Birthday Gifts...

***The following post is an adaptation of a sermon that I am preparing to deliver this next Sunday morning at St. Peters Wesleyan.***

When I was a kid… I loved it whenever it was time to celebrate my birthday. I was a lucky kid… both sides of my family lived with ten minutes of my house and every birthday my mom would organize a party that included the invitation of all of my grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and anybody else that was somehow even remotely related to me.

These birthday parties included cakes… usually decorated by my mom. I remember one year she baked an R2-D2 cake. It was the most beautiful cake I have ever seen. Don’t tell Melissa, but this R2-D2 cake even rivaled our wedding cake. It was truly a masterpiece.

Of course birthdays include gifts… and some of my family members were very creative and very generous in their gift-giving: My grandma Sands would always give me as many presents as how many years old I was. So it was probably a bummer when I was one or two… but when I got up to nine and ten… it was jackpot time. If I was turning nine, she’d bring me nine packages to open.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that she probably spent the same amount of money on me each year… she would splurge on one or two presents and then bargain shop for her filler presents… you know trinkets, used underwear, yo-yos, whatever she needed to fill the quota that year.

My great-grandma Ramsey would kind of do that same sort of thing… except with money. When I turned five, she gave me five one dollar bills. I think there was one year when she miscounted and gave me one dollar less. In my rudeness, I let her know that she had shorted me one whole dollar, and I think I might’ve embarrassed my parents.

My grandma Miller would give me a card every year with a crisp $50.00 bill in it. It was guaranteed income every year. My favorite past-time as a kid was the Nintendo… so that $50.00 guaranteed that I could buy a new game every August right when school started.

I tell you all this to remind you of how birthdays usually work in America. Someone gets a year older… and we usually give gifts to celebrate another year. Typically, the birthday boy or girl gets all the presents (or at least the majority of them, right?)

But here’s my question for you this morning: What happened to Christmas? Not that I’m complaining or anything… but here we are celebrating the birthday of God Himself and we’ve decided to give a bunch of gifts to each other. Why is it that during Christmas that we usually get so much, and God usually gets so little? I suppose we could blame it on a number of things: Selfishness, busyness, being more concerned with the ‘how and when’ of Christmas, rather than the ‘Why.’

How can we begin to approach Christmas for what it really is? A Birthday: and not just any old birthday either. It’s the birthday of Immanuel: The God who came near; It’s the birthday of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for His sheep. It’s the birthday of our Savior… of Jesus.

If we are to treat Christmas as a birthday… our first question should not be: So what gifts do I need to buy this year for my family? It is a legitimate concern, but it should not be our first concern. Our main focus should not be on creating our own wish lists for the holiday season: (I am an expert at THAT one!) If we really believe this to be Christ’s birthday… our first question should be: What gift or gifts can I extend to Jesus? What gift or gifts can YOU extend to Jesus? What are the things that we can do or say that will bring Him joy and honor?

I know that this can be tricky. After-all, God is God. The earth is His. His owns the cattle on a thousand hills. What do you get for someone who has everything?

One of the things that I love about Wesleyan/Arminian theology is the thought that God allows us to choose Him. God does not force Himself on us… He graciously allows us to choose to love Him. He knows that forced love is not love at all… forced love is robotic and inspired by fear. It’s only when someone is given a choice to love that love is genuine.

God has ownership of many, many things… but He might not have ownership of You. Or He might only have partial ownership of You. Maybe the greatest gift that you can give Him is the gift of YOU. Your heart, your actions, your attitudes, your mind, your motives, your body, ALL of you. Sounds weird, huh? If you are anything like me, then you might be saying: Why in the world would HE want ME as a gift? I’m not worth anything. My answer to you: I have no idea why God wants us… but He does. If you doubt that, go read the three parables about lost things in Luke 15 or go further ahead in that same gospel to chapters 22 and 23 to see the amazing price that Jesus paid to restore God’s relationship to a fallen humanity. You are priceless in His eyes.

As we approach Christmas this year, consider giving God a gift that would bring Him great joy… your surrender to Him and to His will...

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Romans 12:1)