Giving at Christmas

       We have just been through what the culture calls “The Holidays” with all of their festivity, the Christmas presents, the dinners, the guests, the madness of the malls and everything that goes with this year end celebration.  New Year’s eve is the last of it when we celebrate the renewal of God’s time full of hope for the coming year.

On Christmas Eve, I was privileged to be with Dr. Harold Lewis and The Rev. Leslie Reimer at Calvary Church in Pittsburgh for their glorious 11:00 service with their massive choir and brass septet, with a procession that wound all around the church to place the babe in the manger and then begin the celebration of Jesus’ birth including a great sermon and the Eucharist. We finished it all, were properly exhausted, went home and went to bed getting up late on Christmas morning because the kids are all grown and are dealing with their own Christmases.  We saw them all later in the day for a wonderful dinner and a second exchange of presents.

What are we to make of all of this?  I am attracted to the short Old Testament reading in Numbers that is essentially the blessing that we are offered at the end of our worship services:

    The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

      In this Christmas season, we have again been given the gift of the birth of our Lord, and also the blessing of our God.  What more could we want?

Well, we want a lot more.  Christmas has devolved into a season of wanting.  Kids ask for the impossible from Santa and the rest of us try as best we can to take care of their wants.

Christmas, though seems also to have an abnormal number of tragedies,  fires and robberies.  Even charities have been robbed this year.  People have put out boxes to collect for charity and have had what was put in those boxes stolen.  I think this is a sign of the terrible times that we are in.  Joblessness is rampant and there is just not enough money in many budgets to take care of the demands.  So when a festive time like Christmas comes along, the demands loom larger and desperate things are done to provide the means to get along.  It is particularly depressing when charities are robbed, whose aim is to take care of those who have nothing.

I think we ought not to be too quick or too harsh with our judgment.  I remember when the poor box at Trinity Cathedral was stolen, the Dean of the Cathedral was asked about it by one of Pittsburgh’s reporters.  He said, “Maybe the man who stole it was poor”,  an elegant answer that puts into perspective the terrible need that constantly has filled our city and continues to fill it today.

So what do we really want at Christmastime?  We want what God has always wanted for us all.  Peace and joy, certainly and providence in the face of need and poverty.  We are always impressed when the community rises up and provides for those who lose everything in our neighborhoods.  When fires and death ravage us it is helpful when our neighbors come to our aid.

But we don’t have to wait for obvious tragedy to do this.  There are desperate people all around us who are in a more silent need.  When we help them in their grief or their hunger, or their inability to provide for themselves, we add a bit to God’s peace on this earth.  That is certainly the design of Christmas and we fulfill it with our giving to those around us more than with our feeble presents under the tree.

In this Holy season, may we all be mindful of need, wherever we find it and be givers of God’s peace, not only receivers.  This is how our blessed Lord is seen in this world that is full of privation and want.  A small baby in a manger with nothing at all but poor shepherds to come to him is our model for Christmas.  Remember the words of The Little Drummer Boy:

                        What can I give him, poor as I am?
                      If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
                      If I were a wise man, I would do my part,  
                      So what can I give him? I will give my heart.

When we approach the manger in this blessed season, material goods are not what are required as a gift.  What is wanted by our God as a gift to the Christ Child is our selves, ready to be agents of peace in this strife-torn world.  If we can do this simple thing, God’s peace will reign and the angels will sing.