The master said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind to my feast." And the servant said, "Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room." Then the master said
to the servant, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my
house may be filled." - Luke 14:21-23
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The Christmas Bazaar is one of my favorite events, and I've delighted in helping prepare the luncheons for the past five years, along with a host of others. But the most fun I've
ever had at the bazaar came this year. My work supervisor had purchased 20 lunch tickets and told me to give them to people who needed them. Having failed to line up enough folks
ahead of time to benefit from this kindness, I decided to honor her gift by handing out the tickets on the sidewalk in front of the church."Would you like a free Christmas dinner today - turkey and all the trimmings?" I asked passers-by. Several hungry-looking men took me up on the offer. So did a couple of 40- something women, and a college-aged woman, two or three young men, and three or four young couples, gay and straight. Even those who declined the offer seemed genuinely surprised and gratified to be asked. I got a lot of warm smiles and a ton of "Merry Christmases."

So my supervisor - who, as far as I know, has no church affiliation - made it possible for some hungry people to be filled with Christmas food. She also made it possible for some
people hungry for community and a sense of belonging to receive a Christmas blessing - to see some friendly faces, to enjoy some festive entertainment, and hopefully to realize that
whether we're having a bazaar or not, they're always welcome at St. Peter's. This no-strings generosity isn't unique. Our outreach programs, coordinated by Jeff De
La Rosa, do this week after week. Our Christmas Basket program, headed this Christmas by Qiana Johnson, does this every year, as do Rev. Nancy's diaconal programs. But it is a change of pace for the Christmas Bazaar - one that shines a light on some exciting possibilities.
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Thankfully, the bazaar has already evolved from a means of supplementing the church's general fund into a means of supplementing our outreach. Instead of helping us take care of
ourselves, the bazaar now helps us take care of others.
But what if the bazaar stopped being just a fundraiser for outreach and actually became outreach? What if, instead of merely inviting people to buy their own luncheon tickets, we
enabled people to become agents of grace by inviting them to buy Christmas lunches for us to give away? What if we stopped viewing strangers who wandered in only as potential
customers and started seeing them as potential friends?
What if, instead of treating the bazaar merely as an opportunity to sell something, we also celebrated it as an opportunity to give something away?
 

The bazaar would still make money for outreach - maybe more money - and the parish would still celebrate the season together with joyous holiday cheer. But we could also feed
some hungry bellies and souls; become conduits of generosity for people like my supervisor; and introduce new folks to our parish.
 

You could almost call it evangelism - taking Christ's radical welcome into the highways and hedges of Belmont and Broadway. What a wonderful way to model and honor God's free gift of salvation given to us in the Incarnation!
 

Just something to think about. Merry Christmas...er, Advent.