Christmas is coming soon. Have you done all your preparations? Those preparations might involve cooking or putting up decorations, but a large part of it, of course, will be getting gifts for loved ones. To children, the most noticeable aspect of Christmas is those gifts. Once someone asked me, “When are you going to have Christmas this year?” “Well, uh, Christmas is on December 25.” What that person meant, of course, was “When are you going to open gifts?” Since my father was a minister, Christmas was the busiest time of year for him – he often had to prepare three or four worship services in a row, including one on Christmas morning. So we opened gifts the night before. I thought that was just our unique tradition, but I’ve heard of others doing that too.
Where did this tradition of giving gifts begin? Some holiday traditions aren’t really related to the original holiday – like candy and eggs on Easter. But the tradition of gifts does trace all the way back to the original Christmas, when the wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus.
Imagine those wise men on that long journey. I like to picture them stopping at an inn along the way, and there’s a curious child there: the daughter of the innkeeper. She sees these impressive figures show up at her father’s inn, and she’s very inquisitive so she starts asking them questions.
“Where are you going?” she asks them.
“We are going to Jerusalem,” they replied.
“Why?”
They said, “Because a new king has been born there, and we are going to give gifts to that king.”
The girl has never seen a king before, but she did know that they were always rich, so she thought for a second and asked, “Why do you have to give gifts to a king? Don’t they already have everything they want?”
The wise men replied, “Well, it is a tradition that goes back very far. From ancient times, when anyone was going to visit a king, they would bring a present.”
The girl asked, “But isn’t the king richer than the visitor?”
The wise men said, “Yes, but it is not about giving the king something he needs. It is a way of thanking that king for leading the country. You see, some countries have bad kings or queens who don’t know how to do their job, and enemies attack them, or the kingdom runs out of food, or there are many problems that make life difficult for the people in that kingdom. But if the king or queen does a good job, then the people get to enjoy peace and prosperity. If the ruler is wise, then everyone benefits from that – everyone is richer, everyone is safer. So the gift is a way of saying to the ruler, ‘We depend on your leadership.’ If you didn’t do your job, we would have nothing.’”
The girl asked, “What do you mean, they would have nothing?”
The wise men said, “Well, imagine if the king or queen didn’t build roads, or didn’t build a temple to worship in, or didn’t build walls and hire soldiers to protect them from enemies. Nothing about the society is organized or works well. How would a person in that country get anywhere in life? Some kings and queens are corrupt, and take everything for themselves, or they create a world where no one trusts each other and everyone is always fighting or plotting against each other.”
The girl said, “So really the king or queen gives a lot to the people – and this is just their way of saying thank you.”
“That’s right,” said the wise men. “Instead of thinking about what they are going to get, a good ruler thinks about what they want to give. And they know that, if the ruler gives good gifts, everyone will be happy.”
The girl asked, “You said, this king was just born. What are you giving to the little baby?”
One of the wise men said, “I am bringing gold.”
The girl asked, “What does a baby need with gold?”
The wise men said, “The baby doesn’t need any gold now, but when a king grows up, they will need a crown, and they make crowns out of gold. Gold is a symbol of love, and when he wears a crown made out of gold, it shows that they rule out of love. It is a reminder to love the people and love the country, and to always rule from love. So he will need gold for a crown.”
The girl turned to another wise man and asked, “What are you giving?”
The wise man said he was bringing frankincense, and she asked what that was. He replied, “In the temple, they burn incense, which has a beautiful smell. The idea is that as the smoke rises, that’s their worship going up to God. So frankincense is a part of worship, and I am giving it to the baby to represent that people will worship him.”
The girl asked the third wise man, “And what are you bringing?”
He said, “Myrrh. That’s a substance that is used in the anointing oil. Anointing is when you pour oil on a person’s forehead, and it’s a symbol of love. There are two times when you anoint someone: the first is when you crown someone king, you anoint their forehead. And this baby is called the Messiah, and the word Messiah means “anointed one.” The other time people anoint is when there has been a death, and they pour myrrh on the body. This baby is going to die when he is older, and he will have myrrh poured on his body then.”
The girl asked one last question: “You don’t come from this part of the world, do you? So why are you traveling so you can anoint a king from another country?”
The wise men said, “This baby will become king of all the earth, and king of heaven. And he will not just be king for a short time: He will reign as king forever.”
Now let’s return to the present day, and there is another inquisitive child. This boy hears about the Christmas story, and the gifts that the Wise Men gave. But this boy asked his parents, “But didn’t Jesus die thousands of years ago.” Yes, his parents replied, but he is now king of heaven.
The boy said, “So Christmas is celebrating his birthday, which is why we give gifts. They are birthday presents!” “That’s right,” said his parents. “But how do you give birthday presents to someone who is in heaven?” the boy asked.
“Aah, that is a very good question,” said the boy’s father. “But when he grew up, Jesus answered that question. He was talking to people about the importance of taking care of people, and he said, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ When Jesus said that, the people around him said, “When did we do that?” They didn’t remember feeding Jesus or giving him clothes or looking after him when he was sick. But Jesus said, “Whenever you did that for anyone, you did it for me.” You need to show God that you love him, but the way to do that is to love other people.”
The boy said, “So when we give Christmas presents to each other, we’re really giving them to the Lord?”“That’s right,” his parents said.
His mother added, “Do you remember last Mother’s Day? You and your sister asked me what I would like for Mother’s Day, and I said, ‘I would like you two to be nice to each other for a day.’ That was my best present – to see you two get along so nicely that day. So if I feel happiness when I see you being kind and loving to your sister, imagine how much happiness the Lord feels when he sees everyone being kind and loving to each other.”
So this Christmas, let us think back to the original purpose of giving gifts to a king: to give thanks that because of the king, the people can live in peace and prosperity. But instead of acknowledging just one person for that, we can acknowledge that all of us increase the prosperity of everyone else. We couldn’t survive without each other. The physical gift is saying, “You have already given me so many gifts, and this is just a small way of giving back.” And the more we say that to each other, the more we all collectively say it to God. So the spirit of giving is indeed the spirit of Christmas. Amen.
READINGS
Matthew 25:31-40
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 2:1-12
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
Reading from Emanuel Swedenborg: Secrets of Heaven #9938(2)
The Lord does not accept any gifts or offerings, but gives to everyone freely. Nevertheless He wills that these things should come from the person as from themself, provided they acknowledge that the gifts are not from themself, but from the Lord. For the Lord imparts the affection of doing good from love, and the affection of speaking truth from faith; but the affection itself flows in from the Lord, and it appears as if it were in the person, thus from the person; for whatever a person does from the affection which is of love, they do from their life, because love is the life of everyone. From this it is evident that what are called “gifts and offerings made to the Lord” by people are in their essence gifts and offerings made to people by the Lord; and their being called “gifts and offerings” is from the appearance. All who are wise in heart see this appearance.