What did you get for Christmas?

Rev. Harriette Cross Englewood-Rust United Methodist Church December 28, 2014 What did you Get for Christmas? Matthew 1-11 Year B Sermon Opener –Surprise, It's Christmas! The greatest thing about Christmas morning is the surprises. When else in life do you get to pile 10, 20, 30, 40 sometimes 50 surprises all together and sit for an hour enjoying each of them? One after another, surprise after surprise. Christmas Morning is wonderful in that way. I can remember still today the way I felt as a child, the amazement, the astonishment of Christmas morning. ( Leonard Sweet – Christmas Surpise) Every year I am always blessed with some very special gifts. And this year was not different, I received some gifts that I really appreciated. I think that the one that will stick out the most, will be the ticket that I got from the Brookfield police department for running a stop light. It took not one, but two police cars with flashing lights to pull me over, in the end the officer gave me a warning, but even the warning ticket was $35. I was also blessed to spend Christmas day here at church, and to see more than 100 people come here for good food and fellowship. We had to have at least 25 other people who volunteered in the community. I hope that we continue to this as a tradition, because there is a definite need in the community. Christmas is all about giving and receiving gifts. It is not about the physical things that we receive. It is about what they represent to us. Gift for Nicolas Cage When the actor Nicolas Cage was a young boy, his father gave him a little Pinocchio for Christmas. Being a boy, he was a little rough with it, and broke its head off. So his father suggested they bury Pinocchio. The next morning, on the very place where they had buried Pinocchio, was a large wooden sculpture of Pinocchio. The next day he went about burying his matchbox cars, toy planes, a castle, even his GI Joe doll hoping, they too would transform into something larger. Although they didn't, to this day Nicolas Cage says that his little Pinocchio gift was one of the best gifts he had received, because it gave him the gifts of imagination, hope and inspiration. And these continue to help him through life and in his career as an actor. As I told the children, the best gift that we received for Christmas is the gift of Jesus Christ. In our two texts Paul comments on the real Christmas gift by saying "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal "life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Then after writing to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 9:15) about their generosity in response to God's generosity to them in Christ he simply concludes with, "Thanks be to God his indescribable gift!" The art of gift giving and gift receiving is an important theological issue in the Bible and in real life. The Apostle Paul uses for the word "gift", "charisma." The "charisma" was a totally free and unearned gift which the army sometimes received. On special occasions, for instance on his birthday, or on his accession to the throne, or the anniversary of it, an emperor handed out a free gift of money to the army. It had not been earned; it was a present; it was simply a gift of the emperor's kindness and grace. So Paul says, "Our sin has earned us death. If we got the pay we had earned it would be death. It is death that is due to us as a right." Then Paul goes on to say, "But what we have received (from God) is a free gift, a "charisma"; we did not earn it; We did not deserve it. What we have earned is eternal death, but out of his grace God has given us the gift of eternal life, a really indescribable gift." Jesus in our New Testament reading (Matthew 7:7-29) asks his hearers, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Would you? I wouldn't. "Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a snake?" Would you? I don't think so. "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" The point is, if we who are evil, know how to give good gifts to loved ones, which we do at Christmas and at other times, then God, who defines Himself as love, certainly knows how to and will give us good gifts also. The Psalmist in our Old Testament reading (Psalms 84:11) says in the Living Bible Translation, "No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right." God's nature is to give us good gifts. (taken from C Thomas Hilton – real Christmas gifts) We know how to give good gifts, we also know how to receive good gifts. God loves us, God knows us from the inside out, God knows what it is that we need. Jesus is a gift to each of us, -but that gift comes alive and becomes something greater in the world. Let this be a season of putting our gifts to use and making them a part of the world. Think about your spiritual gifts, be thankful, and use them. Amen. Extra illustration…… Chuck Swindoll writes, "surprises come in many forms and guises: some good, some borderline amazing, some awful, some tragic, some hilarious. But there's one thing we can usually say -- surprises aren't boring." Surprises are woven through the very fabric of all our lives. They await each one of us at unexpected and unpredictable junctures. I like the story about a professor who sat at his desk one evening working on the next day's lectures. His housekeeper had laid that days mail and papers at his desk and he began to shuffle through them discarding most to the wastebasket. He then noticed a magazine, which was not even addressed to him but delivered to his office by mistake. It fell open to an article titled "The Needs of the Congo Mission". Casually he began to read when he was suddenly consumed by these words: "The need is great here. We have no one to work the northern province of Gabon in the central Congo. And it is my prayer as I write this article that God will lay His hand on one - one on whom, already, the Master's eyes have been cast - that he or she shall be called to this place to help us." Professor Albert Schweitzer closed the magazine and wrote in his diary: "My search is over." He gave himself to the Congo. That little article, hidden in a periodical intended for someone else, was placed by accident in Schweitzer's mailbox. By chance he noticed the title. It leaped out at him. Chance? Nope. It was one of God's surprises. This morning we focus on one of the greatest surprises that ever there was placed by accident in Schweitzer's mailbox. By chance he noticed the title. It leaped out at him. Chance? Nope. It was one of God's surprises. This morning we focus on one of the greatest surprises that ever there was, the surprise that took place when an angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to a young teenager by the name of Mary…