Luke 2:8-20 and John 1:1-13
December 23, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
No one is sure how this all got started. Some people think it’s when Mr. Pickwick in Charles Dicken’s carried a cod to Dingley Dell as an offering for their Yuletide celebration or when Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk. Or maybe it all got started when the three wise men from the East opening their treasure chests and offering Baby Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Honestly, I think Jesus would have preferred a stuffed animal like ‘Lamb Chop!’
With only 1 ½ days left and with only the Stockton Tunnel separating you from CBC and Union Square, maybe it’s the shopkeepers that have led us to believe that not only friends but even acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send each other cards.
Giving gifts today is not a voluntary behavior. The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give her a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of her own. It’s almost like blackmail. Just when you thought you have finished all your gift buying, you found yourself driving back to the dreadful shops to get another gift. No wonder we all end up “regifting!”
And why does it seems like at Christmas, especially at Christmas, that things are given as presents which no reasonable human being would ever buy for himself. Please don’t buy me a “Chia Pet” or a “Clapper!” I saw in the papers that Macy’s was selling this snowing Christmas tree that was originally $250 and now sells for $35.
Let us not overlook the gaudy novelties and unusual gadgets that no one was fool enough to make their likes before! One Christmas we received a plastic Praying Hand night light! These are “in your face” types of gifts!
What a nuisance! I would rather give Macy’s money for nothing and write it off as a charity if Christmas is needed to keep the economy afloat. Christmas has become a commercial racket!
What is the point of getting a gift we did not want, a gift we did not need from someone whom we hardly know?
Unwanted Gifts
Perhaps getting unwanted gifts is the whole point of this blessed day of days.
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, she was perplexed and afraid. She wasn’t expecting a visit from an angel. She was still a virgin but now she is getting a gift of a child beyond any human imagination! How will she tell Joseph about this unwanted gift?
In Matthew, we read that Joseph was far from accepting this unusual gift from God. Mary expecting! And he’s not the father! No way! He was willing to dismiss her so that she wouldn’t be exposed to public disgrace because he was a righteous man. Joseph didn’t want this gift even if it was from God.
Now we see the shepherds, lowly, poor, the marginalized people of the time, just doing their own business keeping watch over their flock by night. Suddenly, the angel of the Lord stood right in front of them and they were terrified. Shepherds usually don’t get special treatments. They don’t get gifts—perhaps living a predictable and meager life is all they have come to expect. But they too received a gift that was totally unexpected. The angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord were in their faces! They probably didn’t want to leave their sheep and go to Bethlehem. But the gift they got from God is the sign to go and see what has taken place.
Luke said, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (2:10-11)
God kept trying to get through to us. With every means at God’s disposal, he is trying to get through to us by giving us gifts. And you know what happens. When we receive a gift from someone, even from an acquaintance, a relationship develops. Even if the relationship is going back to those dreadful shops to buy a reciprocal gift! God wants to get to know us better. But some of us don’t know God as well as we should.
He tried giving Abraham and Sarah a covenant. He tried offering promises to the patriarchs. He tried with the poetry of the prophets and the praises of the psalms. Every time when God tried to give us gifts, we didn’t want them. When none of this worked, then, God gave us his Son.
Gift of a Son
Down through the centuries, thousands had begged God for a sign, word, a signal. But who asked God for the Son? The very Son of God?
In Hebrews 1:3, we read that the very Son of God is the “reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” Jesus is genetically God. The angel said to us, “This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” (Lk.2:12)
If we had it our way, we would still be asking for just a little sign, a little miracle to keep us believing in God. But God loves to give us gifts. And God gives what God gives. Sometimes, the gifts that God gives are not the gifts we thought we wanted.
We would have been very happy with a gift of a baby in the manger. What a wonderful gift of the barnyard scene with the baby in the cradle, sheep and cattle all around him! The gift from God could have stopped there and we would have been very happy. But Jesus did not remain a little baby. He grew in wisdom and stature. He began to speak. And when he spoke and acted, he challenged our cherished notions of God. He called us to task. He assaulted our prejudices and preconceptions. He was a gift to be sure, but at times a demanding gift that we didn’t want.
Out of his love for the world, God didn’t just give us a sign, God gave us his only Son. In John 1:14, we read, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus, the Son of God, is full of God’s grace and truth. The word, grace in the New Testament is the same word for gift. Jesus was, in his being, full of the grace of God, the gift of God. Jesus is the gift of God to us.
And just like we return those gifts we didn’t ask for or didn’t want, in John, we see that people didn’t really want Jesus either. John tells a tough truth that, “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” (Jn.1:11) And who could blame them? Who can blame us?
Who had really asked for this much God, all bundled up in one person. God not to be avoided. God standing there face to face, in the flesh, unavoidable, speaking words simple and direct, pointing a way not easily to evade?
God’s gift to us is an in-your-face gift that we didn’t really ask for and sometimes we would rather return for a refund!
What We Want for Christmas—Trust in God
It is the time of year when everyone is asking, “What do you want for Christmas?” Children ask Santa for long lists of toys. This really puts parents to the challenge if they try to provide everything children want. “Santa Claus” doesn’t always come through with all the requests. It’s too big an order—too great a challenge.
God put both Mary and Joseph to the challenge too. They each found themselves in situations where they needed to trust God. God gave them gifts and he was wondering whether they would accept them or return them. Mary accepted the gift and trusted God would see her through the terrifying experience of an unplanned pregnancy. Joseph accepted the gift and was able to trust the message of the angel, and obey the will of God.
God is challenging us today with his gift of Jesus. Are we willing to accept his gift or are we ready to return him? Are we willing to ask God for what we need—not what we want—trusting that God will be faithful to care for us?
Jesus is the prime example of trusting God. The cross was the ultimate challenge of trusting that God will be faithful. Jesus was willing to trust God, even in death. And through that experience he was declared the Son of God.
Santa Claus can only offer us empty trust. When all the gaudy novelties and useless gadgets have lost their fascination and are discarded in the garage for next spring’s yard sale, our lives are still in need. After the Chia Pet has grown its hair and dried out, it’s not fun anymore.
In-Your-Face God
Today we invite you to accept God’s gift of the Son of God and trust God with your lives. Whenever the going gets tough, we beg for God. We want God to give us a sign. We cry out for a voice, “Show us your glory and we shall be satisfied!”
But we didn’t mean what we say. Not when what we got was God incarnate, in the flesh, standing face to face in front of us, pointing the way to discipleship. The way was so narrow that few wanted to walk in. So though he was grace, a gift, we did not, as John says, “receive” him.
He was thrust into our mailboxes one starlit night in Bethlehem, God’s great gift, “yet the world did not know him,” “his people did not accept him.”
Will you accept this in-your-face gift from God today?
The gifts that we give each other remain only pretty wrapped packages until we open them. All those shining boxes under your Christmas tree are just part of the decorations if you never open them. They become gifts only when you receive them and see what’s inside.
John said, “Jesus, the Son of God, full of grace/gifts came to us and his own people did not accept him.” We didn’t open the gift.
When we thought about gift-giving with our family this year, we thought that the best gift we can give to one another is being together. We gave our kids airline tickets to come to San Francisco and they gave us their precious time to come. These were only promised gifts until we saw each other face to face at the airport yesterday. We open ourselves to each other and we have been most blessed.
This is like what John was saying. Those of us who trust in God—“to receive him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (Jn.1:12) God is giving us an in-your-face gift of the Son of God. Honestly, it’s not the gift that we asked for or wanted. But it’s the gift that we need.
God’s bold and dramatic “in your face gift” not only changed the world forever but God revealed himself face to face with us. Emmanuel, God with us is the Lord taking on human likeness so that we may finally receive his gift and open it to fill our hearts.
It may very well be too much God all at one time. We may think that the gift of the Son of God requires just too much attention! But God gives whatever God chooses to give. And now it’s up to us to receive God’s gift of the Son of God to open. Only you can choose to open this gift given to you.
Listen to a poem about “What I Want for Christmas,”
I asked for Strength…God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom…God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for Prosperity…God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage…God gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for Love…God gave me Troubled People to help.
I asked for Favors…God gave me Opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted…From God I received everything I needed.
Trust God with your life by opening the Gift of Jesus Christ. He will stand face to face in front of you pointing the way. And a multitude of the heavenly host will praise God saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven
and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
Merry Christmas!
Let us pray.
Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Prince of Peace.
For the gift we knew not how to ask, we give you thanks.
For the birth we knew not how to receive, we shout for joy.
For the Lord, we did not always know how to follow, we say, “Thanks.”
For the light that shines in the darkness, we say, “Yes.”
For the joy, the light, the birth, the gift. Amen.