The Fourth Gift

Now that Christmas is over, and it is officially awards season, it’s time for a few post-
Christmas awards to hand out!

First is the “Uncle Moneybags Award.” This award goes to the family member who
makes a point every season to spend more on everyone else, just so that they can look
good doing it. They know that they have more money to give, and so their award is the
look of shock on the faces of those who open the gifts and see how much Uncle
Moneybags actually spent on them. For a bonus, they take a peek around the room to
see how embarrassed others are that they didn’t spent nearly as much on their gifts.
Perhaps you have an Uncle Moneybags Award to pass out in your family.

Second is the “Greatest-Gift-Giving Granny Award.” This award is calculated by the
lowest return rate on the gifts that she purchases, as well as the number of times that
the gift recipient thanks them for their gift. While this award-winner insists that
“Christmas is a time for giving,” she really receives as much as she gives, gaining the
satisfaction of knowing that the perfect sweater, tech device, or toy was purchased.

Third is the “Most Humungous Haul Award.” This award goes to the family member
who got the most stuff, not only in their family, but also among their friend group. They Facetime their friends with proof of their Haul, post pictures on social media, and tell all of their friends when school is back in session. Of course, in order to get this award, one must be more worried about the stuff than the person who gave it…they tear open the paper without looking at who gave it, they throw away cards if they don’t have any money in them, and they rarely remember to say thank you to the giver of the gift.

Who would you give these three awards to this season? I poke fun of our gift-giving
tradition, of course, even though I participate in it as much as most Americans. But
perhaps you have had a similar thought this or other Christmas seasons: even when we say that Christmas is about giving, or about family, or about gratitude, we often act as if it is about competition…who can give more, get more, look better because of the stuff under the tree. I wonder if today’s text doesn’t help us rethink some of the assumptions of our Christmas competition….

It begins with a figure who is associated with Christmas for all of the wrong reasons:
King Herod the Great. He is an example of what happens when that competition
mentality gets distilled by power. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of this non-Jew
who was given power over the Jews by the Roman Empire. But his legacy is an abuse
of power and abuse of the Jewish people. It is a legacy of greed: he taxed the Jewish
people, just so that he could give lavish gifts to curry favor with the Roman
establishment. It’s a legacy of revenge: he lived in constant fear of someone usurping
his power, including paranoia about many of his own family members, and revenge
when he perceived that they wronged him. And it was a legacy of violence: in the story
right after today’s reading, his fear of losing power led him to order the deaths of
innocent children, in case one of them would be the Messiah chosen to replace him. In
today’s story, he said that he wanted to give gifts to the baby that the Magi sought, but
deep down he wanted to take. There was no real giving involved. It was all about taking.

A couple of weeks ago, we read about Mary’s Magnificat, where the lowly would upend
the powerful, causing them to tumble from their thrones. It is ironic, is it not, that as we wrap up a year in which so much energy was given to acquiring the throne of the
presidency, the voice of Mary sings that whomever gains that power is going to lose it
anyway. Herod didn’t get the irony either; today’s passage is the Magnificat come to
fruition. The powerful are terrified and the lowly are lifted up. King Herod the Great
proved that he was anything but great, a demonstration of Imperial power and the
absolute opposite of what God had in mind for the world.

One more point about this Herodian way of thinking: it is systemic. When the leader leads by way of greed, and violence, and paranoia, and revenge, that becomes the way of the people. Did you notice in the text today that ALL of Jerusalem was afraid with Herod? They were on the verge of seeing a Savior who would rescue them from Herod and his ilk…but their fear of change and uncertainty meant that they thought that they preferred Herod to a true Messiah. Herod’s mentality spread into the entire system, meaning that violence and greed and revenge and paranoia were simply the way of the kingdom. When your leader preaches about taking instead of giving, the people live by this mantra.

But look how the text suggests a rejection of that Herodian way of thinking, and replacing it with the way of the Magi. First, a quick reminder of who the Magi were and were not:

• One, the Bible doesn’t say that they were wise men. Historically, we might make the assumption that they were. But the transgenerational Christmas story that we have been exploring is about unexpected prophets speaking God’s truth to the world. Hagar. Sarah. Hannah. Samson’s mother. Elizabeth. Mary. What if the Magi included some wise women? Would we really be surprised if there was a group of women who travelled to be by Mary’s side? It would be the norm in the Christmas story, not the exception!

• Two, the Bible doesn’t say that these were kings. That tradition was added in the Middle Ages, and they were even given names and backgrounds and personalities. But the Magi were instead everyday scientific spiritualists, asking how God might be at work in the stars and in creation. These were not kings, but curious and observant naturalists, and that curiosity led them to leave their homeland and travel to find meaning in this mysterious star. Last Sunday, groups collided, with the Two-Way [Sermon Discussion Group] wrapping up talking about this text, while the Lunch and Learn crew overlapped with the Earthworks Purple Team, studying a book about what animals in God’s creation might teach us about Advent and Christmas. Out of this mash-up came the realization that the Magi were just as observant of God’s creation, paying attention to the stars and asking what kind of larger meaning might be present.

• And finally, it doesn’t even say that there were three Magi. It talks about three gifts, but not three men. Again, later tradition assigned each gift to one and only one of three Magi, but that isn’t what the text says. It says that they brought three gifts of a) gold, a precious and expensive generosity, and b) frankincense, an incense used in holy rituals and worship experiences, and c) myrrh, a spice used to embalm the dead.

Not three people, but three gifts. Or does it? I totally stole the title of the sermon today
from Biblical scholar and hymn writer Thomas Troeger (TROW-GER). He asks in his
commentary on this text, “what is the first gift that was given to the young Messiah and his family?” Do you remember? Let me read again in verse 11: “on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.”

Their first gift was worship. Troeger says it this way:

“The order of actions, homage first and gifts second, is significant. Gift giving can be a
way of controlling others. If the first thing the magi do is present their gifts, then it might seem that they are in command of the situation. There they would stand with precious goods in their outstretched hands….in order to indicate their parity with one another. That is not the case with the magi. They express their relationship to Christ by kneeling and homage to him. First, homage. First, worship. First, giving themselves utterly and completely to Christ. Then, offering their regal gifts. It turns out that the magi’s fourth gift, paying homage to Christ, is in fact their first gift.”

Then, after the first gift, they open their treasure chests and give the next three.

See the shift between a Herodian headspace, of violence and greed and revenge…to a
Magi mentality of power from below, and curiosity, and humble worship? The shift
between a “take back” mentality and a “give back” mentality? Troeger then ends with a final question for us. If worship was the first gift of the Magi, “What is ours?”

What gift are you giving in 2025?

How might we shift this year from a competitive, take-first mentality to a generous give-first mentality of the Magi? It feels perhaps significant in a season where I hear over and over again folks naming what they wanted but didn’t get. What they don’t have. What they are entitled to. What if we were to follow the shift from Herod to Magi and begin the year asking, “What do I have to give?”

• Will you give a gift such as gold, using your financial resources to join in the work of ministry in this world?

• Will you give a gift such as sweet-smelling incense, worshipping through your everyday living and inviting others to worship alongside of you? Will your gift be worship?

• Will you give a gift such as myrrh, reflecting the power of sacrifice and service, perhaps like the Magi knew would come to a different kind of Messiah, one willing to give his very life to bring salvation to the world?

What might you give this year? What might you offer from your own gifts and talents? Parker Palmer writes in his book Let Your Life Speak about the idea of vocation. Each of us has an opportunity to give that which we have been given. To use our gifts. To share our talents. But not in a “supposed to” way as much as a “want to” way. He writes:

“Today I understand vocation quite differently—not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”

Herod saw the world through the lens of taking, competition, achievement, as something to be commodified, and thus overpowered and deceived and controlled. But the Magi saw the world through the lens of “receivement,” as something full of wonder and curiosity and opportunity for worship.

Like Palmer, they saw the gifts that they had and so they gathered them up and loaded them on their camels, and slipped into the night. Perhaps they slept during the day, so that they could more perfectly follow the star as it guided them. Each night, the star rose again, and they rose with it, until the day when they came and found the baby in his mother’s arms, and fell down at his feet with their gifts: first their gift of homage, and then heartfelt and sacrificial gifts that came from their own sense of calling and purpose. They gave a part of themselves that day, as we are called to do in the days and weeks and months ahead. “What is your first gift?”