Bringing Our Gifts
This was a frustrating Christmas for me… and it all had to do with cards and gifts. Over the past fifty years, I have developed a wonderful pattern of sending out my Christmas cards… when I bought them… when the envelopes were addressed… when I wrote my Christmas letter… when I added personal notes and mailed them all out. I also had developed a beautifully effective and efficient method of shopping for gifts… complete with a timetable for wrapping them… and a schedule for shipping or delivering them. What I learned this year is that… as a pastor who is working during the holidays… I cannot follow the same timetable I used when the holidays meant time off for me. Planning and supporting church activities and special worship services for the holidays means that the time I used to spend shopping for and giving gifts is now taken up with other things. And, while I knew that the holiday season is normally a spike point for personal trauma and illness… a time when the frequency of incidents of personal trauma and illness is always higher … mostly due to stress and fatigue… it did not occur to me that, perhaps, I should be prepared to spend much more time at the hospital and counseling others than I might have done in the years before I became a pastor. And it did not occur to me that this might also have an impact on my ability to follow my old timetable for Christmas cards and Christmas gifts. At this time, I can say with great authority that about half of you have received a Christmas card from me… and the rest of you might get them sometime before Easter!
The three wisemen saw his star in the East and they came to Bethlehem to find Mary, Joseph, and the Baby. They came bringing gifts. Now, there are lots of questions about this story that I cannot answer. History tells us that the wisemen arrived at Herod’s palace when Jesus was more than a year old… perhaps, almost two years old. That’s why Herod had all of the children under the age of two living in Bethlehem killed… the “Slaughter of the Innocents” they called it. But I don’t know why Mary and Joseph and the Child Jesus would have been in Bethlehem at the time. After all, they just went there for the census that was taken. Their real home was in Nazareth… and a year… or two years… seems to be a long time to stay in Bethlehem for that purpose. Maybe Joseph found work there as a carpenter and they stayed for a time.
The Bible doesn’t say that they were still in the stable, but that is the way they are always depicted on our Christmas cards. Perhaps, by then, they had built their own home… or added a room onto a relative’s house. Joseph did have relatives in that area. His family was originally from there. Maybe they were living with his father. Lots of adult children are living with their parents these days. Maybe it was true then as well.
What we do know is that Herod sent the wisemen to Bethlehem. But we know that the star that brought them to Herod went before them and led them to the place where the child was… and he might not have been in Bethlehem. And, when they arrived at the place where the child was, they entered the house… not the stable… and offered their gifts of gold… and frankincense… and myrrh.
There are three things about the wisemen’s gifts that I want you to notice today. First of all, they were late… a fact that I take great comfort in… especially in this year when all of the Christmas gifts that I am giving will be late. Then, notice that the gifts were gold and frankincense and myrrh… not exactly gifts designed to appeal to a one-year-old child… not something that could entertain a young child. Finally, notice that the gifts were all material things… things (should I say it?) things that money can buy.
They brought their gifts late. For all of us who have missed a birthday… an anniversary… or some other significant day in another person’s life… it is wonderful to read a story about gifts that are late… and there does not seem to be any negative repercussion. It’s not that the gifts were intentionally late. The wisemen did purchase the gifts on time… it just took them a long time to deliver them. They set out on their journey when the star appeared in the sky. It just took them some time to find the right place… the place where their gifts were to be given to the Child… to God.
How many of us have gifts to give to God… to the church… and have not yet found the place to use them… to give them to God? It always gives me a great deal of joy to witness an older person in the church making the commitment to give a significant portion of their time and talents to the church. Perhaps I have an affinity for that because I was much older than most of my classmates at seminary. Today, it will give me a great deal of joy to participate in ordaining Eloise Horak as an elder. Not that I can say that Eloise Horak has ever been inactive or uninvolved in church matters. But, at a time when many are sitting back and allowing younger people to take on the bulk of the work, Eloise is making a three year commitment to share her gifts with the church as a member of our Session. And we will all benefit from her wisdom… her maturity… and the gifts that she brings.
Our Presbyterian Book of Order clearly says that when positions are filled on our Session, “nominations shall be made by a representative nominating committee of active members of the church, which shall itself include both women and men, giving fair representation to person of all age groups and of all racial ethnic member and person with disabilities who are members of the congregation.” This committee is also bound by our Book of Order to present nominees who also represent the full spectrum of our membership. It is never too late. You are never to old to share your gifts with God… for God.
The wisemen brought gold, frankincense and myrrh… things of great value… but not the gifts that we typically give to children. Think about it. The wisemen could have brought gifts that would appeal to a young child… even a child of royal birth… a rocking horse…a stuffed animal… a pony… a little dump truck… or the first century equivalent of a dump truck… clothes… a video game… or the first century equivalent of a video game… but they did not bring gifts for a child. They brought gifts for the person that child was to become in the future… gifts fit for a king… a ruler… the Lord of all.
Sometimes, I wonder whether we do a disservice to our children by giving them gifts that are “age appropriate”… whether we hinder their development by not seeing beyond where they are today to where they might be ten or twenty years down the road. How would our gift-giving change if we were to give them something that does not say, “Here’s what you are today… enjoy it,” but, instead, says “Here’s what I believe you are capable of becoming… grow into the gift.” Do children really need anything beyond what we would normally provide for their daily lives… and the challenge of the possibilities that the future holds for them? I wonder how Mary and Joseph talked to Jesus about his future… about the things he could do when he grew up. I wonder how they shared with him the knowledge of the gifts that the wisemen brought. I wonder how Jesus responded to those conversations. We will never know, but I do know that we shape our children with every conversation that we have… and every gift that we give them. Are we teaching them “instant gratification” or a way of thinking about their future… and all the possibilities that lie before them?
Finally, the wisemen brought things… material things… things that money can buy. What’s that all about? One of the people who went with us to the Vatican exhibit shared with me later that the part of the exhibit that did not fit for her was the evidence of enormous wealth… the riches of the Roman Catholic church… garnered through the ages from those who brought their money… their jewels… to the church in honor of their God. It did not fit for her, because Jesus’ ministry was not about wealth… or money… or the things that money can buy… it was about serving others… about giving to others in Christ’s name. If the church through the ages… and the Christians who were its members… and remember that for 1500 of its 2000 year history… the Christian church was the Roman Catholic church… if the church and its members had truly given its all to others in the name of God, would there be any treasures for the Vatican to exhibit? Probably not. But before we rush to judgment… and there are many in this congregation and elsewhere who criticize the Roman Catholic church and its wealth… let’s take a hard look at the wisemen… and a look at ourselves.
The wisemen brought gold… and I can hear our Finance Committee saying “Yes!” in a loud voice… and frankincense and myrrh. Spices like frankincense and myrrh were a valuable commodity in Jesus’ day. They could be stored for long periods of time, were easily transported, and could be exchanged for gold in any country without working about currency exchange or fluctuating exchange rates. Today, we might give stocks and bonds instead… or a gift card that can be exchanged for merchandise or cash. But, whatever the gift and whoever the giver, the motivation is the same. What is the most valuable thing that I can give that can be used by the individual to whom I am giving it when I know nothing about that individual or what his or her needs might be… both now and in the future? Haven’t we all been guilty of giving cold, hard cash… or its equivalent… when we must give a gift and do not know what to give?
Christians through the ages have done exactly that… they have given gold, because it was all that they thought they had. Christians today are far more likely to drop a check in the offering plate than to volunteer to serve food in a soup kitchen… or build houses for disaster relief. Certainly, the Bible tells us to bring the first fruits of our labor and give them to God. But that is not the gift that God treasures most. Over and over again, in both the Old and the New Testament, God tells us that what God wants is our hearts. In Psalm 51, David tells us that God wants our hearts more than any sacrifice. Last night, in our Watch Night service, we talked about David’s son, King Solomon. Solomon asked God for the wisdom to discern what is right, so that he could live a life that was pleasing to God. God was so pleased with his request that he gave Solomon what he requested… and riches… and honor… and long life.
We don’t know if, as they were giving their gifts to Jesus… to the King of all Creation… whether the wisemen also gave their lives to him. It was a well-known custom for all loyal subjects to bring gifts and to pledge their undying devotion to a new king. Did the wisemen do that before returning home to their own country? We don’t know. We only know that this is what God asks of us… to give ourselves to him. Old or young… rich or poor… able-bodied or disabled… the best gift that we can give is the gift of ourselves. When you remember the scene of the wisemen giving gift, remember that God was the first God. God gave himself to us. But never doubt that you are a gift from God… and the gift that is most precious to God. Give yourself to God. God has waited long enough. Amen.
Matthew 2:1-12