Chris Yaw

How fitting that Advent kicks off just a few days after Thanksgiving, giving us a terrific introduction into the new year, 2022, which our Parish is calling the Year of Gratitude.

In 2022 we will encourage one another to be especially thankful for God's blessings, to look reflectively at the events in our lives for which we may not initially be thankful, and to discover anew how thankfulness lies at the heart of our faith and as a foundation of joyful, Christ-centered living.

After all, psychological study after study shows us that grateful people are healthier, cope better with adversity, and actually live longer than people who are not intentionally grateful. Because when we’re grateful we’re more present - we’re more alive.

To do that we have a rather kitchy challenge for you: Next time you come to church we are going to offer you a blue ‘Gratitude' wristband (see above). We invite you to put it on your right wrist or in your right pocket and wear it for 21 days straight. However, during that time you can’t complain. If you do complain, you have to say 2 ‘gratitudes’ (things for which you are grateful), and then transfer the wristband to the left wrist or your left pocket. You get to start all over again the next day.

I know some of you are already going to ask for two wristbands, one for each wrist, so you won't have to keep transferring it back and forth...

And while this, admittedly, sounds rather hokey, forming a more grateful heart is not.

This Sunday is the first Sunday in Advent and we will hear readings around thankfulness.

And we will contemplate the words of a famous author once said that everything is a gift. And the degree to which we are aware of this is a measure of our gratitude, as our gratitude is a measure of our aliveness.

Let us make the year ahead one in which we are more thankful, and more alive.

After seeing the latest Marvel comic book movie featuring an antihero character named Venom, my 12-year-old son tried to answer a question from his younger brother who asked, "Is Venom a good guy or a bad guy?"

My son balked, thought about it, and finally said well, "He's a good guy who sometimes does bad things."

And if we could carve into the hearts of all humanity this fundamental truth, living with its nuances and grace, we would be much farther along in the ball game.

The fact that you and I swim in a sea brimming with financial and family worries, political turmoil, regrettable actions, dashed expectations, and missed opportunities, is not news.

Nor are we unaware that we also swim alongside our best friends, valued possessions, generous charitable actions, altruistic attitudes, and stupendous accomplishments.

And one of the challenges of this ongoing marathon swim is to keep these things in perspective, understanding that there are horrible things we endure, but by the grace of God we can make it.

Not only are we good people who sometimes do bad things, but we battle our tendency to define ourselves by the worst things we've ever done or the worst experiences we've ever gone through.

This Sunday in church, we will hear Jesus talk about a little bit about this. We Christians now approach the season in our liturgical calendars called Advent, which typically kicks off with prophetic and apocalyptic-style scripture readings that serve to warn us of life's brevity, the seriousness of the battles we face, and the victories that await us.

Amidst this, the message is always one of encouragement and hope in the midst of our trials. No, we are not to be defined by our worst actions or traumas, but to embrace life in its entirety, knowing that the battle is long, but not impossible, taxing, but not fatal, and in the end God wins, love wins, and walking each day in that confidence of hope and joy is what it means to keep our eyes on Christ and to act in faith.

Let's be good to ourselves and to others, we are fighting hard and important battles - life gets really really difficult, but let's keep our eyes on the prize, our feet grounded in faith, knowing that God will carry us through.

When I was in grade school I was on the basketball team.

Not because I was any good, but because we only had 18 people in my grade and I was the tallest one.

After tryouts, our coach told who been chosen then handed out uniforms. They were bright green tank tops with gold satin shorts only the 1970's could have produced. Emblazoned across our shirts was the word Wildcats.

Clearly what made me a Wildcat was not my ability to dribble or shoot, I have never been a very good basketball player. What made me a Wildcat was the coach's decision to pick me, give me a uniform, and use me: I was not the chooser, I was the chosen.

As All Saints Sunday approaches, this story comes to mind.

After all, the Bible calls all Christians saints. And while we are reticent to use that term when referring to ourselves, the Bible clearly says we are. And when we think about it, we are saints not because we call ourselves so, but because God does. Sainthood is not based on anything we've done, but on what God has done. We are saints because God says so.

What makes us saints, then, is not our ability to act in a certain way, but God's ability to work through us in certain ways.

Sainthood is not based on good behavior, but God’s behavior.

So when we call people saints, let’s think about it as a compliment to God. We're acknowledging God's grace to people and we're witnessing a miracle: that God uses meager souls like us to channel really good things into the world.

We’re acknowledging that we can do good really good things, like bring love, healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation into the world.

We’re acknowledging that saintly things that come from God, can come through us!

Sure, All Saints Day is about acknowledging Christ's followers, but most of all, it's about acknowledging Christ.

Within days of Alec Baldwin's tragic accidental killing, his enemies were at work.

Baldwin, who was acting on a movie set, shot a prop gun that had mistakenly been loaded with real bullets, killing a cinematographer and injuring a director.

While the actor has been visibly distraught and penitent, his enemies are choosing to kick him while he's down: Donald Trump, Jr. started selling t-shirts on his website that read 'Guns don't kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people.'

And while these t-shirts give us pause to stop and think about Trump, Jr., we do well to pause and think... about Jesus.

After all, while Christ was at his lowest, hanging on the cross, a helpless victim, watching his enemies draw lots over his belongings, all the while mocking and cursing him, what was his response?

Jesus looked upon his enemies not with hatred and vengeance, but with love. 'Forgive them,' is all he said.

He didn't hit back, scream obscenities, or print t-shirts.

Jesus loved.

Everybody.

My friend Bob says, to love God is to love the things God loves.

And God loves people. All people.

Sure God hates lots of the things we do, our lying, cheating, selfishness, and indifference to suffering, but God does not hate us. Any of us.

This weekend at church we will hear Jesus affirm the two commandments upon which our faith rests: that we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

When we unpack this, we realize Jesus was not put to death for being hateful, aggressive, or violent, but for loving. He loved the poor and downtrodden enough to speak up for them. He loved fairness and equality enough to champion it. He loved people who had done despicable things enough to dine with them - tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners - everybody.

No matter what others thought, Jesus loved people. All people.

So we cannot love God and hate people.

No matter who they are or what they've done, our work is clear.

How can we trade in our tendencies to mock, denigrate, belittle, hit back, and take vengeance... for love?

If this is hard for us, relax, it's supposed to be.

Loving without bounds is how we carry the cross.

It's how we share in the passion of the Christ.

It's the hard work of following Jesus.

Can we do it?

With God all things are possible.

For the relentless mental battles we constantly fight, let us consider three words.

The first is for yesterday, and the word is mercy. Mercy for all of the misgivings we have about missed opportunities, bad behavior, basically the mistakes that we've made and just can't fix. Let's have mercy on ourselves. Let's stop putting quarters into the kick-me machine and more fully embrace our humanity, which means we will make mistakes, and many of them will be unfixable.

The second word is for today, and the word is love. There are few things that bring greater contentment than the things we do out of love. Caring for customers, being patient with loved ones, our goal for the present moment and for everything we do in it is love as we consider the scriptures, 'walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God' (Ephesians 5:2).

The third word is for tomorrow, the word is providence. This word tells us to leave tomorrow to God. We have no business worrying about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries at its own. While there will always be a thin line between planning and worrying, let's make sure we draw that line and stay on the right side of it.

Mercy for yesterday, love for today, and providence for tomorrow, three words to help us keep it together.

New research on the connection between money and happiness points to something we all know, but just don't want to believe.

The research, done by Nobel winning scientists Dan Kahneman and Angus Deaton, concludes that, sure, if you make $20,000 a year, and then double it to make $40,000, you will likely be significantly happier. However, if you make $150,000 a year, and then double that to make $300,000, the marginal increase in happiness declines significantly; you may be happier, but not that much.

And when we look at the track records of lottery winners and workaholics - people who have a whole lot of money, they don't appear to be that much happier, and in too many cases are actually worse off when their wealth has a corrosive effect on their personalities and lifestyles. In other words, money doesn’t buy happiness.

Unfortunately our knowledge of this truth does little to change our behavior: we continue living lifestyles as if our income did, in fact, affect our contentment. And we see this at play no more clearly than in our Gospel this Sunday.

It's a well-known story about a young man who comes to Jesus and asks how he might obtain eternal life. He claims that he's lived a righteous life, that he's never broken even one of God's commandments. Jesus says, fine, just leave everything and follow me. After the man refuses, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, ‘How hard it is to be rich!' This guy has bought into the deception that seeking money will make him happier than seeking Jesus.

It's one of the lies that Jesus came here to blow up - like losing 10 pounds will make us beautiful, getting another job will bring us permanent contentment, or finally getting that house, boat, car, or vacation will translate into unbounded harmony and fulfillment.

Jesus knows that pursuing the life of altruism, selflessness, and giving is the key to happiness, contentment, and even greatness.

All other pursuits are but cheap imitations.

We free ourselves from lies when we embrace truth.

That’s Jesus.
Let’s follow him.

I've never gone to a movie alone.

Movies, to me, cannot truly be enjoyed unless they're shared. I like to experience emotions with someone else, share the popcorn, discuss the plot, and retell the jokes on the car ride home.

So when I say I appreciate movies, I'm really saying that I appreciate companionship.

I think that's true when we take a moment on Sunday to bless our pets.

After all, pets are all about companionship - and healthy companionship at that.

Studies show that a loving pet reduces blood pressure, heart disease, and stress. Pets improve our moods, keep us out of doctor's offices, and help those with abnormal heart rhythms live longer.

The benefits are particularly acute for those who live alone. A Swedish study found that dog ownership significantly reduced the risk of heart disease and lowered one's overall risk of death.

93% of pet owners said their dog makes them a better person, making them more patient, responsible, and affectionate.

And another poll found that one out of three dog owners prefer their dog to their partner...

The gift of companionship with our blessed creatures is meant to remind us of the gift of companionship with our Almighty Creator. So bring your pet on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. for a blessing, and let us together thank them and the one who gave them to us.

When I ran the Los Angeles Marathon in 1996, I learned of a unique and rather odd tradition.

Because the race started early in the morning, the weather would be in the low 60s, necessitating use of a sweatshirt or light jacket. But after a few miles, bodies would warm up, as did the weather, and we no longer needed the extra clothing. This happened at the point along the race course that took us through a particularly impoverished area of the city.

And so the tradition was to take off your sweatshirt and toss it to one of the cheering fans who, perhaps, could use the discarded garment.

The idea is that we will be able to run the remaining 20 miles or so much faster without having to hold on to our jackets.

Letting go of the things that keep us from running as swiftly as possible is at the heart of the spiritual life. (We will hear Jesus talk more about this on Sunday).

And it invites us to not only consider those things that impede our progress - habits and hobbies, rhythms and routines, that serve as obstacles - but to see that this kind of practical re-ordering is absolutely crucial to living the lives we want to live. Jesus says ‘if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off! In other words, let nothing, absolutely nothing, impede the progress of our spiritual growth. The detour’s not worth it - the diversion is more costly than we think, the daydreaming must wait for another time. Following Jesus means embracing a sense of urgency and attention - that the problems around us are pleading for us to do something about them now.

How are we ordering our lives so to do?

Here’s a story about two men.

The first is Christopher Columbus, who we all know sailed for India in 1492, grossly miscalculated, and instead hit the Bahamas. Convinced that he was, in fact, in India, he named the people he ran into ‘Indians’ and the new set of islands the East Indies. He, like most all of his contemporaries, thought they knew the world and considered the existence of a completely unknown continent inconceivable, and he wrote about this. Columbus stuck to his error for the rest of his life.

The second man is Amerigo Vespucci. He was an Italian sailor. He took several trips to America soon after Columbus. But he thought, in fact that Columbus had discovered a new continent. Vespucci also wrote about this - and published accounts across Europe and while few were convinced, an influential map maker named Martin Waldseemuller was. So he published a new map showing the new continent. Not knowing that Christopher Columbus had actually discovered it, Waldseemuler named it after Vespucci calling it America.

It makes you wonder if Columbus had been more open minded we might be living in ‘Chrisland’ or something like it.

The truth is that we all have trouble opening our hands to new things because it means letting go of what we’re already holding onto. In fact, when Jesus asks, in this Sunday’s gospel, for the little children to come to him, he’s making a play for such humility among us.

Being close-minded caters to our fears, being open-minded caters to our faith. In what ways are we being asked to take down the walls, check our pride at the door, and be more open to the world around us?

A guy walks into an ice cream shop and really wants two scoops of Rocky Road.

But he's on a diet and he knows he can only have one. So in the name of personal health he orders one scoop.

Two women come in right behind him, one asked the other what she wants and she says she wants Rocky Road. The first woman says that's exactly what she wants!

So when it's their turn to order the first woman orders Rocky Road and the server tells her she's lucky because there's only one scoop left.

So the first woman says "Oh don't worry about it, give me the mint chocolate chip, my friend wants the Rocky Road."

In both cases these customers denied themselves.

However one did it for himself, the other did so for someone else.

In Sunday's gospel Jesus talks about denial, and I have a feeling he's talking more about the second case then the first.

While there is no discounting the value of discipline, of denial, Jesus appears to prefer that we did so in a specific manner. It is denial centered not on self, but on others.

The challenge of following Jesus, what you and I deal with everyday, is thinking first about others before we think of ourselves. Our culture, our instincts, everything in and around us has forced our default setting to be on ourselves, when Jesus invites us to another way.

He invites us to look at our lives, at our calendars, at today, and question what we are doing in the light of love, in the light of whose day we are trying to make, who's load we are longing to lessen, how we might live our own lives, for the benefit of others.

The irony is that this denial for the sake of others doesn't simply benefit other people, but at the end of the day when we live lives of giving, we are the winners.

Ever see this guy before?

He's August Landmesser, one of thousands of Germans gathered at a shipyard during the Second World War for a dedication ceremony. And when the crowd is asked to

show its approval with the Nazi seig heil, they all do. Except August Landmesser.

Turns out that this proud German had been harboring doubts about the new regime, he had a Jewish girlfriend he was unable to marry, and he was not going to sit by idly and just go along to get along.

In the face of monolithic support for Hitler, August Landmesser said 'no,' he would not support a racist ideology, he would not support an aggressive military, he would not suppress his conscience. Instead he would speak up. No matter the cost. He would not stay silent. And he alone in the crowd, would end up on the right side of history.

Its conviction like this we will hear about on Sunday when a non-Jewish (Syrophoenician) woman breaks with all social decorum and asks Jesus to heal her sick daughter. At first, Jesus is taken aback. Yet her persistence and faith in the character and power of God wins the day - she holds her ground, talks back to Jesus, and her daughter is healed.

It’s clear that Our Lord commends those who stand up and speak out, after all, that’s what got him killed. So as followers of Jesus, we have to take this seriously: Am I silent in the face of inequality and persecution? Do I choose the easy path of cordial acquiescence? How am I shunning any temptation to speak up?

Like the Syrophoenician woman, how are we being invited to boldness? What issue(s) are we being asked to champion? How might we see ourselves as alone in the crowd?

When the Canadian border opened up to U-S tourists, my family members were among the first to head north and open up a lakefront cottage we hadn't seen for nearly 2 years.

Upon arrival we noticed, down by the beach, that a number of old and rickety beach chairs were stashed away under the shelter of trees. It was in an area where, historically, loud trespassing teenagers brought beer and made bonfires and noise on the beach at night. It had become apparent that in our absence someone had been using our property!

There was great debate about what to do with these chairs. Until I and others decided that whomever had stowed them on our property should not have the right to see them again, so the chairs were taken to the dump and ceremoniously thrown away.

The following week family members encountered an elderly man on the beach who inquired about these chairs. He said that he was a retired hydrologist, and he along with other environmental advocates had taken it upon themselves to make regular trips to our beach and take water, soil and air samples to measure the quality of the environment. He mentioned that they had brought some chairs with them because it was a long walk from where they had to park. And had anyone seen those chairs?

Embarrassed, no one spoke up - and the elderly man walked off.

Since then we have been humbled by what we saw and what we did, we were forced into introspection: why were we so distrustful? Why had we automatically jumped to such a negative conclusion? Aren't we, as Christians, called to calibrate our default setting at love and faith and not fear and suspicion?

In Sunday's gospel, Jesus confronts a band of religious leaders who seem to regularly have done the same thing. He called out the tendency of these Jewish religious leaders to operate out of control and fear instead of open-hearted trust. Jesus seems to use them as negative examples of what you and I are supposed to do.

At our core, you and I are built to love. We came into the world through love, we become our best selves when we love, and we are destined, one day, to be reunited with love. However when we listen to the voices of fear and suspicion, love becomes lessened. And God knows, that we are surrounded by voices of distrust, fear, and suspicion that are trying to lessen our love!

Bertrand Russell once said that, "love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way and if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn the kind of charity and the kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet."

We have to learn to be less judgmental of beach chairs and open to the possibility that they are owned not by selfish trespassers, but by caring people.

Chris Yaw

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2022: The Year of Gratitude

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All Saints Day Is Not About Saints

How Love Gets You Killed

Three Words to Get Us Through the Day

Money Will Make Me Happy, and Other Lies We Believe...

The Gift of Children: Four-Legged Ones

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