When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
(Matthew 11:2-11)
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Gifts. They’re wonderful - and yet I suspect for many people gifts are also the hardest part of the Christmas season. There was a survey done in the United Kingdom that suggested that the only life experiences that are more stressful than Christmas are the death of loved ones, buying a new house, losing or starting a new job, getting divorced and becoming a parent. Christmas is right up there with those life changing and sometimes life shattering events - and a big part of the stress around Christmas has to do with gifts. That survey says that 86% of people say they find buying presents difficult and 65% find Christmas shopping a stressful experience. 30% of people get stressed just at the mere thought of starting Christmas shopping, and 61% say they have no idea what they should buy and they worry that people won't like what they've bought them. 60% of people have at some time had the horrible experience of buying a gift for someone and seeing disappointment on their faces when they opened it. It was a British survey, but I doubt that the results would be that much different in Canada. Buying gifts is tough - not to mention that it can be expensive. You don’t want to look cheap by spending too little, but you also don’t want to go into too much debt by spending too much. So what do you buy? That’s why shopping malls are often full on Christmas Eve - because many people like to put Christmas shopping off until literally the last possible moment. They just don’t want to face it. And they honestly don’t know what to buy. When I was about 7 years old, I bought my mother deodorant for Christmas. DON’T JUDGE ME! I WAS 7!!!!! I didn’t know what to buy her. I remember buying it, but I don’t remember her response. I’m sure it was gracious and thankful. I mean - it was a useful gift! And then - as the survey said - there’s the problem of receiving gifts. 60% of people have given a gift and known from the look on the face of the person they gave it to that they don’t like it. And how do I respond if I don’t like something that someone gives me? Do I manage to successfully mask my disappointment and look enthusiastic? I hope so. Remember - it’s not the gift that counts, it’s that someone thought enough about you to give you the gift! That’s what matters.
I thought about John the Baptist and his disciples. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking of how important the question they asked Jesus in today’s reading was: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” If Jesus was a gift - and I would say that Jesus was in fact God’s gift to the world - then how did John and his disciples receive that gift. Not well apparently. They had questions and doubts and uncertainties. Jesus, as it turned out, wasn’t exactly the gift from God that they had been expecting. Who knows exactly what they were expecting - but John himself was a pretty fiery guy who wasn’t shy about telling people exactly what he thought, so one might assume that a Messiah who came saying “blessed are the meek” was a bit unexpected. And they seem to have been among those who were disappointed by the gift they gift. “Really? Are you really the one?” It’s as if what they’re really saying is, “Please tell us there’s someone else!” And Jesus said, “No. I’m it.” And he cited the various “gifts” (if you will) that he had to offer: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” The gifts of God for the people of God, you might say.
Today, I think, the church wonders what we have to give; what we have to offer to those around us; what gifts we can bestow upon the people we encounter. I suspect that a lot of Christians have trouble answering that question. In congregations I’ve served in the past I’ve sometimes asked people “what would people in the community miss about this church if we weren’t here anymore?” And, distressingly, I find that most people can’t answer the question. They can say what THEY would miss about the church. They know what the church does for them, but - others? What do we offer to others? The British survey about Christmas stress said that when people are asked the kind of gift they’d like to receive almost everyone wants something primarily for themselves. Only 3.7% of those who took the survey said that they wanted something they could share with others. Isn’t that interesting. Only 3.7%!! Maybe that’s part of the problem in the church. We’ve forgotten how to share, and in many cases I suspect we’ve forgotten that we have something to share. Evangelism has become the word that dare not be spoken. We think primarily of what our faith or our church does for us - but what would the person who lives across the street or down the road from us miss about Pickering Village United Church if we weren’t here? That’s something to think about. It’s a question I hope the Visioning Committee that’s been meeting will take some time to ponder.
But at least in general terms, I think Jesus does give us the answer. Rev. Mary Hinkle Shore wrote that “I get how John got Jesus wrong … But how are we getting Jesus wrong? It’s tough to understand because it’s not that complicated. Jesus explained what he gave: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” The key to understanding both the gift we’ve been given and the gift we have to give is probably found in those last few words: “the poor have good news brought to them.” Who are the poor? Does Jesus just mean those who don’t have very much money, or is it wider and broader than that? I suspect that the poor are those who have need; those who don’t have enough - whether that be enough money, enough food, enough health, or maybe the poor are those with no power, no respect, no status, maybe it’s even those with no faith.
And what “gift” do we have for them? So many today think that the church has little to offer. Maybe we’re not sure ourselves what we have to offer to those who have little. But that isn’t true. We can’t solve everyone’s problems and we can’t provide for everyone’s needs - but what we can do is be a place where those who have little or where those who are tossed aside and ignored and even hated are welcomed - without question and without judgement, but always with love and grace. That should be what we do best, because we’ve seen it and experienced it in action - because it’s what God has given us in Jesus: unconditional love and acceptance without question and without judgement. Gift giving doesn’t have to be hard or stressful. And when you’re the church, it should be easy. Just give the grace of God. Just give Jesus.
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