I saw Santa up the street this morning along with one of his elves and a real life reindeer. It didn't have horns so maybe it was a female. I guess that makes the Preston S.A. Band a male band as we have 2 horns! (boom boom). (Actually they would be antlers rather than horns but that would ruin the story. And I think the reindeer is not a reindeer but another type of deer but that would ruin the story too.)
It's interesting watching the reaction of people to this unusual sight. It brings a smile to almost everyone's face and especially the children. There are cars pulling over to the side of the road so that the kids can get out, meet Santa and have their photo taken with him, his helper and the reindeer with no horns.
Just a metre or so away is another kind of horn. A car horn. I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on whether car horns are used more at Christmas than at other times of the year. I'm sure that you could get a government grant to do one. Just say that you are studying global warming and you will instantly get $100,000-.
In that one or two metre space between Santa & the road there is a major difference in attitude. On the footpath there are smiles and joy. On the road there is road rage.
When Jesus was walking the road he managed to extract wildly different reactions from people too. On the one hand he was swamped with people looking for healing. There must have been a lot of joy and smiles as lepers were healed, as blind people saw again. And just a couple of metres away were the religious leaders seething with rage, looking for a way of killing him.
As we play carols at Christmas we get all sorts of reactions. Some people are thrilled to hear us. Others ask us to move on!
People's reactions to Jesus today are varied too. Some will embrace him with joy. Others will react with rage and want to shoot the messengers. We need to remember that as we minister to people. Not everyone appreciates God and won't appreciate us but the message has to get out there whatever the reaction.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Asleep on the job
"Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter." Matt 26:40
I am not a great tv watcher, especially when it comes to reality tv shows. However, in recent weeks I have become interested in a show called "Great British Chef", where some of the best chefs in the UK were competing to cook one of the four courses to be served to Prince Charles and one hundred others at a banquet.
The final programme was the banquet itself and the four chefs who had previously cooked their dishes for four judges now had to replicate it for 100 people. The day proved a real problem for some for various reasons but, in the end they made it through. One of the reasons was because the four chefs who had previously been competitors worked as a team to ensure that each of them got their dishes out even though seemingly insurmountable problems came up along the way.
On their own they couldn't have achieved their goal. It would have been a disaster.
When Jesus and his disciples headed to Gethsemane it would have been fair to assume that Jesus could have expected that group of men to offer the support that he needed at that time. But, unlike the chefs who all pulled together at a time of crisis, the disciples offered Jesus nothing. They fell asleep. It must have been a real disappointment to Jesus that at his time of greatest need his most devoted followers didn't discern the gravity of the situation and fell asleep leaving Jesus to cope alone.
Being able to discern when people need help is not always easy. We don't all have the ability to see past the outward appearance to the inner core of turmoil. But sometimes it is not so much a matter of lack of ability but more a habit of not looking beyond our own circumstances to see what should be obvious to us.
God has created us to work together, to help each other when circumstances are such that individually, no matter how talented we are, we can't do it alone.
I hope that I am not found to be asleep when my friends most need me be to be alert and helping them through their problems.
I am not a great tv watcher, especially when it comes to reality tv shows. However, in recent weeks I have become interested in a show called "Great British Chef", where some of the best chefs in the UK were competing to cook one of the four courses to be served to Prince Charles and one hundred others at a banquet.
The final programme was the banquet itself and the four chefs who had previously cooked their dishes for four judges now had to replicate it for 100 people. The day proved a real problem for some for various reasons but, in the end they made it through. One of the reasons was because the four chefs who had previously been competitors worked as a team to ensure that each of them got their dishes out even though seemingly insurmountable problems came up along the way.
On their own they couldn't have achieved their goal. It would have been a disaster.
When Jesus and his disciples headed to Gethsemane it would have been fair to assume that Jesus could have expected that group of men to offer the support that he needed at that time. But, unlike the chefs who all pulled together at a time of crisis, the disciples offered Jesus nothing. They fell asleep. It must have been a real disappointment to Jesus that at his time of greatest need his most devoted followers didn't discern the gravity of the situation and fell asleep leaving Jesus to cope alone.
Being able to discern when people need help is not always easy. We don't all have the ability to see past the outward appearance to the inner core of turmoil. But sometimes it is not so much a matter of lack of ability but more a habit of not looking beyond our own circumstances to see what should be obvious to us.
God has created us to work together, to help each other when circumstances are such that individually, no matter how talented we are, we can't do it alone.
I hope that I am not found to be asleep when my friends most need me be to be alert and helping them through their problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)