A Christmas Gift Never Given

 

Most all of us have Christmas memories that are unforgettable and continue to linger.   For some of us, those memories are good and for others of us those memories are not so good.   Christmas 2000 was a Christmas that I will never forget.  My late Mom was in the hospital and nursing home that Christmas recovering from back surgery in early December 2000.   I remember making my way from my home to my hometown of Burlington to visit her in the hospital before I  had some “Christmas moments” with Ann and our girls.   It would turn out to be my Mom’s last Christmas before her death in August   

My brother Tony, my step-father Beamon, and I had made the decision that we would not exchange  Christmas gifts until Mom was able to be back home.    Since Mom had been sick, I had bought her a nightgown for her Christmas present.   Though Ann and the girls were much more proficient in wrapping Christmas gifts that I was, I insisted that I would wrap her gift even though the gift wrapping was far from perfect.

Shortly after her death in August 2001, I discovered her Christmas gift in a closet.   It was a Christmas gift that was never given.   Nursing home visits, rehab, physical therapy, and other things seemed to get in the way of giving her that nightgown.   Though my memory is a blur over 20 years later, I seem to recall that I took the nightgown and donated it to the local Goodwill Store.  Perhaps some other person got the benefeit of a gift that was never given. 

In these December days, many will offer gifts to young and old:   children, family, friends, co-workers, community helpers (like the postman and the person who delivers our newspaper).   I wonder if there is a gift that you will not give this year?

·         Will you offer the gift of an “I’m sorry” to a friend or family member with which a dispute still lingers?

·         Will you offer the gift of a visit to a friend or family member you have not seen in the longest time?

·         Will you give the gift of taking time to spend with God in prayer and praise and get re-acquainted on His Son’s birthday?

While Christmas is only days away, there is still time and these are gifts you can afford if you would only invest the time.    Have a joy-filled week and a blessed Christmas. Emmanuel, God is with us.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER --   God, we give you thanks for the unspeakable gift that is ours in Jesus Christ.   Richly we have been given.   Let us richly give.   Amen.

Untied Church, Untied World: A Christmas Hope

 

Two of the things that have not changed through the years of my life about Christmas is there is always a nativity scene somewhere and most church always seem to have a Christmas pageant.   When I was a boy, we had a wooden nativity scene on the front lawn of our church.   Today, I see them not just at churches but sometimes in the yards of homes in neighborhoods.   Regarding Christmas pageants, I was in a few of them as a child starting out as a shepherd and then being promoted to a wise man walking down the aisle of the church.  

I always assumed as a child that the main characters surrounding the birth of Jesus showed up at the same time just like aunts, uncles, and cousins showed up at our grandparent’s house at Christmas for food and gifts. A college degree  in religion from Methodist University and a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School taught me a different view of the  birth of Jesus.  Wise men?   Formal education taught me that the wise men got there far later than the shepherds because they came from far away and, on top of that, they were probably of a different religious tradition.   Shepherds?     Even though the sheep  at a petting  zoo look cute, those shepherds were considered to be sinners by the religious leaders of the day.    Mary, the mother of Jesus?    Formal education taught me that even though Mary was seen as “highly favored” by the angels, she was looked at with scorn and shame by her community and religious leaders alike in her day.     The real story about the people in the nativity scene at church or the church Christmas pageant was a little bit different.

I wish this Christmas could be a different story for us.    Our family does not gather together anymore at our grandparent’s house because grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even some  cousins have gone  to their  eternal reward.   However, that is not the only thing that is different.    We do  not seem as a people to COME TOGETHER or BE TOGETHER anymore.     In our country, we seem less like the United States, but more like people who are known to be liberal  or  conservative… republican or democrat or independent… rural , urban, or suburban.    Decades ago when the General Conference of the United Methodist Church  was meeting, one hotel  put on their marquee “Welcome UNTIED Methodist”.     In these days, that spelling error is becoming a reality as United Methodist Churches and people  become untied amid differences of opinion about issues many see as quite important.     

I wish this Christmas could be a different story.     Long ago in Bethlehem, shepherd-sinners… wise men from far away places with different beliefs… Joseph and a formerly pregnant and shunned  Mary came together despite their differences to praise the name of the new born King, Christ Jesus.   Like the different people with their blemishes and differing beliefs around the manger of Bethlehem, I wish we could put down our social media post and our vicious rhetoric in our untied country and untied church to be together at the feet of Jesus and in the name of Jesus.    I may not agree with you and you may not agree with me, but I know that I need you and know that we all  need the peace, presence, and power of the Lord Jesus.  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy L. Wall

PRAYER --   God,  forgive us for the times we have focused on what divides us instead of what unites us.   Knit us together, O God, through the bonds of your love that came down full of grace and truth in Bethlehem;  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.