Sunday, January 2, 2010
OK, today we celebrate the Epiphany, when the Wise Men came to visit Jesus. The actual date in the church calendar for the Epiphany is January 6. How many days after Christmas is that? (Solicit answer: 12)
What were those days between Christmas and Epiphany known as in the old tradition? (Solicit answer: The Twelve Days of Christmas)
And old tradition meant giving people a gift on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas, hence the song.
Well, I don’t want us to sing the whole song today, but with the Twelve Days of Christmas in mind, I want us to look at today’s reading from Ephesians chapter 1, because I think—depending on how you count them—I think you can come up with twelve spiritual blessings. In other words, I think we’ve got ourselves the Twelve Gifts of Christmas here in our passage. At least, that’s how I counted them up to work with the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas. So just go with me, and in the process, we’ll discover how God is richly blessing us, blessing us in so many different ways.
So take a look at the front cover of the bulletin, and you’ll see the Ephesians passage laid out with the twelve gifts highlighted. We’ll take a brief look at this list so that we can discover just what God is giving to us.In fact, these opening words of Ephesians, these opening words are known as a doxology, a hymn of praise, words of praise, and they’re praising God for all of the things that He gives to us. It’s a hymn of praise to God for these twelve gifts that He gives to us through Jesus Christ.
So on the first day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—every spiritual blessing. This hymn of praise to God that Paul writes here in Ephesians, well, he’s not focused on material blessings. Here specifically we’re praising God for spiritual blessings. And God hasn’t just blessed us with some spiritual blessings; He has given us every spiritual blessing. So that makes this whole twelve gifts a kind of cool idea, because it’s a great reminder that God gives us a complete set of spiritual blessings, a complete set, one for every month. They’re spiritual blessings that cover every aspect of our lives.
In the song, what’s the present on the first day? Partridge in a pear tree. How does that connect with every spiritual blessing? (Solicit answers) Someone write down the answers for me; I want to make sure to remember the connections we make for these things.
Answers from congregation:
Pears are fruit; spiritual gifts are fruit of the spirit.
On the second day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—holy and blameless, made us holy and blameless in His sight. He chose us to be holy and blameless, chose to make us holy and blameless, without sin, chose to give us that through Christ. God made us to be complete different than we are. We are sinful and unclean, we are unholy and definitely full of blame, and He has made us to be just the opposite.
So what’s the present on the second day? Two turtle doves. How does that connect with being holy and blameless? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Turtledove symbolize peace, and we have peace because we’re made holy and blameless.
On the third day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—adopted as His sons. He gave us adoption. He adopted, made us His own. We were not worthy to be in His family. We had been kicked out of the family because of our sinfulness. But in accordance with His pleasure and will, He adopted us again. He made us to be a part of His family again. He made us to be His sons—the ones who inherit everything. He made us to be His sons, so that we can inherit eternal life.
So what’s the present on the third day? Three French hens. How does that connect with being adopted as His sons? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
The carol was written by an Englishman. French hens would’ve been inferior but adopted by the English. We’re inferior, but God still adopts us.
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—glorious grace. He has freely given us His glorious grace in the One He loves. In Jesus, He has given us His glorious grace. Grace means “gift,” and all of these things that He has given to us, all of these spiritual blessings, every one of these twelve gifts, they’re given to us as gifts. We didn’t earn these blessings. They’re free gifts according to His glorious graciousness. God is gift happy and we’re receiving those gifts. Makes the whole “Twelve Days of Christmas” a great reminder—God’s the gift giver.
So what’s the present on the fourth day? Four calling birds. How does that connect with glorious grace? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) which have God’s gracious Word.
OR
We are called through the Holy Spirit, God’s calling bird.
OR
When we sing of God’s grace, we are calling birds.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—redemption. Redemption means paying to set us free, paying the price to get us out of eternal death. Jesus paid the price with His own blood, paid the price on the cross. He redeemed us, He became our redeemer, He pay to free us, so that we would not die forever.
So what’s the present on the fifth day? Five golden rings. How does that connect with redemption? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Jesus’ blood is worth more than gold or silver. He didn’t redeem us with gold but with His own blood.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understand. Wisdom and understanding. God knew what He was doing when He sent Jesus to die for us so that there’d be forgiveness for our sins. Wisdom and understanding. God knew what He was doing. God knew what He wanted to do. God knew how to do it. God knew how to forgive our sins so that we wouldn’t have to die forever for our crimes.
So what’s the present on the sixth day? Six geese a-laying. How does that connect with forgiveness of sins? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Geese gave a gift of good, and God gives us the gift of forgiveness.
OR
Eggs are new life, and we have new life through forgiveness of sins.
OR
Even when we lay big egg, God still forgives us.
On the seventh day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—the mystery of His will. He has made known to us the mystery of His will. He has made known to us His will to save the world. And how did He make His will known to us? Through His Word. What a tremendous spiritual blessing to know what God is doing for us, to know how God is going about saving us, to know God’s will, His heart for us.
So what’s the present on the seventh day? Seven swans a-swimming. Can you connect that with the mystery of His will? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Swans is born ugly but turns beautiful; God’s mysterious will is that He takes us ugly creatures and makes us beautiful.
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—one head, even Christ. He has given us the head of the Church, our true leader and guide, the true One who will direct us in the ways to go. It’s not up to us to lead ourselves; we’re not left to wander on our own. Jesus will lead us and guide us as the head, the brain leads and guides the body.
So what’s the present on the eighth day? Eight maids a-milking. How does that connect with having Christ as our head? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Milk is the nourishment, and Christ gives us spiritual food.
God’s will in Christ makes us stronger just like milk makes the body stronger.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—the praise of His glory. We who hope in Christ are for the praise of His glory. God is to be praised and glorified because of us, because of what He has done for us. What is God’s glory? Us. Why? Because He has saved us. We praise Him for what He has done, but the blessing to us is that we are to His glory, we are the reason He is praised. What a blessing to know that God is praised because of us.
So what’s the present on the ninth day? Nine ladies dancing. How does that connect with being the praise of His glory? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Praise God through dancing for what He has done for us.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—the word of truth. We have the great Word of God. We can know His will because of His Word. We can know His plan of salvation, because of His Word. We have His Word in the flesh through Jesus Christ. This truth has come to set us free.
So what’s the present on the tenth day? Ten lords a-leaping. Can you connect that with the word of truth? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Leap for joy for the Word of God.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—the promised Holy Spirit. We were marked with a seal, we were marked with God’s seal, marked as God’s own possession. We are marked with the Spirit that works in us, that moves in us, that creates our faith, that sustains our faith, that leads us and guides us in all things. We have been given God’s Spirit so that we are never alone.
So what’s the present on the eleventh day? Eleven pipers piping. How does that connect with the promised Holy Spirit? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
The pipers call the people, and the Holy Spirit calls us
OR
Need wind for the pipes to work, and the Holy Spirit is like the wind—can’t see Him but He is indeed working.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true God gave to me—our inheritance. We have been given the inheritance of eternal life, of every spiritual blessing, of all of these twelve gifts of Christmas. You have inherited what wasn’t yours to begin with. But remember God did what He needed to do, knew what He needed to do to make you His sons, make you able to inherit the kingdom, inherit eternal life. And so now you have been blessed with this inheritance.
So what’s the present on the twelfth day? Twelve drummers drumming. How does that connect with our inheritance? (Solicit answers)
Answers from congregation:
Drummers inherit the gift for drumming, and we inherit redemption.
OR
Anticipation (drum roll, please!), and we anticipate the inheritance from God.
Now I want you to remember: Paul didn’t write these words in Ephesians as the Twelve Gifts of Christmas. We’ve kind of made that up for today, but I did it because I want you to remember all of the blessings that God has given you. All of these blessings that come to you through Jesus Christ, the One we celebrate at Christmas, the One revealed to the Wise Men at Epiphany, the One who works in our lives now, the One who gives us every spiritual blessing.
And when you doubt that you are God’s child, when you doubt that you’re a true believer, when you doubt that God could really still love you, go back to this passage, go back and sing the song, go back and remember all of these blessings that God has given to you.