Stuck for ideas for gifts?  Want to buy your loved one an iPod but feeling a little bit guilty?  Want to help make the world a better place?

could be the answer.  There are a growing list of great (RED) products available.  You buy the (RED) product and money goes to AIDS work in Africa.  Sounds simple.  It is.  So what can you buy?

Dell laptops, Apple iPods, GAP t-shirts, Converse shoes, Armani fragrances, Windows Vista, Hallmark Cards… Everything you could ever want for Christmas.

Go shop for (RED) stuff this Christmas.

Join the Advent Conspiracy!  Give your presence this Christmas!

When The Song of Angels Is Stilled –  Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and the princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.

HT Sue

I’ve had two conversations in the last couple of days about ‘depth’.  Then I came across this brilliant cartoon from Jon Birch on ASBO Jesus:

I often wonder if people who turn up at church on Sundays are looking for depth.  The two people I was talking to (separately) took different sides.  One said that people, especially at Christmas, are looking for something cheerful and bright.  They don’t want to be challenged or made to think too deeply.

The other person was suggesting that depth is what we all desire but we seem happy to live what he called ‘laminate’ lives.  We all want to be an oak tree with substance, solidity and deep roots but seem happy to settle for having a real wood veneer applied to our chipboard lives.

I’m not sure that the two conversations were completely opposite.  I think the first was observing the outcome of the second, perhaps without looking behind how people present.

The think is growing roots and becoming that mighty oak takes time.  It takes effort.  Moving from the shallows to the deep end is risky and dangerous.  In our risk averse world we would rather paddle than swim because we stay in control.  Those of us charged with leading, whether in worship or in learning, must offer people the chance to dive in and to swim in the ocean of God.

I don’t like shallow and I want to be a tree.  I want to grow and change and bear fruit.  And I want to provide some depth for others.  If the church has become a place of veneer and shallowness then perhaps that is why people find it less than engaging.  And deep doesn’t mean academic or high brow.  It means spiritual, connected and meaningful.

If the Christmas story isn’t a deep one then I don’t know what is.  Let’s not make it all cosy and sterile and shallow.  Let’s glory in the fact that God chose to come and live among us, in poverty, humility and depth.

It’s Advent.  Not that I’ve really noticed yet.  I like Advent.  I like the usual sense of anticipation, of looking forward, of pause.  But this year Advent is rushing past.  Life is busy.  There’s work to be done, essays to be written and sermons too.  Time seems to be hurtling on towards Christmas.

I wonder if that’s how it was for Mary and Joseph.  They must have been looking forward to the birth.  Getting excited.  Getting things ready in the way that you do when a child is expected.  My sister is expecting her 3rd child around Christmas.  She’s been painting and getting things ready.

But then Mary and Joseph had to go.  At the last minute they had to up sticks and head to Bethlehem.  No time for arrangements to be made, no room to organise, no nursery toys, baby grows and bibs.  Just a rush to get there.

And yet Advent is the time of waiting.  Waiting to me suggests a pause.  A nothingness waiting for something to happen to fill the void.  I wonder what happens when the void is already full of busyness?  Does the thing awaited still happen?  Does it still have the same impact?  Will anyone notice?

I’m looking forward to Sunday.  I’m leading worship at Dunfermline.  I’ve decided I like the discipline of preparing worship.  It’s good for me.  I learn and it slows me down a little and gives me things to ponder.  Perhaps once Sunday comes and the busyness slows a little I might have time to stop, and be still, and wait…