“Three Gifts of Christmas”
Luke 2:1-20
An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas day. “The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other,” she said. When Christmas day came, the boy brought the teacher a seashell of lustrous beauty. “Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?” the teacher asked. The youth told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found. When he named the place, a certain bay several miles away, the teacher was left speechless. “Why…why, it’s gorgeous…wonderful, but you shouldn’t have gone all that way to get the gift for me.” His eyes brightening, the boy answered, “Long walk part of gift.”
There are two parts to the gift God gives us this evening. The first one is the gift itself. The gift of God’s Son – the most precious thing he has to give us. It is this gift which also mirrors to us the very heart of God, since he considered this his greatest gift. He could have given us anything – the universe is his to give, if he had wanted. But he showed us, in this child, that life is most precious to him. Jesus, later on, would tell the crowds, “I have come to give you life, in all it’s abundance.” Life is of utmost importance to God – so much, that he promises to us that, even when our biological life is ended, it continues on in him. That is the first message of Christmas. That he is a God of life, who gave Jesus so that we might have life in him.
Jesus also shows us that God is a God of love. John, in his little epistle, says, “God is love, and those who abide in love, abide in God and he in them.” In his Gospel, he begins, “the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That Word, the Word made flesh, was a Word of love.
There are those who think God is all about law – about morals. The word, “moral” relates to the word, “mores,” which is those rules and expectations that are culturally defined. Differing cultures have differing mores, which change as the culture changes. Unfortunately, many people confuse their own mores, their own sense of right and wrong, their own expectations, with God’s desire and God’s will. They speak of God’s “righteousness,” but don’t know what they are talking about. “Righteousness,” in scripture, refers to the demands a relationship makes on us. In Jesus, God declares that his demand is that we love one another.
Remember the rich young man? In response to his question as to what he needed to do to be saved, Jesus asked him what the Law and Prophets said. The young man responded, “Love God and love your neighbor.” Jesus said, “You have spoken rightly.” That was what Jesus was about – love.
That is the nature of the gift we have been given. And if that were the whole of the gift, it would be marvelous, indeed: the gift of life. The gift of love.
But there is another part of the gift – one which we cannot see as clearly, but which is just as important. It is the walk God took to give us the gift.
God took on human flesh. He entered into our joys and sorrows. He learned what it is to be human. He learned what it means to live in hope, not knowing what God knows. He learned what it means to live with human limitations. He learned what it means to live as we live.
I have a young woman whom I help, who shared with me that she had a child taken from her. At the time, she was not able to care for her child, or to protect him from an abusive husband. She has worked hard to get her life back on track, but her child has been given to another person, and she has lost her rights to him. Recently, she learned that her child, whom she thought had been given to someone far from here, is still in town. She said that that was harder than thinking he was far away, where she would never see him again. To live with the possibility that she might see him, but not be able to speak to him, to help him, to show her love for him – is more than she can take.
When God gave his Son to us, he also had to stand back. He had to give up parental rights. Paul says that, “although he was in form, God, he did not consider being God something to hold on to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a person and, taking on human form, humbled himself…” He is truly “Emmanuel,” the God who is with us, the one who is on our side. God began a walk in human shoes, as part of the gift of Jesus’ incarnation, so that now he knows as we know, he knows from our standpoint: every shadow that crosses our heart, every desire, every prayer we utter. Paul says, “Even when we do not know how to pray, the Spirit carries to the throne of grace the unutterable longings of our hearts.”
Of the two gifts, which is the greater – the gift, itself, or the walk God took to get it for us?
Luther adds one more item to the mix. And that is the tag on the gift. The one that has your name on it. He says, : “Of what benefit would it be to me if Jesus would have been born a thousand times and it would have been sung daily in my ears that Jesus Christ was born, but that I was never to hear that Jesus Christ was born for me?”
It is an amazing thing that God gave the world such a gift – the gift of life and of love. There is no other gift so great in all the universe as this. It is an even greater gift, that he went so far in this gift, giving up his only Son, that he might enter, himself, into the human condition, that we might have someone who is truly Emmanuel, the God who understands fully, the one who is on our side.
But the greatest gift of all, is that tag that says that this gift is not just for the world, not a gift in general, but his gift to you, that you might have life and love – God’s life and God’s love, that you might forever live in his heart. That you also might have a God who knows you as only he can know you – every secret of your heart, every longing, every shadow – and who understands, who is on your side. He is your child. Your gift. His birth is a gift precisely for you. Your name is on the tag.
May you receive this most wonderful of gifts this
Christmas. Jesus – this babe of