Advent Conspiracy
12/06/2009 - Spend Less
One of my favorite Christmas stories of all time is "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Do we have any Christmas Carol fans here? In fact, it's not only one of my favorite Christmas stories of all time, it's one of my favorite anytime stories of all time. I just love it!
And over the years I've read the book and I've seen the play and I've listened to Patrick Stewart on tape and I've watched the movies. I've heard that there are over a hundred film versions of the story. I haven't seen them all yet, but I have seen Mr. Magoo's version and George C. Scott's and The Muppet Christmas Carol which was a stretch, but my favorite version by far is the 1951 black and white classic starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge. He's does an amazing job in that role!
And Jennifer, God bless her, puts up with my obsession. She's learned over the years that Christmas isn't Christmas for me until I've seen the Christmas Carol. In fact, one year I took her down to South Street to a little one room playhouse to hear a story teller give 1 ½ hour monologue of the whole book. I was fascinated and on the edge of my seat. I think Jen fell asleep.
My kids understand my obsession too so it was no surprise to them that I was the first one to sign up to be a chaperone for my daughter's 7th grade class trip this week down to the Hedgerow Theatre to see what else? A Christmas Carol.
So when I heard that Disney was coming out with their version this fall starring Jim Carrey I thought we got to see this movie as a family over the Thanksgiving holiday. And so on Sunday evening we went.
Now I have to confess to you right up front that I violated the Advent Conspiracy because instead of spending less I actually spent more and splurged so that we could all see the movie in 3D and on the Imax screen down in King of Prussia. I'm sorry, but I felt it was worth it.
And as I was watching it I couldn't help but think of the Advent Conspiracy because all the themes are there. Worship Fully. Spend Less. Give More. Love All. A Christmas Carol is a story of redemption and renewal and transformation. It's all about a changed life and that's why it's so powerful and touches so many of us so deeply.
It's the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a man whose whole life was consumed by money. He was a joyless miser who lived in a world of me, myself, and I. No one spent less on Christmas than Scrooge. He hated the holiday. He wished it didn't exist.
In the opening scene his nephew, Fred, comes to his office on Christmas Eve to invite Scrooge for Christmas dinner as he does every year. But all Scrooge can say is "bah humbug." Later on in the story we understand why he despises his nephew. Fred is the son of Scrooge's sister, Fan, whom Scrooge loved. But Fan died giving birth to Fred and Scrooge never forgave him for that. So he's lived his whole life with this anger and resentment towards his nephew.
After Fred leaves the office, two men come raising donations for the poor. Scrooge gives them the same cold shoulder with a phrase that will come back to haunt him, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" In other words, let the government take care of them.
"Yes there are," they say, "but many can't go there and many would rather die than go there."
"If they would rather die let them do so and decrease the surplus population! Leave me alone."
Shortly after they leave its closing time and his clerk, Bob Cratchit, comes to Scrooge and asks if it's convenient for him to take off Christmas Day. Scrooge says, "It's never convenient and it's not fair either. Christmas is a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December, so be here all the earlier the next morning!"
Later we learn that Cratchit has a handicapped boy named Tiny Tim who's going to die soon unless he gets medical help. But poor Bob Cratchit can't afford to get help for his sick son on the pitiful salary that Scrooge pays him so things don't look good for Tiny Tim. But Scrooge doesn't care because he's a hard hearted, miserable old sinner.
Jesus told a story about a man like Scrooge in Luke 12. He's a man whose whole world revolved around me, myself, and I. Let's look at it together.
Luke 12:13-21, Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.19And I'll say to myself, "Self, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' 20"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' 21"This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves but are not rich toward God."
Scrooge was a fool. Like this man in the story his life was all about himself and he was miserable. He had worked hard and accumulated a lot of stuff, built a thriving business, lived in a huge house, but he was all alone. His house was big, but his world was small.
Did you notice the repetition of the words "I , my, and self" in the parable? "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns. I will store my surplus grain. I'll say to myself." It was all about him. The man had made a good living, but he had no life because life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions Jesus says.
Some of the happiest people I've ever met have had the least amount of stuff. That's one thing that always impresses me when I visit a developing country in Africa or even on our trips to Mexico over the years. People living on less than $2 a day, which half the world does, and yet finding joy in their families and their friends and the simple things of life.
But unlike the man in this story, Scrooge gets a second chance at life. On Christmas Eve he's not visited by the death angel. He's visited by three spirits, the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas future and he has what is clearly a conversion experience. His life is radically changed. And when he wakes up on Christmas morning he's so happy that he hasn't missed it!
Scrooge is a new man. The first thing he does is buy a turkey for the Crachit's, the biggest turkey in town. They're blown away when it's delivered. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim and it has Scrooge's name on it. And they can't believe it!
Then he's off to church where he hasn't been in years and on the way he runs into the same two men who came by his office the day before collecting for the poor. He stops them on the street, apologizes for his behavior, and then makes a donation that blows them away. "That includes a great many back payments," he says. And they're speechless.
And then in my favorite scene in the movie Scrooge goes to his nephew's house for Christmas dinner. He walks back and forth outside the door a dozen times until he musters the courage to go in. And when he finally does he says to Fred's wife, "Can you forgive a pig-headed old fool with no eyes to see with and no ears to hear with all these years?" It makes me cry every time I see it.
Scrooge goes from living a life for himself to living a life for others and that, Jesus says, is when we discover what life is all about. That's what it means to be rich toward God. What did Jesus say was the bottom line? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself."
That's how the Advent Conspiracy got started. Last week we said that we're joining churches from around the country who are trying make a shift in how we approach the holiday season because we live in a consumer driven culture that tries to convince us every day that life does consist in the abundance of our possessions and Christmas is the time to get them and the time to give them as well.
Each year Americans spend about $450 billion dollars on Christmas. And that may be good for the economy, but it can be a disaster for those who can't afford it and who will go into deep debt and depression because of it. It also sends the confusing message that Christmas is all about stuff. But Christmas is not all about stuff. Christmas is about the birth of the Savior of the world!
Certainly there was no stuff in the first Christmas story. Jesus was carried in the womb of a poor unwed, teenaged mother whose soon to be husband was a humble carpenter. He was delivered in a feeding trough in a dirty cave filled with animals and manure in what today would be called a parking garage. Not a whole lot of stuff there!
And reflecting on that story four churches got together three years ago and said what if we each decided to spend just a little less this year, like one gift less, not a big sacrifice, and instead gave that money to help the solve the water crisis in the world because they discovered that more people on this planet die everyday from lack of clean water than from anything else. And for only $10 billion dollars the global water crisis could be solved. That's a fraction of what Americans spend just on Christmas, $450 billion vs. $10 billion.
And so they agreed to limit their spending by one gift, or more if people chose to, and four churches raised $500,000 to build fresh water wells in developing countries. And it was the most meaningful Christmas that many of them ever had. The next year more churches jumped in and $3 million dollars was donated, just by spending a little less on Christmas. That's how the Advent Conspiracy got started.
And that's what we want to do as a church community. We want to worship fully as we talked about last week. We want to keep Jesus front and center. We want to spend less, give more, and love all. We want to use some of the money that we would normally spend on one extra Christmas gift and use it to bless those in need. Some of us will be able to give more and some will be able to give less. And that's okay. These are tough economic times for many of us.
In 1 Timothy 6:17-19 the apostle Paul writes these words, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.
Life. That's what Jesus came to give us. And generosity, Paul says, is the way to take hold of that life.
Generosity is nothing new for us as a church community. As I've said many times before, Valley View is the most generous church I've ever been apart of. Generosity is a high value around here and we just want to keep it that way during this Advent Season.
Already this fall we've given shoeboxes to Operation Christmas Child and provided Bibles for the Persecuted Church and funds for the Moringa Tree Project and bikes and sewing machines to Pedals for Progress and many of you bring food and clothes week after week and fill the barrels in the hallways to overflowing. It's amazing to me!
Some of you have given your time to serving the Forteniter's Dinner and the Thanksgiving Dinner at the shelter last week. TheAlpha Team provided dinner free of charge for up to 70 people every Wednesday night right in this room. And this week some of you even gave your own blood! And I could go on and on. And I believe all of it is what Paul had in mind when he said take hold of life that is truly life. I believe all of it is what Jesus had in mind when he said that's what it means to be rich toward God.
So during this Christmas season we just want to continue that generous spirit by spending a little less and giving a little more to those in need. Jen and I have already told each other and our kids that we don't need anything for Christmas. What we want most of all is to spend some time together as a family when Chelsea comes back home from college. Next week we'll talk about giving more relationally to one another this Christmas.
And as I was thinking about it, the best gifts we've received from our kids over the years have been the cards that they've written or made for us. They sit on my dresser for months and mean more to me than any sweater or shirt they could buy that would sit the drawers.
Next week, Carol Berger is going to come and talk to us about needs right in our own area and ways that we can help and be a blessing to others this Christmas. Carol is the director of PACS, Phoenixville Area Community Services, and was here this past summer describing some of their work for us. And we'd like to give them a gift to help with food, clothing, and warmth for those who are struggling right around us.
If you're thinking about creative ways to give this Christmas I want to encourage you to check out the Alternative Gift Market that will be held tomorrow night at the Plymouth Meeting Mall from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. There may be one or two people on your Christmas list who would love to know that instead of giving them a gift you made a donation in their name to a local non-profit organization that is out to help the hurting. As a thank you they'll give you a beautiful card and a token gift to give to that person.
You might want to check out their website today to see what organizations will be there. It's www.givingrealgifts.com. The Alternative Gift Market is sponsored by Partners for Families in Norristown, an organization that we've partnered with over the years as well. We have literature that includes this website on the resource table. Feel free to pick some up when you leave.
Another website that can give you ideas for how to spend less and give more is www.rethinkingchristmas.com.
The Advent Conspiracy fits so well with who we are as a church community. In our vision statement we say, "Imagine a community of people who live simply and ethically so that they can generously share they resources with others ... a community of love, peace, and hope serving our neighbors, caring for the poor, helping the oppressed, conveying the good news of Jesus through word and deed."
I love how the story of the Christmas Carol ends. And that's how I want to end this teaching this morning.
"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more. And to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed at him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless us, everyone!"