I love to give gifts to people. I get great joy from choosing items that express a good mix of my personality and that of the person receiving the gift. I like to give gifts as a way of letting someone know that I am thinking of them and that I value them as a person. It is my way of recognizing that my life is more complete because that person is part of it.

We have just been through the biggest gift-giving season of the year – Christmas. Modern marketing and the consumer-based culture in which we live have done a lot to take the joy out of giving gifts for me. More and more we are led to believe that it is a requirement to give something at this time of year. We are inundated with the message that we must find the “perfect gift” that everyone else says we “just have to have.” But what about expressing deep feelings for the recipient? Isn’t it the thought that counts?

All this focus on giving gifts has led us away from honoring God’s gift that is the center of this Christian season – God’s gift of God’s self coming into the world. The gift of hope that comes with knowing that there is another way – the way of peace, justice, and love. The way that leads to shalom, or wholeness, for all of God’s creation.

Our desire to give of ourselves to others is a natural expression of being created by a God who did the same. God did not need to create the world and all that is in it. God chose to share love with something other than God’s self. And so God created.

It is this act of creation that evokes the Psalmist’s praise that we read together this morning. The writer knew that none of creation was necessary. God could have continued to be God even if creation had never happened. The Psalmist understood that in the face of such a generous act the only appropriate response is one of complete and unrestrained praise. This leads the writer to call thirteen times for creation to praise its creator.

All of creation is called to recognize the love of God shown in the act of creation. All creatures are called to praise their maker and to give back in this praise of their very selves – including even the sea monsters! No part of creation is exempted from the call to praise God. All are equally dependent of God’s selfless act of giving for their very existence. Creation’s praise should be unending. That is the only response the psalmist can imagine in the face of God’s love and mercy that is evident in God’s choice to create.

Hannah, wife of Elkanah and mother of Samuel, also knew very well that God is the giver of all life. When she had been barren for many years, enduring ridicule and embarrassment, she turned to God. She prayed that God would look with favor upon her and give her a son. She knew that it was beyond her power – that that power belongs to God alone.

When God did as Hannah asked and gave her a son, she responded with deep gratitude. She had been given an incredible gift and she wanted to do likewise for God. And so, she dedicated her son Samuel to the service of the Lord. She took him to be a helper of the priests at the holy place of Shiloh where she and her husband made their yearly sacrifices to God. She gave back to God what God had given to her. She dedicated his new life to the service of God so that God’s goodness could be known by all.

Hannah’s gift to God of her son seems incredible to me. She had spent years wishing and longing for a son so that she would no longer be the object of scorn in her household and in her community. And then, when she received the very thing that would do that for her, she promised to give him away. She reared the boy for three or so years, but then she left him with the priests at Shiloh and only saw him once a year when she traveled with her husband to the holy place.

Hannah’s gratitude to God was all encompassing. It filled her so completely that she no longer felt the need to be proven worthy in people’s eyes. She accepted God’s gift of love and let it flow back to the giver. God’s gift of the life of this little boy had changed Hannah’s life forever. This change showed in her very act of giving.

And Hannah’s giving did not stop with the dedication of Samuel to the Lord. Today’s passage explains how Hannah was concerned that Samuel be properly clothed for the work of the Lord. She made special garments for him so that he would bring honor to God through his work with Eli, the priest. Eli noticed this generosity of spirit and prayed for God’s continued blessing on Hannah and Elkanah – a request that God honored by blessing Hannah with five more children.

The Bible is full of stories of God’s generosity and goodness. We are repeatedly reminded that the desire to give shalom, or wholeness, to creation is inherent in God’s nature. At Christmas, more than any other time during the year, Christians celebrate God’s incomprehensible gift to creation of God’s self in human form. We celebrate the birth of Jesus to whom was given the title “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us.”

The gift of this baby should change our lives in the way that the gift of the baby Samuel changed Hannah’s. Jesus’ birth offers us the hope of a new life – one that brings us the shalom that God desires for us. But what sort of change should the birth and life of Jesus bring to our lives? How are we to be different in light of the birth of this child who is “God with us”? Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, gives us insight.

He begins by reminding the recipients that they are God’s chosen people – a term that had long been used to refer exclusively to the Israelite people. Through the use of this phrase, Paul signals that the Christmas event of God’s entry into creation turned the world on its head. Things were no longer as they always had been. Paul believed that Jesus’ life and work extended God’s love to all – Jew and Gentile alike.

But, Paul warns, being a part of this chosen people brings with it the expectation of change. Those who accept the gift of being children of God will not be able to remain the same after receiving that gift. Truly accepting God’s gift of new life means accepting the gifts of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

When we take on these gifts, we receive a proper sense of ourselves that allows for genuine concern for others. The gifts Paul describes as inherent in the new life in Christ are gifts that are necessary for living in communion with others. The new life that God offers is not meant to be lived in isolation – it will only come to full expression when it takes place within the full body of believers.

Life in community is not easy, though. And Paul recognizes this fact when he admonishes his listeners to “bear with one another” and to “forgive each other.” These actions would not be necessary if life in communion were simple or easy. Nor do these actions always come easily to us. We are not perfect but we have a perfect example to follow – Jesus.

The Christmas gift of Jesus’ life shows us how to live into the new life that is part of God’s kingdom. Jesus forgave those around him and Jesus continues to forgive us today. When asked how many times someone should be forgiven, Jesus didn’t settle with the generous number of seven that the questioner offered. No, Jesus pushed it into the realm of what we might consider absurd – he called the questioner (and us) to forgive seventy times seven.

What makes this kind of forgiveness and forbearance possible? Love. God’s love. When we accept God’s gift of love, Paul says, we are able to be bound together in harmony. Only then will we be able to accept Christ’s peace. Only then will our communion with each other be complete and whole.

But how do we learn of this love that leads to peaceful communion with others? According to Paul, the best way is through corporate worship. It is in worship that we are taught from God’s Word. It is in worship that we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. It is in worship that we come together, side by side, to acknowledge our belief in the hope of the triune God. It is in worship that we become renewed by the gift of new life so that we can go out into the world as Christmas people.

We are called to be changed by God’s gift of Christmas. We are called to let our lives show the wonderous mystery that is the center of our belief – God came into this world as a tiny baby to turn the world upside down. God came to offer hope in the darkness. We cannot see the light of Christ’s birth and walk away unchanged.

As the poet Kim Kwan Suk enumerates in the poem on the front cover of the bulletin*, God’s gift of Christmas offers us hope, courage, faith, and appreciation for what we have been given. We should not keep all of that to ourselves. God wants us to share as God did in the original act of creation and as God continues to do with us today. God acts to bring shalom to all people. But God acts through people like you and me.

To be Christmas people means to go out from our services of worship renewed in our desire to show others the way of peace, justice, and love. What we hear and say when we are here together as a community should spill over into everything that we do. It should change our lives so that we shine brightly as examples of agents of God’s shalom for all of creation. Accept the gift of Christmas and be ready for the change that it will bring.

Let us pray:
Generous and gracious God, you gave of your very self – in creation, in the coming of the Christ child, in your spirit present with us today. Help us to receive the gift of you. Help us to share that gift with others. Let us be Christmas people, not just now, but throughout the whole year, sharing the message of hope and love to all whom we meet. This we pray in your son’s name. Amen.

* Poem by Kim Kwan Suk
Give us hope
to look forward
to happy tomorrows.

Give us courage
to face hardships
without losing hope.

Give us faith
so that the joy of receiving Christ
will lead us to serve our fellow man.

Give us appreciation
for the gifts we have received
that we might use them responsibly
daring to give
friendship, service, and love.

Give us Christmas
throughout the year.