It’s hard to believe that we’re already more than halfway through Advent, isn’t it? But here we are, in week three of our Advent series on regifting God’s gifts. During the first two weeks, we talked about the importance of RECEIVING God’s gifts for ourselves and then REFLECTING on how they might impact others before we attempt to pass them on. Both of these steps are vital to the process of regifting because they help put us in the right frame of mind - they give us a deeper understanding of the people on either side of the gift. But if we only ever approach regifting as an intellectual exercise, nothing will ever actually happen. So in this third week, it’s time for us to get out of our heads and into the real world: it’s time for us to get to work REPACKAGING the gift.
In order to understand this step, it might be helpful for us to think in terms of a physical gift. Let’s say that you received a book that you want to share with someone else. Of course, you’d begin by reading it yourself, taking it in and fully enjoying it; next, you’d do some thinking about who in your life might appreciate it the most. But once you’re finally ready to pass it along, you hopefully realize that you can’t just use the same wrapping paper that it came with when you received it. That would undermine all the thought, care, and intention that you already put into the process of regifting this book. So instead, you carefully REwrap it, maybe choosing wrapping paper in the new recipient’s favorite color, and adding a new bow and a gift tag with THEIR name on it. You repackage it in a way that appeals to the new recipient to make it clear that the gift isn’t just an afterthought, but is intended specifically for THEM.
Of course, we usually don’t literally wrap gifts from God that we intend to regift, but there IS an element of presentation that we need to consider. God created humanity to be wonderfully diverse, which means that no two people will see or understand things in exactly the same way. So we can’t assume that someone with different life experiences and a different perspective will see or understand the gift the same way we do. (Hopefully, the previous “reflecting” step has helped to make this clear.) If we want to make sure that they can enjoy and appreciate the gift, if we really want it to be a blessing to them, we have to adjust the way we present it to reflect their concerns, their interests, their wants, their needs.
Let’s jump back into the Christmas story to see what I mean. In Luke’s version, Mary is the very first person to receive knowledge of the Messiah - a precious gift from God. She would have an utterly unique relationship with this gift, and Gabriel’s presentation to her reflects that. He explains exactly what her particular role will be, how everything will happen, how it will impact her physically, and - importantly - he reassures her that despite the difficulties she may anticipate, this is in fact an honor and a blessing from God.
But Mary isn’t the only one to receive this gift. Matthew tells us that God sends another angel a little later to Mary’s future husband in order to present him with the exact same gift. Although these two narratives are found in two separate gospels, it’s fortunate for us that tradition has preserved both of them. It provides us with an interesting opportunity to compare the way God’s gift is presented to two different people - and while a cursory reading may leave us with the impression of two very similar presentations, a closer reading reveals that this isn’t the case at all.
To start with, the angel presents himself to Joseph in a dream, instead of the physical manifestation that Mary encounters. We can’t know for sure why this is the case, but we can speculate that Joseph may have had a more skeptical nature, and that he needed his rational, waking mind to take a back seat in order for him to fully accept God’s gift. The angels also emphasized different aspects of the gift in their appearances to Mary and Joseph based on what was foremost in each of the recipients’ minds. Whereas Mary had been concerned about the logistical possibility of her pregnancy, Joseph had been worrying about the social implications, so each of them received a message that reflected those respective issues. And finally, Mary’s encounter with the angel was a dialogue, but Joseph passively received instructions - probably because that was what each of them needed in that moment.
The gift given to both Mary and Joseph was the same - they were both to be the parents of the long-awaited Messiah - but each of them received it in different packaging. Joseph’s needs, responsibilities, and concerns couldn’t be addressed in the exact same way that Mary’s were. But with some new wrapping paper in the form of a different presentation, that very same gift became uniquely relevant and meaningful to HIM.
The way we share God’s gifts matters. As we think about which of them we want to regift to others - and hopefully by now you’ve come up with a few ideas - we have to be aware of how we present them. YOU may have received the Good News of God’s unconditional love in a traditional worship service, but someone who’s been abused by the Church wouldn’t be able to receive it that same way. They’d need that gift packaged differently - maybe in a one-on-one conversation, or through consistent demonstrations of care. If you were given the gift of community through your participation in recreational sports, you might need to reconsider how you’d share that with someone whose health keeps them bedridden. Maybe you’ve found the gift of joy in your relationship with your kids or grandkids - but you’d have to help someone with family trauma find it in a different place.
Of course, it’s far easier to try and share God’s gifts by repeating the same patterns in the same ways that are meaningful to US - the same ways we’ve always done it - but that’s exactly how we wind up with languishing ministries and dying church communities. Not because the gifts themselves are bad, but because the packaging isn’t meaningful to enough people. We have to put in the hard work to get this part of the regifting process right - because it turns out that “easy” has never been one of the gifts that God has ever promised to any of us.
So for the sake of the news that is always good, for the sake of the message that angels have been proclaiming for centuries, for the sake of the gifts that are too wonderful to keep to ourselves, let’s do that hard work. Let’s think not about ourselves, but about those out there still searching for a blessing. Let’s share God’s gifts in a way that draws in the least, the last, and the lost - a way that speaks directly and authentically to THEM. Make these gifts impossible to ignore or deny by rewrapping them with attention and care. Make it clear that they aren’t just our cast-off hand-me-downs, but precious treasures meant specifically for the one who needs them most. Because that’s what they are, and that’s what everyone deserves. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment