JC's helper: Christmas generosity.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas generosity.

I am busy preparing for our Christmas Day community Christmas dinner. We are the lucky recipients of people's generosity. Here are just a few things...

A man rang up yesterday. He had a ham to give away, where and when could he bring it around?
We have had donations of chocolates and sweets for the tables.
The next door gym came through and gave a donation and some sweets.
A lady walked into Space2B yesterday and dropped a bag of sweets on the table and a bag of coins. "Its my husband's collection of coins." she explained. "Does he know about it?" I asked. She giggled and said, "Yes, he said it was OK."
Last but not least... a retired fire fighter now linked to this congregation said he had some days of leave up his sleeve from his bus driving job, so he would come in and spend two days working for the Christmas dinner. Yesterday afternoon he and I tackled the worst most tedious job of the dinner, sorting which volunteers driver would pick up which of the about 80 people needing transport. I have done this job other years and it is hard going. He and I completed the sorting out yesterday afternoon and had some fun doing it. His presence and friendship was such an encouragement to me! He is coming today to make himself available. We'll have fun this afternoon again.

Photos:

Two donations of coin collections for Christmas dinner. Both added up to $155.
25 legs of mutton thawing. They will be cooked by Marlow St Pie factory on Christmas morning.

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The Blog's title

I am a Workplace Chaplain to the NZ fireservice.

At the firestation every time one man sees me he yells, "Here comes JC's helper!". I guess I am happy to be called just that... "Jesus' helper". I am a follower of Jesus.
A a quote from Dave Andrews in his book, "Not Religion but Love".
"Being a devotee of Jesus is not a matter of subscribing to a certain set of dogmas, obeying rules and regulations, and getting others to subordinate themselves to them.

The essence of being a devotee of Jesus is to live in sympathy with God as Jesus did; feeling the throb of God's heartbeat, and teaching our hearts to learn to beat in sync with the love that sustains the universe.

It means developing our capacity to sense intuitively what causes love pleasure, and what causes love pain, and doing everything we can to enhance the pleasure, and diminish the pain."

I love this charter.

The Charter for Compassion

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.