Gifts For The Christ Child
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle B
Object:
The three wise men. "They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense (or frankincense, from the King James Version) and of myrrh" (Luke 2:11b). Simple words, but if we analyze them carefully (as an email that my wife forwarded to me attests), we discover an important, yet often-overlooked, theological fact: There is no mention of wrapping paper.
If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than, for example, the frankincense."
But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were not wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics: 1) they were wise, and 2) they were men.
As you may know, men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion: This is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I asked. One said that he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than fifteen seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents Daddy wrapped at Christmas," he said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."
The email note says, "I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a section of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this section with a marking pen.) If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by tape.
"On the other hand, if you give my wife a twelve-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.
"My point is that gift wrapping is one of those skills -- like having babies -- that come more naturally to women than to men."
Since this is Epiphany, I can safely presume your wrapping is done ... and undone. Didst thou saveth the paper? Is everything paid for? Someone has said, "If you don't believe Christmas lasts all year through, you don't have a MasterCard." I am always fascinated by the news reports regarding retail sales during the Christmas shopping season. This is the time of year when merchants make fully a third of their annual transactions and half of their profits. Wow!
Of course, it is not hard to figure just how all this gift giving began. It goes all the way back to the story of the wise men and the gifts they brought ... unwrapped ... to the infant king. Say, there's an idea. What about our giving gifts to him instead of just to one another? As the alternative giving question has it, "Whose birthday is it, anyway?"
What to give? After all, Christ is the king of the entire universe -- talk about someone who has everything! What do we have that he could possibly want? Well, let us think about it.
We could give him our service. There is much to be done out there ... if we would only bother to look.
Several years ago a Sunday school class in the church I served in Florida was studying world hunger. As they dug into the problem, they realized that, not only was hunger a "world" problem, but a local one, as well. They investigated the possibilities of what could be done right there in Fort Myers, and the result was the establishment of a what became a very busy soup kitchen. It started out as a project of one Sunday school class, then the congregation, and soon it garnered broad support throughout the entire community. Opportunities for service, opportunities to make a difference in the lives of desperate people, are out there if we only bother to look.
Of course, there are other gifts we can bring ... substance, for example. This would seem to be almost automatic, but for many it is not. Sad to say, Christmas spending, for many, is considerably more than they give to the Lord over the course of an entire year. The problem is that they give, not what is right, but what is left. Did you hear that? Not what is right, but what is left ... whatever is leftover, what they figure they will not need. It is an afterthought. That is too bad, because they miss out on the real blessing that comes with intentional giving.
Think of the joy you feel when you give a gift to a loved one, a gift on which you really went all out ... wrapped, even. As you watch that package being opened and you see the anticipation in the eyes, there is a marvelous rush of excitement that you feel, and it is at least as great as the excitement of the one receiving the gift. When scripture says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," in purely human terms, we know it is true.
Gifts of service, gifts of substance ... appropriate at this special time. But, of course, there is one thing more we should consider as our gift at the manger. And that is the gift of self.
Generations of Christians have heard revival preachers urge, "Give your heart to Jesus." For some, that meant walking down the aisle in a profession faith. For others, it was a brief prayer saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." For all too few, it meant really what it was supposed to mean ... the commitment of all that we are and all that we have to the one who gave his life that we might live. That is what giving your heart really means.
That would be quite a gift to give someone, at Christmas time or any time. It is our response to the gift that has already been offered to us ... the gift of eternal life that is ours through faith in what that little babe of Bethlehem grew up and did for us on Calvary. We are willing to give ourselves as gifts because he gave himself for us.
You are familiar with the name of William Booth, no doubt. If not the name, then the red kettles that have been so ubiquitous over these past weeks. General William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. He was once asked the secret of his remarkable life. He answered, "I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth."
All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to him I freely give.1
Yes, we have enjoyed another Christmas, a gift-giving time (a wrapping time, perhaps), and a time that we set aside to joyously remember all those who mean so much to us. And, if Jesus means what he should to us, we remember him, too -- with our service, our substance, and our very selves.
____________
1. "I Surrender All," words by Judson Van DeVenter, 1896.
If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so: "And lo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman. And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him, she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for next year!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus was more interested in the paper than, for example, the frankincense."
But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that the very first Christmas gifts were not wrapped. This is because the people giving those gifts had two important characteristics: 1) they were wise, and 2) they were men.
As you may know, men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just so somebody else can tear it off. This is not just my opinion: This is a scientific fact based on a statistical survey of two guys I asked. One said that he does wrap gifts, but as a matter of principle never takes more than fifteen seconds per gift. "No one ever had to wonder which presents Daddy wrapped at Christmas," he said. "They were the ones that looked like enormous spitballs."
The email note says, "I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of a deck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrapping paper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I am done folding and taping, you can still see a section of the gift peeking out. (Sometimes I camouflage this section with a marking pen.) If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by tape.
"On the other hand, if you give my wife a twelve-inch square of wrapping paper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mental illness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.
"My point is that gift wrapping is one of those skills -- like having babies -- that come more naturally to women than to men."
Since this is Epiphany, I can safely presume your wrapping is done ... and undone. Didst thou saveth the paper? Is everything paid for? Someone has said, "If you don't believe Christmas lasts all year through, you don't have a MasterCard." I am always fascinated by the news reports regarding retail sales during the Christmas shopping season. This is the time of year when merchants make fully a third of their annual transactions and half of their profits. Wow!
Of course, it is not hard to figure just how all this gift giving began. It goes all the way back to the story of the wise men and the gifts they brought ... unwrapped ... to the infant king. Say, there's an idea. What about our giving gifts to him instead of just to one another? As the alternative giving question has it, "Whose birthday is it, anyway?"
What to give? After all, Christ is the king of the entire universe -- talk about someone who has everything! What do we have that he could possibly want? Well, let us think about it.
We could give him our service. There is much to be done out there ... if we would only bother to look.
Several years ago a Sunday school class in the church I served in Florida was studying world hunger. As they dug into the problem, they realized that, not only was hunger a "world" problem, but a local one, as well. They investigated the possibilities of what could be done right there in Fort Myers, and the result was the establishment of a what became a very busy soup kitchen. It started out as a project of one Sunday school class, then the congregation, and soon it garnered broad support throughout the entire community. Opportunities for service, opportunities to make a difference in the lives of desperate people, are out there if we only bother to look.
Of course, there are other gifts we can bring ... substance, for example. This would seem to be almost automatic, but for many it is not. Sad to say, Christmas spending, for many, is considerably more than they give to the Lord over the course of an entire year. The problem is that they give, not what is right, but what is left. Did you hear that? Not what is right, but what is left ... whatever is leftover, what they figure they will not need. It is an afterthought. That is too bad, because they miss out on the real blessing that comes with intentional giving.
Think of the joy you feel when you give a gift to a loved one, a gift on which you really went all out ... wrapped, even. As you watch that package being opened and you see the anticipation in the eyes, there is a marvelous rush of excitement that you feel, and it is at least as great as the excitement of the one receiving the gift. When scripture says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," in purely human terms, we know it is true.
Gifts of service, gifts of substance ... appropriate at this special time. But, of course, there is one thing more we should consider as our gift at the manger. And that is the gift of self.
Generations of Christians have heard revival preachers urge, "Give your heart to Jesus." For some, that meant walking down the aisle in a profession faith. For others, it was a brief prayer saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." For all too few, it meant really what it was supposed to mean ... the commitment of all that we are and all that we have to the one who gave his life that we might live. That is what giving your heart really means.
That would be quite a gift to give someone, at Christmas time or any time. It is our response to the gift that has already been offered to us ... the gift of eternal life that is ours through faith in what that little babe of Bethlehem grew up and did for us on Calvary. We are willing to give ourselves as gifts because he gave himself for us.
You are familiar with the name of William Booth, no doubt. If not the name, then the red kettles that have been so ubiquitous over these past weeks. General William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. He was once asked the secret of his remarkable life. He answered, "I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth."
All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to him I freely give.1
Yes, we have enjoyed another Christmas, a gift-giving time (a wrapping time, perhaps), and a time that we set aside to joyously remember all those who mean so much to us. And, if Jesus means what he should to us, we remember him, too -- with our service, our substance, and our very selves.
____________
1. "I Surrender All," words by Judson Van DeVenter, 1896.
