Advent Conspiracy: Spend Less

Scripture Readings

WWTW- Alex

Introduction- Stories are King

One of the best traits I think I inherited from my dad is the ability to tell a good story.

Fact. Fiction. A artistic combination of both.

When dad says “Did I ever tell you the one about…” my ears perk up a bit.

Even if I have heard this story a bunch, I usually don’t stop him.

I want to hear that one again!

We’re continuing our series on the Advent Conspiracy.

Any good conspiracy theory has a good story behind it.

More often than not it’s more fiction than fact, but a truly riveting conspiracy theory has a narrative that sucks you in.

It’s not just that bigfoot exists.

We get the stories of hikers and adventurers who can tell us in vivid detail what it was like when they met the gentle forest ape.

It’s not just that we faked the moon landing.

There’s a whole story about how the Russians were beating us in the space race, and we had to get there first, and so we tried to fake the narrative.

No matter what the conspiracy is, there’s probably a good story behind it.

John the Baptist for example, is at the center of the greatest conspiracy of all.

And he has a good story to tell.

Who is John the Baptist?

Special from the start

In our scripture reading last week, we were reminded that John was special even before he was born.

He was full of the Holy Spirit even in the womb.

Some of us struggle to be full of the Holy Spirit outside the womb…but I digress

This means that John was particularly gifted at listening to Scripture, and making connections.

He was good at listening for the story.

A Prophecy

John would have been intimately familiar with the verse we read earlier in Isaiah.

A voice cries out:

Hey! That sounds like my story John said to himself!

Make the path clear.

That’s my story.

Simplicity so the message can be heard.

John is so dedicated to the story that he’s not dedicated to much else.

Mark’s gospel moves at a lightning pace.

So when there are extra details, the kind that surely seem like they don’t matter to the story at all, they probably do.

Why did Mark need to tell us what John wears and eats?

Because John is a simple dude.

I don’t need fancy clothes. Make the path clear for the Messiah.

I don’t need suspenders, that simple belt will do. Make the path clear for the Messiah.

I don’t need a four course meal. I’ve got bugs. Make the path clear for the Messiah.

There is a simplicity in John not just for simplicity’s sake.

It’s there to make sure the story doesn’t get drown out.

John is pointing.

In the library at the seminary, there’s this painting:

It’s called Crucifixion by Matthias Grunewald (great name)

And while it’s kind of dark with Jesus on the cross, John the Baptist is there.

He wouldn’t have been, there’s a bit of artistic license going on here.

But John is doing in this painting the one thing that John ever did:

Point to Jesus.

Point to Jesus.

Point to Jesus.

That’s the story John told.

Christianity and Simplicity

It is strange, however extremely important, to think about simplicity in this season of life as Christians.

Like we talked about last week, this is the season where everyone wants to get our attention.

And they want our attention because they want us to spend our money.

And so we we spend our money on a whole bunch of stuff that we and our loved ones didn’t need anyway.

So simplicity, you might be thinking to yourself, is a nice idea for other people.

But there’s more to simplicity than dressing in camel hair and eating crickets.

Focus and simplicity

Simplicity is at it’s heart about focus.

A saint is one who can will the one thing. -Kierkegaard.

A saint, someone who has this figured out, is someone who can focus on the story.

A saint is one who can keep their faith floating in the midst of recitals and concerts for kids this season.

A saint is one who isn’t distracted by the endless advertisements of the season to spend more.

(Except for the Eat N’ Park star commercial. I stop what I’m doing when that comes on)

A saint is one who won’t let Christmas be about any more that what John knew it to be.

Point to the Messiah.

Point to the Messiah.

Point to the Messiah.

Un-focused Money

Money, it turns out, doesn’t default to telling stories.

In fact, money tells a story all its own quite often.

Money becomes a status symbol.

Have you ever had someone give you a Christmas gift that was not so much for you, but it was an effort to show you how rich the giver was?

No disrespect if you’ve ever done this, but when I see the “I gave my spouse a Lexus for Christmas” commercial I always wonder if that’s more about proclaiming the status symbol nature of money this holiday season, rather than giving a really kicking gift.

Money becomes an obligation.

I have seen families that have been on the very edge of financial ruin spending and spending and spending on Christmas presents.

Because that’s what you have to do, right?

It’s in the Bible somewhere that you have to make sure that you give more gifts this year than you did last year?

We find ourselves caught in this obligation game, because that’s what our money demands of us, right?

Money becomes chains.

Not long ago I read through the stats on debt in our country, and it wasn’t the best news was it?

So many Americans are caught up in the chains of debt.

Because when you owe someone something, you’re not as free as you could be, are you?

Jesus taught us that the love of money (listen carefully, not money itself, but the love of money), is the root of all evil.

And I think because in his Heavenly mission on earth Jesus was all about freedom, he knew too well that money has the ability to become chains.

Kind of like this wind up car, if we don’t have a good grasp on it, money can choose its own path and become a pretty serious issue.

But what if we could conspire together to help our money tell a better story this Advent?

Money that tells a story

Where do your gifts come from?

Without looking, could you tell me what country the shirt your wearing right now came from?

Could you tell me the working conditions of the people that made it?

Could you tell me if they were making a living wage?

Would you be comfortable if your neighbors were doing that job for you?

Part of what it means for us to live as inexpensively as we do in our country is that we have the gift of ignorance about where a majority of our goods come from.

So what if, this Christmas, our money could tell a better story?

Could your gifts be supporting business that treat their employees well or advocate for causes that you believe in?

Could your gifts come from places where you know the owner of the shop, and have a sense of their story?

How do your gifts cultivate relationships?

Instead of some unruly obligation that actually drives us apart, I wonder what would happen if our spending this Christmas could cultivate and invest in our relationships.

What if you focused more on gifts of time, especially with those who you don’t seen nearly enough?

What if you valued experiences over things? That, by the way, is something that more and more millennial’s my age are valuing and choosing for themselves.

What if your gifts were memories, opportunities to share stories of your own as you remember?

It’s a reasonable question to ask if the gifts you’re about to give to your friends and family are actually going to bring us closer together, or drive us further apart.

How do your gifts proclaim the Good News?

A lot of times we hear that folks are kind of tired of turning on the news these days.

Which, incidentally, is completely false.

They wouldn’t turn the prophets they do if we weren’t watching.

But…

We as followers of Christ are ambassadors of the Good News.

Could we share that this season?

I’m not talking about getting them a new cross necklace or a cheesy bumper sticker (unless they’re in to that kind of thing)

I’m talking about offering up the actual good news of the Gospel.

When we engage in this kind of thinking it turns out that a few things start to happen:

Our money can start to tell the story that we want it to, rather than letting it run amuck.

When we focus on the story rather than the money, it does indeed turn out that we spend less.

And we get to participate in a story that’s been going on through generations.

John knew it well!

The Old, Old Story

God came to be with us.

John pointed to Jesus because Jesus pointed to God.

God got a little bit tired of us not being able to see or experience the Divine.

So rather than continuing to tell us what to do to get to God, God decided to come to us.

No other religion has this understanding of who God is.

Every other story in the world is about how we get to God.

Our story is about how God comes to us.

And that’s good news.

God told us that we matter.

John pointed to Jesus because Jesus coming in the flesh tells us that this world, and those of us who call it home, matter.

You are worth Jesus showing up on the scene.

You are someone God cares enough for that he took on flesh and blood and moved in to the neighborhood.

You are someone who matters if for absolutely no other reason than because God says you matter.

And that’s good news.

God became like us so that we can become like him.

John pointed to Jesus because Jesus was the way to everlasting life.

We don’t celebrate Christmas because babies are cute.

They are!

But God shows up in this Christmas story with a purpose.

The Bread of Life is laid to rest in a feeding trough, which is a bit on the nose.

The creator of everything that is emptied himself out to become a creature.

God came to us in Jesus so that through Jesus we could get to be in relationship with God.

And that is very, very, very good news.

That’s a story worth telling.

I’d rather tell that story than tell a story of status flexing.

I’d rather tell that story than tell a story of obligation and stress and worry.

I’d rather tell that story than tell the story of debt and slavery to our things.

I’d rather tell that story than really tell any story out there.

I hope you would too.

How can we spend less and tell the story?

Treasure the person, not the gift.

Love people and use things. The opposite never works. -The Minimalists.

So many of us are interested in the gift this season.

Maybe we’re interested in giving that perfect gift, the one that will tell the story of our status or the one that will tell the story of our dedication to a person.

Or maybe we’re interested more in the kind of gifts we’re going to get, what some people might be working on giving to us.

Or maybe we’re just interested in getting gifts for ourselves! (No shame here).

I wonder what it would look like to be more interested in the person we are giving the gift to?

In Luke’s telling of the Christmas story (which we’ll be looking at on Christmas Eve, so I guess you know…spoiler alert…)

After the shepherds had come and told Mary and Joseph about the angels and everything that they had witnessed, Luke says that Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

What if that could be our goal this Christmas?

To treasure the family we’re going to spend time with?

To treasure the relationships that we can strengthen?

To treasure our relationship with God through Christ?

To treasure beautiful moments of worship with our church family?

I wonder what would happen if we treasured people more than we focused on treasures?

Keep the ego in check.

I think money is so much tied to status.

Because money is something that can be counted, I think so many of us have come to see money as the score.

If you have more than the person sitting next to you, you must be winning!

And so our gifts have a nasty tendency to become an ego trip to show off that status.

Which is interesting and ironic, because the Christmas story is really all about humility.

The God of all that is coming to us in human flesh.

God being born in a stable because there’s no room in town for anyone.

The bread of life starts out life not on a throne, but in a feeding trough.

So listen, spending less this Christmas season isn’t a failing.

It can be like John, insistant that nothing get in the way of the story.

Point to the Messiah.

Point to the Messiah.

Point to the Messiah.

Give More by Giving a Story

Next week we’re going to talk about how even though we are spending less, we can give more.

Just because we’re spending less doesn’t mean we’ve lost sight of generosity after all.

But as a teaser, what could you give if you gave a story?

Maybe you give your friend an adventure, something the two of you will talk about for the rest of your lives?

Maybe you surprise a family member you haven’t seen in ages by making a special trip?

Maybe you dig up some family videos to watch together and reminisces about loved ones long gone?

Maybe you gift someone the forgiveness that you’ve been holding on to for just a bit too long, and set them free?

Or maybe (hang in there with me Presbyterians) you can give someone the Story itself?

Maybe you can let someone know that God is ultimately for them, not against them.

Maybe you can let them know that God came to be like us so that we could be like God?

Maybe you can tell them that mercy is theirs, and it has nothing to do with what they’ve done?

Maybe you can share the story.

Did I ever tell you the one about Jesus? It’s a doozy.