When I was growing up, everyone knew when the Christmas season (which includes Advent) began: when Santa Claus came in at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Recently, however, there has been an expansion of the Christmas season. Now it seems that the Halloween decorations barely come down when Christmas advertisements and decorations start going up. All this is driven by consumerism; trying to get us to spend more on things. It has distorted the true meaning of Christmas.

So even though rushing the Christmas Season is a pet peeve of mine, we are going to start the Christmas Season one week early by starting our Advent message series, “Unwrapping Christmas,” this weekend.

Someone with more time on their hands than me discovered that the Bible uses the word “believe” 275 times, it uses the word “pray” 371 times, and it uses the word “love” 714 times. But, it uses the word “give” or “giving” 2,162 times. 

As we experience the holiday season over the next few weeks, we will be bombarded with opportunities, requests, pleas and pitches for gift giving. Rather than bemoan the fact, what if we embraced gift-giving? What if we aspired to be great givers this Christmas?

God is a giver and everything is a gift. God is a generous giver. At Christmas we celebrate that God gave us his very best. At Christmas we celebrate that God the Father

gave us his Son. Perhaps the most famous line in all of Scripture says, “For God so loved the world he GAVE his only beloved Son” (John 3:16). And then the Son loves us so much he gave his life for us that we might have life. God loves so God gives.

Since God is a giver and a generous giver, to grow as followers of Christ means growing in giving. Nearly every moment of every day we have opportunities to give something to someone else. Giving doesn’t require any kind of extraordinary service or heroic virtue. It simply involves thinking more of others.

When we look to the end of our lives we want to be remembered as generous people. No one is ever honored for what they received or took from others. People who are honored and remembered fondly are remembered for what they gave and their contributions for the benefit of others.

While we want to be givers and generous people, we face obstacles to growing in generosity. The first follows from the sheer instinct for survival: I think of myself first and at the exclusion of everyone else. A second obstacle that flows from the first is scarcity mentality. I fear there won’t be enough for me. A third obstacle we face is the fear being taken advantage of. 

Adam Grant, a research psychologist and author of the book, Give and Take, did a study of the American workforce and found that generally speaking, employees fell into one of three categories. “Takers” he described as people whose modus in any interaction or exchange was determining what they could get out of it, what’s in it for them. “Matchers” he described as people who only give as an exchange. I give to you and you give to me. Finally there were “Givers” who he described as people who contribute without worrying what they would receive in return. Interestingly he found that the highest performers across most every profession, they were primarily givers. The givers who were high performers learned to give wisely. They learned to harness the benefits of giving while minimizing the costs.

Today is the Feast of Christ the King. The last Sunday of the liturgical year that looks to the end of time. The parable that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel offers us some insight into the importance of being givers.

Jesus says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” (Mt 25:31–33). The Son of Man is a title that indicates Jesus will one day have authority and power over all the nations. And in that role he will serve as judge of the whole human race. And just how will that judgment work?

“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me’” (Mt 25:34–36). Jesus describes acts of giving and generosity that will reap rewards. When did Jesus say that the “sheep” did these things?

“Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Mt 25:37–40). Over and over again Scripture teaches us that there are rewards for giving and the calculation begins with the lowest and the least. Because, when we give in this way it is giving to God. It’s not like giving to God, it is giving to God. The neediness he describes is his neediness.

The parable ends starkly with a judgment in which some are included in the rewards and inheritance of the life of heaven and some are deliberately excluded. A sobering thought for sure, but not one that’s meant to scare us. The givers, in the act of giving, have cultivated the right character for the life of heaven. The takers, in the repeated response of taking, 

have not. It’s not so much that they’re being punished by being excluded from heaven, its just that they wouldn’t be comfortable there.

At this festive season of the year we are more inclined to give to others. But how about if we took advantage of this time to do more, to do the unexpected. To be on the look out for opportunities to be generous to those in need as they present themselves to us as a way of giving to God.

This week, be on the look out to give what you have to the people around. Every day when you wake up, ask God to help you to notice the opportunities you have to give to other people, no matter how big or how small. 

The Christmas season reminds us that God has not treat us fairly. We don’t even want God to treat us fairly. God has treated us generously. When you unwrap Christmas, that’s what you find.