Tuesdays with Morris

This morning, I’m continually coming back to the question of “what do you bring?”

This question is not focused on what we bring to a dinner party or family Christmas gathering. The question is simply about what we bring into this life.

Do we reflect the Kingdom or something else? Are our lives marked by joy, peace, love, mercy, courage, patience, etc? Are we making this world a better place?

Unfortunately, the world often sees those within the Church as being judgmental and hypocritical. Of course, we do make judgments from time to time (we are simply permissive of all things…we have to draw some lines because not every thing is good). And, we all fall short and give the appearance of being hypocrites.

However, I believe that we should be so filled with love, joy, peace, grace, and the like that it overshadows our shortcomings. We should be known more for our love (I believe we were told something about how people will know we’re with Jesus by the way we love one another) than any thing else.

So, what do you bring? Joy? Peace? Love? Mercy? Patience? How can you bring these things into the world today?

As I sit here, I’m blown away that this Sunday we will be kicking off the Advent season (well, actually, I’ll be kicking it off on Wednesday night at our mid-week service). It just seems like this year has come and gone so quickly.

The Advent season seems to fly by as well. So often, we fail to slow down and enjoy the holiday season because of all the things on our to-do lists. We have to find time to get all of our shopping done, attend Christmas programs and parties, and still manage to get our work done.

Of course, the Advent season is one of the most consumer-driven times of the year. People spend money they don’t have on gifts that might not even get used. We spend more time missing the point of this holiday season then celebrating the season. We focus so much on Santa, that Jesus is overshadowed…well, we give him an hour on Christmas Eve.

Advent is a season of celebration, preparation, and expectant anticipation. We celebrate the coming of the Messiah in the birth of Jesus. And, we prepare and eagerly await his return.

Currently, there are a lot of unknown’s at Center Chapel. Rusty is planning to return to lead us through the Advent journey. However, we don’t really know if he will be ready for this grand undertaking. And, we never know if he’ll get in the game and need to take a timeout at some point during the journey.

That means, in my celebration of the Advent season, I’m preparing for the unexpected. I will be preparing messages for each week of the journey for the “just-in-case” file. So, in the event that I find myself preaching, I’m preparing a sermon series called “All I Want for Christmas is _____.” Each week the blank will be filled in with something (like peace, hope, Jesus, etc). Obviously, this title is stolen from the popular “two-front-teeth” song. I’ve also thought about doing “A Christmas Story” and using clips from my favorite holiday movie each week. And, I could put all this time and energy in and end up not preaching. And, that will be okay because I believe the preparation will give me a better Advent experience.

So, I’m preparing to celebrate a joyful Advent season…whatever it may bring.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving, I’ll be working through a message called “Get in the Game.” The basic idea behind this message is that God wants us to get out of our pews, our comfort zones, and use our time, talents, and resources to help those around us. It’s a pretty simple message that we’ve all heard before. However, it doesn’t always seem to sink in as we struggle to see the tangible results of these messages.

So, my question is, what would get you excited and motivate you to “get in the game”?

The following is the introduction to this Sunday’s sermon. You’ll notice that I mention there are 5 reasons why I don’t like Thanksgiving. However, I’m only giving three on this site. Yes, this is what you call a teaser. To find out the 4th and 5th reasons (which are the best), you’ll have to join us for church on Sunday (or visit the church website and click on sermons).

Can I be totally honest with you? Thanksgiving is NOT one of my favorite holidays. The premise is great, but I find the actual celebration to be annoying. You’re probably wondering why I find Thanksgiving annoying…Well, I’ve narrowed it down to five things.

1. I don’t like turkey. In fact, I really don’t care for any kind of poultry product. When it comes to Thanksgiving, I’m more of a side item kind of guy. I do look forward to my Aunt Kay’s corn and baked beans; mom’s salad, rolls, and messy eggs; grandma’s famous family recipe banana pudding; real mashed potato’s; and a nice pint of…caffeine free diet coke (really, what’s the point of that?)

2. I loathe pumpkin pie. Outside of telling you that I loathe pumpkin pie, I’m just not sure how to further communicate my opposition to pumpkin pie. One Thanksgiving, we were in Greenville with Emily’s family. All the young folks were down in the basement and Emily, being the wonderful, sweet, kind, and caring wife that she is, offered to go get me some dessert. My one request, “Just make sure you don’t get anything pumpkin.” She returned with 3 items on a plate. Two out of the three were pumpkin. The other was sugar crème pie, which isn’t really a favorite either. But, I ate it…and tossed the pumpkin stuff.

3. Thanksgiving is an all-to-real reminder of just how crazy one’s family really is. We see it all on Thanksgiving, the good, the bad, and the ugly (that would make a great movie title).

So, most people know that I rarely wear a suit. Most people know I rarely tuck in my shirts. Most people know that I do, at least, wear clothes. Most people also are aware that I believe people put way too much significance on what one wears.

This morning, while consuming an amazingly large breakfast at some dive in Ft. Wayne, I read a paragraph in Chuck Klosterman’s book IV that caused me to laugh out loud a little. The first sentence is really the one that stood out.

“People like to say ‘clothes make the man,’ but nobody smart honestly believes this to be true. I mean, why would they? Fabric is merely fabric; wool is simply wool. I think a better (but perhaps less practical) cliche would be, ‘clothes make the mannequin,’ which is more accurate; mannequins don’t have much inherent charisma, generally speaking. But what happens when a man becomes a mannequin? Does this alter his understanding of self? Does this detach him from corporeal reality? Does it deconstruct one’s identity and reconstruct it as commentary?”

Isn’t that great? I, too, believe that “nobody smart” would believe that “clothes make the man.”

Of course, I believe that “nobody smart” would order a breakfast that includes 3 eggs, 2 huge pancakes, a plateful of hasbrowns, and a whole bunch of sausage. But, that’s what this man ordered for breakfast this morning…I guess that just might make me a mannequin.