Gifts
01-04-09
Ah, I really love the story of the three wise astronomers following the star to find Jesus. You know they found him about two years after the fact. That of course is why Herod had all the male children of a certain age killed. Ever wonder what took them so long? Granted they had to travel a long distance, but we all know what would have happened if there had been three wise Women instead of three wise men don’t you? The women have an idea… If this morning’s story were about three wise women, they would have asked for directions, arrived on time to help deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, fed and watered the animals, made a casserole, and given practical gifts.
Mom’s and grandma’s are especially good at giving practical gifts…let me rephrase that statement, in my family mom and grandma are practical gift-givers. For many years I would find my stocking filled with useful item like socks, underwear, hairclips or brushes. When I planned a trip to Europe, I got luggage. When I moved into my first apartment, I got dishes. As I get older, my dad has also become a practical gift giver. For instance, the year I moved into my first parsonage I went home with a new tool set, complete with all the extras like shop towels, grease remover, and duck tape. My second year in my first home, my dad put a new can-opener in my stocking after having to go across the street to the church at Thanksgiving to open a can of green beans. I was surprised that I actually had to purchase my own vacuum cleaner the third year in that house. I love novel gifts, but I really appreciate practical gifts. Of course, that appreciation has grown with age.
A couple of years ago, I received an unusual, unpractical gift: a pretty piece of glass something. What? A paper weight? A candle holder? Just a decoration? Have you ever received that kind of gift? A gift you’re not quite sure what to do with? Will it look better on the bookshelf; or in the garage? Still, these types of gifts reflect the spontaneous, unpredictable giving that makes for joyful surprises. Sometimes the most practical gifts are not always the best gifts to give. In the movie, "Father of the Bride", a young groom-to-be gives his fiancé a supremely practical gift - a blender. Her response: she runs up to her room, slams the door, and bursts into tears. She even calls their wedding off. Why? Part of the answer may lie in her desire to receive an unpredictable, spontaneous gift that stems from a romantic, carefree heart of love instead of a sensible, useful gift.
This morning we read about three magi who travel from the East bearing expensive gifts for the Child-King, Jesus. You know it is really because of these magi who appear in Matthew’s gospel, that the whole tradition of gift giving got its start. According to Matthew, after their long journey from the East, when they at last arrive in the little town of Bethlehem led by a brilliant star, and "they went into the house, and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They took their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, out of their luggage and presented these gifts to the newborn king." (Matthew 2:11).
Did you notice the presents that these three wise MEN brought for baby Jesus? Yeah…. No extra blankets, no food, no baby toys, or baby’s first sandals. The gifts they bring are pretty strange gifts for a baby, even if he is considered royalty. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Of course, a little gold here and little gold there never hurt anyone’s cause. But Frankincense and Myrrh are spices used to embalm the dead. They were perfumes to dress up a corpse. Why would a newborn need expensive gifts used for embalming? Perhaps these wise men could foresee the tumultuous future of the baby Jesus, the suffering he would endure as an adult, the painful death he would experience on the cross. Perhaps, they are the best gifts the magi knew to give?
No matter how we understand the magi’s gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, they still seem to be odd gifts to give a baby. They are not at all the practical kinds of presents that my mom or dad would have given to a baby. When you think about it, the baby Jesus received those pretty, glass thing-a-ma-bob type of gifts that would look great on a mantle or a coffee table, or come in particularly hand should he die prematurely. I at least hope the perfume bottles were pretty. A more thoughtful, practical gift might have been food, clothing, or toys. I mean give the kid some diapers, a savings bond, a nice warm blanket maybe.
This got me thinking though, what kind of gifts do we give God? Mostly practical things, I suspect. Tithes and offerings, carefully crafted prayers, like "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.,." We give God our voice during the hymns, hugs, a smile or two. We show up and give God lots of energy on Sunday mornings, we repair blinds, and roofs, and fix potluck dishes. These are all practical gifts, the expected gifts that we need to make our church’s mission and vision a reality. Without our practical gifts, the church facility and resources for ministry would not be a possibility. As a family, we do really well as practical gift-givers.
But don’t go to the magi to find out how to offer God those kinds of gifts; instead, go to the magi to discover how to offer God seemingly useless, unpredictable, spontaneous, give-what you-have kind of gifts; gifts that erupt from the heart and tell others a little about ourselves. More specifically, give God yourself. That’s what this story of the magi tells us. Might be something that shouts, paperweight, or it might say "no, I’ve never taught a class before, but helping our children is something I think I can do." Or, "I’m retired and have served in this church faithfully for many years; I don’t have much to give you, God, but I’ll give what I can, I give myself to help this congregation grow and thrive."
The most beautiful, precious gift we can give God is ourselves. And we all know that giving of ourselves includes our grace, compassion, love, talent, patience, prayer, honesty, wisdom, and humor, as well as our guilt, our dishonesty, our unfair judgments, our impatience, our silence, our worries, our general cranky, ugliness. Those components shape us, and we are precious in the sight of our Creator. Ourselves, our whole selves, is a gift to give God and to each other.
When we are not honest about who we are, when we are not willing to give our gifts to God no matter how silly they may seem, we do not pay homage to Christ. We know how to give the practical gifts, how to function within our community, but if we only share our glory, then we are disrespecting ourselves, each other, and above all God. The Magi gave what they had, they gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and despite the thousands of miles they had to travel, and the great danger to their own lives, they gave of themselves, no matter how silly that may seem to us, the reader.
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran an interesting story several Holiday seasons ago about the homeless shelters in the city of Philadelphia. The story was talking about a national trend that happens in homeless shelters all over the nation. It seems all the soup kitchens are overcrowded at Christmas, but not with the homeless and impoverished. No, they’re overcrowded and have even had to turn away church groups who wanted to lend a helping hand during the Christmas season. The article went on to say that those same kitchens work at times with a skeleton crew much of the rest of the year for lack of just one church group coming to help them. What would our gifts of spontaneity look like? Let’s offer God gifts that come from spontaneity, from gratitude, not merely from warm feelings and holiday seasons. To all the wonderful gifts that we offer God each Sunday-our worship, our voice, and the words of our liturgy; to all of our prayers and the check we drop in the plate add one more thing: ourselves (our full selves). God gave us what God had, his most precious gift, in the form of a baby in the manger. We are bold to say that we have seen the fullness of God. God has given himself. We are asked to do the same.
Let your Spirit, your energy, your spontaneity rise to the surface. Give of yourself. You know I was delighted as I watched our Christmas pageant this year at our Christmas Eve service. Several animals, angels, and shepherds all proceed up the aisle to the manger. The magi brought in pretty wrapped gifts to give to the Christ child. But for those who looked past the script-some real gold, frankincense, and myrrh was being offered. While all of us adults were singing Silent Night, with predictable, polite meter, something broke loose up before the altar. Right in the middle of the third verse a little angel cut loose with a dance. The little angel lifted her arms full of exhilaration. That wasn’t scheduled in the script (I checked) It was totally spontaneous and freely offered. Thanks be to God. Amen
Blessings,
Melissa