In my sermon yesterday, I spoke about the ways we either completely change the stories of our faith or fiddle with them so they fit our personal perspectives. We think our flavor of faith is right and others don’t quite get it. We are taught that people of non-Christian faiths will be condemned to eternal damnation – we are taught that thoughts and prayers mean more than good works. Faith, for too many of us, has become a meaningless exercise in navel-gazing, focused on our personal relationship with God and not much more. Then we wonder why those who are not of our faith think we are hypocritical or just plain liars! I think we might do better if we spent more time telling the truth to ourselves about ourselves. And we can start with Christmas.
What if we Christians spent less time feeding the greed machine of capitalistic excess and more time feeding hungry people? What if we followers of Jesus spent less time in front of screens and more time in a pew? What if we spent less time talking to our kids about Santa and more time taking them to learn about Jesus? How about we worried less about trying to force our faith on others and more about living like we actually care about them? There are so many ways we could be better at telling the truth to ourselves and the world – how about we do that?
I read a lot about a so-called religious revival in America, but I don’t see a lot of evidence that this is happening. It could happen if we Christians considered living more like Jesus. We don’t have to take vows of poverty or wander around with a bunch of disciples healing people and casting out demons (as if we could!); but we can work harder at loving our neighbors and our enemies. We do need to share more of our wealth with people who are struggling. It might be the American way for every person to be responsible only for themselves, but it isn’t the way of Jesus. If your community of faith is doing good things, and you aren’t connected to it, why not? The truth is that we don’t live our faith or help others just for their benefit – we do it for ours as well. Be thankful – then, be generous. That’s what Jesus did. Self-love is narcissism – unless it leads us to love God and others. Let’s try that.
Prayer – Holy God, thank You for this amazing life we have together – helps us to share it with others. Amen.
Today’s art is “Generosity” by Tracie Talany.