The season of gift giving

We are approaching Christmas.  This is the traditional season of gift giving.  We set up the Christmas tree and Santa puts presents under the tree and fills the stockings hung by the chimney.  The children wait with expectation for Santa to do this.

 

Right after Thanksgiving or this year even the day of Thanksgiving Santa's elves go shopping to help Santa with all the requests of the members of the family.  They come home loaded with gifts or wait for UPS and or FedEx to deliver the gifts to our doors where they are whisked away in hiding for the big day.

 

But what about people who have no money to go shopping for gifts or after Sandy have no homes for gifts to be delivered to.  At Christ Church we will be giving gifts of warm hats and gloves to the homeless in New York City and elsewhere for our bridges run.  You can purchase them or knit them humm! and bring them to church on December 16.  I hope you will also adopt a family to give gifts to as well.  My local newspaper has a list and there is also Toys for Tots which you can bring an unwrapped toy for a child.  I am sure there is also a site where you can help a family that was a victim of Superstorm Sandy.  Then when you sit around your Christmas tree you can feel happy that you have done something for someone else.

 

Speaking about money and donations this is the time of year when we would like you to remember the Church.   Our staff does not work just because they have a calling.  They also have families they need to feed and bills to pay.  Our church building does not fix or maintain itself.  There are people who come and work to make sure the lights are on and the heat or AC is working.  Then there is the organ which is a priceless instrument which needs to be maintained. But that's in another blog.  So think about that when you are thinking about your pledge to the church.

 

As you know I subscribe to the UCC Daily Devotional.  I started at Lent last year and it continues.  The following is a devotional that has to do with giving and financial matters.

Jeannette Brown

UCC Representative

Christ Church Summit New Jersey

561 Springfield Ave

Summit, NJ.

Service Sunday December 2  9:30 AM followed by Advent workshop and lunch

All are welcome  No 11:15 Service.

__________________________________________________________________

The After-Tax Blessing

Excerpt from 2 Corinthians 8:1-7

"For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means…"

Reflection by Lillian Daniel
Early in my working life, I met with a financial planner. It seemed absurd since we were deeply in debt. We had nothing to save, let alone invest. But a wise friend had said this was just the time for such advice.

He reviewed our budget. We had been making progress with our credit card debt but there was more to shovel out from under. We had also recently become tithers, giving ten percent of our income to the church. The two felt connected in my mind. We had made progress on the debt while growing in generosity. But I was embarrassed to tell that to a financial planner. I knew he was going to tell us to give less away, and to pay off the debt as soon as possible.

So when we got to the subject of charitable giving, I told him we were tithers. "Tithers, huh?" he said. "Is that ten percent of after-tax income or pre-tax income?"

"After tax, of course," I said. After all, we were tithers, not fanatics.

After a long awkward pause, I asked, "So what do you think of that?"

"It's fine," he said, "if all you want is an after-tax blessing!"

Then he laughed heartily and joyfully. Turns out, he was a member of a UCC church himself. His philosophy of financial planning had extreme generosity at its core. God had clearly sent a prophet our way, and he had issued us a challenge.

Prayer

Generous God, please take my worries about money and put them on your shoulders, so that I do not carry them alone. Grant me a generous spirit, and the means to give beyond my means. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of First Congregational Church, Glen Ellyn Illinois and serves on the board of Interfaith Worker Justice.