WATER; LIFE

Water: Fresh. Sparkling. Clear. Refreshing. Healthful. Accessible. Wasted.

Water: Scarce. Stagnant. Murky. Sickening. Disease. Gerry Cans and barrels. Precious.

Two different perspectives on a life giving commodity. Even though the majority of the world is comprised of water, safe, drinkable water is inaccessible to a large proportion of the world's population. The human body is 98% water yet without it, our bodies weaken and die.

Generally, I don't think much about water. I let it run while I shave and while I try to adjust the shower temperature to just the right degree for my liking. I brush my teeth with it and wash my car with it. I water the grass and our flowers. I use it to make coffee, cook pasta and boil potatoes. I swim in it, bathe in it, skim across it in a boat and see it as something to take for granted.

But around the world, where poverty, disease, illiteracy, overpopulation and lack of opportunity prevail, a correlating reality is that fresh, clean, safe water to drink is not available. Often women and children have to walk miles (kilometers just to collect enough water to cook their daily food, drink and wash with. Often that water that takes so much time, energy, and so heavy a toll on health, is water we wouldn't think of using for any purpose.

When Jesus met a Samaritan woman at the well over 2,000 years ago, she was doing what is daily reality for a large percentage of the world's population; she was drawing water for her household. Then as now, the task of gathering water continues to be relegated to women and children. It would not have been uncommon for Jesus to have asked a woman for a drink from the water she was collecting.

What was uncommon and extraordinary was that this was a Samaritan Woman; a woman that it would have been scandalous to have been talking to. But that was Jesus. And as he addresses her, he tells her about a different, life-giving kind of water; the kind of water that, if a person drinks it, wells into springs of living and eternal water.

You and I have also experienced that life-giving water that is Christ's life within us. We know what it is to have been forgiven, renewed, refreshed and cleansed by the life-giving power of Jesus' death and resurrection. We have water to give...in abundance. We have both the ability to provide safe drinking water for the world's population so that a child doesn't have to die every 15 seconds from a waterborne disease. And we also have that life water welling up to eternal life within us that so many people in the world are desperately craving.

Each year Americans spend over 400 billion dollars on things like tie tacks, gag gifts, desk organizers, expensive toys, and more gifts that our loved ones may not need and, in some cases, really don't want. At the same time Americans will spend inestimable amounts of their income on parties, food, and drink. Now I don't want to sound like old Ebeneezer Scrooge here (at least the way he is portrayed at the beginning of Dickens' iconic Christmas classic). I am not saying Bah! Humbug! Don't celebrate and don't enjoy the season. Instead, I am suggesting that we consider giving gifts that really make a difference; that we emulate old Scrooge at the end of the famous tale; by blessing others who have true need like the Cratchett family.

This is the third year Calvary will have been involved in something called the Advent Conspiracy - a program in which God's people conspire to celebrate the Advent of the Savior in a different way. What does that mean? It means focusing on the true reason for this celebration - the Worship of the Christ Child; the Son of God.

It also means spending less on frivolous gift giving and self-fulfillment during the season (for example I always give up buying expensive coffee drinks at Starbucks and other establishments and use the money I save to give to AC. Judy and I also have committed to not give each other expensive gifts but to use that money to support AC as well) Conspiring to celebrate Advent and Christmas differently also means giving more - more to causes and to people whose lives will truly be changed. At Calvary we give to provide safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and warm blankets through our efforts at Advent)Finally it means loving others sacrificially by giving ourselves, our time, our creativity and our presence.

Will you join the conspiracy? Will you be part of a not-so-covert plan to reclaim the celebration of Christmas to its original intent. Mark reminds us the "The Son of Man did not come into the World to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) Join us and find some way of re-prioritizing your Christmas and be a part of this conspiracy to celebrate the Lord's Advent by serving

Looking back at Christmas

We were in a fabulous Christmas spirit. We had just heard an incredible concert by the Seattle Symphony and performers from Cirque du Soleil. The holiday concert in the Seattle Pops series is always our favorite. Afterward, we walked a few blocks to the main downtown shopping area of Seattle. The twinkling white lights sparkled in the crisp air. Regal horses drawing white “handsome cabs” decorated in green boughs and red ribbon added to the ambience. Street musicians sang and played a mixture of music and school choirs performed Christmas Carols on stage at one of the indoor malls. Children giggled with glee on the Merry-go-Round. It wasn’t cold enough to snow, but there was a crisp chill in the air that heightened our sense that this was indeed the Christmas Season. It is an multi-sensory, almost magical time we enjoy every year. We walked around the same blocks and browsed through the same stores looking at the same displays and merchandise that is available every year.

But there was something different about this annual tradition for us. This year, we both commented that the most notable difference was our lack of tension and impatience. We weren’t concerned about long lines or pushy people. We weren’t frantically trying to make last-minute decisions about one more gift to fill a stocking. You see this year, we were free from all that. We had, along with a large number of others in our congregation, decided that we were going to celebrate Christmas in a different way. Instead of excessive spending on over-priced items that would be returned or wear out shortly after purchased, we had committed to redirecting the majority of what we normally spend on Christmas gifts to purchase something that would truly make a difference in the lives of people we had never met.

Each year, the members of our church – Calvary Presbyterian Church in Enumclaw, Washington – participate in a project where people buy hand-made Christmas cards crafted by people from the church. For each card purchased at $5.00 apiece, a wool blanket is purchased by Church World Service to send to some crisis area in the world: places where hurricanes have wreaked havoc or wars have sent refugees fleeing, or earthquakes have left people homeless and cold.

This year, in addition to the Christmas card project, we decided to participate in a growing movement known as ADVENT CONSPIRACY. The originators of this movement decided a few years ago to encourage their congregations to change the way they celebrated Advent and Christmas by purchasing safe water for people in far flung places like Kenya, Central America or Asia. Over 1.2 billion people lack safe drinking water. A child dies every fifteen seconds from disease that could be prevented by the availability of uncontaminated water.

As with any new program, our staff and our Elders weren’t sure how this project would be received by our people. Would it conflict with our Christmas Card/Blanket project? Would it be asking too much of people in this period of uncertainty in the economy? Was it too “Scrooge-like” to ask people not to spend as much on Christmas presents as they normally had? With some trepidation, we forged ahead with the coordinated materials of ADVENT CONSPIRACY. Our weekly sermons followed the themes suggested by the program: Worship fully; spend less; give more; and love all. Even several of our small groups read the book and discussed what it would mean to restore the idea of sacrificial giving to Christmas. But how would we raise the money to meet our goal?

In October a group had just returned from Zambia where they had helped a community drill a bore hole for a well. But we didn’t have enough money to finish off the project with a pump and storage tank. People were already aware of the need in this poor community just to the north of Lusaka. We have sponsored community-based schools there and have sent two mission teams over the past two years. It seemed like a given. So we set that as our first priority and we committed $1,500.00 to make further headway.

Our Elders had set an initial goal of $4,000.00 for our first year doing this project and prayerfully wondered if we could do it. We adopted a second project in Kenya. Numerous organizations are doing good work in bringing water to the world but we chose Food for the Hungry. My son-in-law worked for Food for the Hungry. That seemed like a natural place to begin. He put me in touch with other staff at FH who suggested a “guttering” system in Marsibit, Kenya.

It didn’t seem very glamorous but it fit our estimated budget. For $3,200 USD we could provide a simple but effective system of rain water collection and filtering that would provide safe water for people in the community throughout the dry season. It was just what we were looking for. But how could we capture the interest and participation of our people?

We found numerous helpful materials. An organization called the H20 Project sent us wrist bracelets and little cards. The cards suggested that by giving up things like sodas, bottled water, espresso drinks or other beverages, that people drink water only for two weeks and give the money saved from that change to the water project. The wrist-bands were daily, visible reminders of those commitments. The first weekend of our emphasis, I put $20.00 in, representing the money I would save by not drinking expensive robust coffee from my favorite, large, Seattle based coffee purveyor (not to mention any names).

We also placed large 5 gallon water jugs (empty) around in different places throughout the church. These would be our collection containers - visible reminders of how readily we can have not just safe water but distilled bottled water. Since the bottles were clear, we could watch the progress of the fund each week. It was so much fun to watch kids of all ages bring plastic zip-lok bags of change and pour it into the barrel. The first couple of weeks, those coins would hit the hard plastic bottom of the barrel and make a loud, reverberating “kerplunk.” Adults would bring rolls of bills – ones, fives, tens, even hundreds – and force them down through the narrow opening at the top of the barrels. People who visited the office, located in another building on our campus, could make a contribution there as well.

We soon began to realize that we had set our sights to low. We wouldn’t know for sure until we cut the barrels open and counted the money, but everyone could see that the fund was growing; welling up like a fresh spring of water and coming close to overflowing. With eager anticipation, we waited until after our Christmas Eve services to count the money. When we finally did extract it all from our collection barrels, we were amazed to discover that over $8,400.00 had been raised. And that was in addition to our Card/blanket project, our annual Deacon’s offering, and people’s regular gifts.

A comment heard often was “This was so meaningful. It truly made my Christmas meaningful.” Another was “Will we do this again next year?” I don’t think there is a doubt about it. What kind of gift could better represent the sacrificial gift of God’s Son, whose birth we celebrate each Christmas? Not an ugly tie or a pair of socks or an “executive desk organizer.” This same Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will never thirst but in him, springs of living water will well up to eternal life.” What a joy it has been to give water in His name. Christmas will never be the same.

A Christmas Coup

I needed an afternoon pick-me-up today so I stopped at Starbucks and plunked down my Gold Card without thinking. I had just ordered a Grande Quad Gingerbread Latte (If that doesn't get me going, I don't know what would). Using a gift card that automatically reloads by charging my VISA account is really a dangerous thing. It makes it seem like drinks from Starbucks magically appear without cost - until you look at the VISA bill of course. $5.73 for my afternoon indulgence. Yikes! Even with the 25% discount my Gold Card allows, that is still a lot for the extravagance of Gingerbread flavor, whipped cream, 4 shots of espresso and a slight, momentary burst of energy.

When I returned to my office I began working on details of a campaign we as a church are embarking on during Advent. It is called ADVENT CONSPIRACY. The whole point of this subversive plot is to recapture the true meaning of the Christmas event; namely the incarnation of God into human flesh. How radical can you get huh? After all, for the last month at least, businesses have been displaying Christmas decorations, playing Christmas music, and advertising the latest and greatest electronic toys, fashions and power tools that will make the perfect gift at Christmas. In some small way, we are hoping to take back Christmas from the rebels who stole it in the first place.

Our battle strategy is simple. We are asking each of our members and friends to consider redirecting the dollars that they normally spend on extravagant parties, excessive, highly caloric foods, and expensive gifts (that are often times unwanted and unused by the person receiving them). Where will they be redirected? Towards a gift and an act of compassion and love that will truly exemplify the true meaning of the sacrifical love that brought Jesus to earth in the first place.

If every member of our surruptitious cabal redirects even a small portion of the money they would otherwise spend on other things, we can pool those resources and provide safe drinking water for a community and for people in an underdeveloped country. We plan to team up with Food for the Hungry (a Phoenix-based world relief agency) to provide either a bore-hole well or a hi-tech water filter or both (or even several)for a village in Kenya.

Ever since seeing the joy of a community in Zambia over a simple well, I find myself thinking alot about how easily I take water for granted. It is reported that 4 children die every minute from diseases caused by unclean water (the H2O project). Over one billion people (1,000,000,000) lack access to clean drinking water. (Lifewater.org). 2.5 billion are affected by lack of proper sanitation.

One of the tools we will use is to ask people to consider giving up (not entirely)some of the other beverages they normally drink and setting that same amount of money aisde towards this effort. For example, if the average person cut back on the number of sodas, sports drinks, coffee beverages and juice they drink every day for a month, they would feel a sense of solidarity with a large portion of the world's population. Not only that, they would have saved over $150.00 to give towards the completion of a well that will produce clean, safe water for hundreds - maybe thousands of people - for years to come.

That is a Christmas present, wouldn't you agree? That speaks to the heart of the Christmas message much more than the frantic rush for great sales on "Black Friday."
And that is just by drinking mostly, if not entirely, water instead of other beverages for the month.

So, I think I will start right now. I'm going to finish this rich, calorie-laden, artery-clogging, caffeine rich, over-priced coffee drink. Then I am going to cut back to only a cup or two of plain drip coffee each morning and drink water the rest of the day. I figure by Christmas day, I will save a lot - a whole lot - of money that can be used so others can live and have better health.

Judy and I have also determined that we are not going to buy each other gifts this year but use the same amount of money we normally spend to go towards this project. Instead, we plan on making gifts, or doing special things for each other as a way of saying "I love you" and "Merry Christmas."

Sounds a little subversive to our commercial, consumer driven culture doesn't it? You know, a lot of people are fighting to take Christ out of Christmas. Maybe we already have by giving in to the material and commercially driven focus it has become. To put Christ back in Christmas is much more than being able to call it Christmas in speech. Let's really do it right. Let's overthrow the citadel. Let's re-take what truly belongs to us - the message. "That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage." (Matthew 20:28 The Message)


Lord, help me be strong. Help me keep the needs of others in view this Christmas. Allow me to make a difference by "worshiping fully; spending less; giving more and loving your people."