Great Gifts

John 1:1-18

January 3, 2015

Christmas 2

What’s your favorite gift you’ve been given?

My favorite gift growing up,

or the ones I remember were

projects or games that I had to work on later,

I had a wood chopping machine

that would cut up popsicle sticks

that you could build with

and a knitting machine that would knit tubes

and a clay making

Christmas has become a time for gift giving and receiving.

For some people, it’s gotten out of hand

with black Friday, and excessive spending,

or that woman who got her three kids 300 presents

that covered her whole tree.

But at its heart, gift giving at Christmas

is a positive symbol.

A gift is something that is given freely

without expectation of payment ,

it is given as a sign of affection and love.

It’s hard to pin down the exact history

of gift giving at Christmas.

There are many points and traditions

for the origin of it, not just one.

  

A significant one comes from

St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra

he lived in the third century

He was known for giving secret gifts to people,

His feast day was celebrated on December 6^th,

and people shared gifts on that day,

but with the Reformation

and the push not to venerate Saints,

the gift-giving of St. Nicholas day was

moved to Christmas.

In Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, Croatia

and other European countries,

the bringer of gifts was the Christ-kind,

or the baby Jesus himself.

La-Befana, the Christmas Witch

He would supposedly come secretly in the night

so that no one could see him and give gifts to children.

Some of the traditions mention

the Magi who followed the star,

found Jesus and offered him gifts.

Spain and Latin American countries celebrate

with gift-giving on January 6th

which is Three Kings Day.

In Italy, a witch named Befana

who supposedly told the Magi where Jesus was,

would bring gifts to children

on the eve of the Epiphany.

  

And some say that the tradition of gift giving in December

actually started before Christianity with the

ancient pagan holiday of Saturnalia

which was celebrated during the winter solstice

on December 19 people would exchange gifts.

It’s hard to point to one strain or line

of the tradition of giving gifts during this time,

Which tells me that it is an intractable part

of this time of year,

this time that we have come to celebrate

the birth of Jesus, God’s presence with us.

Christmas.

Because at its root, Christmas itself is a gift itself:

Something that is given freely

without expectation of payment ,

it is given as a sign of affection and love

Jesus is a gift to us from God.

and this gift was known before the foundation of the world

The Word became flesh and lived among us.

God gave God’s self to us in the form of Jesus.

Free and without obligation.

Now, like any gift we get,

we can put in the back of a drawer

and forget about.

Or we can open this gift

and understand and use it.

Even when we’ve opened it,

it takes a long time to figure out how to assemble it

and we’ve lose the instructions a few times,

and we get frustrated and put it aside,

and then when we’ve put it together,

we have to figure out how to use it.

But it is a wonderful gift that keeps us occupied our whole lives.

Jesus is our gift from God.

This gift has inspired us

and changed us and made us better humans.

Even though the people that follow Jesus

have sometimes done some strange and terrible things,

I believe the world has grown and become better for

because of Jesus.

The Word became flesh.

God’s love became human and came to live with us.

God’s vast, expansive, infinite, indestructible love

has been given to us unconditionally.

That is the real gift that we get and we give.

And that gift has been

ours since the beginning of time.

Jesus is the answer to our prayers and deepest wishes.

Whether we know it or not,

this is the gift we really want.

The love of God made real.