

  Prayer:    O God, bind us together through the love in Christ that unites us and breaks down the walls between us;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen.   

"...For All Things"

¹⁷ Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of ^[f]God.-    Ephesians 5: 17-21

As Thanksgiving approaches,   I find myself pondering the first part of that word: Thanks.   I suppose it was in Mrs. Cox’s  third grade class when some of the reality of Thanksgiving first became real to me when she assigned us the task to write a paper about the first Thanksgiving.   While I cannot remember all that I wrote in the paper,  I do recall that it must have been an outstanding paper for a third grader because I received a prize from our principal, Mr. Moffett. 

I came across the passage of scripture printed above as I thought about Thanksgiving recently.   There are three words in that passage that are troublesome for me.  Those words are:  “for all things.”    I, along with many others,  find it quite easy to be thankful for the food before us… or for the health that allows us to wake up or work another day.   Most of us are thankful for the friends and family that we engage with regularly or will gather with around Thanksgiving.  Those are good things and it is quite easy to be thankful for them, but Paul does not say be thankful for good things.  No, he says be thankful “for all things.”   

I think of a man named Job who lived centuries before the apostle Paul who praises God even when he hears that all his children have died and he lost his home.   I think of the apostle Paul who gave thanks for his “thorn in the flesh” as he realized with it that God’s grace was sufficient.    I think of Corrie ten Boom’s Christian classic book, “The Hiding Place”, where she writes about the fleas that infested their quarters in the concentration camp and how she and her sister, Betsy, gave thanks for them because the fleas meant that the Nazi soldiers made infrequent visits to their barracks.

“Giving thanks always for all things….”     I am not sure I am always there in my walk with Christ, but I aspire to be in that place.   How about you?   Have a blessed week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

   

Prayer:    O God,  forgive us for being  fair weather followers of yours.  Help us trust you in good times and bad times knowing that you will never leave or forsake us;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Remembering the Veterans

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ² And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnessesentrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. ³ Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer.-  II Timothy 2:1-4

Veterans Day is only a few days away.   While Memorial Day is a day in which Americans remember with thanksgiving those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country,  Veterans Day is a day when we remember those who served in our armed forces.     Since Veterans Day is on a Sunday this year, I am certain that many churches will recognize the Veterans among them in all sorts of ways.  As the father in law of a young man currently serving in our nation’s military and as the nephew of three men that served in our nation’s military in days past,  I am grateful for family who did serve and are still serving. 

I came across the passage of scripture  above recently where the apostle Paul uses a soldier as a metaphor for disciples of Jesus Christ  (“good soldier of  Christ Jesus”).     While I am thankful as an American for the many veterans who served in our nation’s military in days past,   I am thankful as a Christian for those “good soldiers of Christ Jesus” who have kept the faith, shared the faith, and had faith.     They are the ones that have mentored us and prayed for us.   They are the people who have not only talked about Christ, but sought to show Christ-likeness in their daily life.  There are many people in my life who have been a “good soldier of Christ Jesus”.   Some are living, and others have gone on to their eternal reward.   While it is good and right to honor the Veterans of our nation’s military on Veteran’s Day,   it is good and right to honor the  good soldiers of Christ Jesus.   Why not take the time to give one of those “good soldiers” a call, a card, or a visit this week and thank them for their service for the sake of the gospel and impact on your life?  You will be glad you did, and they will be grateful.     Have a joy-filled  week.--  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God, I  thank you those who have fought the good fight and kept the faith as soldiers of the cross.   Grant that through the inspiration of their lives and the strength of your Spirit that I might go and do likewise;  through Christ our Lord.   Amen.