Saving the Best for Last

This past Sunday was Epiphany Sunday, the day that we celebrate the visit of the Wise Men to the Christ Child. In our congregation, it is also the day that we share the Sacrament of Holy Communion for the first time in the New Year. My sermon focuses on gifts, both the gifts of the Wise Men and the gifts that God offers to us, especially the ones that don't seem to be on time. Did you receive a late (but right on time) gift this Christmas?

Every Christmas, there is one gift that arrives late. On the morning after Christmas, the doorbell rings, and the mail carrier hands you a box. The return address says that it’s from Aunt Susie. When you open that box, sure enough, it contains a package wrapped in red and green paper and tied with a silver bow – the kind made from that pretty curly ribbon. The gift card wishes you a very Merry Christmas! But it’s the 26^th of December, and Christmas was yesterday. So what’s the first thing that you think after seeing Aunt Susie’s gift? “Oh, what a shame that it didn’t get here in time for Christmas!” After all, all the other gifts have been opened already. This one seems out of place, a Johnny-come-lately to the party.

But there’s another possible response to Aunt Susie’s gift. What if, instead of lamenting its late arrival, we are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate Christmas for one more day? The fact that we opened all the other gifts on Christmas morning doesn’t mean that we have to stop celebrating the holiday. In fact, Aunt Susie’s gift might turn out to be the perfect gift, the very thing that you wanted! You know the old saying: It’s good to save the best for last.

Sometimes the gifts that arrive late turn out to be very good ones, indeed! The Wise Men seem to have begun the tradition of saving the best gifts until last. The Gospel of Matthew doesn’t tell us exactly when they arrived in Bethlehem, only that they had followed a star from their home in “the east.” Now, they didn’t begin their long journey to Bethlehem until the star appeared when the Christ Child was born. And after we allow time for them to prepare for that journey, we realize that they must not have arrived in Bethlehem until months after the Christ Child was born. They were certainly not in Bethlehem to sing “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve with Mary and Joseph! No, Jesus might have celebrated his first birthday before those Wise Men showed up at the front door with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Talk about late Christmas gifts!

But even if they were late, their gifts were absolutely appropriate for the Child they were honoring. They brought gold for a king; frankincense for a priest; and myrrh for a sacrifice. I’m sure that Mary and Joseph received lots of lovely gifts on the Christmas that Jesus was born – baby towels and rattles, receiving blankets and cute little one-piece sleepers with pictures of sheep on them, maybe even a diaper tree – but all of those are gifts that any baby might receive. Gold and frankincense and myrrh are gifts that are perfectly suited for the Child who rules us, who shows us what acceptable worship looks like, and who sacrificed himself on our behalf. The gifts of the Wise Men might have been late, but they were the best.

Throughout history, God has given his people gifts, too. Creation itself was a gift! God didn’t have to make the universe; and God didn’t have to put us in it, or give us the capability to enjoy it. But God did both of those things. When we disobeyed God’s very first rules, God could have given us up as a bad job and abandoned us to work our own way out of the mess that we had made of things. But God didn’t do that; God stuck with us. And God promised that he would stay with us through thick and thin. God gave us the gifts of a covenant with Abraham, a land where the children of Israel could live in peace, and a law that guides us as we live together. God even gifted his people with kings like David and Solomon to lead his people, and prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah to guide them.

But the very best gift that God gave us – that gift was saved for the very last. The book of Hebrews talks about that gift as it begins: “In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things.” As awe-inspiring as God’s other gifts to us are, surely God saved the best for last when he came to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Do you suppose that the Wise Men understood what they were doing when they offered gifts to the child Jesus? Did they realize that they were giving gifts to The Gift? As they knelt before him, do you suppose that they heard the faint echo of nails being pounded into a cross? Did they catch a whiff of incense from the heavenly temple, or see the glint of the sun reflected off a crown as Jesus took his place at God’s right hand? The three gifts of the Wise Men, after all, are only tokens of the honor that all of us owe to Jesus as our King, our Priest, and our Savior.

And here, as we prepare to share the Sacrament of Holy Communion at this table, we are invited to gather together and meet him once again. Here, at this table, he invites us not only to give him honor, but to receive the gifts that he offers to us – strength for living each day, guidance for the future, hope in days of difficulty, and joy in days of celebration. Here, at this table, he offers us eternal life in him and through him. Yes, indeed, God saved the best for last when he came to us as Jesus Christ. God saved the very best – for us.