THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

I had a thought the other day about turning 50, which I turned earlier this month; I don't know what brought it on, but for some reason I remembered the Year of Jubilee (which means a time of shouting) that God commands the Israelites to observe , in Levitcus 25: ...you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces...

That certainly puts a different spin on turning fifty! The fiftieth year, the Jubilee year, is to be a sabbath year, a time of liberation, of returning to one's family, roots, property. The Jubilee is also a year of forgiving debts, a time of going home to who we truly are in God.

And so I am wondering: how many self-inflicted debts have I taken on over these 50 years? How many times have I said to myself: 'You can't do that.' 'You' no good at that.' 'You're not a handy person.' 'You can't handle money.' 'You never win anything.' 'You're not practical.' 'You are only a haphazard musician.' etc. These kinds of tapes I have been playing all of these years--they are like chains, like debts, are they not? To come to the Year of Jubilee and to hear the divine word calling: 'Time to give those up, Randy Scrivener! Time to go home! Time to shout 'freedom' to all the people! Time to remember who you are!' That has made turning 50 quite an exciting prospect! R

The Seven Deadly Sins

Gluttony, Greed, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Pride...what was the seventh deadly sin; I could not remember as I kept counting them out on my fingers this morning. When I came in the office I asked Audrey--she couldn't think of it either, so I had to look it up, although you probably know it: it is Anger! I had actually thought about anger and then said, 'Nah, it can't be; anger is such a common emmotion, and besides, even Jesus got angry; God gets angry.' But it is anger, or wrath if you prefer. And when it is indulged, it is deadly, as I am sure many doctors and counsellors would agree.

And isn't that the thing about most of the deadly sins; they often have a stealth element about them, or they are disguised in ways that make it hard for us to see them at work in ourselves, even as we can see them clearly at work in others. For example, busy people (I can tell you from experience) are some of the most slothful people on earth: Naomi was always amazed at how much housework I got done on Saturdays when my sermon was needing to get written!

This Sunday we will be taking a look at the deadly sin of Greed. 'Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,' Jesus says the gospel reading about the man who keeps building storehouses for all of his grain. I think what he means by that is that greed has thousands of subtle disguises, and we need to be vigilent lest we wake up one day and find that our lives have been squeezed almost dry in its vise-like grip. We will be looking at Greed, how it operates, and what we can do about it. We will even sing 'O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing'--an appropriately greedy song title, now that I think about it! R

CHILDREN RUNNING THE RACE

I received a great present for my birthday--a picture of my 10-year old son, Nathan, crossing the finish-line of the Colleyville Race to Read 5k, his first race. He did a great job, finishing forth, in just over 30 minutes. But it's not where he finished, or how fast he ran--it's the expression on his face that I can see in the picture but could not see at the time (because he was running several yards ahead of me at the finish). There is a bit of tiredness, but showing through all there is this wide-open glad sense of accomplishment from finishing his first race (ahead of his dad). I am also in the picture, about fifteen yards behind; and my memory was that I was sucking wind and more tired than I ought to have been. But my face, too, was lit up with a big smile as I was watching my son cross the finish line ahead of me.

This, it seems to me, is what parents, and congregations, hope for in regards to their children--to help them run the race, and to run it with them for a while, and then to have the joy of watching their little bottoms move on ahead and cross the finish-line in front of them. RS

The Twelfth Day of Christmas

I am glad that Christmas is a twelve-day season! For one thing, it usually is not until the eleventh or twelfth day of Christmas that I am able to get out of Christmas-preacher mode and into regular person mode with regard to the holiday. Throughout Advent, Christmas Eve and the Sundays of Christmas, pastors (and church staff, and maybe you as well) are generally in 'production-mode', having to produce Christmas messages and concerning themselves with Christmas programming and preparation that helps make the season meaningful for others; but when the last Sunday of Christmas has come and gone, there are usually still a couple of days left of the season, and these are days that I try to observe, even in the midst of all the new beginnings of the New Year.

In fact, it usually makes it easier for me that most have left Christmas behind by New Year's Day. Trees have been taken down, and decorations stowed back up in the attic until next year. This early shut-down provides an empty space, with no production-pressure, in which I can listen to Christmas carols, light candles, enjoy the tree, and ponder the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke. And tonight, while I did not give 'twelve drummers drumming' to my family, I happily cooked dinner and will take care of the dishes; not a large gift perhaps, but a Christmas gift all the same.

It is not too late! Tomorrow evening we can gather, have some pizza, perhaps sing some Christmas songs, and remember the Christmas story as we put baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the tree and banners, back up for the year. We can give to each other the wonderful Christmas gift of fellowship, and at the same time celebrate the even older Christian festival day of Epiphany, which is Christmas day for many Christians in other parts of the world. Come by tomorrow evening around 7:00 pm. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Randy