The first name we chose for our congregation was “Christ Church of North Alabama: A Wesleyan Congregation.” We dropped the Wesleyan part because of associations with an established Wesleyan denomination and also with a new group forming from some who disaffiliated from the UMC which used “Wesleyan” in their name. But we didn’t drop our beliefs.

One of my frequent houseguests told me that he ran across a picture of himself from decades ago with an ashen cross on his forehead. He said he kept it like one would keep a vaccination card – he’s one and done; no need to ever do it again!I told him that’s not the way that it works. 

If we only love those who love us back, we are simply imitating the world rather than imitating God. Even scoundrels like tax collectors can love like that. But if we’re really children of our Heavenly Father, then we will love like God loves – for Jesus, this is the heart of the law. This is the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees. This is the way we are salt and light in the world. This is the way of life Jesus calls “blessed.”

Week after week, season after season, year after year, we participate in the drama of our salvation history. We gather together, hear and proclaim the Word, give thanks and share at the Lord’s table, and we are sent into the world as renewed people of the Kingdom. Each time we repeat the process, we retell how God has called us out of a lost world, and we celebrate God for his love and grace. And this repetition shapes us, refocuses us, and reorients us after a week of living in our crazy world.

This Sunday, we celebrate four years as a congregation. But, young as we are, we’re part of a long line of worshipers that stretch back through the ages, and our worship reflects that. But what do we believe? What do we profess while we’re worshiping? I’ll write about that next week!

That’s it. These are what we call the essentials – 5 key practices (and that word, “practice,” is key!) that if we do them regularly – if we practice them the same way a pianist practices scales every day – these essentials will become a normal part of our lives, and will not only shape our lives, but also the world around us. When we make these a part of our lives, we won’t have to worry about “Have I done anything important? Have I been happy? Have I made the most of these precious few footsteps?” Our lives will be lived following the example of Jesus. Which is the point.

So the vision for Christ Church is of a people committed to learning and living the Word of God. Their ultimate desire would be conforming to the image of Christ. And the creed by which they lived their lives would be the same creed by which Jesus lived his life, a creed simply summarized in the words: Loving God . . . Loving Others. Furthermore, they would trust God in every area of the Church’s life. Nothing would be done without faith.

We’ll be spending 2023 in the Gospel of Matthew where we find the two “Great C’s” of our Christian faith, the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. By now, we should know the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (22:37-40) Which, of course, we’ve embraced as “Loving God . . . Loving Others,” and everything we are and everything we do flows out of that.

How are the resolutions coming? I used to start each new year with a pile of resolutions, only to end the year with a pile of rubble . . . unfulfilled promises to myself, dashed hopes for change and more than a smidgen of guilt. But now, there’s really only one resolution I’m thinking about, and I’d like to offer it to you. It’s not anything you can really measure. There are no guilt-inducing bathroom scales or calorie counters. But you’ll know if you’re keeping it or not (and so will everyone around you).

“The Lord of all this reveling.” I love that phrase. The coming of Christ into the world is certainly the reason for being glad and rejoicing — in short, for “making merry” — despite the best efforts of the Puritans and their descendants who frowned upon too much merriment. I guess they missed the words of the Prodigal son’s father in Luke 15:32 (NKJV), “It was right that we should make merry and be glad.” There are those times that call for “making merry” and Christmas is indeed one!

This Advent we’ve heard: It’s not enough to light a candle of Hope, we have to be the candle of Hope in the world. It’s not enough to rejoice over the Spirit bringing life to a dead stump, we have to be people of the Spirit, not people of the stump. It’s not enough to sing “Joy to the World,” we have to bring joy to the world — just like Jesus coming down, we’re not to leave the world the way we find it. Finally, the God of Love will never leave us. No matter what we face in this life, we never have to face it alone — and not only that, but as people in whom the Spirit of God dwells, we’re to bring the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love of God to those who need it, pointing them toward Emmanuel: God with us.

Christmas trees were not invented by pagans. Nor are they merely a decoration! From the beginning, they were used to remind us of the story of redemption and the faithfulness of God. Their triangular shape of the fir tree reminded the people of the three persons of the Trinity. The decorations originally pointed to Christian themes. Truly, as the old German (of course!) carol says, “We learn from all your beauty.”

And you might just find, when you combine our love of the Babe in the manger with Dickens’ concern for those less fortunate, that your Christmas celebration can be a tangible way of living out our Mission: “Loving God . . . Loving Others.”

How we celebrate isn’t as important as the fact that we celebrate, because to celebrate is to remember. Each year, we have a season set aside to remind us that God kept His promises. No matter what traditions have grown up around Christmas through the centuries (and I’ll write more about that next week), never forget the reason we celebrate: to remember how God fulfilled His great purposes for humanity by coming to earth in the form of a baby.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And not only that . . . my prayers are that we can cultivate a constant sense of gratitude that Max Lucado writes about: “The grateful heart is like a magnet sweeping over the day, collecting reasons for gratitude.”

This is the beginning of a long conversation we’ll continue over the next several months. In the meantime, keep living the vision: Loving God . . . Loving Others. Trust God for the rest.

The choice to obey or not obey God is up to us as well. I believe Paul had Genesis 4 in mind when he wrote, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12,14). It’s no accident Paul uses words like “dominion” and “rule” – they are echoes from these early chapters of Genesis. Unlike Cain, we have the power of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us to help us say “no” to sin and temptation.

God seeks out fallen sinners, pursuing them, inviting them to repent, desiring their restoration. That’s the kind of God we serve. He seeks us out, and he initiates a relationship by asking a question: Ayyekkah? “Where are you?”

The beautiful, perfect world God created is now a perfect mess. And the greatest loss is being driven out from the presence of God: “therefore the Lord God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which they were taken.”

The tempter has been at work for thousands of years and is an expert in what he does. When he “sidles” alongside you, suggesting something you’ve never considered before, don’t even listen to him. Don’t entertain it.