Creatures of Habit: Hardhearted vs. Generous

Last Sunday we began a new sermon series, “Creatures of Habit.”  I think it is safe to say we all have a desire to have more positive habits in our lives, godly-habits that will draw us deeper into our relationship with Jesus.

Are you more hardhearted or more generous?  I think this is a tough question. Sometimes I find it very easy to become hardhearted, to be cynical and jaded in life.  I find it more of a challenge to be generous and kind.  How about you? 

In Deuteronomy Moses tells the Israelites, “do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.  You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.”

I think generosity has a wide scope of meaning.  Generosity is about all of our resources! 

• It is about our time – making time to be of service to those who might need a little bit of our time.  Maybe it is 5 minutes: we can write a note or make phone a call to someone we haven’t seen for a while.  Perhaps we have a little more time: we can offer a ride to a neighbor who needs to run errands.  Or maybe we have a good chunk of time: we can volunteer to sort food at the food bank or pick up trash at the park. If we stop and think about it we all have time to give! 
• It is about our talent – sharing our abilities in a way that can benefit others.  Maybe you have a musical talent that you can share during worship.  Or you have a green thumb or are handy with a hammer, look around and see if you can find someone who needs a little help in that area.
• It is about our treasure – sharing what we have with those around us.  This can be financial giving, a one-time gift or a continuing commitment.  It can giving to specific needs like our diaper drive for the food bank and hygiene items to those impacted by the fires in California.  Or how about taking time to assess our needs and donating our excess to those in need. 

We are to be open-handed with all that God has given us.  It is difficult to be generous when we are tight-fisted, holding on to what is ours.  Instead, what if we approached all we have with an open hand, knowing that all we have is a gift from God?  We are called to be generous, to share the blessings we have been given with others, to look after our neighbors, and help when and where we can.

Creating a habit of generosity takes small steps.  Looking for the moments where we can respond with an open hand rather than a closed fist is one thing that changes the attitude of our hearts.  It turns the bad habit to a good habit, a bad attitude into a good attitude, while at the same time connecting our generosity to the One who is the giver of all things. 

See you Sunday,
Pastor Jenni 

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.  You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. (Deut 15:7-8)

Creatures of Habit: Grumbling vs. Gratitude

For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)

The New Year brings about a desire for change.  Setting goals, resolutions, or intentions with the desired outcome being good habits.  We are all creatures of habit, for better or for worse.  Some are good habits that we have worked hard to foster; health related habits like getting 8 hours of sleep or a weekly exercise routine; being a better friend by making time for relationships.  While others are bad habits we try to break; cutting back on sugar, or spending less time on Facebook. 

This Sunday we begin a new sermon series, “Creatures of Habit.”  I think it is safe to say we all have a desire to have more positive habits in our lives. Over the next few weeks we will look at ways to build better habits…ones that will draw us deeper into our relationship with Jesus.

We begin with Grumbling vs. Gratitude.  I find it is easy to be a complainer!  The weather is too hot or occasionally too cold.   There is too much traffic on the road today.  My neighbors are sure noisy.  I could go on, but I think you get the point.  So, what if instead of complaining, my grumblings became moments of gratitude?  I am so thankful for air conditioning and a heater.  I am grateful to have a car and the ability to get from here to there.  I am grateful to have neighbors who don’t complain about my dog’s barking!

Creating a habit of gratitude takes small steps.  Looking for the moments of gratitude in our day is one that changes the attitude of our hearts.  It turns the bad habit to a good habit, a bad attitude into a good attitude, while at the same time connecting our gratitude to the One who is the giver of all things.  One less complaint can change a bad habit for the better.

See you Sunday,
Pastor Jenni 

Do everything without grumbling or arguing,  so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.
(Phil 2:14-15)

Thresholds

“Thresholds are the space between, when we move from one time to another as in the threshold of dawn to day or of dusk to dark; one space to another, as in times of inner or outer journeying or pilgrimage; and one awareness to another, as in times when our old structures start to fall away and we begin to build something new."

I love doorways, especially ancient doorways of churches long forgotten.  What fascinates me most about this doorways is looking down at the threshold.  Often the threshold was substantial, a place where one could stand neither inside nor outside, simply in-between.

In Celtic spirituality Thresholds are a thin place - the space where heaven and earth meet, a place of transition.  When I was on Sabbatical in Ireland, I walked around the thousand year old ruins of abbeys, churches and grand cathedrals, I was struck by this idea and drawn into the doorways of these once majestic holy places.  Who walked through these doors?  What beginnings lie before them?   What endings were they leaving behind?  What were they waiting for in those times in-between?

Standing on the threshold is a space in-between here and there, it is neither a beginning or an ending, it is simply a pause, where one thing stops and another thing starts...How often do we find ourselves here on the threshold, waiting for the door to open or to close?  Standing patiently in the doorway waiting with anticipation for what comes next? 

I find New Year’s Day one such threshold, where we ponder the past and wonder about the future.   Lingering in the doorway with one foot in the past and the other in the future in this space in-between.  It is an opportunity to pause and reflect as well as a chance to dream and wait.  Sometimes the threshold can be a place of safety, where we stand and wait.  Other times it can be a starting place for adventure as we step out into the unknown. 

So as you stand on the threshold of another year…what does the year ahead hold for you? 

As we stand on the threshold of another year...What lies ahead for us as we step over the threshold and begin another year together?  What are we leaving behind as we cross the threshold? How can we walk confidently over the threshold into all that God has in store for us? 

"When we stand at the threshold we can't possibly know what awaits us."

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni

The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Psalm 121:7-8

More than Words: Love!

It seems fitting that our final Word is LOVE!  Love is the very heart of Christmas. Jesus is the love of God that took on flesh and bone.  Love that gave up everything to be born with nothing.

God is love. It is something that we may have heard a thousand times before, whether in church or on the street corner, from a friend or a perfect stranger – God is love.

It is God who initiates love and we reciprocate it. We love because God first loved us. God’s love for us began before we were ever aware. God loved us first! God’s amazing love for us was willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have a loving relationship with God, our Creator.

God is made manifest in our love toward others. The way in which we live out Love is the expression of God’s love we have towards others. When God first loved us, we were unlovely and unloving, unworthy to be loved by a holy love. The truth is, God loved us before we are God’s children, and by loving us God makes us worthy of love. Love itself transforms us. Because we are loved by God, we become children of God – the beloved.

As the beloved, our love for others should follow the same pattern as God’s love for us. Like God, we are to love the one who is unloving and unresponsive. It is easy for us to love those who love in return. But, we are commanded to love the one who is unloving, angry, and hurtful. It is only then we can see for ourselves what God-as-Love is really like. When the love of God flows through us and transforms another life, changing that unloving person into someone who also has been born anew of love, then we truly know God.

God’s love initiates. Love is the overflow of God’s delight that issues in creation. Love is the outreach of God’s mercy that enters as a baby and redeems the lost with a cry of agony. Love is the outpouring of the transforming Spirit that permeates all things, quickening them and making them holy. God’s love is first and last and utterly constant throughout the long, unmarked middle. Friends, may this be the love in which we daily abide, and the love that we extend to others.

A prayer for us today: Lord, as we celebrate Christmas may we continue to be filled with the wonder of Advent and all that it holds. May we seek to live a life of love in all we do. May we be filled with Your love as we celebrate the Christ Child. May we emulate love throughout this season and into the year ahead. May we abide in love, joy, peace and hope with every breath we breathe. Amen.   

Happy Christmas!
Pastor Jenni           

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is
born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 
In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
(1 John 4:7-12)