Gift-Giving

Friends,

For many of us the weeks before the holidays are spent in planning, making, purchasing, wrapping and perhaps sending gifts to family and friends. For the most part, choosing an appropriate gift and anticipating giving it is a pleasant and gratifying process, but we all also know it can be a source of some anxiety and stress, especially the nearer we come to Christmas. And we may also struggle with our cautions about succumbing to the commercialization and cultural and social pressures the whole experience of buying gifts implies. But gift-giving, after all, is a welcome means of honoring and recognizing our warm relationships with one another. 

But what is the deeper significance of the holiday gift-giving tradition?

For those in the Christian tradition gift-giving is associated with the biblical nativity narrative of the gifts of the three wise me, the Magi, who brought precious gifts to honor the baby Jesus. The Magi represent the learned astrologers, philosophers of a "foreign religion", seers of the day who had a vision, a foretelling that an important historical birth was occurring, and they were to acknowledge it by bringing the child precious gifts. For the writers of the Jesus narrative the Magi represent a universal recognition that Jesus’s birth signaled a new era of hope and liberation. 

In contrast, the “elite” Magi were also joined by some of the most humble, marginal people in the time, the shepherds, who also followed a celestial radiance, and came to honor and acknowledge a birth that they understood as a hope for new life for them and other the poor as well. The juxtaposition of the two contrasting cultural representatives makes the whole narrative much more interesting and truly does set a context for gift-giving as a means of honoring and acknowledging the bonds among us.

Luke’s gospel picks up the story eight days later when Jesus was taken to the temple for the rite of circumcision that established the Jewish identity of each newborn son. (Luke 2:22-32) To the couple’s surprise a perfect stranger, an old man named Simeon, picked up the child and declared him to be a gift to both Gentiles and the people of Israel, a recognition of the universal spiritual and cultural significance of Jesus’ birth. 

I take from these narratives, and my personal experience of the joys of meaningful gift-giving, that the practice of gift-giving at best is a form of honoring each other in appreciation and recognition for the gift of mutual relationship we share and celebrate. When we give and receive a gift we are expressing gratitude for the presence (“presents?”) we share in our lives. When we think about gift-giving, and the exchange of gifts, in this more relational context, we can consider it a means of sharing the love we have for each other. And that’s a pretty good definition of what gift-giving and exchanging gifts means.

And those of us who deeply admire and honor the gift of Jesus's powerful legacy of a radical, nonviolent love ethic can consider the nativity narrative and the Christmas celebration of his birth as a marker for the beginning of the universal promise of liberation and hope.

So whatever your circumstances when you exchange gifts this holiday season, may you also exchange a sentiment of love and gratitude for not only the gifts given and received, but more importantly, gratitude for those with whom we have shared and celebrated our mutual respect and love, and for the beginnings of the Christian legacy of love and liberation.

Peace,
Tom