Tag Archives: Advent

How To Celebrate Christmas in Guatemala and the Meaning of Christmas

By Brendan Scott

Last year I learned the meaning of Christmas.  I spent Christmas 2010 in Guatemala, away from the snow of Colorado and more importantly away from my family.  Guatemala, or at least my home city of Xela, doesn’t celebrate Christmas the way most of the world celebrates the birth of Christ.  Sure at the Inter-American School, where I worked, we had a Christmas Play.  Last year the elementary performed the well known play Izzy Saves Christmas, where Izzy the mouse saves Christmas.  Haven’t heard of it?  Well, it’s a Guatemalan staple, or it is now.

I also taught my students what the best kind of Christmas party is; a White Elephant Party.  Who doesn’t want to go home with an alarm clock in a country where it is better to use your cellphone as an alarm at night, because anything plugged into the wall just might lose power.

But where Guatemala, and especially Xela, differs from Christmas in the United States is Christmas Eve.  Growing up as a Presbyterian Pastor’s kid, in the United States my family’s Christmas tradition centered around our church’s Christmas Eve service.  Every year, especially when I was younger, my mom would force me into my Christmas best, drive me and my sisters to church, and we would light the Christ Candle.  As I documented last year in my blog I’ll Be Home For Christmas my family always had the misfortune of lighting the Christ Candle, which never went smoothly.  I fought with my sister in front of 1,000 plus people who’d come to church expecting to hear how Christ came to bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.  The next year they expected something else, and I did not fail them.   I dropped a lit match on the carpet floor.  Fortunately the church didn’t burn down.

I did not have to light the Christ Candle for Christmas Eve in Xela.  I was a spectator, surrounded by friends and Guatemalan families who had come to celebrate Christ’s birth.  As much as I missed being with my family last year I enjoyed witnessing how the Latin culture celebrates Christmas.  My favorite part of the service at Saint Mark’s was the Posada.  A handful of kids marched into the church dressed as Guatemalan Marias and Joses with sumbreros and mustaches followed by a very Guatemalan baby Jesus Cristo.

Shortly after the service, after I had sung my share of Spanish Christmas Carols I headed back to my house with Skyy, his mom Susan, Jen (co-worker), Blake and Amy (co-workers), Blake’s family, and Holland (another co-worker) and his boys to set off fireworks.  Ask anyone in Guatemala and they will tell you setting off fireworks is the real reason for the season.  I may have spent upwards of twenty dollars on fireworks, which didn’t even match what Skyy (one of my student’s whose house I lived at) spent.  Us guys took the next couple of hours detonating our ammunition.  At midnight Xela sounded as if it were under attack, the entire city lit up like the large Christ Candle.

Christmas Eve has aways been family time for me, quiet and relaxing (after the Christmas Eve service at least).  This year I plan on watching “How Earnest Saved Christmas” with my two sisters.  I look forward to waking up on Christmas morning and being with my family.  But I will always remember how much fun I had lighting off fireworks and celebrating my savior’s birth with people my Guatemalan family.

Christmas is not about what you do, what you give or what you get, but in the end it is about enjoying the birth of Christ with those who are around you.  No matter where you are.  Last year on Christmas day Donna and Laurel McMarlin (Laurel was one of my co-workers) welcomed me into their family and shared their Christmas with me.  They helped make what could have been a lonely day, a day full of love and celebration, which made for a perfect Christmas.

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Harry Potter and Tebowing at the Climax

By Brendan Scott

I love going to the movies.  I was that kid who stood in line to see all of the “Star Wars” movies when they were re-released back in the 90’s and when “The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring” came out ten years ago, I was the first person in line, not just for tickets, but to enter the theater.  And when theaters started releasing movies at midnight, I’m there at 10 pm.  Don’t even get me started on how early I had to get to the theater for “The Return of The King;” it was crazy.

I think the reason I love going to the movies is because I love good stories.  The atmosphere in a crowded theater on opening night is exhilarating.  When “The Sixth Sense” came the theater was packed.  With every twist and turn each of my friends began tucked their legs up on their seats.  We shared in the fear.  We pulled for Bruce Willis’s character to reconnect with his wife and for Haley Joel Osment’s character to receive the help he needed.  As the movie built toward its climax the hairs on my legs stood up and all I wanted to do was hug my knees like everyone else, but fear froze me.  The crowd made the climax of the movie completely captivating, but the well told story made the change the characters experienced even more meaningful and worth the level of fear I had to experience.

Good stories are filled with meaning.  Movie writer and teacher Robert McKee says, “If I could send a telegram to the film producers of the world, it would be these three words: ‘Meaning Produces Emotion’ Not money; not sex; not special effects; not movie stars; not lush photography.”  Meaning is what a good story is all about and the climax of a good movie will be filled with meaning.  McKee states that “The Climax of the last act is your great imaginative leap.  Without it, you have no story.  Until you have it, your characters wait like suffering patients praying for a cure.”

When I’m in a packed theater, I’m suffering along with the main character for that positive or negative turn to occur in the movie.  I want Frodo to make it to Mount Doom and drop the ring into the fires of Mordor.  I want Harry Potter to live or die, maybe both, and so I wait for that turning moment, that meaningful climax.  As an audience, we share the ups and downs of the characters story.  Without the ups and downs that lead to the climax, the climax would be meaningless.

There are people out there that flip to the end of a book before they start just so they can see if it is a good ending or not.  They pick up “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows” and flip to Harry’s battle with Voldamort.  They want to get the stories payoff without reading the entire book or, even worse, the other six books in the series.  By skipping to the end of the book they miss the reason why Harry had to do what he does.   But just like sharing a story with someone adds to the story’s meaning, the work it takes for character, as well as the reader, to make it to the climax is what makes it meaningful.

The people who want to skip to the climax of a book are the same people who sat down and watched the last episode of Lost with out watching the previous five seasons.  They didn’t want to see the story develop, to see the characters grow and change.  They wanted all of the payoff without watching the six seasons.  These are the same people who on December 5th want to fast forward to Christmas Day.  They want the meaning without any of the work.

More on Christmas in a moment.  Let’s not rush to the climax because right now we’re at the rising action of our story.  Sunday December 4th The Neighborhood Church celebrated the second Sunday of the Advent season by sharing a sit down meal during the worship service.  People met together, ate, and shared stories about Christmas’ past.  It was very meaningful.  The only problem was the service didn’t finish until 12 pm.  An hour into the Denver Broncos game against the Vikings.  Co-blogger and Co-pastor of the Neighborhood Church, Mike Klassen comforted the congregation by reminding us all that “Tebow Time” (A term here meaning going beast mode and winning against all odds) isn’t until the fourth quarter anyway.  So if we missed the first half it would be just fine.

I tevoed Tebow anyway.  As I pressed play on the DVR, I knew I wanted to share a meaningful story with my fellow Bronco fans who’d gathered around the TV with me.  We knew we could just fast forward to the end.  But we wanted to experience the entire story.  If we had just skipped to the end, the win wouldn’t have been as meaningful.  The time we shared together watching the Broncos game was splattered with theological discussions.  Why is Tebow so loud about his faith?  Incomplete pass!  What if Tebow messes up (On the field and in his faith)?  Fumble, no way the ground can’t cause a fumble! What is perseverance of the Saints (No, I’m not talking about football here)? I can’t believe it, the Broncos Win!

And as Tebow rallied the Broncos from an 8 point deficit late in the fourth quarter we were discussing how God’s Grace works in our lives.  Life is like a good movie with many turns.  In “The Return of the King,” Frodo loses hope.  He turns away from his mission and decides he will keep the ring, but Grace steps in (In the form of Sam) and saves him.  Grace does what Frodo cannot do, destroy the ring and bring him back to the Shire.  Grace creates the meaningful change in Frodo’s life.  If Tebow fails on the field or in life, Grace will be there for him too.  Grace is there for all of us, offering a chance to make a meaningful change in our lives.  A chance to Tebow (Go beast mode/let God takeover), which brings us back to Christmas.

Christmas is not about what you get or even about what you give.  It is about experiencing the season with the people you love.  It is about sharing special moments with those around you.  Most of all it’s about God sending the Incarnation of Grace down to the world as the baby Christ.  If we fast forwarded to Christmas Day it would be like reading the last page of a book, only watching the Broncos during the fourth quarter, and fast forwarding all our favorite movies to the climax: empty and meaningless.  So slow down and know that no matter how long it seems until Christmas, that God is working in your life.  Christmas is more than just the climax of Christmas day.  It is about the Grace we have been given and the work it does in our life.  Let Grace make a meaningful change in your life this season.

Brendan is an avid Bronco fan and movie enthusiast who believes in Tebowing every night because the best way to live a meaningful story is to stay connected to the author.

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The Best Gift You Can Give This Holiday Season

If you could give one gift to a particular person this Christmas, what would you give—and why? And please don’t utter the tired “Peace on earth” platitude. That’s a given.

Think of someone who means something to you. What would you give that person if time, cost, and imposition meant nothing?

While we’re on the subject, what would you give God this Christmas if time, cost, and imposition meant nothing?

You may be surprised to know that God has one item on his list—and you may be surprised by what he’s looking for.

Please join us in our daily Bible conversation.

TODAY’S READING

Hosea 6:1-9:17
3 John 1:1-14
Psalm 126:1-6
Proverbs 29:12-14

INSIGHTS AND EXPLANATIONS

Hosea 6:1; 3 John 2. Compare these two passages of Scripture:

Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
Hosea 6:1

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 John 2

Some prosperity preachers point to 3 John 2 as proof that every good follower of Christ has the God-given right to enjoy good health. Barring unconfessed sin, negative confessions, and Satanic attacks, we should expect to enjoy good health because God never willingly allows pain or hardship to enter the lives of his followers. That’s hogwash. John’s salutation in this verse was a standard greeting of the day. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with desiring good health, but God doesn’t owe it to us. In fact, as we’ve read through the Bible we’ve seen that God can use sickness and poor health to direct us, purify us, and even bless us. In Hosea 6:1, we read that God tore his chosen people to pieces—not with the intent of destroying them but in order to restore them.

3 John 1-14. John likely wrote this epistle at the same time as his previous two epistles. And, like his previous epistles, John was addressing false teachers—in this respect, a false teacher who refused to accommodate the teachers John had sent out. The recipient of this epistle is a man named Gaius, whom we know nothing about.

Notice that John uses the phrase “walking in the truth,” just as he did in his second epistle.

Psalm 126:1-6. This psalm was written about Israel’s return from exile, most likely their return from Babylon. Verse 5 reads, “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” The great preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) commented on this verse:

If we were never captives we could never lead our captivity captive. Our mouth had never been filled with holy laughter if it had not been first filled with the bitterness of grief. We must sow: we may have to sow in the wet weather of sorrow; but we shall reap, and reap in the bright summer season of joy. Let us keep to the work of this present sowing time, and find strength in the promise which is here so positively given us.

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THE WORD MADE FRESH

For most pastors, the Christmas and Easter seasons are a bit surreal. Actually, they’re a little like a semi-annual reunion for everyone far and wide who considers your congregation their church home. The holiday season also seems to put everyone in a generous mood, making December the high giving month of the year.

I don’t begrudge people who make their semi-annual pilgrimage to church. Their participation and generosity are greatly appreciated in most churches. If you’re one of those people, thank you for thinking of us.

Deep down, I think most of us consider church attendance and giving to be one way that we show God we love him. I know this is true because if I were to stop attending church or giving, I’d feel guilty.

But see, God isn’t interested in your church attendance or gifts. What God really wants is something much more than that..

In Hosea 6:6, God speaks through the prophet Hosea,

I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

The word translated “mercy” probably isn’t the best word choice because the same Hebrew word is translated “love” in verse 4. God is telling his chosen people, “I don’t want your religious rituals, I want YOU!

During the holiday season, many people fulfill their religious “obligations” by giving a little extra and making an appearance in church. But God wants so much more.

In the next verse he says, “Let us press on to acknowledge him.” It means literally, “Let us press on to know the Lord.” In that time, to know someone carried sexual connotations. In a spiritual sense, it means deep intimacy. Our heavenly Father longs to be one with us, to be known intimately by us in the same way that he already intimately knows us.

That’s the best Christmas gift you can give.

More than getting you to stop sinning…

More than “guilting” you to serve food to the homeless…

More than prying open your clenched hands so you can give more in the offering…

More than convincing you to share your faith more courageously…

More than forcing you to read your Bible and pray more…

God wants YOU. He wants you to come to him with your problems, your pains, your hopes, your joys. He wants to be your life. He wants you to trust him completely. He wants you to experience the joy of knowing him.

This Christmas season, I encourage you to give generously and worship in the church of your choosing, but please remember that knowing God pales in comparison to doing good things.

And that’s what’s so great about the Christmas season. It draws our focus to the greatest gift of all: God’s only son Jesus Christ.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

  1. What spoke to you in today’s reading?
  2. What would you give God this Christmas if time, cost, and imposition meant nothing?

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www.bibleconversation.com

Michael co-pastors The Neighborhood Church with Eugene Scott in Littleton, Colorado.

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