My old friend John Ball, the 'mad priest of Kent' has kindly agreed to post a sermon on Sundays on this blog. The 6th January is the last day of Christmas, the day of the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, the last day of Christmas, a day when many children throughout the world receive their Christmas presents. (RP)
Christmas is over, and unfortunately yet again I missed Christmas Day, for the six hundredth and thirty second year, one of the sadder consequences of having been hanged drawn and quartered so long ago.
Christmas has changed since my time and one of the biggest changes is the wrapping paper all bright and sparkling, colourful and alluring.
Jesus is the present of God to mankind, and it is the birth of Jesus, God giving us His precious gift that we celebrate at Christmas.
Grace is God’s gift, love is God’s gift, forgiveness is God’s gift, freedom from sin and guilt is God’s gift. Jesus is God’s gift.
And Jesus came wrapped in nothing but his birthday suit.
In other words Jesus was a gift that came without the wrapping paper.
I heard a man say that Jesus was God’s gift and that we had to unwrap that gift, that we had to do a work to earn that gift, that our faith, our ‘decision’ was up to us.
Consequently, according to this man;
we are partners in our own salvation (God having done the difficult and painful bit).
we need to have faith in our faith,
we can wrap the present up again and ‘fall from grace’.
we can never know blessed assurance.
we can refuse God.
God has offered us salvation, just like some lifestyle commodity.
But God’s love is a gift, not an offer.
The gift of Jesus Christ comes unwrapped.
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