Reed Fleming

I have to admit I love the schmaltzy movies that are on this time of year. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is a particular favourite. From it we learn the influence one person has on the community, and the world. The world is a much poorer place without the good hearted George Bailey. Likewise, “A Christmas Carol” illustrates the influence of one life poorly lived. Mr. Scrooge was in danger of leaving the world a much poorer place unless he changes his ways.

I meet people all the time who are looking for significance in life, and I realise that significance is not something we acquire, like so many Christmas gifts. It is ours already through God’s design. We, quite simply, affect others! This is built in by our Creator.

Last week I opined a bit about the Incarnation and, as it is the season, I continue with these thoughts. Jesus pitched his tent among us (moved into the neighbourhood) and “we beheld His glory.” This was what Philippians 2 describes, Jesus’ descent into greatness. This one life lived well before the Father has an incalculable influence on the world and eternity.

I don’t want to be like Scrooge (at least in the first part of the movie) and I don’t even want to be like George (a mostly admirable character). No I want to be like Jesus! His humility is, I think, a key quality to emulate. He humbled himself to becoming a single cell in a virgin’s womb, to be laid in a manger wrapped in cloths, and on and on the humility goes.

I believe that it is in this kind of humility that we should live and that not despite but because of humility we have great significance.

Most days I get to spend a few moments with R. He was a successful architect who developed a debilitating mental illness. He suffers from other health issues. R. is the most generous guy I know. He is always quietly helping others. He is one of my greatest encouragers. His is a difficult life well lived.

My Christmas prayer for each of us is that we receive the gift of humility and so follow Jesus example of descent into greatness. May the humble birth of “the Word made flesh” be our model and inspiration so that we too may live lives of true significance.

Jesus spent time with people. That is a simple and profound truth. The incarnation is about Jesus spending time with people. His God-given nickname Emmanuel illustrates this “God with us”. Jesus spent time with the multitudes. Jesus spent time in the synagogues and the Temple with religious leaders. Jesus spent time with sinners. Jesus spent time with His disciples. Jesus spent time with an inner circle (Peter, James and John). He did not spend equal time with all people. His ministry shows his priorities. He got in a lot of hot water for spending time with sinners and this seems to be a priority in his ministry, but the biggest chunk of Jesus’ time is spent with his disciples and particularly that inner circle.

I am spending a lot of time with people. I hang out with ‘the sinners” quite a bit. I feel quite at home in this group. A lot of this time is spent in the crowds with only moments of personal interaction taking place as ‘grace opportunities’ happen. This week though I have had some great chances for deep one on one conversations. We are experiencing a bus strike here, which disproportionally affects the poor. T. needed a break from a distressing domestic situation so I gave her a drive to her daughters. P. needed to go to the hospital in Moncton for brain surgery and I drove her.  M. is a prodigal story. She hadn’t been home for years. I had the chance to drive her to her mother’s where she will see her favourite aunt she hasn’t seen in years. In each case we shared deeply with one another in ways we just can’t in the crowds. I spent hours with these three wonderful characters instead of spending that time with the multitudes at our drop in at chaplaincy. This week confirmed to me what I had been thinking for some time, that spending time in small groups or one on one must be my priority. This is why “Over Comers” is one of my favourite times of the week. We are a smaller group who are serious about following hard after Jesus and discovering the wholeness that comes from Him alone. We are blessed with a wonderful team of volunteers so that the ministry with the crowds can happen without me, for the most part. In the new year I’ll be seeking more and more opportunities for this type of ministry.

We are celebrating the Incarnation this year with Up Town’s 2^nd Annual Christmas Day Brunch. We mark Jesus’ coming to spend time (dwell among us) by spending time with those for whom there is no room in the inn. I am grateful to Stone Church family who are letting us use the hall even while they will be having their Sunday Service at the same time, in the sanctuary.

Tonight we have a local fiddle group preforming at our drop in. They will be doing a Christmas set. The ladies from All Saints Church are bringing the lunch. A generous donor has provided resources for our Up Town Church family dinner. We usually have stew (Merry Christmas Stew You) but this year we will have pizza delivered. This is a real treat for a group who get a bit tired of Turkey this time of year but rarely have pizza.

I’m sorry I missed last week. I had a touch of flu but I am much better now. Have a blessed Christmas time. <>< Reed

I was saying to friends yesterday “This is the day I have been waiting for, for 27 years!” Yesterday was moving day for my son. He is getting married at the end of the month and is moving into the apartment. It is not that I am overjoyed that he is moving, though I have plans for the space. My joy is in seeing David launching out on his own unique journey. He is the very definition of a gentleman. He loves his work and is good at it. He has in the last year or so found a level of physical health that he hasn’t experienced in a long time. Pride isn’t always a sin and I am very proud of David. As a parent my goal was always that he grow up to be an independent person of God and yesterday was another landmark. I can say, to quote George Bush, “Mission accomplished!” It is a good feeling.

I have also been experiencing a sense of melancholy because I have never and will never experience these same emotions with our son Jamie. Jamie died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome 29 years ago. I miss him still. It seems that many glad occasions are tinged with a sense of loss. I expect to carry this hurting heart until Jesus comes or I go to Him.

This is the meaning of Advent to me. Advent is the season for people like me, and like you I expect, who have hurting hearts. They ache but they can ache with a real sense of hope, because the Kingdom of God will one day be experienced, by us, in its fullness. Advent calls the hurting heart to look up. We long for that time when the burdens we find so heavy will roll away like Pilgrim’s. Advent is the season when our hurting hearts turn toward Home.

Now we see as through a glass darkly but then…. Ah the joy.

We can so easily miss the hope filled anticipation of this season as we hurry toward Christmas but we do so at our own loss.

As a parent I will experience thousands more joy filled moments but my hurting heart longs for the “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” which accompanies His advent.

These days I meet a lot of very interesting people. One fellow came up to me this week to introduce himself as the Anti-Christ. Not long into our discussion, it was plain to see that rather than being the ultimate victimizer of humanity he was a tragic victim of mental illness and the callousness of the world system. Afterwards someone else who listened to our exchange asked me, “What is the Anti-Christ?”. We had an interesting discussion and I look forward to follow up conversations.

I believe I saw the face of the Anti-Christ on this morning’s news as they showed crowds celebrating Thanksgiving by camping in front of malls and rushing in to spend and spend and spend! This is thanksgiving at the altar of materialism. The economy was recently ravaged by unbridled greed but past lessons about the cost of worshipping the idol of materialism, go unheeded.

We in the west hold capitalism in such high regard that it can eclipse our view of God. This  truth is exceedingly evident in these lead up days to Christmas (a month away at this writing I’m not sure how many shopping days that is , probably 30). I do not want to rail against those who do not know Jesus for judgement ought to start with the household of God. Does our witness show the all surpassing abundance that comes from being in Christ? Or does it get severely mingled with a heavy dose of materialism? Does our bending the knee to materialism give the message that Christ is not sufficient?

Several years ago my daughter was taking a mission trip to Mexico. We decided to scale back our already modest spending and contribute toward this trip. We entitled it “Have Yourself a Mariachi Christmas”. We made things and wrote things and preformed things for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and this fun flowed from the abundance we have in Jesus.

Since that time we have managed to buy chickens, goats and once even a water buffalo (everybody wants a water buffalo) for families in India. We do this in defiance of the Anti-Christ, this god of materialism, and as sign that God is sufficient.

Since we became attached to Up Town and lately Community Chaplaincy we have opportunity every day to live generously rather than materialistically. I am becoming known for never having any cash and so my generosity cannot be material in nature but must instead be relational generosity. This type of relational generosity, witnesses to the wealth that we have in relationship with Jesus.

I do not want to be the prophet of the Grinch and steal Christmas but instead I want to advocate for a relational generosity in the Spirit of the Christ of Christmas. It is a battle but a battle worth waging and a witness worth living. It is our way of saying to the world that there is another and better way.

Be good.

I have been doing a lot of thinking (meditating) on Luke 4:18 – 19

 “God’s Spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind. To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” (The Message)

I believe this was Jesus’ mission statement.  I have had this conviction for a long time but I come to it with a renewed sense of passion. The context for these words of Jesus is that He has been baptized as a symbol of death to self and the self-willed life and a rising to a life of obedience to the Father empowered by the Holy Spirit. To me this is a preview of Gethsemane when Jesus reaffirms his ‘obedience unto death’ (Philippians 2: 8). Jesus invites me ‘to take up my cross and follow him’, so this mission statement must be mine, as well.

Having been thus baptized Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit and God acknowledges Him as His beloved Son with whom He is well pleased. Immediately this anointing is put to the test, not for the last time, and the Anointed One (Messiah) returns victorious from the Desert of Temptation. He proceeds to His local synagogue and reads the above passage explaining that the anointing He has received is for this purpose, that these words are fulfilled in Him that day.

I am drawn to the last sentence of this statement “This is God’s year to act!” God is on the move. Most translations say “the year of the Lord’s favour”, which shows me that we are currently in the time when God is on our side. He is in our corner. It is not His will that any should perish. This last line summarises the preceding lines about the poor, captive, blind and oppressed, for the good news to each category is that God is actively on our side.

Too often we can complicate the good news and fill it with all sorts of religious content but the simple good news is that Jesus has demonstrated that God is actively on our side. In Romans 8:31 Paul writes “With God on our side like this, how can we lose?” (The Message). So the good news to all ‘the losers’: the poor, the prisoner, the blind, burdened and battered, is that God is on our side and so we are not losers at all. The great danger is to think, in our own self-sufficiency, that we are okay without the active intervention of God, and so miss out on the active favour of God.

For many in the liturgical church we approach “Christ the King Sunday” which reminds us that our chief allegiance is to Jesus before nation, family, or race. We show this allegiance only when we follow in His way. “Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should walk in His way.” (1 Peter 2:21)

I want to spend my life sharing and living this simply good news. It is at once simple and yet impossible apart from the baptism into His death and the anointing of the Holy Spirit for life in Jesus.

I have just returned from a National New Chaplains’ Orientation. For the most part, it was a good experience. It was good to ‘rub shoulders’ with novice chaplains and to meet some long time veterans. During this week I was introduced to “The Dismas Fellowship”. According to legend Dismas was the name of the thief on the cross who asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom. The Dismas Fellowship is worshipping community of ex-offenders and others. Many of the ex-offenders do not feel comfortable or accepted in churches, yet. A group of us met and shared lunch with just such a group. It was a lot of fun as we sang and shared together. Out of this has grown another group “The Friends of Dismas”. This group is made up of people who wish to support, in any number of ways, the life and ministry of the Dismas Community. I was quite inspired by this simple idea and its ecumenical scope. I wonder if such groups might grow in Saint John. Perhaps you can pray with me about this.

Today is Remembrance Day. This has been a meaningful day for me because my dad was a veteran of World War ll and worked for many years at a Veterans’ Hospital. Author and newsman Tom Brokaw calls my father’s generation “The Greatest Generation”. Certainly it was/is a generation that exemplified the ideal of ‘self-sacrifice’ . I remember preaching at a Remembrance Day Service, bemoaning the paucity of this virtue in my generation. I have moved from despair about this to a guarded hope. While ‘boomers’ may have missed the self-sacrifice gene, by and large, it seems that younger folks have it in spades! The task is to make room for this fresh altruism especially in the Church. I sense a righteous anger at the way we boomers have affected life on this planet and a desire to see ‘justice roll’ as the prophets said. Today I remember a generation that won security for democracy, that faced genuine evil and prevailed, and left a better world for my generation to exploit.

We can look with faith to a time of fresh altruism but it will not come by apathy but through; prayer, example, and encouragement. Let’s pray “Thy Kingdom come” and then as my old friend Capt. T. would say “put legs on our prayers.”

Be good!

Revelation paints this extraordinary picture of ‘bowls of wrath’ being poured out. I think I saw an image of that this week. One of the guys you would have to call ‘a core member’ of our community at Saint John community chaplaincy, died this week. While the autopsy results aren’t yet in we all know that his lifestyle contributed to this 42 year old man’s death significantly. The chapel was crowded this week with grieving people and as they physically and emotionally jostled with one another, they often poured out “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy…” (Galatians 5:19 the works of the flesh). In the most fragile of times when we experience brokenness it is what is inside that spills out and when we bump into others we spill it on them. This furor gave me an opportunity to spill out on others, as well! I had the opportunity to spill: love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  By myself, I know I am incapable of spilling such virtue, but the Good News is “Christ in me the hope of glory!” I am glad that I was not alone in this spilling of good. In the dark time we are passing through the stark difference between those who have hope in Jesus and those who are like sheep without a shepherd, could not be more evident.

The same day I was dealing with this death, I received a call telling me about another death. This was the death of the daughter of a friend of mine. She died suddenly and seemingly unfairly. My friend from chaplaincy knew the risks of his choices but here was a death that made no earthly sense. Her family are naturally devastated by this, but in the midst of this there has been a tidal wave of love and support, particularly from the Christian community.

Those who know me well know that I have extremely clumsy fingers. I resonate with the idea of spilling bowls. I think we are always spilling and that what we spill is what is inside us, for good or evil. I’m reminded of the story of a little boy who was explaining to his dad the inner struggles he felt. “I feel like I have two big dogs pulling me in either direction.” said the boy. “Which dog wins?” said the father. “The one I feed.” replied the boy.

What am I storing up in my bowl which I will inevitably spill? Or another way which dog am I feeding. God is either glorified or besmirched by my choice. I have a lot of friends who need the hope that comes from having Jesus. I can’t afford not to spill virtues that come from the Holy Spirit. There is a world to be told and a world to be shown. I’m glad I’m not in this alone.

Be good!