Thursday, December 10, 2020

It's All About The Gifts

 Genesis 23:1-25:18, Chayei Sarah, The Life of Sarah

Regardless as to if we are celebrating Chanukah or Christmas this year, we have entered into the holiday season.  One thing we all know about the holiday season is that it is a time of giving and receiving.  It is a time of allowing others to demonstrate their love of us in a tangible way through the giving of gifts.  It is also a time when we demonstrate our love to others through the giving process.

As we enter into this time of year our hearts become filled with the appreciation that we have for others.  We allow ourselves to dedicate time and effort into thinking about their lives and spend time considering what we could do to express our love and/or appreciation for them in a way that will be particularly meaningful to them.

In the story of Chanukah, we are reminded of the gift of Torah, and the gift of His presence in our lives.  The story introduces us to a family of Jewish priests who saw Torah as such a gift that they were willing to go to war with the much larger and stronger Greek occupation.  They saw the Temple as a gift, their role in being chosen by God to be priests as a gift, a life dedicated to Torah as a gift, and of course the Torah itself as a gift. They simply did not allow the Greek forces to take from them what God provided.  In the end, God honored them in their zeal and allowed them the victory.  In so doing, they were able to re-establish the Temple and maintain the life that God had given them.

In the story of Christmas, we are reminded of the gift of a savior.  The miracle birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophetic writings in the Torah.  The Messiah is the ultimate gift from God to mankind in that in and through Him we are given the gift of grace that empowers us to live transformed lives, be in relationship with Him, and live lives knowing that we are loved, forgiven, and redeemed. 

With all this in mind, I can’t help but wondering about Abraham’s response to Ephron in Genesis 23.  The stage is set after Sarah's death.  Abraham goes to the sons of Heth and asks them for a burial plot among the burial plots of their people.  Abraham acknowledges to them that from his perspective he is nothing but a stranger and sojourner among them.  However, their view of Abraham is not the same as his view of himself relative to them.  They respond back by calling him lord, and a mighty prince within their midst.  In this place of apparent appreciation for Abraham they offer him the choicest of all their graves.  They extend to Abraham to pick any burial plot that would please him noting that none of them would refuse his request.

Abraham picks the plot that he would like and sends word to the owner that he would like to pay full price for the cave that is at the end of the owner’s field.  The owner is Ephron and he responds to Abraham’s offer with an even better offer.  Ephron notes that he is making the offer to give Abraham the burial site and the field that the site is in.  Ephron makes it a point to tell Abraham that he is extending this offer in the presence of witnesses and that this is a binding offer.  Abraham refuses the free offer and demands that he be allowed to pay a fair price for the land.  Ephron points out that the land is only worth 400 shekels of silver and that apparently this sum of money is trivial in light of the wealth of the two men.  Regardless, Abraham insists on paying the stated sum and the deal is finalized.

Maybe I’m wrong on this, but this entire thing just doesn’t sit right with me.  From where I am sitting, I see no reason why Abraham shouldn’t have accepted the free offer.  Granted, I have been taught and understand that, the monetary transaction somehow made the contract more binding.  But to me, that isn’t the point.

I think we really need to look deep into ourselves and ask how we would respond in a similar situation.  Who was attempting to give the land to Abraham?  Was it Ephron or was it God acting through Ephron?  I mean, who really owns the land?  God or Ephron?  Didn’t God promise to give all the land of Canaan to Abraham and his decedents for an everlasting possession?

The thing I want to really focus in on is our view of the giving and receiving process and the heart from which we give and receive.  How easy is it to walk through this life just like Abraham?  How hard is it to receive a “gift” from someone and trust that there really are “no strings attached”?  At the same time, what makes us think this way?  Is it that maybe when we give gifts we might be doing so from a place that is less than 100% pure?

At the end of the day, the purity of our gift giving is really very reminiscent of what I believe God was attempting to do through Ephron.  It is apparent that God had opened up the eyes of the Sons of Heth to see Abraham as someone special, to see him as blessed, and to see him as great amongst all the people of the land.  God used this view of Abraham to move their hearts to treat Abraham with special favor.

In all reality, isn’t this what is really happening in and through all of us who are willing to let God transform us to the point that He lives and operates through us?  When we move into this depth of relationship with Him, He uses us to express His love to others.  His spirit reveals to us the most tangible ways to express His love, He gives us the ability to move into that expression, and He touches them through us as we follow His lead in our lives.  If we are simply allowing Him to act through us, we have no other motivation except that of creating the opportunity for another human being to be touched by the love of God.

I pray that in and through this holiday season we all come to a place of giving and receiving in the simplicity of an expression of Him in us.  May we hear His voice, follow His lead, and extend love in the ways in which He is calling.  May we do this from a place of pureness, holiness, and health.  May we give with no need for a particular response and no strings attached.  May our giving be free from the tainting of our personal agendas and our misguided expectations.  May we receive from a place of seeing the purity and love of God in others.  May we move into a place of trust where we can truly receive all that He desires to give us.

Moving beyond our horizontal relationships with each other I pray that each of us investigate our response to the gifts that this holiday season reminds us of.  Have we received the Torah as a gift or an obligation with strings attached?  How about the calling on our lives to be priests?  Is the understanding of what it is to live holy and set apart unto God a gift or a responsibility?  And how about the gift of our messiah?  Have we accepted the gift of grace?  Are we still trying to earn and pay for what God has already provided?  These are the questions that this section of scripture challenges me to think about, to look at, and to investigate within myself.  I pray that this holiday season be one of true appreciation of the gifts of God, that you feel His love in an entirely new way, and that in that the love you extend and receive  to and from others carries an entirely new meaning.

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