The excitement and receipt of presents serves as a re-enactment of our excitement and receipt of God’s gift of Jesus. And one of the things that makes Christmas so wonderful is that you can feel and experience love through all the wondrous acts we do at Christmas, including giving gifts.

As one seven-year old put it “Love is what’s in the room at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” 1

For most adults, it’s not the receipt of presents so much as it is the magic of experiencing our loved ones in the close-knit community of our family receiving joy and love through our gifts.

What we put under the tree brings magic and happiness to our children, and to us, because somehow the presents act like “vehicles of love.”2 In other words gifts are very real; very visible signs of love.

The tangible acts of giving and receiving gifts make love visible, and in the process transform the participants who experience it.

The Christmas story is about God’s gift to us of Jesus. And we can see throughout the Gospel how those who receive and accept the gift of Jesus as Christ are transformed; from Mary’s soul magnifying the Lord and rejoicing in the blessing of conceiving Christ to Paul’s amazing transformation from persecutor to proclaimer of Christ, the gift of Christ changed, and always changes, those who choose to receive it.

Even the Wise Ones, the first gentiles in Matthew’s birth story to encounter Jesus, are transformed from willing to be compliant with the earthly King Herod, to tricking Herod by being compliant to God and not to returning to Herod.

In fact, if you think about it, all of the humans in today’ Epiphany story who personally experienced Jesus end up honoring, nurturing and protecting Jesus.

The Wise Ones give the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and silence on Jesus’ whereabouts, and Mary and Joseph, give gifts of nurture and safekeeping. Each of these humans who experienced Jesus and protect him act out of love.

This morning I have been calling the magi “the Wise Ones” because even though most translations, including the one we read today, refer to the magi as “Wise Men,” the magi who arrived before Jesus in the story may have included both men and women.3 And I think the term “Wise Ones” honors the original meaning of “magi” as learned ones from the east,4 as well as both the men and women who first paid homage to Jesus, and for that matter the millions who have paid homage to him ever since.

During the holidays we tend to run the Christmas and Epiphany story of the Wise Ones together, but have you ever noticed that the story of the Wise Ones does not focus on God’s gift of Christ to us, but rather on gifts that others bring to Jesus? Humans exchange gifts with God incarnate, and all of them travel a long way just to do it.

The obvious gifts in the story are, of course, gold, frankincense and myrrh . . . Now I have to tell you that those are three presents that my kids, at least when they were young, would have been very disappointed to discover with their dental mirrors – the treasure boxes would have gone over much better. What can young children do with gold, frankincense and myrrh?

What could the child Jesus do with them? If we think of them as gifts for a child, the answer is not much. But, I want to suggest that the question should really be:

How were all of the Wise One’s gifts used by God and what might they mean to us as we consider the story?

Gold, frankincense and myrrh are gifts for royalty,5 Jesus, the vulnerable peasant baby is treated equal with kings.

Gold is an obvious asset, it’s like gifts of money we give to relatives in an envelope, or better yet, the money we put in the offering plate.

Understanding frankincense and myrrh requires a little bit more background information: both frankincense and myrrh (like gold) are not native to Palestine, they are aromatic tree resins that were used in Jesus’ day for religious and healing purposes.6 The Wise Ones are so wise that even before Jesus has lived his marvelous life, died and risen they understand and experience him to be the King of the Jews and they brought gifts befitting such a King.

But the Wise Ones give Jesus another gift that we usually don’t think about. The Wise Ones seek Jesus out and when they find him the very first thing that they do is give him the gift of homage, they praise and worship Jesus in his house.

Isn’t it curious that we are here this very morning doing the very same thing? Like the Wise Ones, we are gathered here in Jesus’ house offering homage and the gift of praise and worship– and each week we give this gift.

After paying homage, the Wise Ones open those famous treasure chests and give their gifts to Jesus– those even more famous gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is money, and isn’t that a gift that we also give to Jesus?

And what a great gift! Without money a family, or a community like this church, cannot survive. Mary and Joseph needed money to feed and raise Jesus, to take him to Egypt.

The church, this Body of Christ, needs money as well; to pay its bills, hire its workers, pay for this building and the land it sits on, print its bulletins and support its many missions and ministries, from music to youth groups to visiting the sick and imprisoned to food pantries to helping the poor. Money (gold) is a gift that the church as the Body of Christ must have to survive.

But, the money we leave in the offering plate are not payment of a bill or a debt, they are gifts given out of love to the Body of Christ, gifts of joy, gifts of homage. Paul reminds us of this when he writes in 2 Corinthians: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7).

Like the Wise Ones, the gold we offer to Jesus follows our heartfelt worship, and like our Christmas presents to love ones it should be a gift of love, given with good cheer.

Gold, of course, is not the only gift we give with good cheer to the Body of Christ. In fact, it is only one of the variety of kinds of gifts Paul notes that church members can bring to Christ. Here’s Paul’s list from Romans 12:

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness (Rom 12:6-8).

Gold is not the only gift that the Wise Ones offer Jesus, they worship him and give him frankincense and myrrh, those exotic fragrant resins used for religious and healing purposes.

Isn’t it interesting that the life Jesus led after getting those gifts was all about religion and healing?

And isn’t it interesting that the gifts Paul lists are also for religious and healing purposes? From ministry to teaching to exhortation (that is, advice) to money to leading to compassion, each are used in the church for religion (they bring us closer to God) or healing (they bring us closer to health).

When we give to the Body of Christ, to the church, we are like the Wise Ones, indeed we are wise to do so, such giving can transform lives through “our alerting people to the universal reign of God” by way of our support.7

We can even see this happening in the Epiphany story. After Jesus receives the gifts, God responds by alerting the Wise Ones in a dream not to return to Herod, and the Wise Ones are empowered not only with a direct message from God, but also the courage and wherewithal to heed the warning in an act of civil disobedience to the Roman stooge Herod, the power elites’ earthly imposed King of the Jews.

The Wise Ones give the gift of action over and against the oppressive Roman Empire that wanted to kill the infant Jesus, and this gift is truly a gift of life, and it alerts us to the consequences of God’s Reign, where the ripple effect of human action can save the oppressed, who in turn can become the Savior for many more.

And it allows other humans in the story to give gifts as well. Once the Wise Ones provide their gift of civil disobedience and leave, God appears to Joseph, and together he and Mary further protect Jesus by fleeing to Egypt.

Christmas and Epiphany are stories about gifts. God’s gift of Jesus Christ to the world to be sure, but also about humanity’s gifts to Christ and the power that evolves out of them.

Mary gives Jesus life.

All of the characters who know Christ act as we would hope to act. They worship Christ, protect him and give him gifts, they act out of love. Today we do this too, indeed we are called to do it for the church, for the very Body of Christ.

We give to Christ through all of our gifts to the church, and we too act out of love. Our gifts from God are centered in love. Our gifts to God are also centered in love.

Both the Christmas and Epiphany stories are ultimately about the gift of love. Love by God for humanity. Love by humans for God.