CHRISTMAS: A CALL TO WORSHIP HIM “WISELY”
Yuletide greetings!
As we all know the month of December is one of the most significant months to us for the simple but valid reason that Christmas falls during this month. Christmas is celebrated with high spirits in various parts of the world which includes caroling, feasting, greeting, decorating and gifting. While for some, this is a festive season spreading over a week, for others it is a month long festival that starts with the Advent (Sunday next to Nov. 26th) and ends on the Epiphany (Jan. 6th).
One of the ways by which Christmas is celebrated is by re-enacting the nativity scenes which includes incidents related to Jesus’ birth and visit by the Magi. The visit of the Magi, which is narrated in Mtt. 2: 1-12 teaches us significant lessons about human commitment. What is often remembered in association with the Magi’s visit is their ‘positive offering’ of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. But then, what is conveniently forgotten is their ‘negative offering’ which resulted in the massacre of thousands of infants below the age of two years.
By ‘positive offering’ what I mean is their mentality to present material gifts to the Lord. And, this is often celebrated as a model of ‘worshipping.’ But then, what needs pertinent attention here is that, on their way to this ‘worship’ they had contributed to the ‘most unkindest cut’ by Herod. Though they started their journey focusing upon the star, in their course, they started trusting in their own wisdom. And thus, they got misguided to the palace, the wrong place, the consequence of which was wailing and weeping. In other words, they had the mind to offer material gifts to the Lord but they forgot to offer their own very mind before that. And this is what I mean when I refer to the ‘negative offering’ - their unwillingness to present their own very mind in humility.
The magi stand here as a microcosm of today’s church. The decisive factor of our worship is often considered to be the quantity of our offerings, be it in terms of our time, tithe or talents. On the other hand, what is forgotten is the fact that true worship is an overflow of a truly surrendered mind, a mind that is free from narcissism or egoism. One needs to be on and again reminded that if we forget this fact, how much ever piously we worship in the church, we may be knowingly or unknowingly contributing towards great ‘massacres’…’wailing and weeping’ outside the church.
Today, the universal church is blessed with wealth and infrastructure because of our mind to make considerable material offerings. But, are we able to make a proportionately significant change in the society? Are we today a powerful corrective force in the society? Are we in anyway redeeming the world around us or are we voluntarily or involuntarily contributing to its ‘massacre’?
REMEMBER, Jesus did not offer us any gift during the first Christmas, rather he offered Himself by being born into this world as one among us. Therefore, his life, from the womb to the tomb was a worship through which He redeemed thousands. It is high time that we as a church realize that Christmas is more than offering gifts. It is offering oneself - surrendering our mind, body and soul- to be steered by His love and guidance towards the redemption of this world. And when that happens, we will be worshipping him wisely, instead of just making mere offerings of our ‘gold’, ‘myrrh’ and ‘frankincense’ and foolishly think that “Oh! How wise am I.”
