ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Advent
In Defense of Gift, By Josh
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Ted Geisel
Good Lord did I hate that part of the Grinch when I was a kid. I know it’s the point of the story, but in my seven-year-old-present-expecting-heart it was propaganda from the Miser Brothers. I watched the adults in the room when that part of the story was unveiled. They were nodding sentimentally, as if the Grinch had somehow unwittingly unearthed a truer, deeper meaning of Christmas. Namely, Christmas without presents. That is a very dangerous idea for a kid that loved getting presents, and I wanted that message eradicated from our imaginations. If the adults wanted to be ideological purists and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in a glum house deprived of decorations, food, and let me repeat PRESENTS, while they sang christmas carols and held hands, that was fine for them. They could join the long line of Christian ascetics who gave up life’s other goodies. I for one, fully expected to reap the rich rewards of staring intently at the toy section in Sears catalogue for hours on end.
We evolve though don’t we? The presents become more pragmatic. They meet social needs like the preferred brand of middle school’s mean girls or the basketball sneakers that the cool kids wear. Eventually we get jobs and can afford those items from the Sears catalogue, but the frontal lobe is a cruel trickster because now we no longer want those things. The new presents we want run in the triple digits. 8-track players in the 70s, boom boxes in the 80s, Sony Discmans in the 90s, DVD players in the 00s, iphones in the 10s. Then something absolutely essential for human development happens. From the ages of 18-22 you become a special kind of poor. I should be more responsible in how I use that word. For many of us, we maintain proximity to wealth (namely our parents' resources), but we are in an age of trying out adulthood. Having to buy your own toiletries, do your own laundry, pay for the meals you eat out and in some cases come up with your own rent will change the way you see Wal-Mart. Suddenly things that were provided for you without qualification for most of your life … things like roast beef, toilet paper and windshield wipers have inordinate value. You craft a christmas list in your dorm room that has a splurgy item on it like new pajama pants from GAP, but also things like , a reading light and money towards your semester abroad. Then you give up in frustration and just ask for Amazon gift cards because you remember weekly meal plans of Ramen Noodles and Easy Mac and your anxiety over the uncertainty of your unanticipated needs overshadows all of those wishes.
Sometimes, after 85 years of paying off student loans, buying used minivans, and claiming well worn high chairs off of Buy Nothing Waco, you reach a new kind of financial stability. I’m sad to report that the same sick consumeristic joke happens. Now you can afford the ipad and cool basketball sneakers, but again the real desire of your heart has adjusted itself. Instead of your gift ideas costing hundreds, they cost thousands or hundreds of thousands. Hopefully by this point you’ve wised up and realized that this never changes. What you really want is 50K to redo the kitchen or 40K to buy a brand new Honda Odyssey with a DVD player and individual headphones for the kids. You know it’s insane to dream about those things, so when your spouse presses you for a Christmas list for his/her parents you tell him/her socks because you really do need them and even though you can now afford the ipad, you’ve been so conditioned by the scarcity of your 20s that you won’t buy yourself the socks.
If life goes completely as planned you might even reach a new level of financial success. Best I can tell the Boomers by and large get there. Now you can even afford the 50K kitchen remodel and 40K honda odyssey, but by this point, for a reason that only Dave Ramsey knows, you’ve developed a great joy out of feigning thriftiness. So you end up buying and restoring a 1988 Plymouth Chrysler minivan (always a minivan) with the faux wood paneling on the side both because you can and now you're nostalgic about the poorest time in your financial history. Your Christmas list includes time with the grandkids and the request for one of your children to come to your house, set up the Alexa and teach you how to use it.
By this point in life you think about your Whoville Christmas Spirit hating self that felt threatened by gift deprivation, and you realize the Whos were onto something. You should have listened to the Apostle Paul who in Philippians 4 figured it all out when he wrote, “I have learned how to abound and how to be abased. To be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.” You’ve paid thousands of dollars for therapists to help you get to that same place.
Still I think the gifts have power. They hold a special kind of potential to express love.
Early in our marriage Lindsay acquired (not sure if it was purchased, won, or given) a circular box of Christmas questions. The questions are prompts. Our family treats them as if they are part of our annual advent curriculum. Here are some examples of questions: “what is an important tradition in your family?” “What is your favorite Christmas song?” There are probably fifteen or so questions. I’ve not recorded my answers, but I'm certain I must give the same ones each year. Here’s a question I answered last night. What is the best gift you’ve ever gotten?
It was a movie that Lindsay rented from her local library. We were both seniors in college. She was student teaching and so poor, that I, her full time student fiance, paid her $87 tax bill because she couldn’t afford to. This was 2003, well before Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Disney Plus had proliferated access to nearly everything ever recorded. So poor Lindsay (double entendre there) went to her local River Falls, WI library and used the interlibrary loan system to track down a Dean Jones Disney classic and I had seen once in my life as a kid and never saw again called The Snowball Express. Then on Christmas Eve opened the VHS tape, hugged by one of those plastic cases with the movie jacket covered in a thin layer of velum. It was and still is the best gift I’ve ever received.
Christmas Carol Game
Why? Because I like these kinds of things. You are welcome. The first person to get all 24 right wins the affection of the whole staff for the advent season.
Holiday Family Resource Pantry
If you will recall, we partnered with several other churches and non-profits earlier this year to provide assistance to families within Waco ISD. Our team, works closely with a few social workers within in Waco ISD, and they have identified 250 families who need help over the holidays. UBC is sponsoring 20 of those families. We are collecting household/hygiene items for each family, as we well as a $25 gift card to HEB. If you would like to sponsor a family, which would include purchasing these items and a gift card, please email toph@ubcwaco.org. WE already have four families sponsored, so we need 16 more. Thank you so much for you generosity over the past few weeks, let’s keep it up. The household/hygiene items and gift cards will need to be collect by Sunday, December 13th.
How/When to Buy the New Ubcmusic EP
If you are planning to purchase the Magnificat EP, or any of the Ubcmusic releases, please consider doing that via Bandcamp this Friday, December 4. They are waiving their revenue shares that day, so we will get 100% of the money you spend. That money will go toward making more music!
UBC Advent Calendar
Here we are separated by distances and necessity because COVID is a son of a gun. Still there is a way for us to be of one mind and one spirit (at least digitally). You can participate in the UBC advent calendar extravaganza. It’s not too late even though we are a few days into advent. God is like that, God says, “come to the party even if you are late!” So here is what you do. Click on this link here. Put this calendar in a place (digital or analog) that you will remember, snap some photos, and tag UBC in them. It will be all the craze. Here are a few people who are participating in UBC’s advent calendar insta-series: Jane Fonda, Marilyn Manson, & Justin Bieber. Don’t miss out.
Advent Candle Liturgy
Each week we’ll be posting a candle lighting liturgy for Advent. You can read through this alone, with friends via zoom, or, if you have an in-tact bubble of people you’ve been seeing throughout lockdown, together (hopefully practicing 2 of these 3: outside/masked/distanced). If you want to order some advent candles, that’s great. If you have some random candles, that’s great. If you just have matches or a lighter, that’s great too. And if you have none of those things, but have an imagination, behold, your candle. You can find the Hope liturgy here.
Advent Materials for Families
Hey Parents and Families! Just a reminder that Advent starts this Sunday and so Taylor has some fun family curriculum for you to do together as we journey through Advent! There are fun crafts and activities as well as reflection questions and devotional elements for you to do together as a family during this Advent season! So be on the lookout for an email with those resources! Also - you don't have to be family unit to use these resources! So if you would like to use them just email Taylor at taulor@ubcwaco.org!
Parishioner of the Week
UBC Music for creating a tremendous Advent EP.
Work is Worship
Greeters: No Greeters this week
Coffee Makers: no coffee makers this week
Mug Cleaners: no mug cleaners this week
Money Counter: no money counters this week
Leadership Team
If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members.
Chair: Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Luci Hoppe: lhoppe@gmail.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Jose Zuniga: jzgrphix2002@yahoo.com
Taylor Torregrossa: Taylordtorregrossa@gmail.com
Student Position: Davis Misloski
Student Position: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.com
Jen Carron: jen.carron78@gmail.com
Mike Dodson: financeteammike@gmail.com
George Thornton: GeorgecCT1982@gmail.com
UBC HR Team
If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.
Erin Albin: erin.albin1@gmail.com
Sam Goff: samuelgoff92@gmail.com
Rebekah Powell: rpowell671@gmail.com
Kristen Richardson: wacorichardsons@gmail.com
Craig Nash: Craig_Nash@baylor.edu