Malachi 1:6-13 – The Lord Almighty says to the priests, “Children honor their parents, servants honor their masters. I’m your father – why don’t you honor me? I’m your master – why don’t you respect me? You despise me, yet you ask, ‘How have we despised you?’ This is how, by offering worthless food on my altar. You ask, ‘How have we failed to respect you?’ I’ll tell you, by showing contempt for my altar. When you bring a blind or sick or lame animal to sacrifice to me, do you think there’s nothing wrong with that? Try giving an animal like that to the Governor! Would he be pleased with you or grant you any favors?
…The Lord Almighty says, “I wish one of you would close the Temple doors to prevent you from lighting useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you; I will not accept the offerings you bring. People from one end of the world to the other honor me. Everywhere they burn incense to me, offer acceptable sacrifices. But you dishonor me when you say my altar is worthless and when you offer on it food you despise. You say, “What a burden! How tired we are of all this!” You turn up your nose and sniff contemptuously. As your offering you bring a stolen animal or one that is lame or sick. Do you think I will accept that from you?”
I love this reading from Malachi. Right now, in the midst of the Christmas shopping season, I think most of us can relate. I’ve heard it said the average American will spend $700.00 on gifts this year. Why? Because it’s the Holiday Season, it’s expected, gift-giving is obligatory. So we become frustrated in the madding crowds, we fist-fight over the newest video games and dolls, we suffer road-rage, incur a year’s worth of debt – just so we won’t show up empty-handed, so we won’t be thought of as cheap and we won’t meet with disapproval or shame. We’ve kept up appearances and even though we’ve passed-off the Chia pet that our eccentric aunt gave us last year to a co-worker this year, we’ve proven our generosity! But man, what a burden!
Some of you may be asking; What do the stress, commercialism, materialism and burden of Christmas shopping have to do with offending God by presenting poor-quality offerings on his altar? How do they relate?
Didn’t Jesus say: “Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you have done it unto me?”… What about the fact that we commit this road-rage, fist-fighting over toys, giving gifts from an attitude of burdensome obligation rather than from the spirit of love – we commit all of these crimes in the name of celebrating Christ’s birth! What kind of offering is that? What kind of a witness is that?
St. Nicholas was a different kind of witness. I feel confident saying; most people know our modern version of Santa Claus is based, in part, on the historical person of St. Nicholas bishop of Myra. What came as a surprise to me, though, was just how little we know about the man. Just as Santa Claus is perpetually wrapped in the fog of Christmas Eve, so St. Nicholas is wrapped in the mists of time and legend.
We know; Nicholas was born to wealthy parents in the city of Patara, Turkey around 280 A.D. They raised their son to be a devout Christian. While he was still young, his parents died in an epidemic, leaving him a fortune.
Nicholas may have been young, but he must’ve loved his parents very much and must’ve been well-grounded, because in spite of his impressionable youth and even in those turbulent early days of the Christian faith, he remained faithful. How faithful? “Obeying Jesus’ words to “sell what you own and give the money to the poor,” Nicholas used his entire inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, the suffering.
Here, I find a gap in our knowledge of Nicholas – he’s disappeared into the mist again. Suddenly we go from a wealthy man-child who loves the poor, to a man who is elected bishop.
The story goes; when the bishop of Myra died, the bishops and ministers from other nearby cities gathered to choose a successor. They prayed together and by divine revelation they were told, “the next person who runs into the Church, grab him and make him bishop.”… It so happened that Nicholas was the next fellow to walk into the Church, this was how he became bishop of Myra. He must’ve been the most surprised man in the world!
On the face of it, this is a ridiculous story! What were they thinking? But I have to smile when I remember, our own good priest is here because she lost a coin toss… If you don’t know that story, corner her sometime and ask about it.
Bishop Nicholas was destined to lead his flock through the worst tribulation in history. In 303 A.D., the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered a brutal persecution of Christians. Those suspected of following Christ were ordered to sacrifice to foreign gods. Nicholas and thousands of others refused. They were all dragged to prison. The historian Eusebius writes; “The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, deacons, and Christians there was no room for the real criminals – thieves, rapists, killers.”
Savage tortures were unleashed on Christians all over the empire. I want to spare you the bloody details... But know this, no matter what his treatment, no matter what the torture, Nicholas remained faithful, he was never to forsake his confession of Jesus Christ as Lord.
After years of imprisonment, Bishop Nicholas was set free by decree of the new Emperor, Constantine. He returned to Myra and served Christ’s people another 30 years.
When Constantine brought Christianity out of hiding and out of prison in the 4th century, the Church faced an empire-wide debate over the divinity of Jesus – was Jesus man or God? Followers of these 2 different teachings literally rioted in the streets against each other. The issue was settled 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea, which is the source of the Nicene Creed prayed at Mass today. We’re told that not only did Bishop Nicholas attend the Council of Nicea, he was the strongest defender of the divinity of Christ – “one in being with the Father”. So we can say; St. Nicholas was instrumental in crafting and giving us the gift of the Nicene Creed. Go home and put that under your Christmas tree!
Aside from his biography, there are several legends that swirl around the name of St. Nicholas illustrating his work as Patron Saint of; children, sailors, the Innocent in prison, etc… The most well known of these legends portrays Nicholas as Anonymous and even Sneaky gift-giver. Blessed are the Sneaky!
There was once a poor man with 3 daughters. In those days a young woman’s father had to offer prospective husbands something of value – a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to find a man to marry. This poor man’s daughters, without dowries, were destined to be sold into slavery. Needless to say, he was distressed and didn’t know what to do, because no matter how hard or how long he worked, he would never be able to come up with enough money. He wanted them to marry, to be happy and live well. The last thing he wanted was to abandon hope and sell his daughters into a life of hopeless poverty and servitude… One morning, while he was getting ready for work, he went over to the fireplace to put his shoes on and found a bag of gold in his oldest daughter’s shoes. He was mystified but overjoyed, praising God for providing her a dowry. A while later, when the 2nd daughter became of marriageable age, the same thing happened again. He awoke, was getting ready for work, went over to the fireplace to put his shoes on and found a bag of gold in the 2nd daughter’s shoes. He was mystified but overjoyed, praising God for providing her a dowry… When the 3rd daughter became of marriageable age, however, the man became quite vigilant. He was an honest man, a hard-working man and most of all, a grateful man. It wasn’t enough for him to know that his daughters were being provided for. He had to know who his benefactor was, he had to know if there was anything he could give, any service he could perform in return. If not, he at least had to say “Thank you”! So he sat up at night, waiting quietly, in the dark. When he heard the “ka-chink” of gold coins hitting the floor, he ran outside into the dark, grabbing for the shadow that was running away. Turning the mysterious figure around and looking into his face, the man saw the young Nicholas and hugged him, thanking him profusely. We’re told that Nicholas, like Jesus, swore the man to secrecy before sending him on his way to praise God for such good fortune. Obviously, the good man could not keep a secret!
This is the story that gave us the custom of children putting out shoes or hanging stockings, hoping St. Nick will fill them with gifts. So, St. Nicholas is known as Gift Giver.
I’d like you take a moment to think; What was the best gift you’ve ever received? What was the best gift you ever given? I’m willing to bet that none of you thought the best gift you’ve ever received or given, was money in a card or a gift certificate. I’m also willing to bet that all of you thought of a gift that had lots of thought, love,
time and trouble put into it.
Let me tell you the story of the best gift I’ve ever given; When Lisa and I were dating, she was coming out of an abusive relationship. She was learning how to pay attention to herself, to be good to herself, trying to define herself as Lisa, as opposed to being defined as “the wife of So-and-so”. It was an important time for her. One of the things she’d decided to do was to fulfill her life-long dream of getting braces, crafting a brilliant smile. There was nothing in the world that could mean more to her at that moment. And, although she was poor, it was something that she wanted to do for herself. Now, I was hopelessly in love. I wanted to win her trust – which wasn’t easy, seeing as she’d been badly hurt by relationships before. The only way I could see to win her trust and her love was not so much to tell her all the things she wanted to hear, but to demonstrate my complete solidarity with her over and over and over. So, I kept my eyes and ears open. She got her braces and it wasn’t long before she was frustrated by the effort to try to clean food out of them, she tried tooth-picks, she tried these miniscule brushes – everything, to no avail. She’d sigh and say: “I need a water-pik, I wish I had a water-pik!” Never dreaming she was actually being listened to, or that I cared enough about her to pick one up. So, come pay-day, I went directly to the store after work and picked up a water-pik. I was working third shift so, when I got home in the morning, Lisa was still in bed. I come through the door, she sits up and starts sobbing. I say; “Lisa, what’s the matter? What’s wrong?” She says; “I just had the worst nightmare! You know I’ve been having trouble getting my teeth clean through these braces. I dreamed that my teeth rotted away and were falling out!” Needless to say, the timing of this nightmare was too perfect, I couldn’t have asked for a better set-up! Elated, I said; “I don’t think you need to worry about that.” With tears in her eyes she looks at me and says; “How can you say that?” I pull the water-pik out from behind my back and proudly hand it to her, only to have her say; “Okay, now I’m really ANGRY!” Apparently, I’d made the mistake of spending too much money on her! But I knew that she was grateful for the gift, because she used it immediately and she used itoften.
Please note, the gift wasn’t purchased for an expected occasion, it was spontaneous. It came from a place of genuine affection, meant express heart to heart, a firm solidarity. That what concerns you also concerns me, I care about the things you care about, your dreams are my dreams. Unlike hollow obligatory gifts, true gifts are given to demonstrate love, to establish an intimate communion.
There is no one who loves you more completely, no one who more desperately
wishes to establish an intimate communion with you than Christ.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, we find that as Logos, the creative word of God, Christ has lavished you with all of the gifts of creation. The sun to warm you, the cool breeze to refresh you, water to quench your thirst, a mind-boggling array of food not only to fill your hunger but to delight you. The whole world for you to play in and your dog to play with. That special someone to be help-mate for you, to love and spend the rest of your life with. He has given us all this and literally billions of other exciting, creative and lovely gifts wrapped in the multiverse. And, as the creative, spoken word of God he somehow, mysteriously inhabits every created thing, holding it all together. That is a marvel! How do we explore that multiverse? How do we express our gratitude, how do we engage in that communion? Most of us cannot identify 5 different trees or 5 different birds. Most of us cannot remember what we enjoyed for lunch yesterday. We spend our time in artificially controlled climates, hiding behind our computer screens while 200 species of plants and animals fly into extinction every single day. Where is our gratitude?
Jesus became incarnate as our Savior. God became fully human, so greatly did he desire communion with us! We crucified him.
Still, his love, his yearning for us wouldn’t die! Jesus says in our Gospel today; “As evil as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”… St. Paul in Romans 8:9 says, the Holy Spirit IS Christ! “Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ lives in you…” And again, in Philippians, Paul calls the Holy Spirit “Christ”; “I know that by means of your prayers and the help which comes from the Spirit of Jesus Christ I shall be set free.” Finally, St. Peter (in his first epistle) agrees the Holy Spirit is Christ; “The prophets tried to find out when the time would be, how it would come. This was the time to which Christ’s Spirit in them was pointing…” Point being, the resurrected Christ desired so intimate a communion with us, that he has come back as Spirit to live within us, closer than our next breath and to aggressively love one another through us. And so, he has given us the greatest gift – the Church!
1 Corinthians 12:28 says: “In the Church God has put all in place; apostles, teachers, those who perform miracles, healers, servants…” The gifts Paul is talking about are not apostleship, scholarship, miracles or the ability to scrub the Sanctuary floor. The gifts are the people! An apostle is no good alone. The teacher is no good without students. Why do miracles, if there is no one to benefit? The gifts are the people given one to another. The greatest gift is the intimate communion of the Spirit of Christ within each of us, between each of us
I’ve been using the word “Communion” a lot. Think about the Communion wafer (the Body of Christ, just as the Church is the Body of Christ) – the Communion about to be offered on the altar, then taken within each of us… Another word for “Communion” is “Eucharist”, it translates as Grateful orThanksgiving. The best way to prove your gratitude for a gift received is; first of all to open it! Then, use it a lot and take good care of it.
Let us “open” one another. Let us spend time with one another, get to know one another, share in each other’s company – as gifts of God. Let’s appreciate one another and the gifts each person has to contribute to the Communion, the Body of Christ. Let’s take good care of one another.
Now, I leave you with the words that Christ has given us; “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
Amen!
