Draft of Sunday's Message:

A New Heaven and a New Earth 2013 03 31 Easter: Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 24:1-12

 As we head into this advent season I wanted to reflect on Christmas and what it means to me.  And then I realised that it means nothing to me.  At least this year.  I'm bored.  I'd rather just head out to the lake with Peter and James and go fishing.  Jesus can come too.  I hear he's pretty good luck on the water.  If I found myself at the manger (of Christ, Orsiris, or Horus depending on your myth) I'd probably be too busy playing with the animals to care what's going on.

I am posting this here because i think that this is affecting many faith traditions.

Throw away Music

Throwaway prayers

Throw away traditions

Throw away Jesus

Throw away God.

But you say, new things will be inclusive of more people. But are the new things compromising what we believe as Christians or others. I had a litany that I was going to write but I think that this question covers it all.

By being inclusive of everyone in our faith communities, are we compromising our Christian beliefs?

Often when I listen carefully to points of view within the church that are called "emerging" or "progressive,"  my impression is that they are missing something that is vital. This is obvious if you've read my posts here or my blog, to the point that some might wonder if I'll ever stop kvetching about it. Maybe, someday, but that day has not yet come, because I just came across a beautiful quote in a book that I'm reading by E. F. Scott that speaks to the concern that I feel about that "something missing" in how we at times approach development.

So what IS this time of celebration really about?  Its not really about Jesus, most all Christian churches concur that he was not born on this date, and there is no mention of any celebration in the New Testament.  Jesus' instruction was to celebrate the resurrection, not his birth.

Its not really about commercialism, that is a very recent phenomenon, a business opportunity tacked onto the date.  The same goes for Santa.