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Christmas-Gifts
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 8th January 2006
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Good morning. I hope you've had a good holiday season; a good Christmas, if you celebrate it.
Now though, Christmas is over again. 6th January comes round so quickly and the twelve days of Christmas are passed. For many people, tradition says that 12th night is the time to take down Christmas decorations and pack them away for another year. We've done that in my home. Though the many chocolates and cakes we've received for Christmas will keep us going for another 12 days at least.
Actually, Christmas has only just started for some people. Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on 6th January. That includes the Greek Orthodox community here in Hong Kong, as well as many other Orthodox Christians around the world. And for many Christians the season of Christmas continues for some weeks yet. In my church, the Anglican Church, we celebrate Christmas until the beginning of February.
Like many people, Christian or not, part of my Christmas celebrations is presents. Giving and receiving gifts. It's a wonderful tradition – one that makes my children very excited. Christmas presents are complicated. Not just choosing the right gift, but spending the right amount of money, getting the right size of gift. It can be embarrassing when someone gives us a bigger gift than we've given them. Worse, someone gives us a gift and we haven't given them anything. What will they think of us? That's the concern, isn't it? The embarrassment comes because we're worried what they might think of us. We feel at a bit of a disadvantage. We're in their debt and that feels uncomfortable.
Which is strange. Christmas is about a gift so enormous that we can never match it in return. God's gift to us. God's gift of complete love and acceptance in his Son, Jesus. There's no equivalent to give in return. All we can do is be glad to be loved like that. Receiving a gift from someone we haven't given a gift to, reminds us of that. They think you're worth bothering with; just be glad of it.
Christmas gifts remind us another Christmas truth. Christmas, for a Christian tells us why people matter. They matter because God takes us seriously. Seriously enough to get involved with our lives in the birth of Jesus. Seriously enough to risk birth. - birth surrounded by dirty animals, two thousand years ago when infant mortality was much higher than it is now.
Giving a gift to another person takes them seriously. Choosing a gift involves thought and care. We make space for them in our hearts. Our hearts which are so often focused inwards on ourselves; so often self-obsessed. Giving then is reciprocal. We take another person seriously, and that frees us from ourselves. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Giving someone a gift recognises their value – which has nothing to do with how much the gift cost. Giving recognises their humanity. That is the heart of the Christmas story. God shows you your value by becoming a person like you. In the birth of Jesus, God reveals God's attitude to humanity and the world. God values us so highly that God enters our world.
Which of course is true for the whole year, not just Christmas. However long you celebrate Christmas, whether you've taken down the decorations or not, God calls us to value each other for the whole year. God calls us to take each other seriously, to give each other that gift, all the time. It's something anyone can do, anywhere; simply act and speak as if people were worth taking seriously.
Then we will all have a Happy New Year.
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