Happy Thank-Christma-ka!

Putting aside some of the controversial dualities of Jesus and his division between being both God and Man; Christmas is an amazing time to reground ourselves.

This season really could be combined into one long holiday rather than the two independent holidays of Christmas and Thanksgiving. Looking back at Jewish holidays, and in fact many holidays that originated in the Middle East they seldom last only a day – many last for a week or more. In reality our last autumn and our first winter holidays celebrate the same thing. Granted Christmas has taken on a number of different meanings over the last several centuries if you look deeply into both it and Thanksgiving, at the core of the each it the common theme of "giving".

At Thanksgiving time, we often think about being thankful. But look again at the title of the holiday. Thanksgiving is as much about giving as it is about being thankful. We can be thankful about anything with the wrong motives. Being thankful is important, but as the title implies, the day is about GIVING thanks. And to whom do we give thanks, and for what reason. There is deeply reflective element to Thanksgiving that I believe is often overlooked. There are so many things that we can think of to be thankful for on the surface, but does this thankfulness resonate to the deepest center of our beings. No one will ever be able to question us when we are sincerely thankful for something. Our thankfulness oozes from every pore and is evident to all. In contrast we can be thankful (or say that we are thankful) for a great many things on the surface, but do our actions betray a subdued sense of gratitude? Rather than a deeply felt, sincere thankfulness, do the things that we give thanks for require thought and suffer from a watered down "easy-answer syndrome"?

What about Christmas? Thanksgiving is a holiday of thankfulness and Christmas is the season of giving. While this is very true there is a deeper connection between these holidays and a stronger, more painful sense of giving than the Church has celebrated in a long time.

During the Christmas season we celebrate Jesus birth. We celebrate the beginning of a promise - the renewal of hope. We celebrate with song, and lights and think of shepherds and angel choruses. We carry on the tradition of providing gifts as the "wise men" gave, but there is something lost in translation about those lavish gifts. With all of our focus on babies and angels and glitter and giving we miss an opportunity to ponder a greater gift than gold or myrrh. We miss the practical reason for those gifts and we completely overlook the gifts given to the wise men, and indeed to the Church.

So why make it a month long holiday? This is the season that even Scrooge dips into his pockets to help a needy neighbor – a trait that would be fabulous should it find its way into our everyday routine, something that the Church should be celebrating year round. At the food pantries we see something precious and rare - full shelves. Clothes are collected for the needy, people offer a hand of hospitality, the elderly shut ins are visited and serenaded with carols, and it all really starts a few weeks before Thanksgiving carrying on until Christmas day, and sometimes a little beyond.

At the beginning of our month long celebration we give thanks and then we turn our attention to the giving that is at the center of Christmas. Jesus' physical life began with a gift, and ended with a gift. In many ways the cross was an easier gift than the manger. At the cross Jesus suffered a temporary spell of pain and suffering (and don't get me wrong – it was no picnic), but he could do so with perhaps a subdued excitement. For in His death he returned to His glory. He resumed his place at God's right hand, never again to leave the presence of the Father – and this after only three days (again . . . not like three days at Disneyland). At the manger however, he had to leave all of that. He had to separate himself from being in the direct presence of God the father, he had to become mortal. To feel pain, cold, hunger, to become "a little lower than the angels", and that for thirty three years. He had to give himself to the pain of having God the Father to look away from him while he submit himself to the most shameful of deaths. All of this given freely and willingly . . . by a king!

It is not a birth that we celebrate, but a gift – a complete gift. A gift of one's whole self. Beyond this amazing gift an ordinary man would have nothing left to offer, but God had more, he offered us redemption, healing, and a restored relationship with our creator.

Secondly he offered us our very first lesson – faith, an underlying theme that I was never taught during the Christmases of my youth. We hear of his meeting with the teachers of the law at an early age, we hear of his early ministry as a young man, but we should not overlook that he was teaching us about his nature and how we should live from the very beginning. A huge part of his gift to us was to give up his sovereignty, and humble himself, trusting the Father to provide everything for him. He was born into near poverty which adds a sometimes forgotten significance to the gifts of the Magi. The gifts of the wise men were not just random gifts from them, but provisions from His Father.

A king who had everything, surrendered himself completely to teach us to trust the Father, and the Father evidences his faithfulness to us by providing. Out of poverty, and the life of a blue collar worker, Jesus was always provided for. In our Christmas stories we often leave the manger scene and then pickup again in Egypt, but we never ask ourselves, how a peasant carpenter funded a surprise spurred of the moment trip from Israel to Egypt. The answer . . . God sent men with gifts at just the right moment to cover the costs of a trip to protect the One that he sent into the world. Jesus always had exactly what he needed, and often more than he needed. From that wealth he shared, and was able to provide for others. We never hear of Jesus panicking about where he might get food, or water, or lodging for the night. We read of a man who was content, calm, trusting in God, and God provided for not only Jesus, but also his companions again and again.

Not every person was called to live in poverty, as Mother Theresa, not everyone is called to live in community shunning personal property, not everyone will taste material richness – what is important is that we live in a manner, whether in poverty or great wealth, of total surrender - completely in faith, completely in love – taking only what we need and giving the rest to those who are without, and giving ourselves completely to God.

If we follow Jesus example in this season of giving by giving ourselves completely as Jesus gave himself, knowing that it will be painful at times, uncomfortable at times, it may even result in physical death – looking with faith at the blessings that it will provide – the gifts of the manger and the cross will only grow more precious to us.

Jesus' giving – his sacrifice - was not without pain. Jesus' giving and Jesus faith should be the measure of our giving – the difference between offering and sacrifice. An offering we give out of our wealth. A sacrifice comes with pain, loss, or inconvenience.

The verb sacrifice means, "To suffer loss of, give up, renounce, injure, or destroy especially for an ideal, belief or end," or, "To sell at a loss".

Paul urges us:
". . . in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship."

James reminds us:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress. . ."

Jesus commanded us:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in Heaven. . . For where your treasure is, there your heart is also."

The writer of the proverbs reminds us:
"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow" – when you now have it with you."

So I lobby for a national month long celebration! For the Church I pray that this becomes a lifelong celebration. Live a life of giving and of faith, it comes only with a promise of blessings. If we live with a sense of reckless abandon, shunning security and trusting God to provide for our needs we will come closer to God; we will see deeper depths of God's love and we will be the hands and feet of Jesus - spreading the good news that he was born to bring.