Truthlines • December 17, 2009

Overflowing Thankfulness and Generosity

Dear Friends,

I find I come to Christmas with a mixture of emotions. As a family member, I look forward with great anticipation to the opportunity of our all being together. Despite my Scottish highland heritage, I am a big fan of Christmas trees. Susan and I rarely disagree, but each Christmas, we have “the battle of colored lights vs. white lights.” She is for white, and I am for colored. We have had colored lights on our Christmas tree once in the last 17 years!

As a pastor, I approach this time of year with a measure of foreboding. While I know that we can never plumb the depths of biblical truth, it is a peculiar challenge to address the Christmas story with a measure of freshness for the 35th year in a row. I even joked with one of my colleagues the other day that I was going to give a talk entitled “Christmas from the Donkey’s Perspective.” In all seriousness, it is both a daunting and wonderful privilege to make the Good News clear and relevant to our congregation and the many friends, work colleagues and family members who choose to join them at this time of year.

The sign in Starbucks where I’m sitting reads “Wishing is what make the holidays the holidays.” I’m not quite sure what that means, but I do know that the story of God’s intervention in time and space in the person of Jesus on behalf of sinful people is what makes Christmas Christmas. My prayer for you is that your celebrations will be Christ-centered and full of the joy that is independent of circumstances. Because we live in a fallen world, the hymn writer reminds us that “all our joy is touched with pain.” So for those of us who find ourselves facing the end of the year with sadness, loss, and secret fears, I trust that we might discover in a fresh way the reality of Emmanuel, God with us.

In closing, I ask you to consider with me the opportunity for us to set forward the work of the Gospel by means of a gift that would reach Truth For Life, postmarked by December 31. As a church family, we have been facing the challenge that one of the characteristics of genuine Christian experience is overflowing thankfulness (Colossians 2:7) and that one of the marks of that is overflowing generosity.

We were struck by the way in which Moses encourages the people in the prospect of building the tabernacle in Exodus 35. He uses no clever manipulation, no sense of legislation or manipulation or any undue obligation but the amazing thing was that the God who is in need of nothing was willing to receive gifts from those who were willing. The process is clear: the invitation was given to all who were willing whose hearts had been stirred to give TO the Lord FOR the work.

Thank you sincerely for all you have done in this regard and in anticipation of what you may choose to do before the close of the year.

This comes to you on behalf of all of my colleagues and myself with our warmest Christmas greetings,

Alistair