In the hectic days following Christmas, the focus of our retail establishments turns from squeezing the last few dollars out of shoppers to coping with the inevitable flood of exchanges and returns -- and that dynamic prompted team member Mary Austin to contemplate baptism in this installment of The Immediate Word. As we celebrate the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, Mary notes the differences between the gift of our baptism and the way we deal with our unwanted holiday gifts. Mary reminds us that our baptism is a permanent and entirely undeserved gift -- one that we can’t box up and return if we decide that it doesn’t fit us or it becomes inconvenient. In addition, we don’t have to do anything extraordinary to receive it; it’s not something we earn through good deeds or a long process of hard work. Instead, Mary notes, it’s a reward that’s available to all of us. But while we can’t exchange it, the gift we receive through our baptism is one that we can certainly regift and constantly pass on to others. And Mary points out, it’s an indelible part of our identity -- and the challenge for us is how to respond to that gift and thank God for his overwhelming generosity.
Team member Chris Keating offers some additional thoughts on Psalm 29, which calls forth a wide range of majestic imagery to describe the voice of the Lord. But while the voice of the Lord often can be heard in the beautiful symphony of nature, it doesn’t always come to us in such obvious ways -- sometimes it comes in the proverbial still, small voice that we can easily dismiss or overlook, especially when it’s lost amidst the noise of human chatter. Chris suggests that if we can manage to somehow turn down the volume of all the information we’re bombarded with, our psalm text gives us something of a roadmap to the discipline of “holy listening,” developing an awareness that discerns the presence of God in our lives and calls us back to the covenant of our baptism.
No Return, No Exchange
by Mary Austin
Matthew 3:13-17
The day after Christmas is the traditional day for returning the sweater that didn’t fit, the scarf in an atrocious color, and the game you already have. Fortunate recipients have a gift receipt in hand, but others rely on the mercy of the store.
Some shoppers had more luck returning items than others, and some retailers tightened up their return policies this year. Retailers like Best Buy shortened the window for returns; others required a photo ID for a return without a receipt: “Retailers want to accommodate legitimate returns, but are battling an epidemic of return fraud that will cost them an estimated $8.76 billion, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).” Other stores go out of their way to be accommodating (Kohl’s, no deadline on returns with a receipt; Costco, no deadline, except for computers).
This year, knowing that shoppers were coming, retailers offered extra bargains to keep us all spending longer. The day after Christmas was its own mini-Black Friday, with discounts and specials to keep the buying momentum going.
And then there are the things you just can’t return.
In the World
The world of gift cards means shorter return lines, as people can pick out their own sweater, scarf, or game: “It’s the gift that fits everybody’s holiday budget, and this year 8 out of 10 holiday shoppers purchased gift cards. That’s more than any holiday season in the past.” According to Brandon Spevacek, a shopper quoted in the same article, the day after Christmas isn’t just about returns anymore: “I think that’s what the day after Christmas is, come here to the mall and spend all your gift cards.”
That may be a good thing, as retailers make returns more difficult. Consumer Affairs reports that “Shoppers may be in for some nasty surprises after Christmas as stores implement increasingly complicated and restrictive return policies, including checking a newly created ‘blacklist’ of ‘serial returners’ before accepting merchandise for a refund. Some retailers, reportedly including KB Toys, Sports Authority, Express, and Staples, have begun using a computer database by The Return Exchange of Irvine, California, to track customer returns. Stores swipe the shopper’s driver’s license each time a return is being made, and if the store-set return limit is exceeded, the customer’s tendered return is denied. Most stores’ posted policies do not warn shoppers of a cap on frequent returns.”
To add to the confusion, the online world is a “wild west” of returns, with policies varying dramatically. Some online purchases can go back to same retailer’s brick-and-mortar store, and others can’t. Some places are generous (365 days at Zappos; forever at Land’s End), and others limit the return time: “Free shipping has given online retailers a huge boost this holiday season. But shoppers looking to return an item might find that doing so racks up both financial as well as time costs.”
No one tracks how many consumers give up in frustration... or decide to regift the item next year.
In the Word
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all begin Jesus’ public ministry with his baptism by John, with his baptism marking a new phase in his life and work. All three have Jesus baptized by John, but Matthew seems to feel the most awkwardness about it. Only Matthew has this curious dialogue between Jesus and John, explaining why John is the one doing the baptizing here: “Let it be so for now,” Matthew has Jesus saying, “to fulfill all righteousness.”
Eric Barreto observes on WorkingPreacher.org that this gives the baptism a communal aspect: “Matthew indicates that this baptism is a collaborative effort: ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness’ (3:15). John must concede to baptize Jesus; Jesus must seek the baptism of John. Together, their obedience to God’s plans is a step on the path of righteousness.”
Jesus’ baptism is also accompanied by the gift of the Holy Spirit, noted in all four gospels. The voice of God also announces the divine approval of Jesus. The baptism, the Spirit, and the voice all add to a gift that Jesus couldn’t possibly think of returning -- an unmistakable beginning to his work for God.
Sarah Dylan Breuer says on her blog that God calling Jesus God’s son has important cultural implications: “In Jesus’ culture, family members share the family honor; the son of a great man is automatically great, and the father of a son who behaves shamefully is shamed right along with the son.... In Jesus’ culture, because sons inherited the family trade and any family land, they literally had a stake in the family business. When the sons do well, they serve essentially as their parents’ social security, their only means to a decent retirement should they make it to old age. When the father does well, the sons’ wealth increases with the fortunes of the family. Because of all of these things, sons were recognized as agents of their fathers. Because they share their father’s name, a good son can act in that name and with that authority. After all, the family name -- good or bad -- is their name. The family honor -- or the family shame -- is their honor or shame. The family business is their business. In this sense, when we say that Jesus is God’s son, we are making a claim for and about Jesus. We’re saying that Jesus has authority to act in God’s name. We’re saying that God is honored by our honoring Jesus. And we’re saying that Jesus’ activity is Jesus’ going about the family business.”
Baptism is identity -- for Jesus, as the Son of God, and for us, as children of God. This is the gift we’re given in our baptism too, the gift that can’t be returned or exchanged. We can ignore it, or come to despise it; we can stuff it in a drawer, spiritually speaking, and try to forget about it -- but it remains with us always.
In the Sermon
The sermon might look at baptism as a gift. What does it mean to receive such a gift? How do we use our lives as the thank-you note for the gift? If we are the children of God, are we part of the family business too, like Jesus was? If this is our identity, can anyone tell? We live our family identity through our names, and perhaps in how we look, act, and think. How can people find our spiritual identity in us? As Sarah Dylan Breuer writes: “God’s business is our business, and carrying out that business in the style of our elder brother Jesus is among the chief ways we honor God. As God’s children, God’s compassion and God’s mission are at the core of our truest and deepest identity.”
Or, reflecting on the gift of the Holy Spirit could be at the heart of the sermon. This is a more elusive gift, more difficult to pin down, harder to use -- how do we know when it’s been given? How do we incorporate it into our everyday lives? How do we even know it’s still hanging around, and hasn’t been returned for lack of use?
The sermon might also look at the communal aspect of baptism, as noted above. In my Presbyterian tradition, an elder participates in a baptism along with the pastor, and the elder represents the congregation. This is a moment shared together by the person being baptized, the congregation, and the pastor. Our tradition understands baptism to be something that happens, most often, in a congregation. It’s a ritual of the whole community, not a private moment. If we receive our baptism as a shared gift, what does that mean? How do we live our baptismal identity in community with other people? And what does that mean for the “spiritual but not religious” folks, who find God on the golf course or in the sunset? Lillian Daniel’s well-traveled piece in The Christian Century (and the genesis for her book When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough) speaks to this. She writes that this group of people is “perhaps by now a part of the majority -- the people who have stepped away from the church in favor of running, newspaper reading, yoga, or whatever they use to construct a more convenient religion of their own.” She adds: “But in the church we are stuck with one another, therefore we don’t get the space to come up with our own God. Because when you are stuck with one another, the last thing you would do is invent a God based on humanity.”
We are stuck with each other, we who share this gift of baptism. And we are stuck with the gift itself too, this gift that can’t be returned or exchanged. What are we going to do with it?
SECOND THOUGHTS
Listening for the Sounds of Glory
by Chris Keating
Psalm 29
Meteorologists speak -- and people listen. Hours before snowstorms swept across the Midwest last Sunday, shoppers plowed into grocery stores for milk and bread. One St. Louis television station posted photos of empty store shelves from Twitter -- as if to say, “The voice of the weather forecaster causes the people to twirl, and strips the bakery aisle bare!”
Or perhaps someone was waiting for the proverbial tack-on marketing opportunity: “Today’s weather pattern brought to you by the Dairy and Baked Goods Council.”
Meanwhile, when the actual storm hit, local television halted all other programs -- it was Sunday morning, after all -- in order to provide “team coverage.” Stations sent gangs of reporters out in horrible weather to report on just how horrible it was.
In the News
In truth, we’re listening to much more than television weather. We live in a noisy, noisy world filled with all types of blather and chatter and digitalized megabytes of sound. We’re oversharing at magnificent, never before calculated rates. Facebook users, for example, are exposed to 88 new items an hour. At 1.5 things per minute, that’s a lot of information to process. It is the equivalent of a nonstop soundtrack to our lives.
The constant news feeds, status updates, viral videos, and data bytes are interspersed with downloadable music and videos. Superstar Beyoncé made sure her fans were listening in late December with the surprise drop of a new visual album. The self-titled recording includes 14 new songs and 17 new videos, including music that the artist says is so raunchy she hasn’t played it for her husband or mother.
With all of this dissonant noise garbling around us, is anyone really paying attention?
Apparently, yes. Lots of people are listening -- Big Data, for one, and governments for another. While Big Data -- the term that refers to the curating, sharing, and analyzing of massive data sets -- may seem somewhat humorous at times (as in Microsoft’s “don’t get Scroogled” attacks against Google), no one is laughing about the capabilities of government eavesdropping. It seems it is one thing to manipulate purchasing decisions, but eroding the right to privacy is something else.
One rather bleak writer contends that we are living in a “soulless, digitally concussed age.” In an article for Counterpunch, John Stanton notes, “There are no boundaries or balance between public and private space. The notion of solitude, of an impenetrable private space for contemplation, or even talking with one’s God, has been overwritten by the need to feel part of a digital collective.” Stanton suggests that much of this is driven by a fear of contemplation and a loss of individualism. “In short, the fear of solitude and privacy, or being alone in thought, is in the ascendency. One is never alone when connected to the Internet/WWW.”
Our lives are surrounded by noise. It is directed toward us every moment of every day, but it may also pose an opportunity ripe for theological reflection. If we can turn down the volume of the world’s noise a bit, we may be able to comb the readings for Baptism of the Lord Sunday, where the voice of God figures prominently. Preachers this week have an ample opportunity to ask ourselves and our congregations: “To what, or to whom, are we really listening?”
Early in this New Year, spending time with the acoustic imagery of Psalm 29 may help to train our ears for faithful listening throughout 2014.
In the Scriptures
Psalm 29 is an ancient song of Israel, a song perhaps borrowed from Canaanite religions. It asserts the majesty and power of Yahweh’s royal kingship, acknowledging the strength and sovereignty of God’s holy presence. The splendor of its poetic images bears witness to the glory of God, and offers listeners a profoundly sensory experience.
Forget about Beyoncé. Forget about NSA eavesdropping. Long before all of that, long before the internet, and long before television’s The Voice, there was The Voice. The One Voice. And it is that Voice which thunders across creation, shaking the wilderness, causing all who worship God to say, “Glory!”
Like a maestro before a symphony orchestra, the Psalmist gives the downbeat to this triumphant overture. It begins with a light pizzicato of strings punctuating the waters, followed by cascading arpeggios of thunder announced by chimes and tympani. The melody moves to the brass, whose chorus breaks like the mighty cedars of Lebanon, followed by the flaming accents of flutes in dialogue with the strings.
And then silence. In response, the congregation leans forward in breathless splendor, responding in unison acclamation: “Glory!”
It is an invitation into the splendor of creation, set against the motif of a mighty storm. Within the storm, the congregation hears the power of God’s voice. This is the Voice to which we are summoned to listen, the One Voice which is faithful and true. The repetition pounds in our veins like the sounds of a high school percussion class: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters... the voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.” In its very structure, the Psalm prepares its listeners to experience the mighty power of The Voice.
The stormy splendor of God’s majesty provides what Maryann McKibben Dana calls a “powerful overlay” for the morning’s Gospel lesson, where Jesus is baptized and the glory of God descends on him like a dove: “The same God who broke the cedars of Lebanon also ripped the skies open. The same God who shook the wilderness sent the Spirit as a winged courier to the Jordan” (in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary [Year A, Vol. 1: Advent through Transfiguration]).
Faithfully listening to this Voice invites the congregation into worship as it discerns the presence of God who is enthroned over the floods and storms of life. Its benediction in verse 11 forms the congregation’s response to the glory it has witnessed: “May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”
In the Sermon
Despite the psalm’s magnificent imagery, our experience with deadly storms urges caution in preaching from this text. Our eyes are weary from the scenes of nature’s catastrophic destruction, and our ears have also heard the cries of those caught by fire, storm, and flood. Pastoral sensitivity to these images is important, but within the dereliction of nature a preacher may also hear the promise of God’s peace. The flames testify not only to the burning of the wilderness, but also to the presence of the Spirit -- the same Spirit which alights on Jesus. In his Spirit-filled baptism, Jesus comes as the fulfillment of God’s promised peace. There is destruction in the floods of human experience, to be sure. But there is also one who sits above the flood, who is enthroned forever. That is the voice to which we are called to listen.
Paired with the Gospel lesson, Psalm 29 could point to the promise of God’s redemption in Jesus. The Psalmist calls the congregation to the discipline of holy listening. Listening for the One Voice enables us to recall with joy the covenant of our own baptism. Like Jesus, we hear the good news that we are God’s beloved.
A sermon could tune our ears to the symphony of God’s magnificent glory -- a glory displayed in the beauty of creation, and a glory affirmed in the coming of Jesus. Holy listening helps us tune out the discordant tones of the world so that we may hear again the glory of God’s love.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Matthew 3:13-17
Brian Williams, of NBC’s Nightly News, was the only one of the three broadcast network news anchors to cover the funeral of Nelson Mandela live from South Africa. The reason for this, according to an Associated Press report, is a “dwindling interest in international news.”
Application: One can only wonder if the baptism of Jesus would ever have been considered worth reporting.
*****
Matthew 3:13-17
Pope Francis was recently tabbed as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Regarding his selection, Nancy Gibbs, the magazine’s managing editor, said: “He really stood out to us as someone who has changed the tone and the perception and the focus of one the world’s largest institutions in an extraordinary way.”
Application: Since the baptism of Jesus, Christians have been changing the world in extraordinary ways.
*****
Psalm 29
Bobby Cox, the former manager of the Atlanta Braves who was recently unanimously elected into baseball’s Hall of Fame, only had three rules for his players -- yet those three soft rules were heard and obeyed by all: 1) Play hard; 2) Be on time; 3) No loud music in the clubhouse.
Application: The voice of the Lord is very distinct and very clear.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
Tony LaRussa, the former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, was recently elected into baseball’s Hall of Fame. Though retired, LaRussa has not surrendered his love of the game. In a recent appearance at baseball’s winter meetings, he said, “I miss winning and losing. Someday I’ll be with a team, I think. I’d like to be a part of the competition again.”
Application: We continue to be witnesses and a part of the game all the days of our lives.
*****
Acts 10:34-43
Pope Francis is beloved as the “slum pope,” because of his recognition and affirmation of the poor in society. This complimentary distinction is bestowed upon him for his affirmation of the poor in Buenos Aires called cartoneros -- those who rummage through garbage to find recyclable and reusable goods. The pope recently made an amateur video praising them, and acknowledging that their trash-picking is good for the environment in today’s “throwaway culture.”
Application: Everyone -- rich or poor, famous or commoner -- has a vital witness for the Lord.
***************
From team member Leah Lonsbury:
Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 10:34-43
Writer Sue Monk Kidd’s latest book, The Invention of Wings, was, according to an interview with the New York Times, “born of her desire to go to ‘ground zero’ to wrestle with the racial issues that loomed large in her life as a child of the ’50s and ’60s, growing up white in the South.”
Told in the voices of Hetty, a young slave woman in Charleston, South Carolina, and her owner, Sarah Grimke, Wings gives voice to one who hasn’t been heard until now (Hetty) and uncovers the path one privileged, young, slave-owning woman takes to become a prominent abolitionist and advocate for women. Because these two women’s lives are so intricately intertwined (historical records indicate that Hetty was given to Sarah when Hetty was 10 and Sarah 11), they only truly come to know themselves and who they have become because of the one who has walked by their side.
Kidd tells Felicia Lee of the Times, “It was through fighting for the rights of others that these women discovered they were oppressed. Empathy is the most mysterious transaction that the human soul can have and it’s accessible to all of us, but we have to give ourselves the opportunity to identify, to plunge ourselves in a story where we see the world from the bottom up or through another’s eyes or heart.”
Perhaps this could help the preacher talk about the gift of baptism -- we only truly know ourselves when we have been claimed by the Divine other, the one who helps us see ourselves and everyone we encounter in a whole new way. (Or at least when we acknowledge what has always been true in this regard and live into that claim.) How are we changed when we live into the fact that God calls us beloved too?
Or the preacher might find the connection in the Acts text. In it, Jesus goes about “doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil,” and all this is made possible because “God was with him.” When God is truly with us, then our lives are changed. What does our “doing good” and healing the oppressed look like today? How might the lives we lead bear witness to the fact that God is with us? How does God change us to make that goodness and healing possible?
*****
Isaiah 42:1-9
How closely do we follow the path of God’s servant, the one God describes (through the words of Isaiah) in this way?
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
How do we move through the world, steadily, faithfully, tirelessly, and constructively bringing forth justice? How is the servant’s work our work in our daily lives? How is the servant’s way our way in the world?
Forget the big, flamboyant gestures. How are we doing this steady, (mostly) quiet, boots-on-the-ground work?
A “polar vortex” covered a large swath of the nation this week, giving many of us reasons to hunker down and sit closer together on the couch. But what about the ones of us without a place to hunker down, a couch to sit on, or a somebody to sit closer to in the cold? Turns out, this kind of deep freeze actually does call for some flamboyant, saving gestures, but it also calls for a continuation of the less flashy justice-building servant work we are called to do each day.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that looks like faithful Meals on Wheels drivers who are braving the cold not only to make sure their clients get a warm meal but also to check on their general well-being.
This frigid weather also puts a spotlight on who hasn’t been doing their justice-creating work faithfully, steadily, and day-to-day -- Congress. Alissa Scheller reports that with temperatures and wind-chill factors set to hit 50 to 60 below in some parts of the Midwest this week, Americans all over are finding it harder and harder to stay warm and safe, thanks to our elected officials:
And Congress has only made this task more challenging for those most in need. Sequestration’s budget cuts last year meant that thousands of families were left in the cold this winter. Congress cut funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by about $155 million, and total funding has decreased from $5.1 billion to $3.32 billion since 2010.
Home heating costs are rising, and the sparse aid that is available covers less than it did -- 11% less in 2014 than just four years earlier in 2010.
But maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, considering what we’ve witnessed from Congress as of late.
How will we seek to be a little more like Milwaukee’s Meals on Wheels drivers and a little less like Congress? How will we act consistently in the work of our daily lives to pave the way for justice? How will we act to warm bodies and hearts in ways that would cause God to speak of us this way: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations”?
*****
Psalm 29
What kind of noise are we making as God’s people these days? Does it echo God’s voice and glory, or does it just wrap us all in cacophony and fill our ears with static and dissonance? Are we making noise that serves or interrupts what God’s love is trying to do in our world, cyber or otherwise?
Blake Adams, founder of Echo Your Story and the Creative Director at Twin Rivers Worship Center in St. Louis, is asking these questions, particularly about Christians’ current presence on social media. What kind of noise are we making on Facebook, Blake wants to know.
From Blake’s blog...
Jesus did make a lot of noise, in fact the noise was so loud it ended up getting Him crucified... but all the noise was because of Spirit He had inside of Him.
You see, I think a lot of times the American Church wants to be “persecuted,” so we make noise about television shows diminishing Christian beliefs. We make noise about the Government recognizing Same-Sex Marriage. We make noise about the Church down the street who is doing things differently than us. We make noise about a celebrity living a life of sin.
All these things are issues to make noise about, but to make noise about because we are hurting for those who are lost. Make noise because we are hurting for those who don’t know the freeing power of the Love of Christ.
These things simply aren’t persecution. How silly it must look to our Asian brothers and sisters who are having to meet in basements, unable to speak loudly or sing loudly, because of the real possibility of being arrested... when their American fellow believers are spending weeks crying foul over television shows or restaurants diminishing Christian virtues. How silly it must look to Christ followers in Egypt who are in fear of their church being bombed tomorrow while we express our negative opinions of the church down the street that uses “secular” music.
So the next time you go to voice your opinion on Facebook... examine your motives. Are you doing it out of love? Are you doing it in a way that shows love to the person? Are you doing it in a way that expresses your breaking heart for that person? Are you doing it because of the Spirit inside of you pouring out in a way that makes noise?
Or are you just doing it simply to make noise?
Blake is focused on social media, but his “noisy” thoughts can be applied to many aspects of our individual lives as Christians and our attempts to be and grow the beloved community.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
The Ten Most Expensive Gifts in History
Not necessarily the “best” gifts, but certainly the most expensive... and nearly impossible to take back or regift.
Taj Mahal
When Emperor Shah Jahan had it built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, it carried a $1 million price tag. Today, it’s priceless. But did it make her happy? I mean, really happy? Yeah, we’re pretty sure it did.
Statue of Liberty
This gift from France to the U.S. cost France about $500,000 plus shipping. The U.S. said a polite “thank you,” but then secretly complained about having to spend $250,000 to build a base for her to stand on.
Kohinoor Diamond
This impressive little bobble weighs in at over 106 carats (.75 ounce) and is widely considered to be the largest diamond ever found. Let her girlfriends top that.
Orlov Diamond
Weighing 198.62 carats, this is one of the world’s most famous black diamonds and was valued in 1798 at 400,000 Russian rubles. It too is now considered priceless... but I bet the guy at the pawn shop would work something out.
Taylor-Burton Diamond
Valued at over $5 million, this impressive gift for Elizabeth Taylor was originally purchased by Richard Burton for over $1 million back in 1978.
Diamond Thong
This 122-carat undergarment is the ultimate in underwear, and is encrusted with 518 diamonds.
Limited Edition Fighter Motorcycle
Ladies, your husband can be one of only 45 people in the world to ride this baby for a mere $110,000.
D’Amalfi Limoncello Supreme
This rare lemon-flavored liquor goes out at about $27 million per bottle. And no, it isn’t available on draft.
Caran d’Ache 1010 Diamonds Pen
Made from white gold and adorned by 850 diamonds -- all for a mere $19,000. And it writes too!
Roman Abramovich’s Sculpture
This Russian tycoon (and owner of London’s Chelsea soccer team) spent $14 million on a bronze sculpture titled Femme de Venise to show his girlfriend how much he loved her. I’d have told her in a note written with my $19,000 pen, but that’s me.
*****
The Best Worst Christmas Gift in History
Discussing her historically fact-based novel Mary Bowser, author Lois Leveen says this:
What if the best Christmas gift you ever got was also the worst thing that had ever happened to you?...
A decade or so before the Civil War, Mary Bowser was freed by Bet Van Lew, the daughter of the family that owned Mary, and sent North to be educated. I wanted to start the story there, to help readers comprehend the awful paradox that I call the cost of freedom; although every slave wanted to be free, seizing your freedom meant leaving your family, community, and everything you’d ever known.
I set the scene at Christmas dinner. Bet, who’s planning to surprise the Van Lew family slaves with the news that they’re being freed, insists that the slaves join the white family at Christmas dinner. Everyone at the table is uncomfortable, and Mary describes the physical details of the meal in ways that reveal the emotional contrasts between slavery and freedom: “the heavy silver I’d spent my childhood washing and polishing felt suddenly cumbersome compared to the wooden spoons and forks with which I normally ate.” She marvels over the difference in how a meal tastes “served hot in the dining room instead of snatched down cold afterward in the kitchen.”
The transition from a slave’s experience of eating, to a free person’s experience of eating, anticipates Bet’s announcement that she is freeing Mary and her mother. But when Mary realizes that freedom will mean separation from her enslaved father, who belongs to another owner, she sums up her visceral response by describing how “the mouthful of Christmas goose I’d been savoring stuck in my throat... And so the finest meal we’d ever eaten, the greatest present we could ever receive, were spoiled by the news that Mama and I would have to choose between Papa and our freedom.”
*****
You Shouldn’t Have. I Mean It. (Worst Gift Ever.)
James Barron asked his New York Times readers to recall the worst Christmas gifts they had ever received -- and here are some of the responses he received:
I’d tell you the worst Christmas gift I ever got, but I don’t, to this day, know what it was. It was a secret Santa gift from someone at a company I do consulting work for. I can’t describe it. It was something like a plastic, brown mushroom/toadstool thing, with things glued on it, in a box with clear plastic over it? I really don’t know. I showed it to a friend of mine, an older gentleman who was fond of collecting interesting objects, and he asked me if he could have it. Not because it was worth anything, but because it was the oddest, most inexplicable object he ever saw, and he wanted it as a conversation piece (or as he called it, a corpus delicti). I gave it to him. Someday, scientists will discover the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider. It will look like this thing, but much smaller.
***
My grandmother gave me a large, brown stuffed toad that she bought in Guatemala. I was about 14 years old.
***
One year, when I was about 12, I got a boxed set on “How to Play Contract Bridge.” It was very puzzling -- I had never expressed an interest in bridge or any other card game. I never opened the box. Decades on, I still have a strong prejudice against the game because of that strange, disappointing Christmas gift.
***
A Harrah’s Casino coffee mug full of quarters given to me by my grandparents. The mug read, “Life begins at 21!” I was 9.
***
As a little girl, I always loved dinosaurs -- not Barbies. When I was about 7 years old, there was a huge mechanical T. rex that I absolutely fell in love with, and my aunt promised to get for me. When we went to her house to open presents that Christmas Eve, I couldn’t contain my excitement as she plopped a big box down in front of me. As I tore off the paper, however, that excitement became utter confusion, disappointment, and downright sadness as the package within revealed itself not to be a dinosaur, but an Easy-Bake oven. I’m pretty sure I cried on the way home, and I never ever opened that blasted oven. My aunt told my mom she had the T. rex in her cart, then saw the Easy-Bake oven and thought it was “much more appropriate for a little girl.”
***
We received a can of haggis (yes, I guess haggis comes in a can) and a copy of the book The Road. It was quite the depressing Christmas.
***
My worst: a rifle-toting, battery-powered toy soldier that crawled along the floor on his elbows. I was at least 32 and it was my ex-wife who gave it to me.
***
In June of 1974, I went to work as a copy editor for The Press-Register of Mobile, Alabama. When Christmas rolled around, I learned that the year-end bonus was $5 for each year of service. Because I had worked there for seven months, my bonus was prorated. After taxes, it totaled $1.26. It was the first (and last) check I ever received that I could cash at an ice-cream truck.
***
When my sister was newly divorced for the second time and completely miserable, our mother gave her a cookbook called Cooking for One and some sort of individual crockpot to go with it.
*****
Why Gift Cards Are Bad Gifts... Or Not... Depending
Writing for Psychology Today, Susan Newman notes that “What to buy some people on your gift list is often a puzzle, and finding the ‘perfect’ gift seems impossible. But Steven Gimbel, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Gettysburg College, warns against the gift card and explains why the gift card is a symbol of our culture’s lack of intimacy and how that leaves us stumped. Personally, I agree with him when he says, ‘Gift cards are the lazy person’s gift.’ ”
Gimbel elaborates on gift-giving and gift cards:
It’s easy to moralize about gift cards around the holidays. They are the lazy person’s gift. They take no thought. It is usually the ultimate in impersonal giving. You are making the receiver do his own shopping and that’s your job. It’s no different from giving cash except that now the receiver can’t spend it wherever he or she pleases. It is supposed to be the thought that counts not how much it costs, but with a gift card it is only about how much it costs because that’s all there is to the gift.
To some degree, these criticisms are all apt. A gift card is not a gift, but a placeholder for a gift. It says to the recipient that I am not going to think about you, who you are, what you want and need, and what would make you happy. I am going to let you take care of bringing yourself joy.
Indeed, the point of giving a gift is the demonstration of thoughtfulness: I want you to be excited, to have something new which will improve your life in some way, and to know that I think enough about you to spend my time to figure out what would bring you happiness and to go and get it for you. A gift is a symbol of relationship. I know you and care about you, and I am making it part of my life to try to make your life better.
A gift card erases much of what a gift says. It does not affirm our connection. It does not show how much I understand your desires. It is not something to be kept and cherished, something that derives meaning and worth beyond the material value because it was a gift from me.
Of course, this is not always the case. One of the best gifts my wife and I have ever received was a packet of gift cards from my parents. They were for local restaurants and came with a promise to babysit our very young children. These were not just gift cards, but the possibility for a couple to spend valuable “us time” together, something that my folks knew was scarce in our busy lives.
Similarly, a gift card can be a very thoughtful gift if the hunting for the thing is a part of the joy the person receives. As our son has grown, he has become an avid baseball card collector. A gift card for an online auction site gave him not only the opportunity to acquire a few new cards he would not have had the money to afford, but also gave him hours and hours of fun trying to find bargains and win cards in auctions with nail-biting finishes that rivaled the bottom of the ninth inning in the best games played by the players pictured.
Note: Steven Gimbel is the author of Einstein’s Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion. I will probably purchase this book with the Amazon gift card I asked for and received as a Christmas gift.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
N.B.: This is a traditional Sunday for baptisms -- and even if there are no candidates for baptism, it’s a good time for the congregation to renew their baptismal vows.
Call to Worship
Leader: Ascribe to God, O heavenly beings, ascribe to God glory and strength.
People: Ascribe to God the glory of God’s name; worship God in holy splendor.
Leader: The voice of God is over the waters; the God of glory thunders.
People: The voice of God is powerful; the voice of God is full of majesty.
Leader: May God give strength to the people!
People: May God bless God’s people with peace!
OR
Leader: Praise our God who gives us life!
People: We praise and glorify our creator God!
Leader: Praise our God who gives life eternal in our baptism.
People: We praise God and rejoice in God’s wondrous gift.
Leader: Live into your baptism and share God’s life with all.
People: We accept God’s gift of life and will offer it to others.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Lift High the Cross”
found in:
UMH: 159
H82: 473
PH: 371
AAHH: 242
NCH: 198
CH: 108
LBW: 377
ELA: 660
W&P: 287
Renew: 297
“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”
found in:
UMH: 154, 155
H82: 450, 451
PH: 142, 143
AAHH: 292, 293, 294
NNBH: 3, 5
NCH: 304
CH: 91, 92
LBW: 328, 329
ELA: 634
W&P: 100, 106
AMEC: 4, 5, 6
Renew: 45
“When Jesus Came to Jordan”
found in:
UMH: 252
PH: 72
ELA: 305
W&P: 241
“Standing on the Promises”
found in:
UMH: 374
AAHH: 373
NNBH: 257
CH: 552
AMEC: 424
“Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters”
found in:
UMH: 605
AAHH: 674
CH: 365
ELA: 445
“This Is the Spirit’s Entry Now”
found in:
UMH: 608
LBW: 195
ELA: 448
“The Church’s One Foundation”
found in:
UMH: 545, 546
H82: 525
PH: 442
AAHH: 337
NNBH: 297
NCH: 386
CH: 272
LBW: 362
ELA: 654
W&P: 544
AMEC: 519
“O Church of God, United”
found in:
UMH: 547
“Come, Be Baptized”
found in:
CCB: 41
“Only by Grace”
found in:
CCB: 42
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who gives us your life in the gift of baptism: Grant us the faith to trust in the goodness of your gift and the courage to live into all that it calls us to become; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, for you are the one who gives us life. Not only are you our Creator, but you are our Redeemer as you give us the gift of baptism. Then you continue to come to us, calling us to be faithful to who we were created and redeemed to become. Help us to listen for your voice and give heed to it, that we might find life abundant and joyful in you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to listen for your voice and to live into our baptism.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have called us and claimed us as your children. You have created us in your image and you have given us new life in our baptism. Yet we are slow to listen for you or to you. We are content to make our lives reflect the images of things that are passing away, when you offer us eternal life. Forgive us and help us to respond to your gracious voice. Help us to accept daily the gift of our baptism, that we may be your faithful children. Amen.
Leader: God is the giver of all good gifts. God has given us life and life eternal. Receive God’s gifts, that you may share them with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise and glorify your name, O God, for you are the giver of all good and perfect gifts. You give us physical life, and you give us eternal life.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have called us and claimed us as your children. You have created us in your image and you have given us new life in our baptism. Yet we are slow to listen for you or to you. We are content to make our lives reflect the images of things that are passing away, when you offer us eternal life. Forgive us and help us to respond to your gracious voice. Help us to accept daily the gift of our baptism, that we may be your faithful children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you speak to us and guide us into the paths of life eternal. Most of all, we thank you for Jesus and for our baptism into his life in you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our needs, and especially for those who find themselves in the silence and darkness of death. Some are experiencing it physically, some mentally, some spiritually.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Have a glass of water with you, and talk to the children about all the things that you use water for: drinking, bathing, swimming, etc. Since you are in worship, they will probably say baptism as well. Talk about what a great symbol water is to use in baptism. We need water for physical life, and baptism is the gift of God’s life in us. It refreshes, it cleanses, it brings happiness and joy.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Baptism Is Important
Matthew 3:13-17
Object: a baptism certificate
Let me show you this certificate. (Show the baptism certificate.) Does anyone know what this is? (Let the children answer.) Yes, this is a baptism certificate. It shows the date and place where a person was baptized. In addition to this certificate, we also keep a record here at the church of all baptisms so that if a certificate is lost we can issue a new one. What do all of you think about baptism? Is it important? (Let them answer.)
Let me tell you something about baptism. Before Jesus started to preach and do miracles, the first thing he did was to get baptized. He came to John the Baptist, who was a relative of his, and he was baptized in the Jordan River. Now, if Jesus thought it was important for him to be baptized, how important do you think it is for you and me to be baptized? (Let them answer.) Yes, you’re right. It is very important!
When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove, and God spoke, saying that Jesus was His beloved Son. Now, when you and I are baptized, we don’t hear God speak and we don’t see the Holy Spirit come down on us as a dove, but God certainly is pleased when we are baptized, and the Holy Spirit does come to us even though we can’t see him.
Let's thank God for giving us baptism.
Prayer: Dear God: We thank You so much for giving us baptism. In times of trouble and danger, help us to remember that we were made Your people through baptism. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 12, 2014, issue.
Copyright 2014 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
