Christmas – The gift is in the giving!

Much of the Holidays are surrounded with the giving and receiving of gifts.  Giving and Receiving are ingrained into the very way of our existence.  You can’t just breathe in for instance.  You can’t just receive without giving.  When I was in Israel the locals would say that the Dead Sea is “dead” because it only receives from the rivers around it.  It gives nothing back!  Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.  Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, “truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  For all of them have given from their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had.”  Jesus had no interest in judging the people, only in observing this women’s heart.  She was giving from a certain mindset, not just a way of thinking but more importantly a way of being!  She gave from a different reality - that of the kingdom of God.

The Biblical way of generosity goes something like this:  EVERYTHING we have is a gift; even the means to earn a living is a gift!  Every breath we take and every talent we have are all gifts from the grace of God.  So giving is the natural act of sharing these gifts with our community in the kingdom of God.  Jesus actually talks more on the subject of possessions vs. anything else – WHY; because Jesus knows our hearts.  He knows we often serve our “stuff”.  He wants us to put God first in our lives and to live from that reality.  Paul tells us that it is better to give than to receive.  In the Greco - Roman culture giving was seen in a reciprocal way.  One gives with the expectation of later receiving something in return – an if/then mindset!  Our culture operates in much the same way.  At Christmas many of us give a gift expecting one in return.  Some of us even look at God as a kind of vending machine: we put in our time, money or prayers and we want something from God in return.

In order to be a giving person we must first live into that reality.  It is in the very act of giving that we become generous - not in thinking about it or by looking at our finances.  Our Rituals: like stewardship, advent, Christmas…and every Sunday are opportunities for us to enter into a practice which shapes our hearts and conversely shapes our reality!  When our hearts reveal that everything we have is a gift, then giving becomes natural.  It’s not ours to hold but ours to share.  This is how we connect with one another - this is how we connect with God!  Generosity comes from the heart - It is never about money!  Emerson said “Jewels and Rings are not gifts but apologies for gifts.  The only true gift is giving a portion of thyself!”  God wants the same thing.  God wants us, our hearts, even as He reaches out with all that God has in the person of Jesus.  God’s being lives into the reality that it is more blessed to give than to receive!

There is more than money involved in this story of Jesus and the woman in the Temple.  It is a principle of life, it’s the kingdom of God made manifest – it is the face of God’s Grace.  All I am is His.  God owns it all. There is nothing in my life that does not first belong to Him.  When we give to others in selfless acts and when we share communal love with one another we come to see that the kingdom of God is within reach - within us.  This is where God is - Emmanuel - God with us.

Jesus models this heart of giving by giving all of himself for us.  Each Sunday when we enter the church and we give of ourselves - to each other and to God.  We offer presents upon the altar.  We share in the sacrificial feast - given in love to a community of love.  When experienced this way, each Sunday too becomes the act of giving and receiving – as natural as breathing in and out.

Here we come to realize that God is, was, and will be with us always in the giving of oneself!  We remember each Sunday and we remember each Christmastime.  This peace...this stillness...this feeling of being at One with all of creation.  This is the real gift we give to our children and to one another.  Just as this is the gift that God gives to each one of us.  This is Christmas!  Right here is Emmanuel - Right here God is truly with us.

Merry Christmas!

Your faithful servant,

carmen