Good morning church family,
Should future inhabitants of North America send a team of private investigators back in time to look into the collapse of Western civilization during the twenty-first century, one piece of evidence they’d be certain to catalogue would be the broad and shrugging use of the gift bag. Now, there may more compelling factors discovered when conducting in such an autopsy; things such as the breathtaking proliferation of recreational drugs, the use of subversive textbooks in the universities, and the efforts to make pornography as readily accessible as tap water. But, notwithstanding these and many other findings, perhaps nothing would better symbolize the apathy, ennui, and careless consumption of our present age than the gift bag.
When the citizens of a society are full of industry, vitality, and excellence; the soul of such a civilization will be found in its cultural expressions. Its music will be inspiring, its literature lofty, and its art ennobling. Its cinema will be edifying, its fashion uplifting, and the discourse on the subway platform as well as at the dining room table will betray a wonderful propriety and decorum. People will not walk about looking like a bunch of unmade beds but will instead take care to manage their appearance. The work they do with their hands, whether it’s the assembly of a Big Mac, the design of a downtown skyscraper, or the writing of a thank you note will all be done with a zealous and careful attention to detail. The people will respect both themselves and their neighbors. In short, the people will have pride.
Now, before I open the bomb bay doors on our use of the gift bag, I must confess to my own surrender to this popular convenience. I’ve been using gift bags in my gift giving for decades now. Many an oddly-shaped Christmas gift or a hastily purchased birthday present has gone into a gift bag that I either purchased at the card store or selected out of the stack kept in storage under the stairs at the house. I, of course, always try and gussy the gift bag up a little with some tissue paper poking out the top of the bag like a pocket square out of a tuxedo coat. And I usually try and tie a tag to the handle and throw in a card – but that’s about it. And I suppose it’s the sighing, sluggish, obligatory nature of it all that has me dishing on the sad convention. For we’re all aware – whether the comprehension is a conscious one or not – that whatever love and goodwill gets communicated by the giving of a gift is almost certainly diminished by the manner in which the gift is given. When we have someone over to the house for dinner, for instance; the object is not to merely provide our guests with enough calories to satisfy their hunger. Should we put an unwrapped protein bar on their plate, set out bottles water for them that were fetched from a case on the floor, and fan some Oreos out on a platter for dessert – that might be sufficient fuel to get our dinner guests through the evening but it would hardly communicate love and respect. Style, I understand, is not as important as substance. But it’s not far behind.
At a church I pastored some time ago, a parishioner of mine decided to give me a gift at Christmas. It was the last Sunday of Advent and the gift was left on my desk in my office. There it sat atop a stack of books – a glossy, golden foil gift bag with some red tissue paper flaring out the top. Opening it up, I first found a card. The holiday card issued from Hallmark and was one of those designed for the card maker’s “religious” clientele. The image was festive enough and the printed message inside was warm and harmless. The card’s message was signed by the giver with no personal post script of any kind. Digging through the tissue paper, I found a Visa gift card at the bottom of the bag with a bow stuck onto it. Now, I must say that I was very blessed by this gift and incredibly humbled to think that this wonderful soul would spend some of her very limited income so that I could be blessed at Christmas. It’s never made any sense to me how much people have sacrificed that I might be cared for. But as I pondered that gift, I could faintly hear in it the death rattle of a once great civilization. A commercial greeting card tucked into a commercial gift bag; giving attribution to the gift of a commercial gift card. I couldn’t help being a little saddened by what the whole display had to say about the decline of the West.
If you love, care for, and respect a person; when you give him or her a gift, you will labor to make sure it is thoughtful, personal, and valuable. And if you’ve worked hard to hunt down, build, buy, or acquire this treasure then you’ll be proud to present it to the honored recipient. And if you’re proud to give such a gift, then you’re going to take care in its presentation; buying just the right wrapping paper, just the right ribbon, and just the right bow. You’re going to wrap the gift neatly and take special care with the tag. You’ll want the gift to be as much a treasure wrapped as it is unwrapped. You certainly wouldn’t just peel off the price tag and dump it in a gift bag.
Were I to try, I’m sure I could come up with another twenty or so evidences similar to the gift bag that would illustrate the collapse of Western civilization; but I won’t print such a list as I’ve already stepped on enough toes here and gotten enough askance glances. I’ll just confine my opprobrium for the poor gift bag and leave it at that. But why do I share such a concern? I see the greatest threat to our beloved republic being the apathy of its people. A country that collectively says “whatever” when confronted with its sorry, sloppy approach to life is a country who need not fear the barbarians at the gate – for the far greater enemy to the good life is already inside the walls. Americans have no appetite for the wholesome, no patience for the logical, no eye for the beautiful, and no energy for the excellent. We are happy with what we have and can’t be bothered to strive for anything more. Let the beautiful bridges crumble into our rivers, the lovely works of literature be warehoused in library basements; let computers compose our anthems, and let chivalry, manners, and etiquette die at the deadbolted door to our man caves. In the truest sense of the word; it’s pathetic.
Let us heed the Apostle Paul’s summary admonition to the Philippian church: “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8) For if these are the things we’re thinking about and dwelling on then these will be the things we do and practice. And Paul, in the very next verse promises to those who make nobility their practice that, “…the God of peace will be with you.”
Church – let us so treasure the gift of the gospel – that we might present it to our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members in the best possible wrapping. Let us care about our language, our manner, our person, and our address. Let us honor both the gift and the recipient by our pursuit of excellence in all things. May our Gospel testimony never be given in a gift bag.
We’re looking forward to gathering together in God’s living room tomorrow morning. There’ll be laughter, earnest dialogue, honest encouragement, and a lot of eye-contact with Heaven. There’ll be singing, praying, testifying, and understanding. It’s going to be a blessing! May the Lord, mighty God, bless and continue to keep us!
– Pastor Tate
