It is Better to Give

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 12/17/17

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^NRS John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Welcome to the third weekend of Advent. Advent is a time when we anticipate the celebration of the birth of Christ. The world has worked to remove Christ from Christmas in many ways, focusing our efforts on giving and receiving of gifts, focusing on the commercialization of Christmas and even trying to remove Christ by putting an X in its place. Funny thing about all of that Christmas cannot be Christmas without Christ at the beginning of it. It would just be mas. What is a mas? Moreover, the X, the Greek letter that represents Christ is X so even removing the word Christ and replacing it with an X still leaves Christ in Christmas. So even Grinch could not remove the spirit of Christmas from the holiday, even if we call it Happy Holidays instead of Christmas. So here we are, celebrating the third week of the anticipation time of Christmas, Advent. We celebrate because we are Christians and because we know that Jesus was born, lived, preached and teaches, died on the cross and three days later was resurrected. Because of that, we know that we have received a gift greater than anything we can buy, work into or deserve. As Christians, we anticipate celebrating the birth, which begins a journey that continues to Easter, and then we anticipate the return of Jesus, which is in front of us.

So today, I want to talk to you about giving. Francis Assisi reminds us, “For it is in giving that we receive.” Dale Evans remarked, “Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.” Therefore, there is something there, which we capture every time we give. Moreover, this is a giving church. So far, this year we have shared our love with 255 patients at Western State, over 80 stockings for children, over 40 boxes of food and the list goes on. I am thankful for being part of a giving church. We truly are a blessing to the community we serve. I want to talk today about being blessed as much as being a blessing. Dr. Seuss reminds us that, “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.” Imagine for a moment that we go down to the mall and begin to look for a specific present to purchase. We go to Macy’s and Target, we explore Sears and JC Penny’s and all of the smaller store but nowhere can we find a single purchase of salvation to be had. When we walk through the mall, we may feel love surround us.  I have yet to see it in a package that can be bought. We can purchase things that allow us to share love but we cannot buy it.

So today, I want to talk about true giving. It comes from the heart and we have great examples of it. The greatest example of love and the one we should hold especially dear in our hearts is the gift given to us by God. John 3: 16 says that God sent Jesus, God’s only son so that we will not perish but have everlasting life. On December 25^th each year, we remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus in that lowly setting. Jesus, the Son of God, himself God as John reminds us in his text, came to us in a small town called Bethlehem. There in the place where animals rested and were fed, Jesus came into the world. No doctors or mid-wives attending, a natural childbirth that we know is painful and emotional. Can you imagine being 14 or 15 years of age, having a child in a barn full of animals? We know that it might well have been a cave since caves were used to house animals in the first century. There the gift from God came into the world and they laid him in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. I cannot help but think that God, the great creator could have brought Jesus into the world anywhere and at any time. Instead of luxury and glory, Jesus came into the world in humbleness and love.

God loves us so much that God knowing that Adam had failed at returning love to God in the way God intended and through that act brought sin and death into the world. In spite of that, God’s love for us never wavered, not once in thousands of years, and so God bridged that great divide that sin creates. Sin separates us from God and from the paradise that God intended for us from creation. There is no way to buy it, no way to work hard enough to earn it and nothing we can do to deserve it. Yet God gives it to us freely anyway. I cannot help but think how much love God must have for us that God would give us all God has to give in Jesus. What a true gift. Adam Hamilton writes, “God seeks to influence humanity. This is at the heart of the Christmas story. It is the story of light coming into the darkness, of a Savior to show us the way, of light overcoming the darkness, of God's work to save the world.”

When we, the people of Jesus, believing in His teaching, His example and are willing to follow Him, we become a blessing to the world around us. Believing in Jesus is simply not enough, even the demons believe Jesus to be the Son of God. Following Jesus is what we are called to do. Following is harder than believing. I can believe that my country needs me and enlist or receive a commission to serve. However, serving, especially in wartime is a more difficult thing to do. In that moment, we realize that our lives are on the line, life changes. Life becomes more precious and our purpose can become clearer or more conflicted. However, one thing is sure, at that moment there is no doubt what the consequences of that earlier decision can lead to. I use this example because I believe in the setting I am currently in, you can relate better. Jesus is asking to us to enlist in a cause far more worthy than our country. Jesus is calling us to share God’s love with the world and right now not doing that has deadly consequences for those in the world around us. Without knowing that God has given us a great gift in Jesus, who was born, lived to teach and share by example how we are to love one another and then went to the cross that we may all share in eternal life. Following Jesus means that we take that gift like the sweater from Aunt Mildred and we wear it so that everyone can see it. We learn to love one another in ways that share that love even and especially to those who struggle to love. In following Jesus, we experience the hills and valleys of being human. In the valleys, we share the sorrows and the sadness of life with those around us, lifting them up. On hilltops, we share with joy and gladness the love of Jesus poured through us out into the world for others.

During this season, we are called to reach out to the marginalized, the poor, the helpless and the ill. We are called to share God’s love with them because most of the world will not. We are called to love one another unconditionally so that everyone may experience the love that came down at the birth of Jesus into the world. John reminds us that Jesus is the light, a beacon of love that permeates the darkness so that we may see truth. John reminds us that the through Jesus we have been given grace upon grace by God. When we share that grace with the world we receive an even greater blessing. So I challenge you this Christmas season to give. Give of your heart to those in the world around you. Give love to those who experience little or no love in the world throughout the year. Give because we are called to give but also because love needs you to share it.

God so loved the world, that God gave us Jesus. Whoever believes and follows His path shall not die, but live forever. Merry Christmas!