Tag Archives: Epiphany

What Gifts Would You Bring?

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It’s Epiphany! Did anyone bring you some gold? Frankincense? Myrrh? These are very specific gifts. Each symbolizes something specific – and together are also representative of the trinity (yes, I know that some unitarians have been fond of saying that there is absolutely no biblical basis for the trinity, but this just isn’t so. There is some – it’s scant – but there is some – and it’s still fine to be unitarian – but I digress). Each gift foretells the life of Christ from birth to death. It’s all in the song “We Three Kings.”

“Gold I bring to crown him again” – Christ the king, after all. Frankincense is for anointing – Jesus the Messiah. So Lord and Savior. Myrrh is a funerary spice used for preparing bodies. It foretells the crucifixion – and by extension, the resurrection. So the Risen Christ.

So ok, pretty good gifts if you want to presage the life of Christ. And make sure the Holy Family has a little something for their exile in Egypt. But generally speaking, as baby gifts, well, I can just imagine the warnings on the package, “Ages 3 and up.” Hmm…

So this got me thinking, what would you bring? What would I bring? I’m thinking chocolate. Not for Baby Jesus, so much. But Mary! Holy Mother Of God, Batman! She’s been a trouper, hasn’t she? I mean, she didn’t say one afternoon, “Gee, I think I’d like to have a baby, and I’ll bet Joseph will be just fine with it and marry me anyway.” Gabriel just showed up and announced that she was chosen for this, and Mary was all, “Um, sure, OK, if that’s what God wants.” I think I’d give her chocolate. Or a spa day. Or chocolate and a spa day. Definitely – chocolate and a spa day.

Joseph could probably use a gift, too. I’m not sure what I’d give to Joseph. I mean, chocolate wouldn’t be a bad thing for him, either. Since they’re about to head to Egypt, maybe he could use a new pair of sandals. Or a donkey.

But what to give to Baby Jesus? That’s really a tough one. I mean, what do you give to God incarnate if you’re not going to go with the symbolic gifts? How many onesies does Baby Jesus need?

This is what I’m thinking. Jesus gave his all. I mean, not yet. Not at Epiphany. But still – Jesus gave everything. He put himself completely into his ministry. He held nothing back. So a gift to Jesus has to be a complete gift. Holding nothing back.

In the end, I think that means we have to give ourselves. Completely. So there might be something small that can be wrapped up that would symbolize that – but it would be different for each of us. The real gift is going to be how we put ourselves into it. How we are going to be fully present in our lives – in what we are called to do.

And that brings me back to gifts. We each have so many. So when I ask what gifts would you bring, I guess I really should ask first, what gifts DO you bring? What gifts do you bring to whatever it is you’re called to do?

We’re given gifts and in return, we are able to give with them. How cool is that? And isn’t that really the best gift we can give back? To be the people we’re meant to be.

Since I can’t give Baby Jesus a present, I guess the thing to do is pay it forward. So how about it? What would you give?

That’s all I’ve got. That’s my mite.

The Twelve Blogs of Christmas: Fifth Day – Gold Things

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It’s the Sunday after Christmas Day, so I preached today. This is not unusual for interns. Plenty of my fellow interns were preaching today, and I hope that it went well for everyone.

Since it’s still Christmas, I figured I’d keep with the theme. The lectionary has the slaughter of the innocents on for today. That’s a worthy topic, and I’ve preached on it before. But since we won’t be doing Epiphany next week, I thought I’d talk about the magi and their gifts today.

So this is what I’m not going to do now. I’m not going to just reprint my sermon here. You can hear that online (eventually) if you  like. Still, I want to talk about gifts a bit, and worth.

As it happens, yesterday I got into a FB discussion about the worth of things. That is, the price of things in stores and what they’re really worth. I was weighing in on this because, well, I’ve been talkative my whole life, and it doesn’t seem to matter if it’s coming out of my mouth or my fingers, I have a lot of opinions on things, and I worked in economics for ten years. So I couldn’t resist is really what it was. But it got me thinking.

Worship is about worth, after all. That’s the root of worship – worth. What are we worshipping? Some people really are worshipping gold.

The magi did bring gold to the baby Jesus, but the gold was a symbol of majesty. They also brought him frankincense (anointing, and the sign of Divinity or the adoption by the Divine) and myrrh (a funerary incense that foreshadows the crucifixion and resurrection). So it’s a whole package. Like a gift set. And they’re signs. Not meant to be worshipped in themselves.

Not that gold isn’t nice. It definitely is. But it comes at a price – and I’m not talking about the approximately $1200.00/ounce at which gold is trading. I mean that to get at gold now miners are having to do more and more damage to the environment. Cyanide is used to leach gold from the earth now. Is that worth it to us? Do we need gold that badly that we’re willing to destroy the ground it comes from?

Of course, we do the same for oil, natural gas, coal, and many other things that we take from the earth. We hurt the planet, and we hurt each other, for more stuff, for more money, for more gold.

The magi only appear in Matthew, who is very concerned with royalty. So there’s a lot about royal gifts and royal lineage. There’s nothing about being born in a stable, or about traveling to Bethlehem. In Matthew, the holy family is already there. They live in Bethlehem. It’s in Luke where we see them as poor. Luke shows us a holy baby born among animals and announced to lowly shepherds. No kings. And still, there are angels. The story is worth so much.

So what’s gold to you? What’s a precious gift?

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