Christmas is that time of year when we give special attention to the greatest gift the world has ever been given: the Christ child. In the gift of the Son, God has given us himself and has promised to always be with us. Nothing our world can give us could ever compare to this treasure. And while this gift is something we experience every day of our lives, we do set apart some special time during the season of Advent to reflect on what God has given us in Christ.
This is reason we give gifts at Christmas. Having received God’s gift of the Christ child, we now give in response to God’s generosity as both an act of gratitude as well as an act of discipleship. After all, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matthew 6:24). And in giving back generously from the resources God has entrusted to us, we are not only demonstrating that Jesus is Lord of our lives, but we are also binding ourselves to him by trusting that he will provide. Giving both reveals and increases the reality that we are disciples of Jesus.
This is why the theme of our stewardship campaign this year is “We Give!” When we give to the ministry of Jesus Christ through his church, we demonstrate that we have been paying attention to what God has been doing in our lives, we show our gratitude for the greatest gift of all in Christ, and we declare our commitment to Jesus and his mission, which is the whole reason we are here. You might even say, to paraphrase the hymn, “They will know we are Christians by our generous giving.” Giving is what we do as followers of Jesus.
In worship during the season of Advent, we are going to consider some of the gifts that Christ came to give us. The traditional gifts that we celebrate during Advent are hope, peace, joy and love. This year we are going to look at several encounters that Jesus had with people in the Gospel of John as we consider a few other gifts Jesus brings us, including healing (5:1-9), living water (4:1-26), grace (8:2-11), and eternal life (3:11-18).
Come celebrate the Season with us!
