It's not your birthday...

A friend of mine (who is a youth pastor) is challenging her youth to have a "slim Christmas". She encouraged them to ask their parents for LESS presents this year, with the idea that the parents would then give that money which would have been spent on presents to a mission project for the Sudan (which I will discuss in more detail below). Can you imagine American teenagers saying, "I don't want more stuff. I have enough ipods and cell phones. Christmas isn't about me. It's about Jesus. And I want Jesus to be known in this world. What I want for Christmas is to make a difference for Jesus Christ." The amazing thing is, the kids are on fire over this, wanting to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth.

Their youth group is also selling t-shirts, with all the proceeds going to the Sudan project. On the front, the shirts say: "It's not about me". On the back: "Living simply so that others might simply live". I've had this mental picture all day of a typical American Christmas list placed next to the list of a Sudanese child. I grew up as an American child. I know what it is like to make a Christmas list: stuff, stuff, stuff, and more stuff. Imagine the African child's list: food, clean water, shelter, safety. That really put things in perspective for me.

My youth pastor friend got this idea from a church in Tipp City, Oh called Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church. The pastor, Mike Slaughter, first challenged his congregation about 5 years ago (I believe) with the idea that Christmas is Jesus' birthday, not yours. His idea was that we can celebrate our own birthdays, but for Christ's birthday, maybe we should celebrate in ways that are more fitting His mission and purpose. Slaughter proposed that people in his congregation spend half as much on Christmas as they normally would and give the other half to mission. The specific mission that their church has embraced is in the Sudan (Darfur), which the U.N. has identified as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

From the Ginghamsburg website: "In Darfur, Sudan, 300,000 people have died over the past three years as a result of civil unrest, lack of food and disease. Two million children, women and men are refugees, with little food, drinkable water, protection or hope."
Check out more at their site: http://ginghamsburg.org/sudan/

It is a challenging message and witness for all of us. What does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus? What effect does/should our commitment to Christ have on how we live and how we give? And what does it really mean to celebrate Christmas? What kind of Christmas celebration is most pleasing to God?

Three answers from Scripture come to mind:
1) "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

2) "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

3) "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' " Matthew 25:31-40

Let us remember Christ and the meaning of His birth, and let us live every part of our lives in a way that brings Him the most glory.