Wait! One last gift.

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/35fbc2ae/wait-one-last-...

Why, Yes! A Gift for the Savior.  

Sometimes gift giving can feel overwhelming, and for various reasons. Mall parking lots are busy, jammed with people; lines are long, clothes once neatly folded are strewn as weary shoppers struggle to find that right 'thing'.

Why do we feel compelled to give gifts at Christmas?

Ah, gifts... Because the greatest Gift giver gave us the

gift of his son, Jesus, born in Bethlehem.

Having been in ministry for decades now, I have the joy of looking back with fondness of different faces, distinct places -- perhaps the most unique when I had the distinct privilege of serving the homeless and disenfranchised people of the street in Long Beach, California. For a long while, I led a weekly prayer meeting in the basement of an old church at 9th and Atlantic streets, just under an hour's drive from my San Clemente home. (Why do I name an exact place? Because that is me 'keeping it real' as we said then. Ha, I remember my friend, "Tex" who said, 'Past-ah, you gotta keep it real, you gotta keep it raw, you gotta keep it relevant.' Tex was right. And you see, I never mention that corner but some reader some place says, 'hey, I know where that is!' Besides, it gives the work I did legitimacy: probably a wee bit like when our gospel writers mention hard-to-pronounce names of unfamiliar towns and people. With a little digging, we can find out those writers were speaking truth.)

But then I got kicked out of that church. Why? I brought in a cross. The Friends Church, (think Quaker), did not believe in having images in their churches; and well here I was, as different as night from day from many of the 75 or so folks who came weekly to get out of the elements - pray - rest - and then have a meal. Much as I recounted 'I had to get to Nazareth!' the other day, I had to have a cross behind me while I taught and led us in prayer! So, my wonderful next door neighbor, John, built me a big, heavy, rough-hewn cross that I carried in my SUV each week from home. Another group heard about us and said, 'Come over here. Use our building. Bring your people.' The name of the building? The Sanctuary. 'Can't make it up. Isn't that just like the Lord? Kicked out of one place, God gives us a Sanctuary.

One day at Christmas time, there were about 25 of us in a loose circle at the Sanctuary, and I floated the question:  

'What could you give to Jesus this year?'  Silence hung in the air . . . and then David spoke up.  A Vietnam vet, battling sobriety, demons from the past, and a rough living situation, he said,

'Uh... my trust.  Yeah, I would trust him more.' 

I knew there was so much behind his words, so I pressed in,

'Could you elaborate on that?' 

Yeah...I would stop trying to control everything, and trust him more...

realize that he is in charge, and that he will take care of things.'  

Is there not a one of us who does not need to trust God with all of who we are?

Another said, 'Devotion... I would give him my devotion.'  And then there was silence.  Inwardly, I marveled as I looked around the group ... why was it that these simple folk, most of whom have nothing much to call their own--no home, no appreciable assets, no family, no job, mostly using street names--could easily deduce what they could give to their Savior?  

Guess that is just it...

when you have no 'earthly' assets from which to draw,

then you go to the intangibles, 

the things within you, that make up who you are...

which happen to be the only things you really have to give.

Funny thing is, those are the things that God wants.  

The final words of Christina Rossetti's poem, a hundred and fifty years after she penned them, are right on point.

"What can I give him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man, I would do my part-

Yet what I can I give him?   Give my heart."

God doesn't need anything from us, and yet, the very thing he wants, is us!  Some of us make intellectual decisions, acknowledging that the claims of God are undeniable, that when one takes the time to check, the veracity of Christianity stands alone: fulfilled prophecies, historical, scientific, and archaeological proofs backing up the claims of the Gospel.  

Because Christianity is true, further action is intended--

a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

Far from a cursory nod, that commitment is giving all of who we are to God-

not just enough to get to Heaven, or consider ourselves 'Christian' or an even lesser standard of 'religious' or 'spiritual'. No, Ma'am, no, Sir - God deserves and he requires nothing less than our total devotion-our complete trust.

What do you say then?  Perhaps you might give your whole self to the Savior?

Again, I see faces - faces of those I met on airplanes, an awesome Boston taxi driver named Hakim, a Lyft driver named Buntha, an airport custodian in Atlanta, a TSA agent in Southern California, a winemaker and a dermatologist in San Juan Capistrano... all of whom read these Morning Briefings, and yes, I could go on, naming names--like Eric who I met in Salt Lake City but now resides in Las Vegas. Friends, Jesus is real. I have given you evidence in my writing that is verifiable, but just an ascent of your will stops short.

When it gets real, the luxury of time on our side, folks know that there is more to believing in Jesus, and in the real moment, they are ready--take Buntha. One Sunday in Boston, my son Danny and I were heading up to Rowley where I would teach in the beautiful historic Congregational church. Buntha was our driver and involved in our conversation about where and why I was going - he blurted out, 'hey so can you baptize me?' He tilted his rearview mirror to gauge my answer. 'Yeah, right on - when we get back to Boston: Charles River, I'm all about it!' I answered him, thinking of what it would take for me to pull the huge man out of the frigid waters. How did this former gang member from the mean streets of Stockton, California know that if he really believed in Jesus, something more was required of him? Because it is.

Just then, something rears its head inside of us - a bucking horse we could call 'control'. Aha, there it is - the one thing we can give to Jesus, a surrender of our will to Him, is caught in the crossfire of some confused notion that we are ceding our control to follow Him. Friends, control is an illusion--except in the arena of our own wills. We can choose joy, we can choose surrender, we can choose to pray and seek God. other than that, the so-called control with which you struggle is fleeting at best. Listen to Tex--get real.

Go ahead. Gift yourself to Jesus today.

He loves you like no other. 

Give him all of you this Christmas.

Listen/watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teSuDu84kMc

Our response: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riwbJQ90T0E

Merry, Merry Christmas, my dear friends!

Christine DiGiacomo,

Wake Forest, North Carolina