The Hope of Christmas

There are people all over the world who are waiting… looking… expecting something big to happen each Christmas. We spend lots of money buying, entertaining, celebrating, finding ways in which we can produce this “thing”.

But Jesus comes in the quiet of the night, in a place we least expect him. He comes in a barn, lying in a feeding trough, surrounded by cattle and shepherds. The King of kings coming comes in the most lowly of circumstances. There is no huge celebrations. No parties in castles and palaces, no rejoicing in the shopping centres. Just a quiet night in a stable.

When the presents are opened, when all the food is eaten, what is next? Is this all Christmas offers us? No, Christmas offers us hope, in a time when we most need it. In a time where capitalism and greed threatens to tear us apart, the Christ child comes to bring us together. To remind us that God is with us, calling us to healing and reconciling relationships, calling us to be there for one another. Jesus comes to give us more than what we can purchase in any store. He gives us something much more important. He gives us life! Life in God’s way is more important than what we can find for ourselves.

This Christmas, let us celebrate the true gift of Christmas. The Christ coming to earth so that all who follow in his way will receive the gift of eternal life!

Merry Christmas to all!

Global Economics of Food

So I was watching the National last night, and on it they had a story about how the global food crisis which was such a hot topic in the spring is now never heard of. It, of course, has been replaced with the global economic crisis. You can watch the story here.

A quick summary… the global food crisis is accelerating, governments who pledged 22 billion dollars to the cause, but since then nothing has been contributed. It appears that “saving the economy” with hundreds of billions is more important.

After the story I went to sleep in my comfortable bed in my warm house, with a full belly like almost every other person in North America. Yes, there are people who are losing their jobs, yes times will be tough for families in the next couple years. BUT we have it sooo much better than billions of people in the world. Even if we do lose our jobs, the government and other agencies have programs and services in place to help us, even if its just a little. Which means even at our poorest we are still much better off than the rest of the planet.

We are a society that is so inward focused it’s killing the rest of the world. And now, finally, we have seen that our greed has even impacted ourselves. The quest for filling our own pockets and homes with stuff has caused a global economic crisis. So what? There are bigger problems in our world than having enough stuff under our Christmas trees.

Here’s what should happen. If you have your hand pointing palms up at the government looking for a bailout. Go to Africa for a couple months. Or South or Latin America. Hey! The weather is nice in Haiti these days! Go live in a place of the world where there is extreme poverty, drought and hunger. Go to a place where 22 billion in aid might help provide a meal a day.

When you come back, let me know if you still have the guts to hold out your hand.

Where to start…

So I’m done all my schoolwork for this term, in fact I finished last Friday. But it was a difficult week to get any work done with all the news happening from Ottawa. Coalitions, in-fighting, out-fighting, calling mommy… er the Governal General to make them stop.

I’ll start with the political thing, since it’s the Liberals that have been in great turmoil this past few days.

I think that, at least to me, that a coalition government would have been political suicide for our country. It’s very clear now that the Libs were desperate for new leadership, and the coalition would have imploded quickly as everyone involved jockeyed for power under who ever the new leader was going to be. Dion would have had no chance at getting anything productive done. There are too many forces in play. Look at how well it worked for Martin, and he had better leadership skills than Dion. Dion would have faced pressure from within his party, the NDP and the Bloc to run the country, and each with very different agendas. It seriously couldn’t work. Think about it.

So, the best option is the one that was taken. Everyone needs a cooling off period. Stephen Harper needs time to reflect on his approach to national leadership in the House. I hope he’s learned that he cannot govern as if he has a majority, no matter how messed up the Libs are right now. The NDP won’t allow them carte blanche to do whatever they want. Why? Because the NDP are also looking for power in whatever way they can, even by manipulating the Liberals to do their bidding.

The Liberals need time to sort out their leadership, to somehow get a more unified party and come back to the house so they can be useful, and do what they are supposed to do as the official opposition, a role even more important in a minority.

Let’s let the parties regroup and try this thing again in the new year. Maybe cooler heads will prevail and something productive will happen, or at least maybe we’ll get another election. Whoopee!

I love how everyone is Harper bashing about it cockiness and arrogance, and how he’s this great big bully. Sounds like someone else I’ve seen in leadership before. Anyone remember Jean Cretien? Seems to me he ran his government just the same way, but enjoyed a majority government so no matter how much the opposition screamed, he still got his way! I think Cretien would have done the same thing Harper did if he faced a similar situation.

Let’s face it, everyone of them are power hungry and will do whatever they can to make it big on the playground we call the House of Parliament.

They all need our prayers at all times, maybe now more than ever.

Much to say… no time…

There’s so much happening in the world right now that I would love to comment on.

But there’s also a lot happening as the end of the term approaches at school. Last weekend I provided leadership of varying degrees in 3 Advent services, on top of papers due last week and the biggie 25-pager due this coming Friday.

In a way it’s probably fine to wait a few more days before commenting on the issues that are happening around us, might give the dust some time to settle.

So, I’m still here, and would love to be posting, but the busyness of life seems to be keeping me away at the moment.

A blessed Advent to all!

Cut and Paste from Google

Was attempting to find some UCCan documents around reaching out to younger generations, and this result came up… this is a direct cut and paste from Google (bold added for emphasis)…

Buying bottled water is wrong, says Suzuki

1 Feb 2007 Last August, delegates to the United Church of Canada’s general … fart” and that running for office is best left for a younger generation.
www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/01/suzuki-water.html –