I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the
question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the
day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call
ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time
everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure
got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart.
It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant
woman.
But friends, you’re not in the dark,
so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light,
daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So
let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open
and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since
we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober,
dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.
God
didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus
Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with
the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak
encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in
this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this;
just keep on doing it.
Yes, this is my Starbucks cup.
Each year as Christmas advertising
begins, Starbucks comes out with a Christmas-themed cup. Back in 2015 the cup
was a bright Christmasy red. And oh what a firestorm of controversy erupted. The
fanatic pseudo-Christian pastor who started this stated that Starbucks is part
of the ‘War on Christmas’. He said the cups don’t have any snowflakes or
Christmas designs, they aren’t Christmas-y enough. He said they are “taking the
Christmas out of Christmas”. Some people went into the stores and insisted that
servers write “Merry Christmas” on their cups.
In response, a whole lot of people, me
included – have been responding with a defense of Starbucks as a business, not
in the work of promoting any faith stance, but a general holiday; that
Starbucks cups have never had any kind of Christian motif on them anyway; that
Starbucks DOES sell Advent calendars, and Christmas coffee. Starbucks has also
been collaborating with local charitable organisations in different places,
providing food. Now, Starbucks food is pretty classy – I can recommend the
cranberry dream bar, for those who love gooey frosting-y things.
The fuss was started by Josh Feuerstein, a video rant from a self-described “disciple of
Jesus”. He’s been doing things like this for years. In this case, he claims
that Starbucks hates Jesus. How Jesus has become associated with snowflakes and
reindeer and Santa and all that other stuff isn’t clear. Starbucks
"hates Jesus," Feuerstein ranted, because the multi-billion dollar
international coffee conglomerate decided to change its holiday cups from red
with winter logos, to red. Just plain red. Which makes Jesus cry, I guess, and
does absolutely nothing to strengthen and uplift people. And now it’s white
with these Christmasy motifs. I can’t wait to see what he will do with this
one.
Feuerstein’s
extremism is part of his public persona. When he appeared on CNN in 2015, he
said he knew “America is a Christian nation because Barack Obama had to pretend
to be Christian to get elected.” Feuerstein is a sometime pastor, strongly
anti-gay, a racist, and a gun nut. And it’s clear – at least to me - he has no
idea who Jesus is or what the Gospel message is.
Just a couple of examples of the
lash back at Feuerstein: three Starbucks
cups, and a photo of a homeless man sleeping on a bench, and the caption says
“If you’re more offended by these, (pointing to the cups) than by this
(pointing to the man), then you’re part of the problem.”
Then there’s one of someone giving
an African child a simple cup of clean water, and the caption is “Yeah, that
Starbucks cup is a real problem.”
Three years ago there was a statue called Homeless Jesus, designed by Timothy Schmalz, a Canadian sculptor. It depicts Jesus as a homeless person, sleeping on a park bench. His face and hands are hidden under a blanket, but crucifixion wounds on his feet reveal his identity. The statue has been described as a "visual translation" of the passage from Matthew in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me". The first casts were offered to St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, but both churches declined, citing issues of restoration on their buildings. In 2013 the original sculpture was installed at Regis College, the Jesuit School in Toronto School of Theology.
In 2013 the first cast was installed in the United States, at the St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Davidson, North Carolina. The rector, Rev. David Buck, says "This is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society". In an interview he said "We believe that that's the kind of life Jesus had. He was, in essence, a homeless person.”
For me, this is where the hoopla over a coffee cup collides with the Gospel. What is really important is not whether a secular business organisation opts for a plain red cup. What is really important is how we use that cup, what we put in it, and how we share it. What is really important is who our church is and how we live the mission of the church. What is really important is what we do to and for others, and for the world. What is really important are those people on our streets, in our cities, homeless and hungry; drowning in a frantic run to get away from war, lining up to come to a place where they can just have a life. What is really important is how we encourage one another in this thing called life. How we encourage those who are struggling with living – how we reach out, with something so simple as a cup of coffee. Remember Jesus’ words “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of these….”
Think about a cup of coffee. We sit around a table on a Thursday morning, eating and drinking and talking, and that’s as much ministry and a time of faith as our service on Sunday. It's a ministry to the community, over coffee and food. It’s breaking bread together at table and it's a place to encourage, build up, support – even those who are not part of this congregation. It’s too easy to get sidetracked by things like the colour of a cup, and then persecute other people out of our own fear. It’s just too easy – and maybe that’s why it happens. Really looking at ourselves – how we reach out, what we believe our church is for, how we encourage and build up – aren’t those the things preparing for Christmas should help us to do? Shouldn’t we be about the business of encouraging, of building up, of ministering to each other, and to our neighbourhood, and community?
Well, I get really worked up over this one, every year, because there is a side of me which does make judgment. I read the comments about the cup and the non-existent war on Christmas and think “Seriously??? Really??? Is that all you have to worry about??? Why are you so afraid??? Why don’t you get out and really follow Jesus, even in the simple act of offering a cup of coffee to someone who really needs it, and yes even in a bright red cup.”
A cup offered to someone who needs. A simple thing, but it can be so much. In ‘A Christmas Carol’, which we will be looking at, the Ghost of Christmas Present offers Scrooge a cup – filled with the milk of human kindness. Instead of seeing the cup as a war on something, why not see it as the opposite – a cup which carries the milk of human kindness – from each of us and others, to each of us and others. Why not see the cup as the vehicle of making change? Offer someone who could really use it, a simple cup of coffee – and go from there. What is there to be afraid of, in building up and encouraging those around us? It’s what the church, all the churches, including this one, claim to be about. The mission of the church is best exemplified by open doors, open hearts, open minds, openness to uncertainty, but a commitment to encouraging each other. At least in my view. I hope it is.
Author and poet Maren Tirabassi, whose is a friend via Facebook and now editor of a book in which I have part of a chapter, is a gentler soul than I in stating her positions.
“This is my Christmas cup of coffee.
Yes, it is in a red cup and I like
it rather strong
so I can make it very sweet and
light
and I
want to sip it slowly
because
today someone is willing to listen to me,
and
hear any loneliness, any grief, any sorrow.
The star shines in kind eyes,
not really in either the brand name
of the store, (though I smile)
or the words of a story, told out in pageant, sermon, or so-called live nativity.
or the words of a story, told out in pageant, sermon, or so-called live nativity.
And the stable is this coffee shop
–
for it always happens in some latte
or manger
where no one ever expects something
holy to be born.
There are so many people watching over their laptops by night,and, while my friend listens to me, I eavesdrop on all their angels.”
May it be so.
Sources:
2.
Rev. Maren Tirabassi, Pastor, Union Church of Madbury
(United Church of Christ), New Hampshire.
3.
“For Just a Cup of Coffee” by Rev. Fran Ota November
14, 2015
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