Learning Faith at the Golden Arches.

I decided to get up at 4:30 each weekday morning so I can write my blog before work and I am now at my local McDonald’s restaurant with my usual Sausage McMuffin and unsweetened tea with Splenda.  The one thing about McDonald’s is consistency.  Ray Kroc bought the McDonald brothers’ business years ago and began the concept of franchising the name, products, and the famous “Golden Arches” to people who wanted into the restaurant business.  The guarded or proprietary secrets of the corporation are known to only a few people but they guarantee the Sausage McMuffin I am enjoying now will be exactly like one I would eat in Germany.  On my tray is a picture of the Big Mac and I know the sandwich’s “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun” will taste the same in the over 1,000+ stores worldwide.  The success of McDonald’s is people can rely upon this consistency over and over again. 

WARNING!  I AM ABOUT TO BOAST!  PLEASE FORGIVE ME

Before I came into ministry, I worked in the hospitality industry.  I started when I was fifteen years old washing dishes at a six-hundred room hotel.  It took three of us to operate the dish machine to handle the dishes, silverware, and glasses for two restaurants.  I went to Johnson & Wales University and majored in hotel food and beverage management to the Masters level and spent one year in culinary arts.  Just before seminary I worked as a Director of Catering and we entered a local food competition showcasing our services to over five-hundred participants who would would vote on the best one.  We won People's Choice Award, beating fourteen other restaurants.  It was my recipe for New England Clam Chowder we entered. 

An Aroma Better Than Cologne

As a teenager of the seventies, I remember the various commercials for men's cologne.  There were such names as Hai Karate, Canoe, Jovan Musk, Brut, and my favorite, British Sterling.  I never could afford it as a teen, but I loved the commercial.  A man standing in the country is met by a beautiful woman in a rather low cut dress riding on a huge horse.  She bends down from the side-saddle position with a silver tray in her hand and presents to the man in a tweed jacket a bottle with a silver cap.  The end of the commercial goes this way, "All my men wear British Sterling or they were nothing at all!"  It was an effective commercial if I can remember is forty years later. 

Shining Like A Christmas Light

For over twenty-five years, Wheeling and the Oglebay Resort have been the hosts to hundreds of thousands of visitors during the holiday season as they travel through the three hundred acre park and the beautiful displays of color and motion. This display is one of the nation's largest and the six mile drive through the lights brings AOLTravel's designation as one of the "10 Best Christmas Light Displays in the US." (oglebay-resort.com) The colorful lights flash their color into the dark West Virginia sky and at times the demand by the public leads to traffic jams of those wishing to be part of the festivities. The displays are being retro-fitted with LED lights to reduce the cost of electricity by as much as 85% and last five times longer than the former incandescent light bulbs.

Trees, Tinsel, and Turmoil

Black Friday earned a new low when a woman used pepper spray on a group of other shoppers. "The attack took place about 10:20 p.m. Thursday shortly after doors opened for the sale. The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox video game players, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping. Valle says the woman began spraying people in order to get an advantage."(Huffinton Post.com)  Incidents like this filled newspapers and blogs across the country.  A man from West Virginia had a heart attack amid a crowd of buyers who walked around his unconscious body.  He would die later but did receive help from medical personnel who happened to be in the Target.  Black Friday got its name in 1966 by the Philadelphia Police Department "to describe the crowds and traffic jams associated with the beginning of the Christmas shopping season."  (About.com)  Retailers use this day to make massive sales and during the Great Depression, retailers asked President Roosevelt to move the Thanksgiving date to one week earlier in November to lengthen the shopping season.

Now, our family did go out to the stores on Friday afternoon and we were amazed by the hoardes of people still standing in line for the bargains.  Sadly, is this a sign the Christmas season has shifted further from the Prince of Peace to the purchase of packages?

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. Isaiah 9:5-7

Christmas is more than a season.  Isaiah identifies four titles of the Messiah, Jesus.  The Prince of Peace describes the fact he will establish, rule and be an example of the peace man can have with God because of the Child given to mankind.  The rush to save money, buy goods, and give presents usually causes many to wish for the end of this season sooner than December 25th, falling into their easy-chair that afternoon with a sigh of exhaustion.  Maybe they value the opinions of others as determined by the present and its cost more than the value of the Prince of Peace. God gave us the gift not wrapped in beatiful paper but in swaddling clothes.  These clothes were strips of cloth used in preparation for the dead.  Those on journeys would wrap these around their waists incase they died on the trip.  This sign, spoken of the angel gives us a clue this Child would suffer death in place of his parents, Mary and Joseph, and the rest of mankind who receive this Gift. 

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27