A Good Gift- December 8, 2019

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John 3:16-17
Titus 3:4-7 As Connie helped frame the service for today, we are talking about giving. And throughout our series this Advent, we’re looking at the different expectations (from family, culture, and ourselves) that can co-op the heart of Christmas and looking at ways we might reclaim the traditions of decorating, giving, and doing in ways that claim and center the holy.

So, this week our focus is on giving. We all know that giving has been a centralized part of the Christmas holiday. As a culture, we spend extraordinary amounts of money, and sometimes even go to extreme measures to buy and

give gifts. It’s such a big deal that some people sleep outside of stores on Thanksgiving night to be among the first in line on Black Friday. It’s probably not as big a thing in Northern Idaho, as in Southern California, but it’s a thing…and not just for concert tickets! Game boys, Air Jordans, and Tickle Me Elmo, those were the must-have items when I was a kid. And if you go back another decade it was Teddy Ruxpin, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Jelly Shoes. I can’t say much definitively before that because it was before my time, but I imagine some of you remember getting your first cordless phone or microwave for Christmas.

So we’ll do all kinds of crazy things to get the “perfect” gift, but…what is it that makes a great gift? Think about it for yourself, which gifts have been the most memorable? The most valued? I can call to mind various from over the years…though certainly not necessarily one from every year…but there are two that really stand out. One was in 8th grade…there were these jean jackets that had sweatshirt fabric for the sleeves and hood. And the jacket was one color, the sleeves another, and the hood another. And I HAD to have one. I remember asking and asking and then getting one for Christmas. I was so excited. I remember wearing it to school. But I also remember that like many fashion trends, the trend changed and it wasn’t more than a year or two before I stopped wearing it all together.

The other gift was not one you could unwrap. Instead, it was the gift of time and affirmation. In my house growing up, the bedrooms were in one half of the house and the living room, family room, dining room, and kitchen were the other half. On Christmas morning you couldn’t come out from the hallway to the rest of the house until the designated time. And you couldn’t go into the living room where the tree and gifts and the stockings were until everything was ready and mom and dad said so. But one year, when I was probably 8 or 9, my dad took me into the living room early and he sat me on his lap as he sat in the wooden rocking chair and he affirmed me. He simply told me how much he loved me and what he loved about me. I don’t remember his exact words at this point or any of the particulars, but I remember that moment of being together and feeling loved, and the fact that he took extra special time out to tell me how valuable I was to him. Those simple moments cost him nothing. No waiting in line. No dollars and cents. But they gave me everything and they’ve lasted a lifetime. And it wasn’t every year. It was just that one Christmas. Now, my parents affirmed me regularly, my dad still does, but, that moment, that gift of Christmas stuck. And I’m grateful.

So again I’ll ask, what gifts have mattered the most to you? What’s the thing you really wanted and got? And what’s maybe something unexpected that has meant even more? Were they expensive gifts? Or homemade ones? Or the gift of time? Of togetherness? Of love shared?

As we think about Christmas this year, I want us to think about the gifts that might really matter to those we love. They may not cost us time inline or any money. They may be simple, or homemade, or even intangible…and yet they may be the gifts that last a lifetime.
As we worked on this service, I searched the scriptures for passages about love and gifts and the one that kept coming up was John 3:16-17.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

The other way I hear it is, “For God so loved the world that God gifted the world God’s Son.” Jesus is a gift to us. A gift of love. A gift of self. God gives us God in a human package so we can see God, touch God, ask God questions, share stories with God, be prayed over by God….all of that comes in the gift of Jesus. As we focus on the gift of Christmas…it’s Jesus….for the way he shows us, true love…by including those who are normally left out, by rejecting legalism in favor of wholeness and community, by challenging the things we always thought in favor of deeper and broader understandings of God.
I know the incarnation is kind of big and grand and not very do-able in terms of “I could give a gift like that.” But…what God does comes simply…as a baby…a fragile tiny human being to us. God gives us the gift of presence—being with us. God shares God’s personal time with us. God’s gift is both grand….and ordinary. After all, being present is one of the gifts all of us can give. We may have to adjust our schedules, but regardless of our budget, or our ambition, or our age, we can be with each other—giving the gift of presence.
The passage from Titus tells us that God gives us the gifts because of who God is…merciful and kind, not because we’ve earned it, or because we are more special than someone else, but simply because God cares deeply enough to give us God’s best gift.