The Greatest Christmas Gift

TITLE: THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT

SCRIPTURE: ST. MATTHEW 1:18-23

This time of year is profoundly fraught with multi-layered meanings –

• Family traditions

• Economic success for merchants

• The winter solstice

• The pause between the end of the lunar year and the longer solar year

• Our year-end tendency to want to evaluate this year before embarking on another

All these things, along with a group of fictional stories like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And Frosty The Snowman, find their way into our consciousness - our decorations - our gift-buying habits - our parties - and into our expectations. Our culture treats Christmas with massively sentimental attention.

• We watch Hallmark and Lifetime specials on TV

• We resurrect “A Christmas Carol” with its ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

• We can even get sentimental over a puny little Christmas tree, like the one in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

None of this is bad. Traditions instruct us, delight us, and remind us of our values. After all, aren’t we excited -- Today is after all the day. It’s finally here. This is the morning that our children and grandchildren have been waiting for, the morning when the mystery of all those enticing packages under the tree will be or have been revealed. How many have already opened your gifts?

Christmas is hard work and expensive!

• We celebrate Christmas because it is tradition and part of our culture

• God doesn’t command it, nor do we earn brownie points for doing so

• Is it really worth the effort?

For those of us who are Christ followers, if we are going to spend the effort and money, it seems that we should do so with purpose and not just follow tradition. And, it’s more fun when we celebrate because of gratitude as we remember God’s gifts to us embodied in our Christmas celebrations. I am sure you have some wonderful Christmas memories. I began to think a few days ago as I began to reminisce about Christmas’s past as to THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT.

• I remember in Panama, me and my siblings found new bicycles under the tree – it was an 80 degree day on that Christmas and we all went out riding for hours

• I remember when my dad was in Viet-Nam we stayed with my grandparents, my mothers’ parents (Dads’ parents lived few blocks away) when my brother and I found under the Christmas Tree a large battleship for each of us

• I remember my Sophomore Year in High School when I found my first electric guitar under the tree

• It was my Junior year in High School when I unboxed my stereo system – Mom and Dad sure regretted that in the weeks and months to come

• What about you?

• Have you ever thought about THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT?

For all the presents you opened this Christmas there are only a few that are truly life-changing, truly revolutionary.

• The smartphone is one of those revolutionary products

• When you look at an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter, you are looking at a revolutionary product

• Essentially, it’s a powerful computer, GPS, camera, music player, and more right in your pocket

• Having those things readily available has changed the way we live, interact with the world, and each other

• Some for the better and some for the worse

Take the camera for instance. Gone are the days where you have to remember to bring your camera or camcorder along to capture your families’ memories. If you have your phone, you have your camera.

• Or how about DIRECTIONS

• You no longer have to remember and rely on paper maps or printed directions from Google or Mapquest

• Now, you open an app on your phone, type in where you want to go, and you are on your way

• Most of the time you don’t have to worry about traffic because a lot of the mapping apps will route you around it

Some of the presents under your tree are life-changing. But what these presents, these gadgets are able to change about your life is usually limited.

• They can’t and don’t change your life completely

• That’s because they can’t change you from the inside out

The Christmas gift God gives, however, does.

• No need to worry if batteries are included or not

• It isn’t limited to external change

• Instead, it has the ability to change us from the inside out

• It has the ability to change everything about us through and through

God gave us the best gift we could ever receive, the most beautiful and holy of gifts. Whether or not His birth is on December 25, it is the celebration of the most important gift we have ever received. Christ was sent down to not only give us eternal life, but to bring us an image of who we should be. We are to walk as Christ has and live in His example. This Christmas we should remember the gift of God and the blessings He has brought us. We should remember Christ and the example which He set.