Christmas Eve
Titus 3:4-7
"The Best Gift"
Barbara Streisand has a Christmas song which speaks of a special gift, the best gift she received at Christmas.
I would like to share the words of that song with you, Listen carefully......
"The best gift that I’d ever got didn’t really weight a lot.
It didn’t have a ribbon round and it sometimes made a terrible sound.
The best of all it seems to me, it wasn’t neath the Christmas tree,
And yet I’d guess I’d have to say, that it made all the other presents twice as gay.
The best gift that I’ve ever known I’d always wanted most to own, yet in all my dreams of sugar and spice, I never thought it could be so nice.
The best gift that I ever got was sometimes dry and sometimes wet, was usually pink but oftentimes red as it lay so innocently in its bed.
The best gift of the year to me, the one I hold most dear to me.
The gift that simply drove me wild, was a tiny newborn child."
Yes, the best gift of the Christmas season isn’t under the tree, but it is the gift which God gave to us in that manger 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. The best gift to us this season does make all the other presents twice as gay. The best gift of this season is rich and happy full of hope and peace, full of mercy and love, a gift that is difficult for us to comprehend, but a gift of love that brings joy, peace, happiness, comfort, mercy and forgiveness into each of our hearts. The best gift is a new born child, the child born in that stable many years ago.
And in this season of Christmas, the baby Jesus is reborn again in our hearts. It is that birth, that baby coming into our lives which makes this season so special. The best gift of this season, the gift for which we gather this night, the gift which means more to us than all the other gifts under the tree, is the rebirth of baby Jesus into our hearts and souls. Jesus birth, the coming of the Messiah, the coming of God into our world, the plan of salvation which God begins this night, that is the most important gift for us. It should be the gift that does drive us wild with excitement, love and celebration, because no other gift. means so much to us than God’s son and the eternal life which he gives to all who who call and believe on his name.
Little baby Jesus, the messiah born in a manger, the savior born in your heart and mind, anew, fresh again this season that is the best gift, no other can match or equal it’s affect on our lives. What other gift can give confidence to your life in the midst of all the brokenness we face? What other gift can be a rock, a fortress, a foundation stone for life? What other gift can bring peace, comfort, mercy and forgiveness into a troubled soul? What other gift can let you die in the confidence that life continues, life goes on in a new home, a brighter home, a fairer home with the Father and the Son?
What other gift gives you the courage and strength to face disappointments, face troubles, face sorrow, face illness, face loneliness, face grief with the assurance that you are not alone, but your Lord and Savior is by your side? When you scrape away all the other stuff of life, money, food, clothing, wealth, prestige, fame, what do you have left, only this gift of a savior, this gift of the baby born in the manager,
And let us remember it is a gift. A gift, it is freely given by God for us to accept.
In a children’s sermon, a pastor illustrated the point Jesus as a gift in this way:
The pastor gave each child a dollar bill. "Why did I give it to you?" he asked. "Did you deserve it?"
"No." came the reply from the children.
"Did you earn it?" asked the pastor.
"No. " again was the children’s reply.
"I gave it to you because I love you, because I made up my mind to share my riches with you!"
And God’s love is like that. We don’t deserve it or earn it. God has simply made up his mind to love us. And nothing we can do can change him. God loves us, period.
This gift is no ordinary gift, it is the gift of life, the gift of salvation, the gift of righteousness in our lives. As the text from Titus says, "but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit." This gift, this best gift is God’s righteousness for us. It is God’s gift of salvation, God’s gift of eternal life, God’s gift of grace for you and me.
This can be best illustrated by the following story.
"During WW II a group of men were huddling together the eve before a major battle. Their thoughts had turned to serious thing as they wondered whether they would live or die. They discussed death, they discussed whether they were ready to die, they discussed what happened after death.
One of the soldiers decided to call the chaplain. He began to talk with them about death, dying and eternal life. The Chaplain said "There are two possibilities following death--heaven or hell. And if you would like to know your destination, I shall be happy to give you a test the results of which will be your answer."
The men all agreed.
They found some pencils and paper and the test was under way. The were told by the chaplain to number off 10 spaces and each question would be worth 10 points.
Question # 1. ’"Have you always loved God above all else and never put anything before him?" The chaplain told them to answer on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest number of points.
Question # 2 announced the chaplain. "Have you ever misused God’s name or made light of him?’ The men turned and looked at each other before answering.
Question # 3 ’Have you faithfully been in God’s house to worship, praise and adore his name" Again, the men looked at each other, yesterday had been Sunday, and only a handful had come to the chaplain’s tent for worship.
The chaplain went on and on, going through a rough version of the 10 commandments. After the 10th question, he asked the men to tallied up their scores.
As they added up their scores, the men talked and chatted among themselves.
Some thought they had done pretty good, others were embarrassed. They wondered what a good score would be, 75, 80 maybe even 50. Someone then turned to the chaplain and as asked, say, what is a passing score?
The chaplain smiled then said in a loud voice, "The passing score for this test is 100 points or a perfect paper, anything else is not passing."
The men turned to each other and began to talk, anyone get 100 points? Anyone get 90, or 80?
The chaplain asked for quiet and said again, "The only score worth anything is a perfect score,100 points, all else no matter how close, or how good it seems to you is an unacceptable score."
One of the men spoke up and said, "But chaplain what is the use? No one can get a perfect score or 100 points so why try?"
Another said, "If this score has something to do whether we are going to heaven or hell, then we are all doomed to hell because no one received a perfect score of 100."
At that point, the chaplain asked them all to be quiet then said, " Boys, I have some good news for you. There was once a man who walked this earth and he took this test too... and he scored 100 points. His name is Jesus Christ. He’s got a gift for you. That gift is his test score of perfect righteousness. It becomes your score as YOU accept him and his score in faith.’’
The gift of righteousness this season is Jesus’ life for us. His life, his test score becomes ours, because God demands only perfection and Jesus was the only one to gain that perfection. This is the night we can accept anew, the righteousness of Christ, the gift of perfection which he so freely gives to us.
And it is through faith, through believing that God comes to us in this ordinary way which makes this season so special, so meaningful. Believing, having faith that God works in this ordinary way is another miracle of Christmas. But sometimes believing the unbelievable, sometimes believing the unseen, sometimes believing something so ordinary is very difficult. How can this be - many wonder? How can God come in this fashion? Why can’t he come again, so I might see and believe, some say? How do I know this is true-others say?
Faith, believing it is true because it is, is the only answer.
A many of years ago Sara, my oldest, was sitting on my lap and we were talking about Christmas and Jesus birth. She said, "But Daddy how do I know it is sure? I can’t see baby Jesus?"
I would like to answer Sara’s question in a paraphrase of another girl’s question as she wrote to a newspaper many years ago. Remember Virginia’s letter to the New York Sun Times concerning Santa Clause. Remember that now famous first line,
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus.
Well, I would like to paraphrase their answer to Virginia and say to Sara.
Yes Sara, there is a baby Jesus Please don’t be influenced by the skepticism of this scientific, and skeptical age. Please believe even though you cannot see. Many believe everything is is false which cannot be understood by their minds. But, Sara, our minds are small. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world around him. There are countless wonders that we will never be able to understand. But those wonders are true and real. The wonder of life, the wonder of changing seasons, the wonder of love, kindness and beauty.
Yes, Sara baby Jesus is real. He is real as certainty as love and generosity and devotion are real. Sara, baby Jesus is as real as you are, and how dreary would this world be without you and your child like faith, without poetry to express our feelings or love, or a hug, Without these unseen things, we would have no enjoyment, no love in our hearts, no joy in our soul.
Not believe in Baby Jesus!!!!
I know no on one sees baby Jesus today, but what does that prove? The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men, nor woman can see.
Sara, baby Jesus is real in your heart and mind, He is real in the love you and I have for each other, the love you have for Missy and Anthony. Sara, baby Jesus is real in the goodnight hug you receive each night, and in the warmth of this night as we gather here to relive again his birth.
No, baby Jesus. Heaven forbid!
Yes, Sara, there is a baby Jesus and he will live on for thousands of year. He will live in your heart, in the hearts of your children and their children. He will continue to live in my heart and those who are gathered here with us. Sara, look around, baby Jesus is alive, he is real in the hearts of those next to you.
Amen
Written by Rev Tim Zingale December 18, 2001
