Worship Fully

     In the midst of all that is going on in our lives, its easy to get distracted.  School, work, homework, extra-curricular activities, family time, friends time, leisure time, sleep, and I’m sure you could add on to the list can create such a perfect storm that we rarely take time to stop and think and focus ourselves on what matters.

   This is true of Christmas time as well.  In the midst of all that has been added to this season; Santa, gifts, parties, sweet sweaters, The Elf, Christmas Vacation, wish lists, and egg nog - it can be easy for us to lose sight of what it is we are really celebrating.  The difficult part about that is that pretty much everything in the above list is a good thing.  Lots of good things can cause us to lose sight of a better thing!

    Christmas is a great time to consider what it is that we are truly worshipping.  What is it that we desire most, what are we living for, what matters most to us?  There is a constant tension in our lives as other things seek to take the space that should be God’s alone.  Kingdoms are at play that are moving in different directions and sometimes we latch on the wrong kingdom.  Sunday we read through Matthew 2:1-12 which tells the story of the wise men making their trek to visit Jesus.  Along the way, King Herod (representing one of the kingdoms of the day) sought to use the wise men to find Jesus so that he could extinguish any threat that this newborn king might pose to his kingship.  Jesus represented a totally different kingdom, one that he would teach about and call the Kingdom of God.  The kingdom that Jesus taught about was not about earthly power or territory, instead it was about displaying God’s glory, it was about God’s love, desire, and will being displayed on Earth as it is in heaven.  The wise men had to answer a question of worship - would they chose to worship Herod and the kingdom of their day or would they chose to worship a baby and the kingdom of God?

     We who live in comfort in America are posed with a question of worship too (especially during Christmas time) - will we worship God and seek to line our lives up with his Kingdom or will we worship consumerism and the Kingdom of stuff?  What matters more to us?  I challenged you to envision yourself as an 80 year old person looking back on your life (this is extremely hard to do and a bit weird - I know) and we asked the question, would your life matter more, would it tell a better story if it was spent blessing and giving to others (one example = clean water) or accumulating stuff for yourself (one example = a pile of Christmas gifts)?  What do you think...