Just a little quickie this week, I promise. It is Black Friday, and I’m trying to get ahead so that tomorrow we can put up Christmas decorations around here (and watch Notre Dame go undefeated for the season - I hope), since Pastor Chris is preaching this Sunday. But I thought I’d toss in my two cents into the conversation just for fun anyway. And those pennies may or may not have anything to do with the scripture for the week!
Like “Black Friday” – what’s up with that anyway? Of course it is now Thursday too (Brown Thursday someone called it .. For the gravy? Or Great Thursday ... for ... I dunno). I saw anger and online petitions complaining about the corporate greed that cause retailers to force their employees to work on Thanksgiving and contribute to the spiral downward as a society. Frankly, I think there is a simple solution to that kind of corporate greed - just don’t go. The stores wouldn’t open if no one went, we could stop it almost immediately.
But we are ruled by our desire for stuff, for good deals. We are governed by our materialistic approach to Christmas. Even when we think we are keeping it in check by not succumbing to the excess of the season, we still want to have the right gifts, we don’t want to disappoint those we love. As if the success or the failure of the holiday season was in our hands.
Maybe that is the thought with which we need to enter this holiday season. We aren’t in charge. And the holiday has already been a success. Our job is to enjoy it, to live into it, to embrace it. And we start, as we do with every gift we receive, by saying thank you to the giver of the gift.
We say thank you to the King.
Revelation 1:4-8 Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Amen and thanks be to God.
Shalom,
Derek
Like “Black Friday” – what’s up with that anyway? Of course it is now Thursday too (Brown Thursday someone called it .. For the gravy? Or Great Thursday ... for ... I dunno). I saw anger and online petitions complaining about the corporate greed that cause retailers to force their employees to work on Thanksgiving and contribute to the spiral downward as a society. Frankly, I think there is a simple solution to that kind of corporate greed - just don’t go. The stores wouldn’t open if no one went, we could stop it almost immediately.
But we are ruled by our desire for stuff, for good deals. We are governed by our materialistic approach to Christmas. Even when we think we are keeping it in check by not succumbing to the excess of the season, we still want to have the right gifts, we don’t want to disappoint those we love. As if the success or the failure of the holiday season was in our hands.
Maybe that is the thought with which we need to enter this holiday season. We aren’t in charge. And the holiday has already been a success. Our job is to enjoy it, to live into it, to embrace it. And we start, as we do with every gift we receive, by saying thank you to the giver of the gift.
We say thank you to the King.
Revelation 1:4-8 Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Amen and thanks be to God.
Shalom,
Derek
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