Give More

Sermon for Sunday, December 11, 2011 at First UMC of West Newton
Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-4, 8-11


My father comes from a Dutch family. In fact, he was born in the Netherlands, and the majority of his relatives still live there. As such, there are ways in which my father loves to celebrate his Dutch heritage, and as a child he would share certain traditions with us.

One such tradition was that of Sinterklaas Day, also known as the feast of Saint Nicholas, on December 6. Sinterklaas is the patron saint of children, and originally a Greek Bishop of the 3rd and 4th centuries. As legend has it, Sinterklaas would travel around and put money in the shoes of poor children. It was an act of charity meant to take care of those who could not afford life’s basic necessities. This eventually evolved into leaving gifts in the children’s shoes, and is something Sinterklaas still reportedly does on the eve before his feast day.


And so, every year growing up, on Dec. 5 my sister and I would be instructed by my father to leave our shoes out on the front porch for Sinterklaas. You were also supposed to fill the shoes with hay for the horse Sinterklaas rode in on, but being suburban kids we didn’t quite have easy access to hay. So we’d fill our shoes with grass. The following morning, we would wake up and discover that Sinterklaas had come and left us a small gift – one that could fit inside a shoe, of course.

Sinterklaas, you might say, is the ancestor to Santa Claus. And like many traditions and cultural celebrations, Sinterklaas has evolved from being a tall, thin, charitable patron saint of children, to being a pudgy, red-cheeked glutton and provider of toys and amusement to those who already have everything. Do we need any more evidence that sometimes our traditions lose their true meaning as time goes on?

What’s interesting about the story of Sinterklaas, or Santa Claus in the USA, is that it has taken on the same fate as the celebration of Christmas. What used to be a tradition of giving to those in need has become a tradition of indulgence, consumerism, and debt as people spend more than they can afford in futile efforts to acquire the latest, greatest things – things that will likely be not so great by this time next year. Throw in just enough charitable giving to relieve us of our consumer guilt and to give us year-end tax breaks, and you have Christmas, 21st century style.

But Christmas is not about getting stuff. It's not about shopping malls, traffic jams, and overeating at holiday parties and family gatherings. That's something we've been reminding each other this month around First UMC, as we participate in the Advent Conspiracy. We’re considering how Christmas can once again be the world changing and life changing revolution it is meant to be, rather than just another reason for Hallmark to make greeting cards.

And this week, we ask ourselves, "Now that we have committed to worshiping fully, and now that we have cut back and committed to spending less, what might it look like if we celebrated Christmas by giving more? What if, instead of being roly poly Santa Clauses, we acted more like saints, giving hope, peace, joy, and love from our hearts?

After all, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” we say, but as I like to add, "Jesus is not the reason you’re at the mall.” Rather, the fundamental meaning of Christmas is that God has already given us a gift, and it is the greatest gift of all. Beginning with the birth of Jesus, God offers us a new covenant, a new life, a new relationship. And what do we do for people who have given us gifts in love? Usually, we give them gifts in return. But no one is harder to shop for at Christmas than God – what do you give the one who created and creates everything, the one who’s already got the whole world in His hands? What on earth could be on God’s wish list?

The answer, I believe, lies in chapter 61 of Isaiah. Here, the prophet might as well be reading God’s wish list. And if those words sound familiar, particularly the first two lines, it’s because this is the scripture Jesus read at the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus stood up, and in his first public teaching as an adult, said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And with these words, Jesus gives his mission statement. Jesus gives us all kinds of salvation, both individual and collective, both from sin and death as well as the evil powers and structures of this world. And in doing so, Jesus “displays God’s glory,” as the prophet Isaiah so eloquently states.

But these words in Isaiah are not only prophetic language of what God will do in the form of a Messiah, the savior to come. No, these words are also prophetic language about the people of God. Yes, God brings good news to the poor, the oppressed, the enslaved, the victimized, the grieving, and those with broken hearts. But additionally, God sends out his people to declare his good news as well. The people of God are here in Isaiah commissioned to bring good news, to liberate, to comfort, and to display the glory of God. Through God’s people, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And that is the best gift we could ever give God in return this Christmas: to display his glory.

At Christmas, God gives us a relationship, and in return we are called to give ourselves in relationship to God and others. First, we are called to spend this Advent season similar to the way we spend Lent in preparation for Easter. As we prepare for the coming Messiah, we seek to love God more deeply. And we also give more in our relationships with others.

The invitation to give more, in regards to Advent Conspiracy, is two-fold. First, it is an invitation to give relationally to friends and family. It means considering what is a better use of our time and money – spending an entire day at the mall, hunting for the perfect gift for our spouse, or spending the day enjoying being WITH our spouse? Which will have a more lasting impact on your relationship with your child – as well as your child’s development: spending all of Advent buying gifts for them, or spending all of Advent baking cookies, watching Christmas movies, and developing a closer relationship with them?

Second, the invitation to give more is a call to return to the Sinterklaas (or, St. Nicholas) way of giving gifts – to give not to those who have everything, but to give to those who have nothing. The amount of money it would take to address problems of poverty, disease, lack of clean water, and injustice in this world is miniscule in proportion to the amount of money we Americans spend on Christmas shopping every year. So this Advent and Christmas, as a congregation we are giving to Living Water International, and in doing so are giving the gift of clean water and improved health to people all around the world. Giving more, both relationally to friends and family as well as generously to those in need, is how we celebrate Christmas God’s way, and how we display God’s glory.

Last week, I talked about “spending less.” I mentioned the obvious: that in our culture, exchanging gifts around Christmas has gotten out of hand. Every year it’s bigger and better gifts, bigger and worse debt, and bigger and more useless piles of “stuff” that we never use. Black Friday brings out the worst in humanity. Malls and big box stores are not in the business of religion. And even though their signs proclaim it, the retailers cannot give you “real joy guaranteed.”

For many, gift giving has become more trouble than it’s worth. For these and other reasons, both my family and my wife Lisa’s family have cut back in gift giving in recent years. We’re practicing more alternative or charitable gift giving. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with giving and receiving gifts with others. Even though we’ve cut back and we now spend less, we are still spending money and we are still giving some gifts.

You see, it’s still okay to exchange gifts and be a Christian. Every holiday season, I spend considerable time shopping for people I care about. I admit, I put more thought into some gifts than others, but with all my gifts I think about the receiver. Who are they? What are their interests? Will they really use this? Will they appreciate it?

Gift giving offers us a chance to think about people around us. We smile just thinking about how much she’ll love it, or how his eyes will light up when he unwraps it. Or, when we struggle to find a good gift because we don’t know the person very well, we recognize the room for growth in a neglected relationship. Gift giving can be a meaningful way to reflect and express our love for each other as spouses, siblings, children, parents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, co-workers, or friends. In fact, for some people gift giving is the most comfortable way to express love for another.

And we may practice alternative gift giving. I already know there are large families in which the adults only give gifts to the children, or do some variation of a secret santa gift exchange. I know there are others who make homemade gifts out of love. I know that’s how some people in this congregation celebrate Christmas and gift giving, because you’re a talented bunch. I know there are talented artists, sewers, musicians, writers, woodworkers, cooks and bakers in our congregation. You all have many talents you could use to make gifts of love for friends and family. And when you use your gifts and talents to make gifts or give gifts of love to others, you "display God's glory," because it is God who created you with those special talents and abilities. And those gifts express love greater than anything bought in a store.

I also know that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, not ours, and so the change in gift-giving must reach further than our own families and friends. What God wants for Christmas is the world to change. God wants us to use Christmas as an opportunity to transform this world. And so we return to that second invitation of giving more. Because we are committing to spending less and giving relationally on the home-front – giving our time and our talents rather than going into debt – we are now free to give more this Christmas to those who are truly in need.

So we thought we’d offer you a way to do that. Of course, we all have our favorite non-profits and charitable organizations we like to support, and that’s great. We want you to continue doing that – supporting the organizations you care deeply about. But we also want to give you an opportunity to learn about Living Water International, which is the primary charitable organization that Advent Conspiracy explicitly partners with. We have a video that will show you a little bit about the work that Living Water International does:

I believe that God is always challenging me to give more – not just during the Advent and Christmas season, but all the time, all year long. And you know, growing in terms of giving is a tremendous challenge. Do you know why? Because giving more means I get to keep less for myself. That's why I'm being called always to give more – God is using the call to give to mold me into someone less selfish, as someone who doesn’t think only of my own needs. Giving more is not a one-time call, but is an invitation into a life-time process. And it is the first step toward having the mind that was in Christ, who gave all he had, even his life, in a self-emptying way for our sake.

That’s the story of Christmas, folks. God had everything, and GAVE it all up for our sake. God GAVE up all power, authority, glory, and grandeur, entered our world in a smelly stable in a forgotten small town, through the faithfulness of a pregnant unwed teenager. God GAVE everything for us. So maybe, just maybe, as we celebrate the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, we can strive to do the same. Give more this Christmas, and you’ll find that your life and this world will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. God gave everything He had for the sake of others. Go and do likewise. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.