December 26, 2004

First Sunday of Christmas

Matthew 2:1-18

Gift Return

     I made the mistake on Friday afternoon of stopping for lunch at a Chinese restaurant on South Frontage Rd.  It’s a good place to eat, but my timing was off.  I pulled my vehicle into the parking area and was swallowed into a sea of cars – traffic jam!  Local police were stationed at the traffic lights to try to keep things flowing and they were doing a pretty good job, but there’s only so much they can do when that wave of last-minute shoppers hits.  It was a feeding frenzy of gift buying out there.  At least at that point, the retailers were having a very good day.

     Hopefully tomorrow, the first shopping day AFTER Christmas, the parking lots won’t be as full…that’s the day when a lot of those last-minute impulse purchases get returned!  For my wife’s sake, I hope those parking lots aren’t as full…she’s the one who handles gift returns at the store where she works.  Tomorrow will be a busy day for her and she’s sure to come home exhausted from dealing with unhappy customers.

     Do you think the Holy Family kept the gifts they were given on the first Christmas Day?  How about the frankincense and myrrh?  These are resins (dried tree sap) that were usually burned as incense during worship, not exactly the most practical gifts for a poor refugee family that didn’t need something extra to carry (they had a babe-in-arms, you know).  The gold, on the other hand, I imagine they didn’t have any trouble deciding what to do with that!  You could buy frankincense and myrrh at Target this year for $14.99, and it came in a nice gift box.  I don’t know what it sold for in the first century, but I don’t think the wise men left receipts, anyway.

     The example of gift-giving that was part of the first Christmas has certainly followed us to this day.  In Puerto Rico, children look forward to January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas (Epiphany) which they call Three Kings Day.  The night before, they put shoeboxes of grass or hay under their beds for the three king’s horses (there aren’t any camels in Puerto Rico!).  It is believed that out of appreciation, the kings leave gifts behind.  I never left hay for Santa’s reindeer, but I did leave the old guy some milk and cookies.

     The Apostle Paul spoke about gift giving in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9.  This is where he said; “God loves a cheerful giver.”  It’s a passage about generosity.  He goes on to say:

“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”

     “God’s indescribable gift”?  That would be Jesus, God’s gift of a Savior.  Here Paul reveals a simple and yet profound truth – the gift giving didn’t begin with the wise men, it began with God.  The third chapter of the Gospel of John puts it this way:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”

    Christmas is God’s gift of love to the world.  But John’s Gospel also goes on to say:

“The light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

     Paul called God’s gift in Jesus “indescribable”, meaning wonderful beyond imagination.  So why would anyone not want to receive, enjoy and share such a gift?  I suspect that because along with the love, comes great responsibility.  “People loved darkness rather than light” because God’s love brings all things to light.  It not only offers hope and healing and wholeness, it also reveals our unloving deeds, the injustice and violence of our world.  True love exposes evil and if we cant handle that we may not want the light cast in our direction.  Perhaps there are times when the love of God so challenges the way we live, that we’d try to find the receipt to take it back if we could.

     But we can’t.  There is no receipt.  Jesus gave his life on the cross and declared the debt of sin paid in full.  There’s nothing we can do to undo what the Savior has done.  God’s love in Christ is permanent and inescapable.  We are loved by God even when we refuse to love God.  Even when we refuse to love the people in our lives.  Even when we refuse to love ourselves.  That’s what we call an indescribable gift. 

     My parents used to tell me that if I didn’t behave, Santa Claus would leave sticks and ashes in my stocking.  I confess that Kay and I teased our own children with that line.  But a father in Texas wasn’t teasing when he warned his children to behave the week before Christmas this year.  When they didn’t straighten up, he took their gifts and put them up for sale on Ebay.  As his wife wept, he hauled the Christmas tree out of the house.

     Now, some of us parents can almost relate to this one, having been through some pretty frustrating parenting situations ourselves, but before we’re quick to cheer this father on, let’s consider the message he just gave his children for Christmas.  Bad boys and girls don’t get gifts.  Good boys and girls don’t get gifts either - they get compensated for good behavior.  I know a parent who actually pays his son in cash when he behaves well.  That’s not a gift, it’s a business relationship, and not a healthy one at that.

     A gift is love given freely and unconditionally.  God has shown us this in his gift in Christ.  We are at our best when we receive, embrace, enjoy and share this gift as freely as it has been given to us.  Thanks be to God that he does not withhold the gift because we don’t deserve it.  Instead, the gift is given because we need it, need forgiveness, need healing, need hope.  Unconditionally, permanently, the gift is given perfectly for imperfect people like you and me.  Truly, it is “indescribable”.

     The wise men came bearing gifts, but found a gift was already there for them.  I hope they unwrapped the gift and welcomed the Savior into their lives.  I hope you unwrap the gift, too.