"It is Blessed to Give AND Receive" (Christmas Eve Congregational Lovefeast Message 2008)

"It is Blessed to Give AND Receive"
Christmas Eve Congregational Lovefeast
Sermon from December 21, 2008 7:00pm
Year B Luke 2:1-20

It's better to give THAN to receive. This phrase is often heard a lot during this time of year:
--Stores use it to entice us to spend money and remember the ones we love with gifts.
--Charities use it to remind us that there are people around us that have less and need more than we do.
--Agencies, charities, and groups use it to propel us to give to their causes and organizations.
--Churches use it to prompt us to participate in God's mission and ministry in the world.
And it is true that giving is important--no doubt. Many of these places would not exist without our giving and their receiving.

Giving is important---God GAVE us Jesus on that long ago Christmas night as a bewildered mom and baffled dad welcomed a most unexpected baby into the world. God GIVES us Jesus again each year as we celebrate his birth anew as a reminder of this most beautiful gift to the world. The magi GAVE gold, frankincense, and mirth to the tiny baby they sought in love. We GIVE gifts to our family, friends, and even sometimes strangers that we seek to love.

But with this gift from God of Emmanuel--God with us--coming into the world, is it still true that it is BETTER to GIVE THAN to RECEIVE? When we GIVE, there has to be a receiver or it's not a gift. Maybe this phrases "It's better to give than to receive" is heard so often, is because it is more difficult to receive. I personally enjoy giving gifts more than receiving. Giving gifts is one of the best ways I find to love people--it's my love language. It's much harder for me to receive gifts, especially without the feelings of guilt or the need to return the favor. Maybe some of you can relate.

I was reading my advent devotional the other day and something really struck me that I would like to share that has affected the way I understand this whole idea of giving and receiving. Bishop Will Willimon, the former Dean of Duke Chapel, said, "The Christmas story--the one according to Luke not Dickens--is not about how blessed it is to be givers but about how essential it is for us to see ourselves as receivers." [William Willimon, "The God We Hardly Knew" in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004) 144] Willimon goes on to say, "The Christmas story implies that what God wants to do for us is so strange, so beyond the bounds of human effort and striving, that God must resort to utterly unnatural, supernatural means. It tells of an unimaginable gift from a stranger, a God whom we hardly even knew. This strange story tells us how to be receivers. The first words of the church, a people born out of so odd a nativity, is that we are receivers before we are givers. Discipleship teaches us the art of seeing our lives as gifts." [Willimon, "The God We Hardly Knew," 146-147]

Maybe the phrase "It's BETTER to GIVE THAN to RECEIVE" should be stated a bit differently. Maybe hearing the Christmas Story and living into the Christmas story compels us to stop and say, "It's blessed to give AND receive." Receive God's gift to us in a baby--Emmanuel--God with us. Receive God's love and grace. Receive the Light of the World. --Without guilt--Without the NEED to give something in return--Just RECEIVE.

As we are receiving our candles this evening and --in a minute -- as we receive the light of Christ that is passed among us from the Advent wreath, may we be reminded this Christmas season that it is blessed to give AND receive. As we sing our closing hymn "Christ the Lord" in a bit, I invite you to raise your candle in the air on the last verse as a sign and symbol of the gift we are all given this night--Jesus, the Light of the World. I also invite you to take your candles home and place it somewhere to let it DAILY remind you of the gift we receive this day and everyday--the gift of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior--Emmanuel--God with us. It is blessed to give and receive. Receive God's gift to us this day and every day. Amen.

"Waiting" from Meredith College Moravian Lovefeast, 12/2/08

"Waiting"
Meredith College Moravian Lovefeast
December 2, 2008
Luke 1:26-56;
Luke 2:1-20

Thank you for inviting me to share with you tonight. I'm excited to be back on Campus sharing in this annual tradition. Being an Angel, A Meredith Angel, myself, I thought it might be interesting tonight to briefly look at the passage that takes place just before the likely familiar Christmas Story we heard this evening. It is sometimes called the Annunciation, and is where Mary encounters the angel. These are excerpts from the story found in the first chapter of Luke:

"26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

They talk and then we hear the angel say:
"36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

56And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home."

Mary, upon hearing this god-news, this good news from the angel, has a lot of waiting to do for it to fully come to fruition in the birth of Jesus, so she takes off to see her relative Elizabeth. These two pregnant ladies spend their time waiting for the births together. They are actively waiting--in the present moment and fully tuned in to what is going on. [Henri Nouwen in "Waiting for God" from Watch for the Light: Reading for Advent and Christmas (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001) 31]

One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, describes this scene we heard when he says, "I find the meeting of these two women very moving because Elizabeth and Mary came together and enabled each other to wait.... they created space for each other to wait. They affirmed for each other that something was happening that was worth waiting for." [Nouwen in "Waiting for God" from Watch for the Light, 35.]

Isn't that what we are doing here tonight? We are here in community, sharing a meal and singing, listening together and waiting. Waiting for the candles to be brought out. Waiting for Christmas to arrive. Waiting for Christ Jesus to be born again like last year. Waiting for news of where God is going to act next in our world and how we can be a part of it. Elizabeth and Mary were in community together helping each other prepare for something unexpected and wonderful. They lifted one another up and reminded each other that waiting is worth the effort. Patience is important. Hope and the promises of God are easier to wait for when we do it together.

The early Moravians gathered together in hope and promise in the first lovefeasts as they waited to see where God was acting in their world and how they could be a part of it. They were so excited by their being filled with the Holy Spirit that they could not help but stay together and share the excitement in that present moment. I can image them saying, "Bring in the food, cause there's something big going on and we're waiting together." The young children who received the first candles at a Christmas Eve lovefeast years later saw their patience and hope come to fruition in the valuable gift of their own candle. Candles in the 1700s were valuable and important gifts. Now they too could see in the dark and have the light to carry to their homes on Christmas Eve reminding them of the light of Christ that enters the world on Christmas again and again.

We gather here tonight waiting. Waiting for Exams to be over and have time to rest. Waiting for the chance to see family and friends that we are separated from during the semester. Waiting for food and laughter shared over the table and around fireplaces on Christmas Eve. Waiting for a baby to be born anew. Waiting for God to burst forth into our world--Emmanuel--"God with us" to teach us how to love one another.
Are we hopeful?
Are we patient?
Are we holding on to God's promise that Jesus is on his way?
Are we ready?

Let us wait together, be attentive, and live expectantly. Amen.