I Know What You're Getting For Christmas

Teasingly I said to my wife, “I know what you are getting for Christmas!”  I knew she would not be able to resist my bait.

“What?  Tell me!”

 

“The same thing you got last year, and the year before that and the year before that.”

“Why would I want to get the same old thing, something I already have?”

“Because, regardless of how many times you have received this, you still need more.  It is a gift that needs to be renewed each Christmas.”  By this point in the discussion it was beginning to dawn on her that this was either one of my famous but desperately misleading clues or I was working on an idea for a sermon.  It turned out to be the latter.

Each Christmas we are given the same gifts.  Year after year we are given Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.  And this year will be the same.  Every year we have a fresh need for these gifts of God to return and for each of these gifts to be renewed in our spirits.  Regardless of the number of times we have received them there is an ongoing need to receive them once again.  Each year new places in life and new challenges of our journeys find us in places of anxiety.  There are always issues of confusion, causes for our physical and spiritual fatigue.  We have longings which seem insatiable.  God, each year, speaks to our unique situation.  Each and every Christmas, hope is applied to meet the specific needs of our anxiety.  The things which bring us confusion are met with gentleness of peace.  The physical and spiritual fatigue which oppress us are relieved with renewed joy.  The deepest longings of our souls are met with God’s abiding and unconditional love.

We are given the same gifts not only because of our continuing need for the same thing but also because these are the gifts in which God deals.  It is just like God to give us Hope, Peace, Joy and Love because these are gifts which reflect, disclose and reveal who God is.  These gifts are actually the “hints” we are given to get an idea of what the ultimate gift of God is that we await during Advent.  That gift is “God With Us—Emmanuel.”

Come, let us journey together in our worship as we receive the gifts of God, hints to who God is and what God’s presence offers to us, as we await the coming of Christ in fullness this Advent and Christmas season.