What We Need to Give--January 9, 2020
"On entering the house, the Magi saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh." [Matthew 2:11]
This story gets more and more mysterious the further you go. And while it's true that I've been hearing (and singing) this story every year of my life each Christmas-tide, the more time I spend with it, the more questions I have.
For one, I'm wondering how much meaning these well-traveled wizards saw in the gifts they brought. We Christians have done quite a job coming up with all sorts of symbolic meanings of each of the gifts (for example, that the gold symbolized Jesus' royalty, that the incense symbolized Christ's priesthood, and that the myrrh was a prediction of his death), but we really can't know if those are our inventions or the Magi themselves intended something like that. They may have just thought they were bringing expensive (and easily transportable) things to honor foreign royalty. They may have been bringing things native to their home countries, or things they thought a king of Israel would like. They may have had nothing more than a gut sense that somehow these were "right."
All of those questions make me ask another about the receivers: did Mary and Joseph keep those gifts as precious keepsakes, or did they use them to finance their time as refugees in Egypt? Maybe they intended to keep them on a special shelf in the house when they finally got home to Nazareth, but maybe they couldn't. Once Herod starts hunting for the child and the Holy Family has to flee from Herod's jurisdiction and seek refuge across the border in Egypt, maybe they had to sell the treasures one by one just to get by. After all, in a strange land where they had no family or friends, they would have to pay for lodging, meals, and necessities, and there was no guarantee that anybody would hire a foreigner like Joseph, especially when he had no "high-demand skills" or rightful claim to be in Egypt other than his sheer desperation to provide for Mary and the baby.
I have to admit I tend to be conditioned by my middle-class comfort into assuming that Mary and Joseph would have wanted to keep these treasures for the sheer sentimentality of it, but it is really quite likely that they were in such need on the run that they had to sell them just to keep feeding the Christ-child and staying one step ahead of Herod's police. And if it turns out that Mary and Joseph did have to sell or spend the gifts of the Magi, does that make them any less important as gifts? Or is it perhaps true that part of giving a gift means letting go of how it is used?
Maybe there is something for me to learn here from the Magi. They traveled all this way, with detours and wrong turns, the risk of danger when their path got entangled with Herod's, and lots of time spent along the way, all for what? Did they get anything out of it? Well, no, at least not in a transactional sense. They didn't come to ask favors of the newborn King of Israel, and they don't even seem to be looking to curry favor with his parents--who have no influence, power, or status to wield. Instead, the Magi come, convinced that the journey is worth it--no matter how convoluted the route becomes--and they leave their gifts for the child... and they go. That was it. They didn't even get souvenir t-shirts or take a selfie. They realize something that we only dimly perceive these days: that it is a grace to be allowed to give what you have to offer, and for it to be received.
Sometimes we Respectable Religious Folks think about God's grace only in terms of how nice it is when God gives us something we didn't earn--and that is a part of the picture. But it is also true that it is a gift of grace that God is willing to receive what we have to give. It is a gift of grace when other people allow us to offer them our time, our words, or our presence--we are not owed that in life. It is a gift of grace that we get to share moments and memories, and it is a gift of grace when someone welcomes our presence at the table, as well. Every time there is an exchange in this world--any act of giving and receiving--there is grace on both sides: grace in the giving, and grace in the willingness to let the gift be given. Like C.S. Lewis famously says about a child asking his father for money to buy the dad a birthday present, it may well be proper for the child to want to do something nice for his parent, but nobody thinks the dad is any richer for the transaction. The dad in Lewis' analogy extends grace to his child--grace to accept the gift the child wants to offer, even if he doesn't need another "World's Greatest Dad" novelty pen, and could have used the cash for something he really wanted.
It is grace to give to others, to be sure--but it is also grace when someone accepts the gifts we offer, from the "World's Greatest Mom" coffee mug to the handprint turkey feather artwork to the breakfast-in-bed with eggshells in the eggs and garlic powder on the cinnamon toast. And maybe that says something about the Magi and about us as well. It is good and fitting (right and salutary, too!) for us to want to give of ourselves back to the God who gives us life--as good and fitting as the kids who want to make breakfast in bed for their parents. And at the same time, part of God's grace to us is accepting what we have to offer, as it is and as we are, with love and a smile as well. God chooses to receive what we offer, not because God needs it, but because we need to give it. And that is true whether we are talking about gold, frankincense, and myrrh, or your and my time, abilities, or money.
So, maybe the gold stayed in Joseph's possession for years; maybe Mary kept the myrrh like she pondered the shepherds' words in her heart. Or maybe they unloaded the incense at the first pawn shop they came across over the border in Egypt so they could get some eating money. Either way, the gifts were given because the Magi felt they needed to give them, and the Christ-child received them because, well, because that is part of his grace to offer as well.
Whatever you and I have got, Jesus will take it gladly. We may not be able to control how Christ uses what we offer, but he does extend us the grace of receiving what we bring from our opened treasure chests.
Lord Jesus, thank you for accepting what we bring, even though it was yours already in the first place. Thank you for the grace of accepting what we need to give you.
This story gets more and more mysterious the further you go. And while it's true that I've been hearing (and singing) this story every year of my life each Christmas-tide, the more time I spend with it, the more questions I have.
For one, I'm wondering how much meaning these well-traveled wizards saw in the gifts they brought. We Christians have done quite a job coming up with all sorts of symbolic meanings of each of the gifts (for example, that the gold symbolized Jesus' royalty, that the incense symbolized Christ's priesthood, and that the myrrh was a prediction of his death), but we really can't know if those are our inventions or the Magi themselves intended something like that. They may have just thought they were bringing expensive (and easily transportable) things to honor foreign royalty. They may have been bringing things native to their home countries, or things they thought a king of Israel would like. They may have had nothing more than a gut sense that somehow these were "right."
All of those questions make me ask another about the receivers: did Mary and Joseph keep those gifts as precious keepsakes, or did they use them to finance their time as refugees in Egypt? Maybe they intended to keep them on a special shelf in the house when they finally got home to Nazareth, but maybe they couldn't. Once Herod starts hunting for the child and the Holy Family has to flee from Herod's jurisdiction and seek refuge across the border in Egypt, maybe they had to sell the treasures one by one just to get by. After all, in a strange land where they had no family or friends, they would have to pay for lodging, meals, and necessities, and there was no guarantee that anybody would hire a foreigner like Joseph, especially when he had no "high-demand skills" or rightful claim to be in Egypt other than his sheer desperation to provide for Mary and the baby.
I have to admit I tend to be conditioned by my middle-class comfort into assuming that Mary and Joseph would have wanted to keep these treasures for the sheer sentimentality of it, but it is really quite likely that they were in such need on the run that they had to sell them just to keep feeding the Christ-child and staying one step ahead of Herod's police. And if it turns out that Mary and Joseph did have to sell or spend the gifts of the Magi, does that make them any less important as gifts? Or is it perhaps true that part of giving a gift means letting go of how it is used?
Maybe there is something for me to learn here from the Magi. They traveled all this way, with detours and wrong turns, the risk of danger when their path got entangled with Herod's, and lots of time spent along the way, all for what? Did they get anything out of it? Well, no, at least not in a transactional sense. They didn't come to ask favors of the newborn King of Israel, and they don't even seem to be looking to curry favor with his parents--who have no influence, power, or status to wield. Instead, the Magi come, convinced that the journey is worth it--no matter how convoluted the route becomes--and they leave their gifts for the child... and they go. That was it. They didn't even get souvenir t-shirts or take a selfie. They realize something that we only dimly perceive these days: that it is a grace to be allowed to give what you have to offer, and for it to be received.
Sometimes we Respectable Religious Folks think about God's grace only in terms of how nice it is when God gives us something we didn't earn--and that is a part of the picture. But it is also true that it is a gift of grace that God is willing to receive what we have to give. It is a gift of grace when other people allow us to offer them our time, our words, or our presence--we are not owed that in life. It is a gift of grace that we get to share moments and memories, and it is a gift of grace when someone welcomes our presence at the table, as well. Every time there is an exchange in this world--any act of giving and receiving--there is grace on both sides: grace in the giving, and grace in the willingness to let the gift be given. Like C.S. Lewis famously says about a child asking his father for money to buy the dad a birthday present, it may well be proper for the child to want to do something nice for his parent, but nobody thinks the dad is any richer for the transaction. The dad in Lewis' analogy extends grace to his child--grace to accept the gift the child wants to offer, even if he doesn't need another "World's Greatest Dad" novelty pen, and could have used the cash for something he really wanted.
It is grace to give to others, to be sure--but it is also grace when someone accepts the gifts we offer, from the "World's Greatest Mom" coffee mug to the handprint turkey feather artwork to the breakfast-in-bed with eggshells in the eggs and garlic powder on the cinnamon toast. And maybe that says something about the Magi and about us as well. It is good and fitting (right and salutary, too!) for us to want to give of ourselves back to the God who gives us life--as good and fitting as the kids who want to make breakfast in bed for their parents. And at the same time, part of God's grace to us is accepting what we have to offer, as it is and as we are, with love and a smile as well. God chooses to receive what we offer, not because God needs it, but because we need to give it. And that is true whether we are talking about gold, frankincense, and myrrh, or your and my time, abilities, or money.
So, maybe the gold stayed in Joseph's possession for years; maybe Mary kept the myrrh like she pondered the shepherds' words in her heart. Or maybe they unloaded the incense at the first pawn shop they came across over the border in Egypt so they could get some eating money. Either way, the gifts were given because the Magi felt they needed to give them, and the Christ-child received them because, well, because that is part of his grace to offer as well.
Whatever you and I have got, Jesus will take it gladly. We may not be able to control how Christ uses what we offer, but he does extend us the grace of receiving what we bring from our opened treasure chests.
Lord Jesus, thank you for accepting what we bring, even though it was yours already in the first place. Thank you for the grace of accepting what we need to give you.
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