Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Then, opening their treasure chess,
they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they left by another road.
Matthew 2: 11 - 12

Marianne’s sister’s husband is from the former Soviet Union.  He grew up pretty much without religious faith, and now attends a Unitarian Universalist Church.  The first few times that he attended one of the churches we served, he was shocked that we passed an offering plate.  He was used to offering boxes in the Russian Orthodox churches that were just sitting there.  Having a plate passed in front of him seemed to him very aggressive, demanding. 

Lonya (short for Leonid) also found our Christmas celebrations hard to adjust to. When our extended family would gather on Christmas day for an extended gift opening orgy, Lonya was uncomfortable with the abundant generosity of Marianne’s parents.  He would tell us that it was too much; one gift would be plenty. 

Maybe he was right.  If you contemplate the birth narratives of the gospels, the story is full of drama: dreams, angels, and near-divorce, prophesying old folks.  What is not there is the comfort of a nice living room with scented candles and extended family.

The calendar tells us that today is Boxing Day, when we get rid of all the Christmas wrappings and other garbage.  Maybe our worshipfulness at Christmas time is in inverse proportion to the amount of wrapping paper we have to throw out.  The message of Christmas can’t be tidily wrapped up.

However, a gift given in love can tell a story all its own. A gift given in love can remind us of the abundance of God expressed through fragile and fallible humanity.

Jesus’s birth stories remind us of the grace that saves us, restores us, sets us free. If wrapped gifts remind us of the gift of grace, they have enriched us

Jim Cotter