I know, it’s a little bit early to be talking about Christmas: it’s not even Thanksgiving yet…but I have a really good reason for being over a month early … because everyone knows that the Christmas shopping season kicks off this Friday (Black Friday) and continues through the end of the year where we swap around duplicates, unwanteds, and gift cards for the perfect gift.
I remember what this time of year was like growing up: I pulled out the Sears catalogue and began to make a wish list of all the things I wanted. I tried to have a good mix of things from quite a few things $5 under to a few big items that I knew just weren’t going to happen…even now, my kids love to pre-Christmas shop from American Girl dolls Toys-R-Us or LEGO catalogs. Even I have been asked to put a gift list on Amazon so that people can know what I want for Christmas.
Is my family alone? Any of you plan on shopping over the next few weeks for Christmas presents? Many of us do. Did you know that in 2010 adult consumers in the US spent an average of $830 on holiday food, decorations and presents? In a 2 parent household, that means the AVERAGE is about $1600 (many of my statistics and ideas came from Michael Slaughter’s book “Christmas is not Your Birthday.”) Many Americans add much of that $1600 to the average household credit card balance of $15,788 at an APR of roughly 14.67%. Merry Christmas everyone!
Now here’s the problem I have with all of this. Let’s imagine that today, November 20th is your birthday and that I want to celebrate it. How might I do that? Throw a party? Buy gifts? Send a card? Nope--- this is not what I choose to do. Instead, I am going to have a birthday party for you today, but not send you an invitation. I am going to invite all my friends to give ME presents to celebrate the occasion. AND I am going to expect (and send) Happy Birthday cards from all of the people I know and haven’t written since last year.
Tell me: how might you feel about the way I choose to celebrate your birthday? Wouldn’t care too much for it. Well, I imagine that Jesus doesn’t care too much for the fact that this is EXACTLY the way we behave when we celebrate his birth.
Okay, here’s the truth: December 25th is highly unlikely to be the day that Jesus was born. From the Gospel account of the story, the shepherds were keeping watch over their flock in the fields…not a winter-time activity. More likely in the spring when it was warmer and when they would have to be concerned about the little ones that had just been born.
December 25th was just the day that the Catholic church would celebrate the Mass of Jesus Birth – you know the “Christ Mass.” But now we have chosen this day to mark the birth of Jesus, and I doubt that any amount of solid logic will stir people away from it. The problem is that we get so caught up in the “Christmas Spirit” that we lose sight of Jesus. Again, reality check: we really celebrate consumerism more than Christ at Christmas.
What do you imagine Jesus thinks about all of this? I think that we have a pretty good idea. So, before we jump headfirst into another spending season, I thought we might take a few moments to consider: What would Jesus want for his birthday?
How many of us struggle to find the perfect gift for someone else? Looking for that thing that is just the right size that shows that we are not stingy, but also shows that we aren’t foolishly spending money we don’t have? The hardest part is having to give a gift that is almost perfect: we hope it will be, but we just don’t know. Maybe that’s why we wrap our gifts. If the other person doesn’t like it, at least we gave them a sense of anticipation! But if we KNOW what the other person wants, then we can give it to them with confidence; we just know that they will love it!
What if we knew exactly what Jesus wanted for Christmas? Would we get it for him this year?? I believe that we have our answer in the scripture lesson for today (Matthew 25:31-46). In the day of final Jesus’ final return, everyone will be judged. Notice that the picture is clear: everyone will be divided into two groups, either sheep or goats. I want us to notice what the two groups have in common. Both groups were unclear as to when they did (or failed to do) the things that Jesus describes. It is because that they didn’t see a man with pierced feet and hands sitting in need and ignore him…they did not help that person down the street because they saw a crown of thorns on their heads. They didn’t realize that the way that they give to Jesus is by giving to the least of these. That’s it; no other commentary needed. If we want to give to Jesus, we must give to those in need. If we want to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, we have to do it with those who are hurting, lonely, overlooked and ignored.
And this is consistent with other teachings of Jesus. One day Jesus was teaching the people, and a crowd of about 5000 gathered to learn – bigger than any Occupy Wall Street crowd. As evening approached the Disciples said, ”send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and but themselves some food.”
Jesus responds: “They do not need to go away. YOU give them something to eat
Michael Slaughter says,
”The resources of heaven do not fall from the sky; they are released through God’s people! God creates miracles through the resources that you and I hold in our hands. Moses’ staff, David’s five smooth stones, the widow’s oil, six water jars at a wedding reception, another widow’s two small coins, an a boy’s lunch comprising five pieces of bread and two small fish – these are the resources that miracles are made of!
‘But we only have five loaves of bread and two fish’ the disciples answered.
‘But we are living in the greatest recession since the Great Depression,’ we might say today.
‘But you don’t understand Jesuss; we can’t afford to pay both the mortgage and a health care premium in the same month.’
But Jesus, we are just a small struggling church and we don’t have the resources.’”
Again, in the words of Rev. Slaughter, “
But…But…but…It’s time to commit to losing our big buts!”
Jesus asks that we bring what we have, where we are. It may not be much in our eyes, but in the hands of Christ it can be enough to make a difference to thousands.
For this reason, I want to challenge all of us to do something different this Christmas season. Let us plan to give a gift to Jesus – since it is his birthday! On Christmas Eve, as we celebrate our beautiful candlelight communion service, I want us to bring our gifts to the manger – not for our own benefit here at Antioch/ Dacusville church – but for the benefit of the least of these at Epworth Children’s home. The ‘how’ of the gift is much trickier than the ‘where.’ Here’s the challenge:
Pray for/Remember those less fortunate AND (choose one or more below)
1) Give some gift to Epworth by Christmas Eve
2) Reduce Christmas spending by 25% ; give that to Epworth Children’s Home
3) Give the same to Epworth as spent on Christmas gifts (50/50)
4) Ask that people make donations to Epworth in lieu of buying presents
Be creative! Let us celebrate the sacrificial gift of Christ at Christmas with a little sacrifice of our own – in this way we honor the one whose birth we say we celebrate and we remain his faithful disciples as well.
