Bible
Study: 2ND Samuel 7, 1 to 16. And Luke 1, 67 to 79.
Do you
know that at Christmas, a lot of persons make themselves rich while others make
themselves poor? How? I was driving through the streets of Benin City yesterday
and I noticed an increase in the number of beggars. Apart from the usual
physically challenged persons, I noticed very able bodied persons also in the trade
of asking for alms. The new slogan for begging these days is “Merry Christmas
Sir, or Merry Christmas Madam, anything for us?” And if you respond simply with
“Merry Christmas”, the look on their faces tells you that you have not answered
well, until you give something, they would continue saying “Merry Christmas.”
This got
me seriously thinking. I came to realise that Christmas itself is all about the
rich and the poor. God is rich and the whole of humanity was poor, our poverty
went beyond a material poverty so in his wealth, God decided to send us the
gift of his only Son to remedy our poverty. At Christmas, we celebrate the
ultimate Gift of a rich God to a poor humanity suffering under the heavy burden
of sin and material impoverishment. So imitation of this fact, we are called to
share with the poor out of the abundance of our wealth as Christmas. As John
the Baptist preached when he was asked, “what are we do to?”, he said, “Let him
who has two tunics give one out and let him who has food do likewise.”
Now to
share with the poor or even to give anything out, one must first acknowledge
that he or she is rich. If you do not see yourself as rich in anyway, you are
most likely to keep to yourself. This explains why some people are all gloomy
at Christmas. They have failed to count their blessings, they consider
themselves as people to be pitied, and they wonder why people do not give them
anything. By their refusal to acknowledge their personal wealth no matter how
little, they make themselves poor in that they now go about looking for rich
persons to “do Christmas” for them. Even, some who by our standards are rich
make themselves poor, they never give anything out to anyone, and instead they
are expecting everybody else to give them something. Anywhere they see food
items being shared, or people giving things out, the run with the speed of
light there.
Sometimes,
we also unconsciously make ourselves poor without realising it. We start
wondering, “how come nobody has given me a Christmas card?” “how come I have
gotten any gift?” “I thought I had friends oh, you mean this people are not
going to give me something this Christmas.” By thinking like this, we become
even more and more poorer and we start feeling sad and depressed. The joy that
we ought to celebrate at Christmas vanishes, and we start feeling like breaking
off our relationships, we stop regarding certain persons as friends because they
didn’t send us hampers and we start saying, we have not been appreciated for
all that we have done for so and so. This is how some persons celebrate
Christmas in poverty and their poverty deepens with sadness even into the New
Year. Being rich or poor is not about how much we have, it is about how content
we are. One may have millions, yet he makes himself terribly poor by expecting
from others rather than thinking of who to give and even with his millions, he
goes home sad and gloomy.
On the
other hand, at Christmas some persons make themselves super rich. How? Rather than
think of who will do Christmas for them, they start thinking of who will
benefit from them this Christmas. They are not expecting anything from anybody,
instead they go about looking for who they will give something. They may not
have everything in the world but because they are content and they understand what
Christmas is all about, they keep giving things out. Some persons actually
visit less privileged homes just to share their little with them and they see
how people’s faces brighten up when they collect these gifts from them. Seeing how
people start dancing in excitement makes their own excitement double. By giving,
they get to experience true joy because they see how they put smiles in the
faces of others and their Christmas is really joyful.
Apart from
the joy they experience, they also position themselves for wealth all year
round. How? By giving, they have made themselves believe they are wealthy and
the very psychological balance of feeling wealthy attracts them to even more
and more wealth. Also by giving, they bring goodwill to themselves as those who
benefit from them pray for them immensely. Again by giving, they attract the
hand of God into their lives. Now, this is where our first reading today comes
in.
King David
was a man who knew how to count his blessings. When God had given him rest from
all his enemies, he sat down one day and looked at his house and he considered
that the ark of God was being kept in a tent. He said: “this is not fair.”
Because he was able to count his blessings, he could see that he was rich and instead
of asking God for more blessings, instead of praying for longer life, instead
of looking for people to do Christmas for him, he was looking for how to do
Christmas for God. So he said to the prophet Nathan, “I need to build a
befitting temple for God.” And Nathan said “Go ahead.” But that night, God came
to Nathan saying: “Go and tell David, he is not the one to build me a house,
but because he had declared his intention to build, I will bless him, I will
cut off his enemies from him, he shall be at peace, his name shall never be
forgotten and from him, I raise an heir whose kingdom will last forever.”
See how
God blessed David just because he made himself rich by thinking of what to give
away. In the real sense, nobody is poor. There is no one who does not have
anything to offer, if we are decide to believe we are rich and give things out,
this Christmas will be our happiest ever. And we would be like Zachariah in the
Gospel passage using out mouth for what it is meant for: singing praises to God
not complaining or speaking doubt. Better be dumb, than go about complaining
about things in the country, putting fear in people’s mind or expressing doubt
in God. Let your words be that of praises to God for the wealth he has granted
you and may you never be poor. Amen.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, teach me that I am rich when I give not when I get. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Christmas Eve.
Expect another homily later in the day. God bless you.
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