Isaiah 9: 2-7; Psalm
96; Titus
2: 11–14; Luke
2: 1–20
This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, which was offered
to St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Thursday, December 24, 2015.
“GIFTS,
GIFT-GIVING, GIFT-RECEIVING”
We
are in the season of gifts, of gift-giving and gift-receiving. (The stores have been encouraging this
activity for a very long time, now!)
Let’s
take a few moments in the midst of the (oftentimes) frenzied pace of preparations
for our Christmas celebration to look at the business of gifts, and of the
giving of gifts, and (hopefully) the receiving of gifts.
Among
the observations we might make about everything connected with gifts are these:
Gifts are connected to relationships:
Giving a gift might affirm a new relationship,
or a new stage in a relationship, as in the giving of an engagement ring, for
example.
Giving a gift might be
a vehicle for mending an impaired or broken relationship…an example of this
would be the husband who comes home to the wife he’s just had an argument,
bearing a dozen red roses. (Feel free to
fill in our own example of an appropriate gift to give or to receive in such a
circumstance!)
Giving a gift might
strengthen a relationship. An example
would be a gift given by a parent, a grandparent or some other adult to a young
child, a gift that affirms that person’s love for the child.
Gift-giving denotes a
level of care, concern, or love between the giver and the receiver.
Giving a gift always
affects a relationship in some way, by confirming a new relationship, by
affirming an existing one, or by strengthening a relationship.
Giving a gift tells us a lot about
the giver:
For example, if a
person gave a very generous gift, it might tell us something about the ways in
which the giver thinks about others in relationship to themselves.
Another example would
be if the gift is especially meaningful to the person receiving a gift. A person who loves trains and railroads would
appreciate a railroad-related gift very highly.
(OK, I am being quite personal in using this example!) Receiving a gift that suits the receiver
especially well shows that the giver has taken the time to get to know the
receiver’s interests, etc.
Now, in this Christmas
season, we remember God’s act of gift-giving, in His giving of His
only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take on our humanity, and to be born in a
manger in Bethlehem.
In fact, it is God’s
gift-giving that is the cause of our own giving and receiving of gifts at
Christmastime.
So, let’s draw some conclusions
about God’s gift-giving activity, an act we remember at Christmastime:
Before Christ came, God
was in a relationship with the people He had chosen for Himself. But that relationship was impaired, broken,
and incomplete. God’s chosen people
regarded God as the God whose laws were to be obeyed, whose laws were to be
followed down to the smallest detail.
But they had forgotten (it seems like) that God is, essentially, a God
of love.
God’s knowledge of
humankind penetrates the way in which God entered into our human
condition: Jesus does not come to us,
riding on the clouds, mounted on a white horse, riding to conquer and to compel
us to follow and obey Him. I suppose
that God could have arranged for Jesus Christ to come to us in such a way. But the way He comes is quietly. He comes in very humble circumstances, being
born in a setting where animals eat (that’s what a manger is, it’s a feeding
trough). He comes in an extremely
vulnerable state - as a baby – and he grows in favor with God and with
humankind, as St. Luke tells us. (See Luke 2:52.)
So it seems, judging
from God’s supreme act of gift-giving, that He knows a lot about us
humans. He knows that we are helpless to
help ourselves out of our impaired relationship with God. He knows that He will have to give the gift
of Himself, that is, to send Jesus the Christ to come and to show us the way to
the Father, for Jesus is the “very image of the invisible God”, as St. Paul
tells us in Colossians 1:15.
So the gift is given,
the gift is given to repair the broken relationship we have with God the
Father. The gift is given to show us
just how important we are to God. The
gift is given to show how deeply God loves each and every one of us.
God’s
gift is given personally, to each one of us, one by one. God stands with His hands holding the
greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ.
He offers this wonderful gift to each one of us, one-by-one. May we respond in love and gratitude, and
accept God’s gift by inviting Jesus Christ into our hearts, perhaps for the
first time. May we, if Jesus Christ has already taken up residence in our
hearts, accept Him anew into a deeper and more intense relationship in the
times that lay before us.
AMEN.
