It seems that every year the kind of gifts that we are urged to buy get bigger and more expensive. Once upon a time you might have seen a commercial urging you to buy a sweater, or a household appliance or some kind of jewelry. Now we are invited to exchange Cadillac cars, or park a luxury Lexus in the garage, or maybe place a $5,000 fur coat under the Christmas tree. People start dropping hints or raising the question about what they want for Christmas before the leaves have fallen from the trees. Some stores start decorating for the Christmas season as soon as the Halloween candy is removed from the shelves.

Not only has Santa Claus led us to believe that Christmas is primarily about gifts that are given and received, but most of us also give like Santa Claus gives; only to the people that we like. When was the last time you did something nice at Christmas for a person you did not like and that you knew did not like you? I would imagine that most of us are already well along in our shopping for this Christmas season. Who here remembered to buy a gift for the person who cursed you out on the job last week? Who bought a gift for the person who criticized you, and insulted you and went out of their way to make your life hard? The truth is, there may have been some person on our Christmas list this year to whom we were intending to give a gift or at least send a card. But then they said or did something that we did not like, and the first thing we did was scratch their name off of the list.

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I remember when I first acknowledged my call to the ministry back in 1964 when I was 16 years old, there was a man in our church who made it his business to encourage me in every way he could. For Christmas of 1964 he bought me a set of clothes and a brand new Bible. For Christmas of 1965 he bought me a brief case and a Parker pen and pencil set. He told my mother and me that he would support my decision to enter the ministry in any way that he could. By that time, of course, my father had abandoned us, so the help this man was giving was genuinely appreciated and greatly needed.

There was only one problem; this man believed that all a preacher needed was a call from God, and that any academic preparation would be a waste of time. In 1966 I was set to graduate from high school, and he was urging me to look for a church and start preaching. I, on the other hand, at least wanted to go to college and was even thinking about going off to seminary after that. He reminded me of all that he had done for me, and then told me that his generosity and support would end if I did not do as he said. Needless to say, I ignored his advice and enrolled in college in the fall of 1966. When Christmas rolled around that year I don't have to tell you what happened. Not only did I not get a suit, or a Bible, or a brief case or a pen and pencil set; I didn't get a card, or a phone call or even a handshake. He scratched me off of his Christmas list, because I was naughty and did not do what he wanted.