Two Pints Later: Advent 3

Thursday, 8 December 2011

Advent 3

Thanks Giving

Fourth Thursday in November, a holiday celebrated in the states. First celebrated by in 1621 by the first pilgrims arriving in New England (America) from England. It was a meal to thank God for their save arrival. Traditionally meals like that held to thank God for harvests or deliverance etc. Became a national annual practice in 1863, instituted by Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War. Beautiful. Wonderful. Let’s have a meal and thank God for his blessings, favour and protection, for family and loved ones and freedom and hope.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the Friday that follows on from the Thursday of Thanks Giving. Traditionally it is the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and there are normally massive sales to get people into the shopping ‘spirit.’ Not a traditional holiday but many no-retail employees give their staff the day off. Black Friday because shops are in the ‘black,’ in the profit zone.

Shops used to open early, 6:00am on Black Friday. This has been evolving over the last few years though with many starting to open first at 5:00am but now at 4:00am. In 2011 though stores such as Target, Massey’s and Best Buy decided to open at midnight. Walmart though opened on Thanks Giving at 10:00pm and Toys’R’Us at 9:00pm.

Reports regarding Black Friday shopping include...

· Police taser a shopper in an Alabama Wal-Mart amidst a scramble for bargains

· Bomb scare, police evacuate an Arizona Wal-Mart after finding an explosive.

· 55 year old woman shot by robbers outside Wal-Mart in North Carolina.

· Girls got into a punching fight at a Pennsylvania Victoria’s Secret

· Grandfather knocked unconscious in another mal

· Man charged with disorderly conduct after brawl in electronics section of another store which left two woman injured

· In 2008 a security guard was crushed to death as 200 shoppers stormed a store for bargins

SURELY THAT’S NOT THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE EVER!
Surely not the way things are meant to be at Christmas time.

How do we flick from Thanks Giving to Black Friday just like that?

As we approach the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, a Sunday of rejoicing, we engage in re-telling the Christmas story. To ourselves and each other.

Christmas isn’t about over indulgence. Christmas isn’t about pressure to give and buy things you can’t afford. Christmas isn’t about the cultural expectations of the Western world’s obsession with consumerism and materialism. Christmas isn’t about credit card debt that lasts for months the other side of Christmas.

Christmas is a celebration of the coming of the one who sets us free from debt, the one who brings grace, forgiveness, freedom and peace on earth!As Christ followers we are challenged to re-tell the story.

Jesus says...

Matthew 6:31
³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Yet at Christmas we so often find ourselves asking ‘what shall we eat and drink and wear and get and have?’

This year remember to seek first the kingdom of God.

The manger was a surprising place to find a king. Always at Christmas I am surprised that God shows up in unexpected places, like the doco we watched at church on Sunday “What Would Jesus Buy?”

Look for Jesus to speak and to challenge and to encourage and love in unexpected ways this Christmas season as you focus an align yourself with the ‘reason for the season.”

Don’t make your entry point to Christmas the craziness of shopping malls and bargain hunting and unfettered consuming.

Make your entry point the one who came to ‘make his blessings flow, far as the curse was found, as far as the curse was found’!

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Our Blog

Whether it’s over a pint of beer, an espresso coffee, or an icy cold bottle of New Zealand’s own Lemon & Paeroa, there is something invigorating about a meaningful conversation. Finding someone with whom your ideas and musings resonate is encouraging and reassuring, it inspires you to walk on. Finding someone with a different perspective causes you to pause, to reconsider, to take stock, to refine your thinking. Both can be healthy. Both can get you into trouble. Two Pints Later is the online continuation of a variety of conversations between some strangers who have become friends. It is a collaborative attempt to continue discussions that started in living rooms, or at BBQ’s, or after church, or at the pub, or in cafes, or in classrooms around New Zealand and Australia. We share a common and unwavering commitment to Jesus and mostly our conversations are to do with what it might mean to follow Jesus in our 21st Century, postmodern, postChristian context. Sometimes they’re not. As much as our stories are similar they are different. We each write from our own perspective and the opinions and ideas we present are our own and not necessarily those of our fellow collaborators or organisations we might work for. Individual bios can be found below. Enjoy the conversation and feel free to join in.

Collaborators

Michael Frost - is an early 30’s ginger haired man, passionate about cricket, music, NRL, whiskey (as long as it’s single malt) and theology... and of course, most of all, passionate about the good Lord. Michael is also madly in love with his wife Hannah. He lectures a bit, studies a bit, and does a bit of thinking along the way. Michael believes faith should be genuine in all of its complexities... "The true reality of faith is explored in the midst of our fears, doubts, hopes, beliefs, experiences, sufferings and relationships. Hopefully in the midst of it all, we discover Christ - we discover death and resurrection – and that changes everything!"

Joseph McAuley - is a husband and a father, an M.Div student, an INTJ, and an urban gardener. He is the lead pastor of St Luke's in Mount Maunganui, NZ. He drives a 1967 HR Holden Wagon and is building Artesania Latina’s HMS Endeavour. Joseph is interested in spiritual disciplines, Genesis, sustainability and leadership. He loves the fact that... "Even in the midst of the greyscale reality of a sin ravaged world, in Jesus Christ life can still be lived in vibrant colour. Beauty, passion, laughter, love, grace and forgiveness can be discovered."

Anna Exelby - is married to Nathan - who she is grateful to for consistently widening her worldview (those people who say ‘opposites attract’ are correct). She teaches English at the high school down the road and her students also do their fair share of broadening her outlook. When not trying to enthuse the teenage brain about literature she enjoys coffee and conversation with friends, pottering in her vege garden, getting to the top of the Mount, reading and walking Kingi - their German Shepherd. She struggles to understand how to best be a part of fighting injustice and wants to learn more about sustainability. Anna is working towards a MACS, which she credits with reviving her faith – turns out she needed to turn her brain on and explore some questions – and realise that God was cool with that.

Shane Clifton - is married to Elly and has the privilege and challenge of raising three teenage boys. He is a raving feminist and hopes this blog will include more female contributors (yes, will soon have a couple on board). Shane teaches theology at Alphacrucis college and is the author of Pentecostal Churches in Transition and, in collaboration with new Neil Ormerod, Globalisation in the Mission of the Church. Following a serious accident on 7 October 2010 he is learning to live as a quadriplegic.

Heidi Nagels - is a big fan of good food, great friends and the kind of laughing that makes your sides hurt. She is self-employed accountant, a pastor at St Luke’s in Mount Maunganui and on the homeward straight of her MACS. She plays weekly in a volleyball team called ‘Puddingface’ (with her boyfriend Simon) and would love to master the speedy overhead serve this season. Heidi hopes to continue to learn to be a disciple and a follower of the way and takes courage knowing “’Course Aslan (Jesus) isn’t safe. But he’s good” (Mr Beaver, Narnia)

Braden Matson - is...

Shane Meyer - is the proud owner disproportionately long arms, which on occasion attract the jeers of small children. He lives with his wife Rachel (who he has really grown fond of over the years) in Melbourne, and works in speciality coffee where he has recently received the distinguished ‘Least Indie Barista’ award due to his lack of fringe and / or pirate themed tattoos. When not swimming in a sea of extremely good coffee he attempts to get as much reading done as possible before resuming study and having his life taken over again. He also works continually in an attempt to prevent the immanent psychological implosion of his indoor football team ‘The Pony Express’. He is occasionally serious and loves discussion around how to live every part of our lives as a community of redemption and hope.

Sean du Toit - Sean, along with his wife, Sue, [who he’s had a crush on since he was sixteen], is a follower of Jesus trying to make sense of this world. This quest to be faithful to Jesus has led him into the byways and alleys of theology, history, philosophy and now a community called, “Common Ground.” Part of this quest involves teaching the New Testament, pursuing his own post-grad research and trying to connect with his friends, as often as possible. Sean has unusual sleeping habits, a love for reading documents and inscriptions from the first century, a wise mother, a creative sister and two kick-butt nephews who create within him a desire to one day have his own children.

Sam Bloore - doubts whether many people will have made it this far down a list of bio’s. If you have, he predicts you are organized and efficient. Patient and conscientious. An i-dotter. A t-crosser. Sam is none of these…and so you have his admiration and respect. He is a wannabe thinker with a short attention span – which has obvious challenges. He works for the Compass Foundation, commenting on the tensions of faithfully living a gospel-centred life in 21st-century western culture. What he thinks that faithfulness should look like was profoundly shaped by the premature death of his father last year. Sam considers himself lucky to live near the rest of his family in Auckland and extremely lucky that he gets to do that with his wife Julia. He is slowly and painfully learning to cook (which impresses her) and kiteboard (which doesn’t.)