Sermon Tone Analysis

Philippians

Let’s grab our bibles.

Today we are going to have a one off.

In light of the new year, stepping into the unknown.

A time reflecting on what we didn’t pull off last year, a time of remembering the gym membership that is in our bedside table.

Relationship that are not as we had hoped, plans are not as we had hopped, the invitation of Christianity is to find an anchor.

We have just come out of THE most tradition laden times of the year.

We all have different parts of Christmas that we feel HAVE to be there of Christmas didn’t really happen.

a certain dish has to be at the table?

there needs to be an order to our celebration- for some of you the idea of Christmas gift openning in Christmas Eve is ferboden.

Others think it MUST be on Christmas Eve and what is wrong with those other people!

share---anyone want to share traditions?

Do you know how it started?

Now some of you maybe have been in other areas of the world or have grown up in other traditions that have not taken so strongly here in N. America.

Christmas Pickle - (unsure of origin) German?

Krampus - a demonic brother of Santa, who chases kids with a stick throughout December in Austria.

Roller skating to mass in Caracus, Venezthela- shut down the streets for safety

KFC in Japan 1974

Pooping Log ( Areas of Spain)

"the pooping log".

Really.

The Catalan custom is still celebrated in Spain, where you can buy your own el Caga Tio.

The log is hollowed out, with legs and a face added.

You must "feed" him every day beginning on December 8th.

On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, put him in the fireplace and beat him with sticks until he poops out small candies, fruits, and nuts.

When he is through, the final object dropped is a salt herring, a garlic bulb, or an onion.

Oh yeah, there is a traditional song the family can sing to encourage the process.

Poop log,

poop candy,

hazelnuts and cottage cheese,

if you don't poop well,

I'll hit you with a stick,

poop log!

I don’t know about you, but I think this is a tradition I could really get behind!

In our house there is one specific traditon that has taken hold and that is the tradition of Christmas ornaments.

OUR FAMILY

Every year since the year we were married Lalainia and I have brought ornaments for each other, and since the kids have purchased ornaments for the kids as well.

And the ornaments are meant to do a few things.

They are meant to remind us where we have been, where we are and where we are going.

As we open them up each year we walk through our history together.

We have ornaments with ultrasounds of our children.

Symbols that represent accomplishments.

Some that represent significant historical world events that took place.

We have a 9/11 ornament tat Lalainia created; we talk to our kids about them as we go.

Family trips to remind us of our times away.

We also

Interspersed throughout over twenty years of ornaments are a handful of crosses.

The crosses remind us that although our history together has had ups and down, we have fought through things together; sometime with each other, there has been a constant thread throughout our history.

A reminder that in the brokeness and uncertainty God and been our constant.

One of the crosses Lalainia bought me is called the mosaic cross.

It reminds us each year that God is taking the pieces of our lives and building them together.

The pieces that seemed splintered and jagged, broken off from anything seemingly good he has placed together, uniting them in himself and bringing even those pieces worth and importance.

I think that is what good tradition does.

Good traditions tells us where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.

Where we are

Where we are going.

And because of that it gives us hope.

Without good tradition, we look back and see brokeness, failure, regret; and no larger story to frame these.

In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner writes,

“It is mainly for some clue to where I am going that I search through where I’ve been; for some hint as to whom I am becoming or failing to become that I delve into what used to be.”

So there is, indeed, a time for us to look back, if that looking back carries with it a positive purpose.

That is why God is so concerned with establishing in his people moorings, anchors in our lives to frame our existence.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and the life of the Hebrew nation, God gave feats and festivals, not only because God believes you should celebrate stuff, (which he does) but also because they were meant to be reminders that their history was being played out in the love and care and wisdom of God; that their experiences were not In a vacuum.

Passover

succot

After God had saved the Hebrew nation fro man attack of the Philistines their arch enemies, Samuel the prophet took a stone.....

So now you know!???

“Here I raise my Ebenezer “ it means to establish a memory of God’s Goodness and salvation.

altars

40 years after the first passover.....Crossing the border into the long awaited promised land, God led.

Joshua and the Hebrew nation through the Jordan River by holding back the water so they could cross.

At that point God told Joshua to take 12 stones from inside the river and place them at its side as a reminder of the miracle God had performed that day

he river and place them at its side as a reminder of the miracle God had performed that day

Ebenezer

After God had saved the Hebrew nation fro man attack of the Philistines their arch enemies, Samuel the prophet took a stone.....

So now you know!???

“Here I raise my Ebenezer “ it means to establish a memory of God’s Goodness and salvation.

Not to mention the days and feasts that God appointed for rememberance.

mentions

Days and Feasts

Sabbath

Passover

feast of firstfruits

Feast of Weeks

Feast of trumpets

The Day of Atonement

Feast of Booths

All mean to remind the people of God they were Worshiping and in the midst of whatever came their way give them an anchor and an answer to the voice of the other nations telling them to stop worshiping the God who had delivered them.

Sabbath- To remind them that their lives were not to be lived for work but work was to serve their needs.

Passsover- That they would remember and they’re children would be taught that their salvation was a gift, not reliant on their perfection but on their obedience!!

Feast of Firstfruits - to remind them that they are reliant on God for everything that brings sustenance and life.

True life was not from the vine but from the creator of the vine

Feast of weeks- in which they were told to leave some of their harvest for the poor (we come across this in the book of Ruth as well)- reminding God’s people to be generous and remember that they were once poor and in need.

Feast of trumpets - which was a preparation for the Day of Atonement, telling to God’s people to live Jin preparation for God’s work on their behalf.

The Day of Atonement- a sacred assembly set apart to remember the free gift of forgiveness offered by the God.

And he makes the point like we still need to learn today.

While something as amazing as the God of the universe sets up a system for atoning for sin, and getting us covered, we should stoop working, stop moving and take it in!!

Feast of Tabernacles- was the largest feast and it was a REMINDER of God’s protection while the people Of Israel travelled in the desert for 40 years.

In all of these…STOP working.

It was a call for a drastic cutting off of anything that would make you think that your life is reliant on what you can pull off and that when God is at work and trying to remind you of something important please shout up and listen, turn of your stupid phone, your tv, your mouth and be silent and listen!!