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The Gift of Christmas
Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2017
All Saints Episcopal Church
The Rev. Holladay Sanderson
I am not sure where you have landed in your gift-giving.
Perhaps some of you
have already opened your gifts.
Others of you, like me, wait until tomorrow morning…
or perhaps later to accommodate special family gatherings.
Maybe some of you still have gifts to wrap.
All in all, we DO know this is the season for giving.
We have shopped til we dropped.
The stores have raked in the cash and credit.
It has been fun and frustrating and festive – all this giving.
I personally have not been able to shop
as I normally would this year.
Because of my broken wing,
I have had to rely on the computer for online giving
in addition to the one trip I was able to make
to Barnes and Noble for my eight great-nieces
just before the accident.
Even so, I have experienced the great Christmas gift of giving
one hundredfold from you, the people of All Saints
along with many in the Diocese.
You have showered me
with love, care, food, rides, visits, texts, calls,
assistance, lugging this and that,
prescription shots for anti-clotting,
opening jars, bottles and cans…
One discovers all kinds of things
that require TWO hands
when one hand goes out of commission.
Even this sermon is the product of a gift.
Michael Case knew of a neutral typewriter that
looks like a U with each ½ of the keyboard
making the upright sides of the U
so that I could use both hands
to touch type my sermon
instead of hunting and pecking with one hand!
My hand is learning more and more each day
but for tonight, I am grateful…
for the shower of gifts I have received…
all filled with great love.
All of that is the truth of Christmas…
the season of gifts and of giving.
The theme of gifts is found throughout our lessons this evening.
Titus reminds us that
Jesus is the ultimate gift for humanity…
the One who gives himself for us
for our redemption.
His gift of himself gives us hope
for the fullness of life in Christ
as he teaches us throughout his life
as it was shared in our Gospels.
Tonight’s gospel itself is all about
the origin of our great gift,
first given to humanity so long ago.
We know the story of Mary
receiving the gift of motherhood and tonight,
she gives birth to the Savior of us all.
This message is so great that
God’s love continues to overflow
from the gift of this child of Love and
out to the hillsides
where the angel choir shouts “Glory!”
to those surprised shepherds.
They are so excited by God’s gift that
they come down from the hillsides
to see the promised child, the tine Messiah.
They come down from the hills
to see for themselves this gift of good news at last,
just as the angels, God’s messengers, promised.
In the quiet in Bethlehem,
they all share in the amazing events and visions and promises.
As the shepherds leave,
the new mother has many new things…
events, thoughts, wonder…
to ponder in her heart.
Now that he has arrived, she wonders
what the future holds for her, for him, for us all.
In Isaiah’s prophecy,
we are given a view of the enormity of tonight’s gift.
We think too narrowly
if we confine the gift to the time of Jesus’ birth or
even 500 years earlier
when Isaiah spoke the original prophecy.
Certainly we can think of God’s gift
in terms of ending the Roman boot.
But there is so much more
to hear in the prophet’s words.
God’s light has shone on us all and
revealed the extent of God’s love for the world
as if to say “Here is this gift.
We can be in this together. Come!”
“The People who walked in darkness have seen a a great light…
on them the LIGHT has shined.”
Amen!
With the light shining,
we can see the gift more and more clearly.
Our joy is increased
because we can see things in a new way
with the coming of the Christ child.
Why?
Because the burdens we have been feeling
have been broken,
just as it was in the days
when Gideon was fighting off
the enormous army of Midianites
in the Book of Judges.
Just think about what Isaiah is saying.
All fear of war will be ended.
No more warriors and battles and fear and power over
in whatever form.
Power and the threat of power is no more
because the presence of God With Us
is promised to be so much stronger than all of that.
The misuse of authority is ended
because this child, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God
IS the one in whom TRUE authority rests, thanks be to God.
The gift we have been given is
authority that rests solidly
in justice and righteousness
instead of in raw power, greed, and exclusion.
Isaiah says to us,
“He will establish and uphold God’s peace
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The Lord of hosts WILL do this!”
How can we doubt such a Christmas gift?
When times are darkest,
our God reminds us that the light never leaves.
And THIS night, the birth of the baby Jesus reminds us that the gift given so long ago
continues to be given to us today.
God’s gift never ends and
we, as God’s grateful recipients,
are invited to share this gift with the world.
Jesus continually calls us to live lives filled with God’s love…
lives that brim full of justice and peace.
Then, just like God’s love overflows to us,
our own lives overflow into the world,
reminding the world that
the darkness is no more.
There is a light ever shining
in the midst of the darkness: Jesus the Christ.
Through Him, we learn the true meaning of gift…
opening ourselves to others
so that God’s love can clearly shine through
into a hurting world…
so that God’s love can shine into a hurting world
and show just what hope can bring…
just what hope in God looks like…
show how life in God’s love
can transform the world.
All of that...
All of that
from one tiny, stunning, unimaginable, and grace-filled gift.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Jesus Christ is born.
AMEN