What a lousy gift. Who bangs on a drum for a baby? What mother says, “Yeah, that’s an
appropriate gift for a baby!”? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, it’s a sweet story about a boy who had nothing of monetary value to
give and so he banged away on his drum for a baby, and it’s a beautiful gift
because it came from the heart and it’s all he had to give, but let’s just go
ahead and name the gift for what it was – a total dud, or perhaps a total thud.
There is a history of giving bad gifts at
Christmas. Expensive for the giver,
maybe; awkward for the recipient, likely, and the only one who appreciates the
gift is the retailer who sold it.
Welcome to week 3 of the
Advent Conspiracy. Recognizing the mess
that Christmas has become in our culture, we are turning Christmas upside-down.
The conspiracy began with
the encouragement for us to Worship Fully: to surrender our hearts and lives to
Jesus. Too often during Advent and
Christmas, we find ourselves worshiping the gods of What’s-Under-the-Tree and
What’s-In-It-For-Me. Worshiping fully
invites us to find our meaning and purpose in Jesus.
Last week, we looked at
how spending less on gifts can help us focus more on God. Christmas is about the stuff because we make
it about the stuff. Most of us have more
than enough stuff. Our closets are
jam-packed with stuff. We can’t park our
cars in our garages because we have too much stuff. We rent storage units where we keep all the
rest of the stuff that won’t fit in our houses.
Too often, we complain
about how materialistic our kids and grandkids are, while we buy them all the
material stuff they ask for. But, if we
really want to pass on different values, how about we change our behavior, and
spend less?
But then, what if we gave
more? Maybe you’re thinking, “You just
told us to spend less, and now you’re telling us to give more?” That’s right.
Spending less isn’t a goal in and of itself. Giving more is the other side of the coin of
spending less. Spending less allows us
to give more.
Like God does. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to John
Chapter 1. I invite you to stand for the
reading of the Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
2 The Word was with God in the beginning.
3 Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word
nothing came into being.
What came into being
4 through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
2 The Word was with God in the beginning.
3 Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word
nothing came into being.
What came into being
4 through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
14 The Word
became flesh
and made his home among us.
We have seen his glory,
glory like that of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.
and made his home among us.
We have seen his glory,
glory like that of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.
These opening lines of
John’s Gospel are a different take on the Christmas story. Whereas Matthew and Luke begin with narrative
about people, places, and events, John begins with theology about who Jesus is
and always has been in relation to God, moving quickly to who Jesus is in
relation to us.
It’s a story of giving. The tradition of giving at Christmas is
rooted in the reality that God gives at Christmas. But God doesn’t give stuff. God gives more – God gives himself.
In the beginning was the Word. “The Word” comes from the Greek, logos, and it means the eternal
self-expression of God. “The Word” here
refers to Jesus Christ.
Think of it this way: we
use words to express ourselves. We
write, we speak, we use words. When God
wants to express something, God also uses words: words of scripture, words of
prophets, words of teachers and preachers, words of wise friends, words of
songs and poems, and indeed, all of these words tell us a bit about who God is
and what God desires. But, all of these
words pale in comparison to “The Word,” who is Jesus. God’s greatest expression is not in words but
in “The Word.”
“The Word of God” is a
person, not a book. “The Word of God” is
Jesus. God’s clearest self-expression is
in Jesus. If you want to see God, get a
good look at Jesus. But as long as
Jesus, “The Word” remained in Heaven, we’d never have that opportunity.
And so, the Word became flesh and made his home among us. Jesus, God himself, took on our humanity with
all its frailties and brokenness and weakness and pain, and moved into our
world. Why does that matter so
much? Because, on our own, we humans can
make a real mess of things. Given to our
own devices, we can be selfish and corrupt, using violence and injustice to
serve ourselves at the expense of others.
Without God, the world can be a pretty dark place.
And so, God comes to us in
the person of Jesus, who takes on our flesh, who moves into our world and makes
his home with us. Jesus comes to us as
light in our darkness, and though the darkness is real, it cannot overcome the
light of Christ. God gives his very
presence to us in Jesus; if you want to see God, get a good look at Jesus. If you want to see God’s heart, God’s love,
God’s will, God’s desire, get up close and personal with Jesus. We can best understand and know and relate to
God by understanding and knowing and relating to Jesus.
It’s a story of
giving. The tradition of giving at
Christmas is rooted in the reality that God gives at Christmas. But God doesn’t give stuff. God gives more – God gives himself.
When I think back to the best gifts I’ve received, all
of them have some significant connection with the giver – gifts that were given
as if the presence of that person was also part of the gift.
When Ashley and I got
married, we had a small, intimate wedding with 525 guests. You can imagine that receiving gifts was part
of what happened in that. We got a lot
of stuff – some of it very nice stuff, most of it stuff we wanted.
As we opened our gifts, we
carefully kept a list of what we received and who gave it to us so we could
thank them. One of our favorite gifts
was from some retired friends of ours who also are a clergy couple. The gift was their collection of liturgical accessories they had used and worn in their
ministry together, and they gave them to us in the hopes that we would use them
as they had.
They have very little
monetary value, yet to this day they remain among our most prized possessions,
because they represent both the love and trust of these friends of ours, as we
use them when we lead worship together as they once did. We think of them every time we put them on,
it is as if they are present with us every time we use them.
Friends, that’s what makes
for a good gift. When some piece of the
giver comes along with the gift, when the giver is present with us in the
gift. God
gave himself to the world. God gave his
very presence in Jesus Christ – as people of faith, what if we gave the same
way this Christmas?
We make a living by what
we get. The question that defines Christmas for too many of us is
“What did you get?” What if we defined
the significance of our Christmas with a different question – “What did you
give?”
The scriptures say it is
more blessed to give than receive. In my
experience, that’s true. For Ashley’s
birthday in October, I gave her the surprise of
staying in a suite with a private balcony overlooking the Grand Canyon, when
she thought we were staying at the Motor Lodge ½ a mile away. I can’t tell you how excited I was to give
her that gift. As the giver, I think I
derived greater joy from planning that gift, anticipating that gift, surprising
her with that gift than she had in receiving that gift, although, let’s be
honest, she was pretty happy and nominated be for husband-of-the-year, and I
don’t mind telling you, but I think I’ve got a pretty good shot!
It’s fun to give!
It’s more blessed to give than to receive. Why? Because
God’s a giver. God so loved the world HE GAVE his Son. It doesn’t get much more generous than that! God is a generous giver, and we are made in
God’s image. So when we give, we reflect
the image of God, which brings glory to God.
The more generously we give, the more we reflect God’s image, and the
more God is glorified. What is a greater
blessing than to reflect God’s image and glorify God?
God is a giver, and we are
made in God’s image. It is more blessed
to give than receive. As people of
faith, we are called this Christmas to give as God gives.
One of the ways we’ll be
giving more as a church is through our Christmas offering. Our Christmas offering will be split between Greensboro
Urban Ministry, which helps the most vulnerable in our greater community, and
the Ann Pridgen Emergency Fund, a fund of our church that helps members in
financial crisis.
And so here’s my challenge to you for our Christmas offering: whatever you
spend on Christmas, give an equal amount to the Christmas offering. If you spend $500 on gifts and parties and
decorations, give $500 to the Christmas offering. If you spend $100, give $100; if you spend
$1000, give $1000. You get the picture.
The entirety of what is given on Christmas Eve will go into our Christmas
offering. Christmas is the story of
God’s greatest gift to the world, and so as you prepare to come to church on
Christmas Eve to celebrate that gift, to give thanks and worship the One who
gave you that gift, to consider how the presence of God in Christ has brought
light into the darkness of your world, bring a gift to help put the light of
Christ into the darkness of someone else’s world.
My experience is that people want to be part of something that makes a
positive difference. People want to be
part of a church that thinks more of others than it does of itself. Let’s show that we’re that kind of a
church. Let’s be the light God has
called us to be.
If you won’t be here Christmas Eve, you can make your Christmas offering
any Sunday in December – just mark “Christmas offering” on the memo or on the
outside of your envelope. As we spend
less on ourselves, our families, and friends, we will give more to those in the
greatest need.
The idea behind “Giving
More” is not to give more stuff to those who already have lots of stuff. Jesus wasn’t born so we could all have
stuff. Jesus wasn’t born so that who
already have lots of stuff can have even more.
The idea behind “Giving More” is to give more of ourselves. To give more of our time, our experience, our
attention.
At Christmas, God
gave. He gave himself in the person of
Jesus. He gave light into darkness.
We spend less so we can
give more. We spend less on stuff so we
can give more of ourselves. We spend
less on presents, so we can give more of our presence, and spread God’s light
to the places of greatest darkness.
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