There is a conundrum in a recent TV ad for a weight loss program. First, it tells me that I can join up for free but then it tells me that "some purchase is required." It seems  somewhat of a contradiction, don't you think?

There's always a catch. Nothing in  life is free.  Read the fine print. If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch (especially in this case). I think I have run out of clichés and old adages. You're free to come up with your own - no charge!

When I became a member of the Kiwanis in Montreal, there were dues, although I think they cut me some slack because I was clergy. When I joined a fitness club (no laughing, please!) there were dues. I might download  a game app for my tablet for free but there are usually extra components I have to buy to continue the game. There is no real fee to join a church, although they may hand you a box of envelopes or a PAR slip.

It was the great theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (executed by the Nazis during WWII for alleged treason) who coined the phrase "cheap grace." Working from memory since his book The Cost of Discipleship is buried in a box somewhere, cheap grace is accepting the free, unconditional grace of God  but it making no difference and showing no results or fruit in our discipleship.

God's grace is absolutely free. You can't earn it, buy it, bargain for it, work for it or find it at Value Village at a discount  price.  You receive it as a gift. It's yours to keep and savour.  There are great theological debates about whether one can lose it.

It becomes cheap grace only when  we let grace atrophy. Some exercise of that grace is required.  Don't become  a pew potato. Don't neglect the fruit of the Spirit. There are responsibilities, right attitudes, best behavior, active consequences, purposeful thought and meaningful prayer when we carry around the name of Jesus.

Grace is free; you  can join  the body of believers for free; but some purchase, i.e. some grip on the road of faith, is necessary.

"Work out your faith in fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure," (Phil 2:12-13)

Dale

Coming soon to a computer near you: Dale on Facebook!!!! Egad!!!

The line at the checkout counter was growing by the minute. After all, it was just a few days before Christmas. But the woman, maybe in her seventies, had put just a few items on the counter and seemed oblivious to the  mutters and glares of those of us behind her, while she took her time. I was next in line.

It turned out that she was a couple of dollars short in the total of her purchases, if she wanted to redeem her points for $40. The clerk suggested a chocolate bar or some gum. So, the woman left the counter, stepped through the line of people and took a few moments to select her gum. Slowly, she returned.

The gum gave her the points. She ended up owing four dollars and change. Change, being the operative word here, as she opens up her wallet and dumps all the change she had - not loonies or twoonies, but nickels, dimes and quarters. I thought the two elderly ladies behind me were going to blow a gasket. Normally, I would have been annoyed, but I was in no hurry and this was catching my comedic interest, as to what might happen next.

Next was the clerk counting out the four dollars and change  for the woman. After returning the remaining coins to her wallet, the woman took her receipt and toddled off happily, never once acknowledging in any way that she had kept people waiting. It was  carried out either with utter innocence or it was a sly gest; I am not sure which.

There is much tension between the times that God's people cry out, "How long, O Lord," (Ps.13:1, etc.) and God in action. There is not exactly much solace in the verse, "A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,,,," (Ps.90:4) There seems to be a lot of encouragement to wait for the Lord; he'll get around to it eventually. Generations passed between Joseph and Moses; then there were 40 years in the desert; then generations of bad kings; then 70 years in exile, and then 200 years or more before Jesus appeared, and then, and then, and then. God seems to be counting his nickels, dines and quarters, as he wants full value for his redemption plan. I guess that this is going to take more than just a packet of gum.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as children.," (Galatians 4: 4 - 5).

It all works out in the end. Having hope, doing much waiting, having patience, enduring in the meanwhile, are all part of the process. Together we will get through whatever we have to manage. 

A merry and blessed Christmas to one and all.

Dale

Something is really strange about this Christmas.

I went to Walmart today - on purpose - and had to wait 10 or 15 minutes in line at the checkout counter and it didn't bother me one bit. I even chatted up the cashier. Even when I couldn't find a couple of items, I drove to another store and found exactly what I was looking for. I got home cool, calm and collected.

When I put up our real Christmas tree this week, it went up on the first try, straight and sturdy. It took all of 10 minutes - a record for me, I'm sure. No naughty words were spoken that might have got me stricken off Santa's list.

What I don't get done today, I'll do it tomorrow. Sure, Christmas is just a  week away; what, me worry? Where is my usual Christmas panic, frustration, impatience, and stress?

Hold me, I'm scared!

The Advent/Christmas season as always been a restless, uneasy time for me. But my retirement seems to be giving me a fresh perspective this year. I am discovering a different pace and therefore enjoying the time I have to prepare for Christmas. It's not a preparation with any anxious urgency, but rather, a preparation that is marinating in peace and joy. I am anticipating Christmas Day, rather than harboring feelings of being relieved when it will all be over.

"Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as  the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid," (John 14:27).

Strange as that sounds, it's beginning to make sense, this Christmas.

Dale

Our son Nate, and his wife, Krista, have adopted a dog named Moose. He is a mixed breed, a black-haired Goldendoodle. This oxymoron causes me some concern. It could be the root of a identify crisis down the road - how is one both black and golden? I mean what if Moose goes to obedience school, and all the other Goldendoodles laugh and call him names, and don't let him play in any Goldendoodle games?

Prejudice is no laughing matter.  As Canada welcome tens of thousands of mostly Muslim, Syrian refugees, how we receive them, welcome them and include them will test our mettle.

One of the often overlooked biblical themes in scripture is the sacred concern God has for the peoples of other nations. This theme flows from the beginning of the Bible, starting with Abraham being a blessing,  "and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you, " (Gen. 12:3), and continues right through into Revelation, where the Kingdom vision is for "the healing of the nations," (Rev.22).  The Biblical stories also remind us that there is a great deal of chaos, sin, violence, war, and bloody discrimination along the way in achieving such an end (sadly, often done in God's name).

Let us not forget that Middle Eastern pagans  came to find Jesus in Bethlehem, a theological foreshadowing of God's promises. Or remember that Joseph took his family and fled to Egypt as a refugee, to escape Herod's violence. Jesus' own genetic heritage is found in the foreigner and refugee, Ruth. There are references to the alien in the Torah that protect them from persecution, and so on.

Violence done in the name of any religion  is an anathema, a blasphemy, a scandal, a heresy, but so is racial bigotry and our failure to love one another, even our so-called enemy.  I am not saying it is ever easy, just expected, as one of  our sacred obligations and witness to Christ.

"Here is my servant,  whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations," (Is. 42:1)

Dale