Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this last day of Autumn. The winter season begins tomorrow. We will gather for our Mid-Week fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM. We are getting ready for the Christmas Eve services and for Christmas day Worship.
Praise the Lord for this season of giving gifts and receiving gifts. My wife loves to give gifts to our children, grandchildren, and family members. She plans and shops for gifts. She is one of the early birds that flies around all the shopping place on Black Friday.
Our Lord Jesus, who is the inexpressible Gift from heaven, asks in Matthew 7:7-29, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a snake?" Psalm 84:11 says, in the Living Bible Translation, "No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right." God's nature is to give us good gifts.
The Apostle Paul used for the word "gift", "charisma." "Charisma" was a totally free and unearned gift which a soldier sometimes received. On special occasions, for instance an emporer, on his birthday or on his accession to the throne, or the anniversary of it, handed out a free gift of money to his army. It had not been earned; it was a present; it was simply a gift of the emperor's kindness and grace.
In the same way, Paul said, "Our sin has earned us death. If we got the pay we had earned it would be death. It is death that is due to us as a right." Then Paul went on to say, "But what we have received (from God) is a free gift, a "charisma"; we did not earn it; We did not deserve it. What we have earned is eternal death, but out of his grace God has given us the gift of eternal life, a really indescribable gift."
If you undertook this Christmas to give your dearest one the gift most needed, what would you select? When thoughtfully given, a Christmas gift provides some kind of answer to two questions. On the one hand it attempts to meet the needs and the tastes of the person for whom it is intended. On the other, it reflects to some degree the appreciation and the insight of the person who gives it. We search the stores and catalogs for the gift that is characteristic of ourselves as well as being appropriate for our friends. An appropriate gift does two things: it reveals the affections of the person giving it and it suits the needs of the person to whom the gift is given.
Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, told the parable of a prince who fell in love with a young maiden in his kingdom but wanted her to love him for who he was, not what he was, a prince. At first he thought he would order her to the palace and there propose marriage, but even a prince would like to feel that the girl he marries wants to marry him for who he is. Or perhaps, he thought, he could arrive at her door in full splendor, and with a bow, ask for her hand in marriage. But even the prince wanted to be wanted. Again, he thought he could masquerade as a poor peasant and try in that way to gain her interest. After he proposed, he could pull off his "mask". But, he thought, such a masquerade would be a phony, a fake.
Finally he decided to give up his princely robes and move completely into her neighborhood and to be himself. There he would take up daily work as, say a carpenter. During his work in the day and during his time off in the evening, he would take time to get acquainted with the people around her, begin to share their interests and concerns, begin to talk their language. He would really become one of them. And in due time, should fortune be with him, he would make her acquaintance in a natural way and hopefully she would come to love him as he already had come to love her. He would then ask for her hand. This he did, and when she did come to love him, he told her who he really was.
` This is Kierkegaard 's way of summarizing God's Christmas gift-giving decision. God wished to join our lives with His in a loving relationship and he could have done it anyway he wanted. But he rejected a fake way and came as a real gift revealing his loving nature and at the same time meeting our deepest need.
Praise the Lord for the "indescribable gift" which is real. "The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6: 23b).
In Christ,
Brown
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
4:30 PM at First United Methodist, 53 McKinley, Endicott
Sponsored by : Union Center UMC
Music: Aric Phinney and Yancey Moore
Preacher: Rev Brown Naik
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
A Service of Carols, Candles, and Communion
7:30 PM at Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple Drive
Music: Laureen Naik, Betty Phinney, Sarah and Emily Sabin
Preacher: Rev. Brown Naik
Christmas Day Worship Services:
Wesley UMC 9:30AM
Union Center UMC 10:00AM.
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