Word to the Wise
Saturday, December 6, 2014 - 1st Week of Advent - Sat
[Isa 30:19-21, 23-26 and Matt 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8]"The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst." [Isaiah] . "Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give." [Matthew]
The holiday season (which seems to start earlier every year) emphasizes giving, but what all the commercials want us to do is buy! Whether or not we actually give away what we buy is immaterial, no matter that giving is the language that is used. That is not the kind of giving that Advent challenges us to do.
Isaiah points out that the Lord will give us what we need. Jesus challenges us to give away freely what God has given to us. (I love the older translation: "The gift you have received, give as a gift.") We do not have to buy what the Lord has given to us. Our baptism is a gift that "keeps on giving." How many material objects can offer us faith? How many can offer us hope! How many can offer us a powerful love? In a season that is often very difficult for many people because of illness, loss of job, poverty and many other tribulations we can freely give precious gifts to others in the name of him whose birth is the "reason for the season." AMEN