A SEASON FOR GIVING Worldwide phenomenon
Origins — Corruption — Restoration to Heaven’s Gifts
PROLOGUE
(I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most everyone here today falls into one of four categories)
Already finished shopping for Christmas presents
Is currently shopping for Christmas presents
Thinking about what presents to buy for Christmas
Thinking about what you want for Christmas
TRUE OR NO?
I. WHY CHRISTMAS BECAME A SEASON OF GIVING
Whether you celebrate Christmas as a religious Holiday
Or as a National Holiday
June 28, 1870
Congress passed House Bill 2224, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, which declared Christmas Day (December 25) a federal holiday for the first time.
It was part of a law that created four official federal holidays:
New Year’s Day – January 1
Independence Day – July 4
Thanksgiving Day – last Thursday in November
Christmas Day – December 25
Or if you are like me
Just because judges, public schools, atheist groups say I shouldn’t
At least in Texas we have the Merry Christmas Law (Texas) (HB 308), enacted in 2013, allows public schools in that state to use greetings like “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Hanukkah,” or “Happy Holidays,” and to display holiday symbols (Christmas tree, menorah, etc.) under certain conditions.
Not Gift Day / Family Day Some schools and workplaces propose:
Not Old Soviet Union, China (under Mao cult) Cuba Eastern Europe
Replaced Christmas with New Year’s Day
Introduced Father Frost (Ded Moroz) instead of Santa
New Year Tree instead of Christmas tree
Not pagan groups Winter Solstice / Yule
I’M NOT HERE TODAY TO TALK ABOUT CHRISTMAS
I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS AT CHRISTMAS TIME
NO MATTER WHERE YOU DRAW THE LINE
You have to admit
There is no other time of year like the Christmas season.
Even people who do not worship Christ become generous.
As Winston Churchill once observed, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Even the hardest heart softens.
Enemies reconcile.
Strangers feel like neighbors.
But why? Where did this tradition begin?
Is it cultural or commercial?
Or is it spiritual at its core?
Anyone here who doesn’t know The Dairy of Anne Frank?
“The Diary of a Young Girl”
(in Dutch: “The Secret Annex”).
In July 1942, to avoid arrest and deportation, the Frank family went into hiding in a concealed part of her father’s office building.
In August 1944, the people in the Secret Annex were discovered (likely after being betrayed).
Anne and the others were arrested and taken to concentration camps.
Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in early 1945, only weeks before the camp was liberated.
She was 15 years old.
A quote widely attributed to Anne Frank: “No one has ever become poor by giving.”
Something spiritual happens in December.
Behind the lights and stores is a biblical pattern.
Salvation Army Centers it’s Seasonal Giving
Around Holidays
Angel Tree: gifts for over one million children nationally
Winnebago County: 2,100+ children served
Lubbock, Texas: 1,200+ children
2024 Christmas Campaign regional total: $322,312, highest in five years
EVEN IN A SECULAR WORLD:
People still feel the pull to give.
The church sees this and understands why.
As Amy Carmichael
Born in Northern Ireland
went to India in 1895, where she would remain 55 years without furlough.
where she encountered the hidden trafficking of young girls in Hindu temple prostitution.
She rescued children—especially young girls—who were being sold or dedicated to temples.
Founded the Dohnavur Fellowship (1901), a home for rescued children.
wrote, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”
This is the hidden truth of Christmas.
II. ANCIENT ROOTS IN GENEROSITY
Long before the department store,
people tied December giving to
celebration, harvest, and hope.
IN SCRIPTURE, GIVING WAS TIED TO FESTIVAL:
Passover, Tabernacles, Firstfruits, and Sabbath offerings all required giving with joy.
“None shall appear before Me empty-handed” (Exodus 23:15).
Giving during worship was not an obligation only—it was a response to grace.
In Israel, offerings were tied to God’s provision, never to guilt or pressure.
Pierre Corneille famous 17 century French playwright
Corneille was devoutly Christian.
Many of his plays reflect Christian ethics, especially “Polyeucte,” (poh lee uct)
which tells the story of a Christian martyr in pagan Rome.
He died in 1684 in Paris.
captured the heart of this: “The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.”
III. WHAT EARLY CHRISTIANS ACTUALLY DID
Long before formal denominations existed, believers honored Jesus’ birth:
1st & 2nd century Christian writings reference public Scripture reading of the Nativity.
Ignatius (AD 110) affirms Jesus’ birth as essential to faith and worship. Speaks of believers honoring Christ’s birth as proof of His humanity.
Justin Martyr (AD 150) describes Christians gathering to read the birth accounts publicly.
Hippolytus (AD 170–235) — makes one of the earliest attempts at proposing a date (December 25), based on a Jewish prophetic calendar calculation.
So Christians were celebrating the birth of Christ centuries before organized Catholic tradition developed formal liturgy.
The Heresy: Docetism and Gnosticism
Beginning late in the first century and growing through the 2nd–3rd centuries, certain groups taught:
Jesus only appeared to have a human body.
The Son of God could not truly take on “corruptible flesh.”
His suffering and death were illusions.
This came mostly from Gnosticism, which believed matter was evil and spirit was pure — so a divine being could not be truly human.
Early Christians were countering this false doctrine by emphasizing the fact JESUS WAS BORN!
IV. DID THEY COME UP WITH THAT DATE
one of the most misunderstood topics in early Christian history.
Most people are only familiar with two theories:
“December 25 was borrowed from paganism.”
or
“It comes from the Magi or the winter solstice.”
But one of the earliest Christian explanations is much more Jewish and much more interesting:
it is based on a Jewish belief about the “integral age” of prophets
— that a holy person dies on the same date as either their birth or their conception.
1.) THE ANCIENT JEWISH TRADITION: INTEGRAL AGE
Long before Christianity,
there was a Jewish reverence for completeness
— that the lifespan of a righteous person was a complete number of years.
In Jewish thought, a prophet’s life is a “perfect circle”:
The day of his death is the day of his birth
OR
the day of his conception (being counted from conception, not independent birth).
This “integral age” belief appears in:
early rabbinic sources,
Babylonian Tulmad, Kiddushin 38a
midrashic material,
and certain Qumran ideas about sacred timing.
It’s summarized later in the Jerusalem Talmud (Kiddushin 38a),
which says Moses and the patriarchs died on the anniversary of their births.
Whether that was literally true isn’t the point
— it was a spiritual principle.
Early Christians picked up this way of thinking
because they understood Jesus as the perfect fulfillment of the prophets
and saw His life as theologically symmetrical.
2.) HOW EARLY CHRISTIANS APPLIED IT TO JESUS
Early Christian scholars (especially in North Africa) said:
Jesus died on the same day He was conceived.
Why conception?
Because for Christians, life begins with conception
(the Incarnation began the moment the Word took flesh — “the Word became flesh”).
So they reasoned:
The date of the crucifixion = the date of the conception.
If you know one, you can calculate the other.
3.) WHAT DATE DID THEY ASSIGN TO THE CRUCIFIXION?
In Jewish calendar terms, Jesus’ crucifixion happened on 14 Nisan (Passover eve).Exo.12:2
But when you convert it into the Roman calendar, different early Christian traditions converged on March 25.
Here’s how they reasoned:
Western Christians (Latin tradition) identified March 25 as the date of the crucifixion.
Eastern Christians (Greek/Syrian tradition) identified April 6.
Both are mathematically linked to the Jewish Passover cycle.
Why March 25?
Because in the Roman calendar, the spring equinox was thought to be March 25, and ancient Christians loved the idea that:
Creation,
Conception of Christ, and
Crucifixion,
all occurred on the same cosmic date.
This wasn’t historical astronomy — it was theological symmetry.
So in the West:
March 25 = conception AND crucifixion.
4.) HOW YOU GET TO DECEMBER 25
Now the rest is simple math:
March 25 + nine months = December 25.
(Conception ? Birth)
So if Jesus was conceived on March 25, then He must have been born on December 25.
This logic appears very early — centuries before there is any Christian interest in copying pagan festivals.
So the sequence is:
Fix date of crucifixion (March 25).
Apply Jewish “integral age” tradition — “He died on the day He was conceived.”
Calculate nine months forward for birth.
Arrive at December 25.
5.) PRIMARY EARLY SOURCES
? Hippolytus of Rome (c. 204 A.D.)
Commentary on Daniel 4.23:
“The first advent of our Lord in the flesh… took place eight days before the kalends of January (December 25)…
He suffered on the eighth day before the kalends of April (March 25).”
This is very, very early — over a century before the rise of Christmas as a cultural festival.
(“kalends” Latin for announce, due to custom of priest announcing the first day of every month)
6.) WHAT EARLY CHRISTIAN / MEDIEVAL SOURCES SAY — WHAT THEY DON’T
When historians trace the evolution of Christmas traditions, they note:
The earliest Christian celebrations of Christ’s birth (before ~500 A.D.) did not include universal customs of family gift-giving.
Early Church writers and liturgies focused on worship, prayer, feasts, and reflection — not material gifts exchanged among families.
V. WHEN GIFT-GIVING BECAME POPULAR — AND WHY
The custom of giving gifts around Christmastime seems to gain popularity much later, typically:
During the Middle Ages and more strongly by the early modern era, as Christmas took on more cultural and social dimensions (feasting, hospitality, charity).
Many gifts were not family-to-family, but from wealthy to poor, or from benefactors/charity-minded Christians to neighbors, poor, orphans, as a way of practicing Christian generosity.
Early Christians emphasized charity:
Almsgiving for widows and orphans.
Ransom money to rescue slaves.
Benevolence for the poor suffering in winter.
Hospitality to strangers, following the pattern:
“Freely you received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).
In the 4th century, St. Nicholas, the bishop of Myra, became known for anonymous generosity, especially for families in need.
His giving was secret so that the glory went to God, not to the giver (Matthew 6:1–4).
He believed Jesus’ command:
“When you give…do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matt. 6:1–4).
Ralph Waldo Emerson said it well:
The line comes from the opening of the essay “Gifts”, published in 1844. In the original text, Emerson writes:
“The only gift is a portion of thyself.”
He then explains the idea — that true giving involves personal sacrifice, attention, affection, and sincerity, rather than objects or material goods.
1. THIS IS THE ROOT:
God loved us by giving His Son, so we love others by giving ourselves.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…” — John 3:16
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.” — 2 Corinthians 9:15
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354–430 A.D.)
Bishop • Theologian • Philosopher • Father of Western Theology
Augustine expressed it this way: “God never gives less than Himself.”
So the practice of giving around the early observance of birth of Jesus grew from a single stream:
2. THE EMERGENCE OF TRADITIONS
Over time:
Gift-giving in families grew out of remembering the Magi:
“They presented unto Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” — Matthew 2:11
Kings brought gifts to honor a rightful king.
The church gave gifts to the poor to display the kingdom.
The earliest believers did not exchange gifts with those who could repay them.
They gave to those who couldn’t.
“When you give a banquet…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…for they cannot repay you.” — Luke 14:13–14
As St. Francis said: “For it is in giving that we receive.”
The famous line is not recorded in his writings.
It first appeared in a French Catholic magazine.
It appears in a prayer known today as “The Peace Prayer of St. Francis”:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace…
…For it is in giving that we receive.”
Early Christian giving was shaped by Christ’s generosity, not cultural expectation.
VI. HOW GIVING BECAME COMMERCIALIZED
So how did we go from “glory to God in the highest”
to “Black Friday in the parking lot”?
🔹 Notable Incidents of Black-Friday Violence or Altercations
• 2008 — Stampede Death at a Walmart in Long Island
At a Walmart store in Valley Stream, Long Island, a crowd surge at store opening led to a deadly stampede: a temporary employee, Jdimytai Damour, was crushed to death. Multiple shoppers were injured. Black Friday Death Count+3The Week+3New York Post+3
This remains one of the most tragic outcomes of Black Friday chaos.
• 2008 — Shooting at a Toys "R" Us over Black Friday deals
Also in 2008, two shoppers at a Toys “R” Us became involved in a gunfight during Black Friday rush — a violent escalation over items (reportedly toys or electronics). Both died from their wounds. Black Friday Death Count+3InvestorPlace+3Beliefnet+3
• 2011 — Pepper-spray Attack at a Los Angeles Walmart
During a Black Friday rush for discounted gaming consoles (Xbox), one shopper used pepper-spray against about 20 other shoppers vying for the same deal. The attacker reportedly paid for the item and left; dozens were affected. The Week+2New York Post+2
• 2019 — Brawl Outside a Store at Lehigh Valley Mall, Pennsylvania
On Thanksgiving night / early Black Friday, a fistfight (possibly among teens or young men) erupted outside a store (reported as a popular retailer) — video surfaced showing multiple people attacking one another as security attempted to break it up. FOX 32 Chicago+1
• 2016 — Mall Altercation at Vintage Faire Mall near Modesto, California
During Black Friday shopping crowds, an argument near a department store escalated into a brawl. Security intervened, and though no serious injuries were reported, it underscores how easily tensions over limited stock can erupt into violence. Arash Law
1. THE INDUSTRIAL SHIFT
This is commonly found in:
Daniel Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience
Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas
Stuart Ewen, Captains of Consciousness
They attribute the commercialization of Christmas season to
the arrival of:
Mass production
Department stores
Advertising psychology
Secularization of the calendar
2. DEPARTMENT STORES
The rise of stores like:
Macy’s (1858),
Marshall Field (1881),
Sears catalogs (1893),
Wanamaker’s (1877),
and Christmas window displays.
They reshaped Christmas shopping and invented the “holiday rush.”
Retailers realized that:
December was profitable.
The story of Jesus became an opportunity to sell things instead of worship.
Gift-giving was redirected
from charity ? to consumerism
from love ? to obligation
from worship ? to shopping
People began asking:
“What should I buy?” instead of
“Whom can I bless?”
Kathy Calvin, a modern philanthropy leader, said, “Giving is not just making a donation. It is making a difference.”
2. THE SUBTLE CORRUPTION
Listen closely:
The issue is not that people give presents.
The issue is the motive behind it.
True giving is:
voluntary
sacrificial
hidden
loving
Commercial giving is:
pressured
performative
transactional
self-focused
Carol Ryrie Brink saw the right motive: “The most truly generous people are those who give silently without hope of praise or reward.”
Today, many feel stress, debt, and anxiety instead of joy, because the world redefined generosity.
Christmas stopped being about the Gift and became about a gift.
___________________________________
VII. RETURNING TO THE TRUE GIFTS
Let us turn our eyes away from the counterfeits
and back to the Kingdom.
The Bible presents two truths:
1. ALL TRUE GIFTS COME FROM HEAVEN
James wrote:
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” — James 1:17
Notice:
They come down
From the Father
And they are perfect
That means anything we give, if it is truly good, originated with God.
Salvation begins with a divine act of generosity, not human effort.
Albert Einstein put it another way: “The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.”
God initiated the giving.
We respond to the giving.
He does not just give us things—
He gives us Himself.
The greatest gifts are not wrapped, they are revealed.
A line in a Christmas Card attributed to a man named W.C. Jones
“The joy of brightening other lives becomes for us the magic of Christmas.” —
2. THE THREE GREAT GIFTS OF GOD
Scripture is full of God’s gifts, but three stand above the rest:
a. The Gift of His Son
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” — Isaiah 9:6
God did not send an angel.
He sent His Son.
In Bethlehem, God gave the gift of Himself, wrapped not in linen but in human flesh.
A line attributed to Thomas Fuller a Church of England clergyman in 17th century
noted: “A gift in due season is a doubly precious thing.”
Christ came in the fullness of time.
Galatians 4:4–5
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
b. The Gift of His Spirit
“…the gift of the Holy Spirit.” — Acts 2:38
Jesus not only came to die for us,
but to live in us.
The Spirit is God’s indwelling generosity—
the gift that empowers us to love,
to forgive,
to give,
to share Christ,
to serve,
to become like Him.
Acts 2:38 (KJV) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
c. The Gift of Eternal Life
“The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 6:23
Life is not earned.
Life is given.
In Jesus, God gives:
A new birth (John 3:3)
John 3:3 (KJV) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
A new name (Rev. 2:17)
Revelation 2:17 (KJV) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
A new heart (Ezek. 36:26)
Ezekiel 36:26 (KJV) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
A new future (2 Cor. 5:17)
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
These are not presents for a day,
but glories for eternity.
VIII. HOW GOD ENABLES US TO GIVE
The world thinks:
“We give because we are generous.”
Scripture teaches:
“We give because He gave first.”
“We love because He first loved us.” — 1 Jo 4:19
“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” — Amy Carmichael
You might say:
“But I don’t have much to give.”
Listen carefully:
Everything God requires,
He supplies.
2 Corinthians 8:12 “For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.”
Arab proverb: “If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.”
Acts 3:1-6 (KJV) Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
VII. SO THE QUESTION IS
ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE WHAT YOU HAVE
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO GIVE
1. God Gives the Heart to Give
Paul praised the Macedonians that:
“God put into their hearts to do this.” — 2 Corinthians 8:16
Even the desire to give is a gift from God.
2. God Gives the Means to Give
“He gives seed to the sower.” — 2 Co 9:10
If you sow,
He will supply the seed.
That means even money to bless others is a gift of grace.
3. God Gives the Joy of Giving
Paul said giving produces:
Thanksgiving to God (2 Cor. 9:11–12)
10 Now [g]may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, [h]supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
Abounding grace (2 Cor. 9:8)
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work
Ineffable (in-f-able) gratitude (2 Cor. 9:15)
Ineffable means something too great, too beautiful, too sacred, or too overwhelming to be expressed in words.
15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
KJV his unspeakable gift.
Generosity is not a loss—
it is the overflow of God’s abundance.
Ben Carson said: “Happiness doesn’t result from what we get, but from what we give.”
God doesn’t take from us to bless others.
He pours through us to bless others.
CONCLUSION: GIVING LIKE HEAVEN
The world gives things.
Heaven gives truth.
The world gives costly gifts.
Heaven gives priceless gifts.
The world gives for praise.
Heaven gives for love.
So this season, let our families learn to ask different questions:
Not:
“What should I put under the tree?”
But:
“What has God put in my hands?”
“Who is God calling me to bless?”
“How can I give what money can’t buy?”
Because:
The greatest gifts we give are the gifts God gave first.
Mercy
Forgiveness
Presence
Time
Encouragement
Hope
The Gospel
These are Heaven’s gifts.
As Proverbs says: “A gift opens the way…” — Proverbs 18:16
God opened His hand in Bethlehem,
so we might open ours in His name.
Henry Van Dyke reminds us: “It is not the gift, but the thought that counts.”
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.”
— 2 Corinthians 9:15
Churchill’s words echo Scripture: “We make a life by what we give.”
EPILOGUE: “When Heaven Opens the Window”
THERE IS NO DENYING IT
Christmas does something to the human heart that no other season has the power to do.
For one brief window in the year, something in the atmosphere changes.
People soften.
Time slows.
Cynicism is interrupted.
Old memories come to the surface.
Even the hardest hearts become children again — if only for a moment.
It’s almost as if Heaven opens a window
and lets mercy blow through the busy streets of men and women
— and we all breathe a gentler air.
We call it “Christmas spirit,”
but the Book calls it something deeper:
the echo of His coming,
the afterglow of the Incarnation
still warming the world.
The world doesn’t fully understand what it’s feeling.
The shops call it “the holiday mood.”
Historians call it “seasonal charity.”
Advertisers call it “branding.”
But we know what it is:
Christ leaves fingerprints on the human soul,
and once a year the light catches them just right.
He was born into the world,
and the world has never forgotten how that felt —
even if they’ve forgotten Him.
And this is where we must do more than unwrap gifts.
This is where the church must be wise.
When the window is open — we must not waste the breeze.
Because Christmas creates a rare moment of willingness:
People who would never listen in July
sit still in December.
People who never talk about faith
suddenly sing songs that preach the gospel more clearly than many sermons:
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the Incarnate Deity.”
“O come, let us adore Him.”
They don’t even realize they are preaching to themselves.
That is our moment.
Not to condemn the world for its commercialization —
but to convert the mood into mission.
Not to scold the culture —
but to reap the quiet harvest God has already softened.
The shepherds left the manger with news to tell,
not just an experience to remember.
Christmas is not a memory — it is a message.
The angels never said, “Wasn’t that beautiful?”
They said:
“Go — for unto you is born a Savior.”
So this Christmas, don’t just admire the mood.
Activate it.
Let the tenderness of the season become the doorway to discipleship.
Let the generosity of the moment become lasting compassion.
Take the goodwill and give it direction.
Take the softness and give it a Savior.
Because moods fade — but mercies don’t.
And if we let the Christmas atmosphere pass without planting the seed of Christ, we’ve left the field fertile and unplanted.
This year, remember this:
The world is already halfway to Bethlehem — they just don’t know it.
Take them the rest of the way.
Amen.
