Did Santa come? Were you on the naughty or the nice list? Nice? Who was on the nice list? Who was on the naughty list? Who was on the old Santa? I tried List that job and give it your best shot. Now presents. How many of us in the congregation this morning got a lot of presents at Christmas.
We got a lot of presents. Who got some presents? Who got cold? Who got a gift? Looked at it and said, this is good. I’m going to re gift this one re gifting works only if you take the original card out of the box. Trust me, very embarrassing when you forget gifts and presents. That’s really when we think of Christmas.
Very often we think of that. But do we ever stop and consider that on Christmas each year God gives us an amazing amount of gifts. For example, we have the gift of life so important. How would we be able to enjoy the birth of our Savior, the gift of Christmas Day if we weren’t here? So the gift of life is the first thing for which we should always give thanks.
It’s such a great gift on Christmas. So that’s the number one then. Gift number two how many of us celebrate Christmas with little children or with big children for that matter? How many of us celebrate? Which makes all the difference in the world? So we have a number of little children here with us today. It’s amazing what they add to the celebration.
So how many of us give thanks all the time for the children of Saint Charles? The children of our world? They’re really a great present to us now when we celebrate them, we have to remember also that Christ Jesus was born for us as a little child, as a baby. And so we should consider also the great gift of life and children and the energy that they bring to us this season.
And all during the year and whenever we talk about the Baby Jesus, there’s another energy, another gift that we have to talk about. And that is the great gift of the Eucharist, the gift we are all about to share that body and blood of Christ. The food come down from heaven. Now, actress Ms.. How many of us have already been to too many Christmas parties?
How many of us have already eaten too many Christmas cookies? How many of us have already had just a little bit too much waffle for our own well-being? And I’m going to let you decide what waffle waffle means for yourself. But but can we ever get too much of the Eucharist, that gift from God to us in Jesus Christ?
It’s amazing. And there is one more gift we have to consider. What is that unique gift that President that Christ Jesus has given to each one of us? If someone is an artist, if someone is a talented chef, if someone is really good with making little green things grow all of those are gifts from God. And each and every one of us has been given the gift of baptism, which means that every one of us has been given one more gift, the gift of proclaiming God’s Word to the world each and every one of us is called to be an evangelizer for Christ Jesus.
Now, how many of us open Christmas presents last night? Look how many of us open Christmas presents this morning. How many of us have not gotten to the Christmas present yet? isn’t it amazing? We open our gifts at different times. Each and every one of us has been given that gift from God. Have we opened the present yet?
Because each and every one of us is gifted, but we open our presence at different times in our lives. Have we opened the gift that God has given to me, to each one of us yet? Because that’s the Christmas gift that we need to consider this morning. So we’ve considered the gift of life. We’ve considered the gift of our children.
We’ve considered the great gift of the Eucharist and the great gift that God gives each and every one of us. Now, the wonderful thing about the gift that God has given us and the wonderful thing about the gift of the Eucharist, it’s the gift that’s meant to be gifted. We are supposed to bring the gift of the Eucharist into the world and share it with everybody.
And we are meant to gift my personal present with the world. So as we continue our prayer this morning, let us pray for Grace to read gift the grace to live in Thanksgiving for a life for children, for our Eucharist. And let us pray in Thanksgiving that the Prince of Peace has come for us. And we pray that peace will fill our hearts, our homes, our city and our world.