What to Get Jesus for Christmas

Preached at McKinley Hill Friends Church, December 13, 2015

The Birth of Jesus

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

Luke 2:1-7 (MSG)

Each year many of us go through some sort of dance-like maneuvering to find out what would be a meaningful gift for our brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren. We want to give a gift that’s useful, that shows we care, but it is not always apparent to us what that gift would be. The needs of each generation are so different and, unless we are a member of that generation, we really can’t predict what gift would be helpful.

Look! A laptop!

I can’t remember a single one of my fellow high school students lugging a computer around with them from class to class. Today, many Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers are required to have with them a tablet computer the size of a manilla envelope, but more powerful than any of the computers readily available when I was in High School, fully loaded with all sorts of "apps" and software programs. Many of their textbooks are now carried around on tablet computers. How am I to know what they need for their classes? Do I sound old? Gifts can be tricky things, especially when generations are so separated by rapidly changing technology and cultural expectations.

Each year, the hint is usually dropped to me via my wife that I need to suggest a few things I want for Christmas, because our families are asking what on earth I want. I usually just say a couple inexpensive things off the top of my head, mostly so that my family can feel like they got me something I needed. The best part of giving gifts is the experience of being generous and helpful to someone else. The truth is that most of the time we don’t really need very much. We are surrounded by affluence and the fact that I often can't readily identify a need simply confirms the depth of my own cultural privilege as a member of western society. Clothes are cheap and easy to come by. We have food and we have a roof over our heads. I am usually just as tickled to get chex mix and homemade jam as more expensive gifts that I don’t really need.

This year I put a little bit more forethought into what gifts could be useful. I started writing down what I would like as a gift whenever the thought occurred to me throughout the year. It’s mostly simple stuff to fill in the gaps of things I already have, or things that I need for the next year. By jotting down what I need throughout the year, I’ve saved myself the frustration of trying to remember, all in one afternoon in early December, what would be a meaningful gift. So this year my Christmas list includes the basics that keep me going: razors, shaving soap, new tires for my bike since the old ones are cracked and need replacing.