Let Earth Receive Her King
I walked into Scheels at Jordan Creek Mall last Saturday evening in search of a pack of darts. As I approached the storefront, I faintly heard the familiar sound of a bell ringing. I stepped within range of the automatic door’s motion sensor and the doors slid open to reveal the scene of a Salvation Army volunteer requesting donations with the ringing of the bell. Some folks gave, many—myself included—passed on by.
Inside, the store was already a hive of Christmas preparation. 8-foot wreathes adorned the grand skylit walkways on the store’s second story. Below, shoppers grasped for all kinds of merchandise: Iowa / Iowa State sweatshirts, tumblers in every color imaginable, winter coats, nerf guns, coolers, golf clubs, fishing poles, hunting boots, dog collars, bike helmets… you name it, it’s on both the shopping lists and the shelves.
The Spirit of Advent
There’s such a cultural emphasis on giving during the holiday season: finding the right gifts to give to siblings or parents; offering suggestions for what your loved ones might gift to you this season; donating to charitable organizations to help make the holidays a little brighter for people who are less fortunate. And all this giving, if done with the right spirit and the right intention, can amplify goodness and light in the dark days of December. But is the spirit of Advent really about giving?
“Advent” means the arrival of a notable person, thing or event. In our context, Advent means God is arriving here on earth in the person of Jesus. And if God is the one doing the gift-giving and the arriving, what role might we play? Often, it seems we try to play the giving role too.
In his article “The God We Hardly Knew” written for an edited collection of readings for Advent and Christmas titled Watch for the Light, William Willimon talks about our culturally inspired inclination to assume the “giving” role each Christmas:
“[…] consider what we do at Christmas, the so-called season of giving. We enjoy thinking of ourselves as basically generous, benevolent, giving people. That’s one reason why everyone, even the nominally religious, loves Christmas. Christmas is a season to celebrate our alleged generosity. The newspaper keeps us posted on how many needy families we have adopted. The Salvation Army kettles enable us to be generous while buying groceries (for ourselves) or gifts (for our families). People we work with who usually balk at the collection to pay for the morning coffee fall over themselves soliciting funds ‘to make Christmas’ for some family.
We love Christmas because, as we say, Christmas brings out the best in us. Everyone gives on Christmas, even the stingiest among us, even the Ebenezer Scrooges. Charles Dickens’ story of Scrooge’s transformation has probably done more to form our notions of Christmas than St. Luke’s story of the manger. Whereas Luke tells us of God’s gift to us, Dickens tells us how we can give to others. A Christmas Carol is more congenial to our favorite images of ourselves. Dickens [and other stories like Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch] suggests that down deep, even the worst of us can become generous, giving people. ”
We love to give. But with all the focus on giving, are we missing the significance of receiving that is uniquely present in the story of Christ’s incarnation?
Mary Receives Surprising News
The themes of Advent guide us toward a posture of receiving. In waiting for Christ’s arrival, we receive whom and what God sends on God’s own timeline. In hope, we receive promises and anticipate their fulfillment. In grace, the only options available to us are to receive and be grateful. It’s humbling to receive because to do so demands us to acknowledge our powerlessness and our need for others outside of ourselves. As recipients, we are powerless to speed along the arrival of a gift or to change its nature. All we can do is wait, receive, and be grateful.
Throughout scripture, we find exemplars for how we might take on the role of recipient—none better than Mary, Jesus’ mother. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, Mary received the news—and the baby—with the spirit displayed in Luke 1:46-55 known as the Magnificat or Mary’s Song:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
Perhaps the best way to say “thank you” for a generous gift is to receive with a grateful heart. That first Advent, Mary told Gabriel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
Joy to the World
I think we might be better givers than getters, not always because we are generous people but because we are proud, sometimes arrogant people. The Christmas story—the one according to Luke not Dickens—is not about how blessed it is to be givers but about how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers. Willimon says:
“We prefer to think of ourselves as givers—powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are. Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we—with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities—had little to do with God’s work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn’t think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do, at Bethlehem, was receive it.”
It is undoubtedly good to give. Jesus says as much. Talking with the rich man in Matthew 19, Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” In Acts 20, Paul even quotes Jesus as having said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” So, there you have it… giving is good. Christlike. And yet, for you and me to only—or even just primarily—assume the role of “giver” at Christmastime is to miss the truth made plain in God’s incarnation: while we were yet sinners—in desperate need of a savior—God sent Jesus into the world. God sent Jesus for us so that we would receive him, and with him forgiveness, grace, hope, love, peace, and deeper joy than we’ve ever known. Amidst the busyness of the season—between buying gifts and cooking meals and sending cards—I hope you’ll take time in stillness to receive these good gifts and to receive the One who brought them to earth.
