The most valuable gifts of Christmas will not be found in brightly wrapped packages bedecked with gorgeous bows or in colorful bags stuffed with a frothy pile of bright tissue paper. The gift tags for the truly priceless gifts are found in a passage of scripture you may not have read lately—in the book of Revelation.
I know that many people are literally afraid to read Revelation, but it was written as good news. For the first-century Christians experiencing frightening and torturous persecution, the Revelation given to John from Jesus was the best news they could hope to hear. It meant that God was going to win over evil! It meant that God’s people would triumph through faith! The passage I have in mind was in Advent readings that I enjoyed this season. It was there because it speaks of the gifts we receive through the coming of Christ.
So, let’s pause and prayerfully read Revelation 1:1-6 (NRSV):
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Now, let’s open our gifts! Can you find them?
They are in plain sight!
This is good news! These are precious gifts! In His Incarnation in Jesus Christ, God has given us Grace and Peace. Those gifts allay our fears of judgment. We don’t have to worry about receiving what we deserve! We have been given Grace instead of Judgment, Peace instead of turmoil of soul.
The gift of Love underlies all the other gifts and gives them their efficacy for us. The good news in the coming of Christ is that God loves us. He really does! His love is not conditional, though there are many passages that may be misinterpreted otherwise through lack of faith. Jesus often told people whom he was healing that their faith would make them well. That applies to healing of life and soul, too. When we exercise faith that Jesus has revealed God as Divine Love, we are set free from our bondage to fear of judgment and we experience God as He really is, Lover of our Soul.
Freedom from sin is an incredible gift! No matter how much we have failed and though we will always fall short of our own expectations, the preferences of others and the Holiness of God, a great Mystery took place in the life of Jesus when our sins were laid on Him in the Garden and on the cross. The enormous travesty of injustice became a gateway for our freedom from sin. In some way we may not understand in our frailty, Jesus’ crucifixion became a fulfillment of all that was foreshadowed in the centuries of sacrifices in the Law of Moses. His death became, in essence, an atoning sacrifice that covers all the sins of everyone for all time. No one is left out. All hungry, longing souls may receive this free gift.
As if those gifts were not enough, God lavished another gift on us. He gave us His Spirit to work within our hearts and transform us and make us into a Kingdom! Wherever God reigns in human hearts, there is God’s Kingdom. Jesus taught his disciples, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21, RSV). Whoever surrenders his or her self-focused life to follow Jesus in a life that is patterned after Jesus’ commitment to love, that person is not only in God’s Kingdom but is there as a priest! Jesus called us to serve one another as God’s priests, sharing the love and forgiveness of God with any and everyone. There are no exceptions. No one is exempt from God’s Love and these wonderful gifts.
I hope you will open all of your gifts without delay!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
