Date: January 5, 2025
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12
Sermon Title: “The Most Perfect Gift”
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon
Now Christmas is over. Many of you have found gifts under the Christmas tree and opened them. Let me ask you. What was the best gift you received this year? It is said in the past decade, the most popular gifts included a Kindle, Angry Birds Board Game, the Doc McStuffins Doll, Legos and Barbie. What was the worst gift? A local newspaper in North Carolina asked about 3,000 people about their worst Christmas gifts. Their answers include a diet book or weight-loss program membership, personal hygiene products, self-help books that you did not ask for, a donation made in your name to a cause you do not even support, and cleaning supplies or a vacuum cleaner.[1]
The fact of the matter is that many people spend their money on buying gifts, but many of them will end up collecting dust in the closet or being tossed in the landfill. According to the New York Post, Americans are expected to blow an estimated $10 billion on unwanted gifts this year’s holiday season. $10 billion! With $15 billion, it is said that about 400,000 American homes can install a solar panel, a 40% increase over the current total countrywide. It is money the US could build 1.5 million wells around the world, as 800 million people around the world lack access to clean water. It is money that can solve half of the global food crisis.[2]
I am not trying to make us guilty for buying some unwanted gifts. After all, as Gary Chapman says in Five Languages of Love, giving a gift is a way for us to show our love and affection to our families and friends. We can never fully predict how the person we give the gifts will react. But in my experience, there are some items that I covet. It is not something I really need it but I create several reasons of why this item will make such a differences in my life. From time to time, my wife would comment, “Bob, stop ordering the stuff from Amazon.” My usual excuse is, “I need them for the church!” I anxiously wait for them to arrive home by tracking on my cellphone. But the excitement and joy do not last long.
On this Epiphany Sunday, we usually read the story about three wise men, three kings, or three magi who traveled a great distance to follow the star. Many scholars believe that they were ancient priests in Persia who studied the movement of the stars. They carefully observed a star and realized that a baby was born and that baby was born king of the Jews. Scholars believe that they started their journey from somewhere in today’s Iran and traveled over 1300 miles on camels, which was likely to take about 3 months. Through the desert and hills, possibly avoiding the bandits and robbers, they finally arrived in Jerusalem by following the star.
Call it their innocence or naivety. They go to meet King Herod to ask the whereabouts of this baby king. Insecure and fearful, Herod called his chief priests and scribes to find out where the Messiah would be born. Upon realizing that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judea, he sent these three foreigners away saying, “Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” As we know, the only gift Herod is thinking is the sword and spears to eliminate this possible threat to his kingship. But the three wise men continued to follow the star.
There is a picture taken in December 1941 that shows Adolf Hitler celebrating Christmas with his top officials, exchanging gifts with S.S. cadets. During the World War II, Germany’s population was mostly Christians. Naturally, Christmas was the most popular holiday to celebrate. However, Christmas represented everything Hitler despised – Christ, who brings peace to earth. Therefore, Hitler and Nazi scholars tried to remove Christ from Christmas by spreading propaganda that this peace for Christmas was only for Germans, not the whole world, and revised the Christmas hymns by replacing the word the Savior with “Savior Führer.”
In the meantime, these three wise men, who were considered outside the reign of God’s salvation, were drawn to the truth, diligently studied where God may reveal Godself to them, and followed the sign all the way to the house where the star stopped. Matthew tells us that they were overwhelmed with joy. They entered the house and saw the child with Mary. They knelt down and paid him homage. They opened their treasure chests and offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The so-called leaders of their country, the king of Jews, priests, and scribes, did not know the Messiah was born or did not have room in their hearts to welcome him. But these foreigners joyfully welcomed him into this world.
Their gifts would be the sign of what kind of king this Messiah would be. The gold symbolizes his kingship. The frankincense represents his priestly role, and finally, the myrrh symbolizes death as it was used to embalm the dead body. The insiders were busy trying to maintain their status quo, our eyes fixed upon what was happening around us, feeling vulnerable to outside forces that may come and shake things and turn them upside down. However, these outsiders looked up to heaven, fervently sought signs of God, and even understood what kind of Messiah he would be. Sometimes, we Christians are so occupied with our institution that we might miss what God is doing outside our circles.
There was news in 2018 that a special group of people volunteered to help with a soup kitchen in the basement of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit. They were 16 Muslim volunteers who offered their time on Christmas Eve so the Christian volunteers could go home and celebrate the birth of Christ with their church or with their families and friends. One of the volunteers said, “We love working here and we love working with the Christian volunteers.”[3] In our society, often driven by xenophobia, the fear of others, and the rise of violence due to radicalization by extremist ideologies, God continues to reveal the redemptive work of God, whoever God chooses in God’s radical love.
I want to finish this sermon with a story about my son Joshua. He is in the first grade at Byam Elementary School. From time to time, he comes home and excitedly pulls out a book from his backpack, shouting, “Look! Ms. Driscoll helped me find the perfect book today.” As many of you know, Betsey is the school librarian at Byam. Once per week, Joshua goes to her library class and checks out a book or two to read for the week. Joshua is delighted to shout that he has the perfect book because by now Betsey knows him and what he loves to read – usually books about sharks or dinosaurs. But I can feel Betsey’s affection and love for the children, as she knows their personalities and their interests.
Christ is born among us. And he is the perfect gift God sends to us today, as the Gospel of John says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” He is the perfect gift who dies for us so that we may be forgiven and reconciled with God, and we may forgive one another and be reconciled with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. You may have received many excellent gifts during the holiday season. But I pray that we always make room in our hearts to be ready and receive the most excellent and the most perfect gift from God.
Amen.
[1] https://www.blueridgenow.com/story/news/local/2023/12/25/top-9-worst-christmas-gifts-in-north-carolina/71997022007/
[2] https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/15-alternatives-to-trump-border-wall/
[3] https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2018/12/24/muslim-volunteers-help-feed-detroits-homeless/2377748002/
RAIN OF GRACE 