Christmas is a time for Giving

Humm.  Even before I read today's UCC Daily Devotion I was thinking about the process of giving to a not for profit at Christmas time.  We have already had our Alternate Gift program at Christ Church where the members could chose a not for profit agency to donate to in the name of a friend and give a notice of the gift to the friend. But there are other ways we can give of ourselves and gifts to other agencies at this time of year or even all year long.

I receive the local Hillsborough New Jersey newspaper which is printed by the Princeton Packet.  There was a magazine attached which listed agencies in the Princeton area to which gifts could be given.  I just did a Google search and found a list of charitable organizations in Union County NJ. http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/geoShowOrgs.php?code=c34039&v=cf

If your mail is like mine, you are probably getting letters and phone calls from the organizations to whom you sent donations to last year.  This also includes Christ Church and I hope you have made your annual pledge.  I am about to start my campaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society because I did not do it earlier.

The point of this is that you should not only give presents to people you love and know, but to people whom you do not know but whom will benefit from your gift.

Also  remember that there are people who may be hungry.  You have been donating food to be given to the Food Book.  This week Mayor Cory Booker of Newark is trying to live on Food Stamps.  The story is on the front page of today's (Wednesday December 6, 2012) Star Ledger of New Jersey. http://www.nj.com/starledger/pdf/wednesday.pdf  It gives the statistics about the people who live on Food Stamps and how little food they can purchase with Food Stamps.  Food Stamps were meant to only supplement people's income, but some people use that as the only source of funds for food.  Something to think about as you eat your Christmas dinner.

Jeannette Brown

Christ Church Summit UCC Representative.

561 Springfield Ave

Summit, NJ

Services 9:30 AM and 11:15 AM Sunday

All Are Welcome

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Alternative Gift Giving

Acts 20:35
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus himself, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson
Heads up - tomorrow, December 6 - is St. Nicholas Day. The 4th century saint, Nicholas, is the patron saint of quite a line-up: sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children and students (by the way, who decides these things?). He is also a pre-cursor to Santa Claus, a.k.a. "Old St. Nick."

So gift-giving is associated with St. Nicholas, but gift-giving with a difference.

Nicholas had a thing about giving gifts secretly. He would slip a few coins into people's shoes while they slept - with no indication of who the gift came from.

One year our family decided to "keep St. Nicholas Day" on December 6. We were living in an apartment building then and decided to buy a Christmas wreath of greens to decorate the lobby. (This was not the kind of building where management decorated.) So we all went to the Public Market and picked out a most beautiful, large wreath. Later, as my sons kept watch, I hung the wreath in the building's small and spare lobby.

Subsequently, we had the treat of listening to people notice the wreath and comment. "Isn't that pretty," "I wonder where it came from?" and "What a beautiful wreath!" It was a sly joy to listen in. And it was also a challenge not to claim credit.

This experience brought home to me how often the gifts we give come wrapped, not just in bright paper, but in lots of other stuff: our needs for acknowledgment and affirmation, along with who knows what other "strings attached." It's all this extra wrapping that can make gift-giving such a fraught and complex matter this time of year.

So this year, consider an experiment. Keep St. Nicholas Day and give a gift secretly. Try it tomorrow or on December 25. Taking ourselves out of the equation, even just a bit, may allow for a renewed sense of the mystery and gifted nature of life itself.

Prayer

O God, giver of every good and perfect gift, thank you for holiday traditions new and old. Amen.

About the Author Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His newest book is Called to Lead: Paul's Letters to Timothy for a New Day, and he is also the author of the just-published Book of Exodus: A God is still speaking Bible Study. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts at www.anthonybrobinson.com by clicking on Weekly Reading.

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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.

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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.