Grimston 21-12-2011
The First Christmas present.
In the approach to Christmas and the frenetic frenzy of buying Christmas presents that accompanies it I am reminded of this story.
Story: The only son of a very wealthy man had his 21st birthday on Christmas Day.
His mother gave him some gold cufflinks and engraved gold pens.
His uncle and aunt bought him a set of TaylorMade R9 golf clubs that combined Flight Control Technology and Moveable Weight Technology, with which he was delighted as he was a keen golfer
And he expected to receive a sports car from his Dad, as he had dropped many heavy hints over the course of the previous year.
Instead his Dad told him that he loved him and handed him a wrapped-up present.
When he opened it, he found it to be a box containing a leather bound Bible, with his name inscribed on the spine.
Angrily the young man tossed the box and Bible aside and stormed out saying: with
“With all your money, all you can give me is a Bible!”
And they never spoke again, despite the fact that the young man’s father tried hard to contact him.
Years later, he got a call from his Uncle to say his Dad had died, leaving him everything.
As he was going through his father’s belongings, he found that Bible still in its box.
Curious, he took the Bible out of the box and opened it.
The page fell open at a passage his father had marked.
And as he looked at the page, he noticed that his Dad had underlined Mt. 7:11,
“ If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father give what is good to those who ask Him. “
And as he read it, a car key fell from inside the Bible.
It had a tag with the dealer’s name on it – for the sports car that he had wanted years earlier.
On the tag beside the date of his 21st birthday he read the words: “Paid in full love, Dad.”
Christmas is the time we remember the birth of Jesus Christ born over 2011 years gao
What is it about Jesus Christ that marks him out as being different?
1. Bethlehem
After all, He was born in an obscure village, Bethlehem – in a backwoods of the Roman Empire – Israel.
And what is more he was born in a stable rather than in a hotel room.
Because a pregnant Jewish woman was not seen as important enough to shift another guest.
2. Second rate citizen
He was a member of a defeated race - a second-class citizen in his own country, with next to no rights at all.
3. Galilee
His parents were poor and came from Galilee, a province that was looked down upon.
Galileans were considered to be “hill-billies”.
Not great credentials to impact the world stage!
4 His Life
But let’s look at his life.
He never wrote a book.
He never held high political office.
He never commanded an army.
He was single and never had his own family.
He did not go to college or University.
He never preached in the most influential cities of the era, Rome, Athens and Alexandria. After all, that was the conventional way to make a name for yourself
He did none of the things associated with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.
And in the end he was executed as a common criminal on a cross by the Romans and his disciples fled
And the smart money would have been on this Jewish sect dying out.
But within 300 years his followers turned the known world upside down despite persecution
5. So how come this baby become the greatest “Star” – in that the world has ever seen?
Jesus the Son of God came into the world. He was a man with a mission.
He was sent by God into our world for a purpose.
St John tells us
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
God sent his son Jesus into the world as the first Christmas present, to enable us to have eternal life.
Jesus said about his own ministry
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
So many people think being a Christian is a boring life but that is far from the truth.
Jesus offers us abundant life.
Story: Our children have left home and so we run the
occasional Bed and Breakfast at the Vicarage
And we have had great opportunities to share our faith with those who come to stay
We had a visitor a few months ago from Australia and he was keen to talk, when he had heard that I had given up a lucrative career as a patent lawyer when at the top of my profession - to become a vicar.
And he asked me why.
I explained that I felt the call of God myself – and that God had confirmed it by giving me prophetic words through at least four people who didn’t know me.
My visitor then told me he was an atheist and we had a long very amiable discussion about science and faith.
At the end of our talk I said:
“If you are right and there is no God, I haven’t lost anything because I have had a great life being a Christian
If I am right – you’re in big trouble.”
6. Conclusion
In conclusion, Christmas only has real meaning when we understand that the real present we need to receive - is Jesus God’s one and only Son
May I ask - what is your reaction going to be to God’s wonderful gift to us this Christmas?
6.1 Are you going to turn away from it just as the young man turned away from his father’s gift – and lost out on the wonderful present.
6.2 Are you going to get caught up in all the other Christmas presents and celebrations that you overlook the greatest Christmas present of all
6.3 Or are you going gratefully receive that wonderful gift.
The choice is yours.
Let me leave you with a verse from St. John’s Gospel.
“But to as many as received him, he gave them the right to become sons of God, to those who believe in his Name, he gave the right to become children of God- children not born of natural descent nor of human decision but born of God.” (Jn 1:12).
Will you receive God’s present to you this Christmas?
And become a Child of God?
