Hope is the Perfect
Gift
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 12/9/2012
Based on Luke 1:
68-79
As
the days continue to grow shorter and the nights longer, we have entered into what
that most people call the “Christmas season”, I call it the season of “excessive
behavior”. We spend more time shopping
for gifts, buying more than what we probably need to, and generally more gifts
that not needed or desired. We spend
more money than what we generally have available during this season, racking up
higher credit card bills. We give more
generously to charities, attend more parties and spend more hours decorating
our homes than any other time of the year.
And we do this because of a
strangely strong tugging at our hearts that we seem not to listen to during the
rest of the year!
Our
radio and television stations are filled with songs and movies that deal with
the topic of giving, of reconciliations, of re-uniting. The secular world refers to this as the
Spirit of Christmas and is generally portrayed through the individual known as
Santa Clause. Yet even secular society,
when pressed, contribute the values we have assigned to this round white
bearded jolly fellow, to a story of long, long ago, told by the church of the
birth of a little boy; to a young unwed mother, in a stable, whose name is
Jesus.
Yet
the birth story about Jesus also includes the birth of another boy named
John. He was the son of Zechariah and
Elizabeth. Zechariah was a Priest and Elizabeth
was a cousin to Jesus’ mother. As the
story tells of Mary’s purity of heart, so is her cousins Elizabeth and
Zechariah. Most bible scholars conclude
that the telling of John’s birth is a way of explaining to the early church the
importance of John the Baptist’s roll in the larger story of Jesus’ life and
ministry.
It
is through these birth stories that are found in three of the four Gospels that
we in this country have come to view the period of time between Thanksgiving
and the celebration of the birth of Jesus as the “Christmas Season.” Yet these four weeks before Christmas is not
really the Christmas season. The season
of Christmas actually doesn’t start until Christmas Day. We are in fact in the Season of Advent. That period, which is characterized as the
time of darkness as we move toward the day of light, the birth of Jesus, which
for us falls on December 25th.
This
second week of Advent is called “Hope”.
As I was thinking about the title for this week’s reflection, I cannot
shake the reality of how much energy we put into the “gift” giving aspect of
this season. We spend hours wondering
through the mall, looking at all of the “stuff” that is on the shelves,
weighing each item of its worthiness for each person on our gift giving
list. “Will this scarf be the best gift
for Aunt Martha?” “Is this MP3 player,
going to get a lot of use for my daughter, Bobbie?” “Will these diamond earrings sparkle on my
wife’s ears, as much as they do under the display lights?” What we try to achieve through our gifts is
to give the best gift that we can.
When
the church is involved in various ministries, we really are trying to give our
best as well. When we give our money,
the programs that we support, we support because we want to give the “best” to
those who are receiving it. Yet we often
struggle with “what is the best” that we as a church, as a person of God, can
give to someone, give to our community, and give to the world? As your minister, I struggle each week with
“what will be the best” message, what will make the “best worship” experience,
what will be the “best thoughts” that you can take home with you after
church?
The
answer I think is “Hope”. Hope is the
perfect gift. Hope is the best that we
as children of God can give to one another.
Hope should be the largest present found under our Christmas trees. You see, it is in the birth of Jesus that God
gave the world “Hope”. For Elizabeth
and Zechariah, John’s birth was a fulfillment of ancient promises, in Jesus’
birth it was a physical fulfillment of God’s promise.
Zechariah
say’s in his prophecy of his son John, “And you, my child, “Prophet of the Highest,” will go ahead of the
Master to prepare his ways, Present the offer of salvation to his people, the
forgiveness of their sins.” The hope
that we can provide for people is that of “salvation.” Most people equate the gift of salvation with
Heaven. Most people think that salvation
means getting into heaven. I don’t think
that’s what salvation is. I think that salvation comes through the
“forgiveness” of sin. When Jesus was
dying on the cross, he said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they
do.” Jesus didn’t say, “You get to
heaven because of what it is I do.” That
is a message that the church has developed over its life. Rather Jesus in his dying breath was
forgiving sinful actions. Salvation
comes through “forgiving”, period.
(Watch the clip on
forgiveness in the movie, “Madea Goes to Jail.)
Tyler Perry, through this scene shows us
how holding onto sinful actions, whether they are things that we have done to
others, or what others have done to us, does not allow for the working of life
that comes through “Hope”. Hope can only
be cultivated in the garden of “forgiveness.”
Zechariah concludes with, “Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s
Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, those sitting
in the shadow of death, then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the
path of peace.” The greatest gift
that the church can give today is “forgiveness”. The hope of salvation comes through
forgiveness; of our forgiving ourselves, and of our forgiving others. As we walk through these dark days we call
“advent”, let us reflect upon the greatest gift that we can give to ourselves
and to others. Let us strive to give the
gift of salvation through the act of forgiving!
Let us become the “Sunrise that will shine “hope” to those who exist in
darkness and sitting in the shadow of death.”
Amen
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