Three gifts, if given this Christmastide, will do nothing less than heal the world.
Two thousand years ago, gold, frankincense and myrrh were worth (in today's equivalents), six hundred, five hundred and four thousand dollars per pound, respectively. A similar gift today (frankincense and myrrh have declined in value, gold has increased) would set a 20th century king back six thousand dollars for the gold, but only fifteen dollars apiece for frankincense and myrrh.
The Magi celebrated the Christ child with the most valuable items in the ancient world. But these gifts were not just of monetary value. They were also gifts of health and long life. Gold, frankincense and myrrh were among the earliest and most prized curative medicines in the ancient world.
Frankincense and myrrh are both resins that come from wounds in the bark of trees that grow only in northeast Africa and southern Arabia. In the first century, the frankincense resin was considered divine and could only be gathered by special families who would refrain from "impure acts" (i.e., sex) during harvest season. No wonder the whole civilized world at Jesus' time was begging for frankincense as both a fragrance and a medicine that cured everything from bad breath to skin infections. Modern researchers have discovered that frankincense has wonderful antiseptic, antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties that make it a useful dressing as well as being a bronchial dilator that helps in lung infections and asthma.
Myrrh is biochemically similar to frankincense, though its value in the ancient world was many times higher. A drop of myrrh could double the price of cheaper perfumes, and Egyptians used myrrh to embalm royal mummies. The opening of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922 released wafts of air so rich in myrrh's scent that it almost bowled the researchers over. Myrrh was prescribed for a much wider range of ailments than frankincense. A cure in the ancient world for diaper rash, baldness, obesity, and used for anesthetic (Jesus was given, you'll remember, wine mixed with myrrh during his crucifixion), it was also seen as something that might prolong life. Experiments with myrrh today are aimed at accelerating metabolism, thereby lowering cholesterol and body weight.
Gold, considered one of nature's most perfect substances, was always believed to harbor supernatural healing powers. Today, gold injections help people with rheumatoid arthritis as well as those who do not respond well to standard steroidal treatments. Gold inhibits enzymes that break down proteins in the body. (Thanks to Donna Johnson for her research on these three healing gifts.)
Jesus was the most powerful personality anyone could hope to meet. He was so powerful because he was so "rich." Jesus was enormously endowed in his personal gifts, his insights, his connections with God, his knowledge, his influence over people and his charisma. He did not deny his powers, nor did he use them to enrich himself personally.
At Christmas, we celebrate the fact that we are rich,...immensely rich,...exorbitantly rich,...colossally rich. We are rich because real riches are spiritual riches. We suffer an embarrassment of riches, perhaps. But there are worse embarrassments.
What equivalent to frankincense, gold and myrrh could we offer to others this Christmas to demonstrate the enriching, healing, transformative presence Christ's birth brings into the world? Just as the Magi offered their gifts quietly, surreptitiously, why not consider practicing a kind of undercover "guerilla gifting" this year? (You may want to spell this word from the pulpit to avoid your congregation hearing "gorilla," Here are three guerilla gifts to consider. Each guerilla gift in and of itself has the power to do nothing less than transform the world.
Guerilla Goodness: There is a new "underground" movement beginning to make itself felt in American Society. Here and there groups of people are being inspired to a new level of sensitivity by the words of a spontaneously penned phrase: "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty."
What does this mean? It could mean driving up to a tollbooth and paying for yourself and the next five cars after you. Or buying a few flats of flowers in the spring and planting them in a gone-to-seed neighborhood park. Or how about taking two bags with you when you go out for walks - one to pick up all the litter you will surely encounter and one filled with bird seed (winter) or grass seed (summer) to leave in the litter's place. Practicing this philosophy of random kindness and senseless beauty has been likened to waging "guerilla goodness" on the world (see Glamour Magazine December 1991, 86).
Ministering to the human spirit does not take anything out of you - it puts life and love back into you while multiplying itself through your actions. Think how the other person will feel when you wave them into that perfect parking place that opened up, even though you were there first. Isn't it possible that they might then smile and thank the check-out clerk, wishing her a nice afternoon - and mean it? Ever consider what it might mean to the volunteers and the patrons of a local soup kitchen if one week instead of contributing some canned goods or dried pasta, you brought by enough pots of flowers to put one on each table? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination, so go ahead and practice extravagant guerilla goodness by committing random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
Guerilla Grace: Author Og Mandino knows about grace - he is a recovering alcoholic who candidly admits that he owes his very existence to unmerited acts of grace given to him. Mandino is also a best-selling author whose inspirational and self-help books have sold over 20 million copies and have been translated into 17 languages. In his most recent book, A Better Way to Live (New York: Bantam Books, 1990); Mandino reveals some of his "secrets" to a full and grace-filled life.
Among what he calls "17 Rules to Live By" featured in this book, is a remarkable and easily repeatable method that everyone can practice as a kind of "guerilla grace." Mandino's Rule Number 10 advises us to " ... treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight" (90). Mandino suggests that we all think of this tactic as a new rendition of the old "I've got a secret" game, only the secret we know is that the person we are facing right now is living his or her last day on earth. How would that affect your actions and reactions to people? What would you say, even to a virtual stranger, if you and only you knew that this was absolutely the last time you would speak with this person? Practicing "guerilla grace" urges one to extend a depth of caring, an attentive kind of listening and an impetuous way of loving to people from all walks of life.
Robert Rodale (1930-1990) built a 250 million dollar company as an environmentalist, organic gardening theorist, community activist, etc. Two weeks after completing a book entitled Save Three Lives: A Plan for Famine Prevention, he was killed in an automobile accident in Moscow (September, 20 1990). His co-worker at Rodale Press, Mike McGrath, tells of his horror when learning of Rodale's death.
What I learned - and learned hard - is that you can never really be sure that you'll ever see someone again. So it's best not to leave business undone; feelings unspoken. Bob's passing has taught me that when we say goodbye to someone, it may well be the last time we see that person. It probably won't be; but it could be.
Anyone who walks out a door just might be walking out of your life. Forever. So pay a compliment. Say something nice you've been meaning to say to someone. Tell them that you think they're a good, talented person; that you value their friendship; that you admire their ability; that they make you happy...
It's a notion that you'll never regret. (Mike McGrath, "In Memoriam," in Robert Rodale's Save Three Lives, (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991), xvi-xvii.)
Guerilla Love: Amy Grant calls this kind of love "Love of Another Kind." And it's only this "love of another kind" that can save the world.
Anyone remember the international bestseller published twenty years ago entitled The Limits to Growth? It was published by The Club of Rome, a small and informal international network of scientists, educators, economists and industrialists. The sequel has just been published: Beyond the Limits (Post Mills, Vt.: Chelsea Green Pub. Co., 1992). It is strange to find this word "Love" featured in a book by a biophysicist, a computer analyst, and a systems theoretician warning us that we have at most 30 years to prevent global collapse. "One is not allowed in the modern culture to speak about love, except in the most romantic and trivial sense of the word. Anyone who calls upon the capacity of the people to practice ... love is more likely to be ridiculed than to be taken seriously" (233). Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows and Jorgen Randers have taken that risk and have ended their book with a clarion call for the peoples of this planet to "practice love." It is, they believe, our only hope if we are to escape "overshoot" (stepping beyond the limits of the earth's carrying capacity) and maintain a sustainable world.
Practicing "guerilla love" is tough. The skirmishes encountered for the sake of this gift cost us, in money and tears; they cost us security and sometimes even our blood. Guerilla love is what Jesus practiced in the temple when he drove out the money-changers. Guerilla love inspired hundreds of men and women to break the law and shelter and aid runaway slaves on their journeys to freedom. Today guerilla love asks us to shake off our carefully nurtured apathy and to risk being wrong for the sake of being right. Can you risk your love and volunteer time to go and cuddle newborns with AIDS? Can you risk your money and commit funds to a struggling outreach program for drug abusers? Can you risk your career by confronting a local company known as an unrepentant polluter? These are not easy acts; they are heart-rending, costly and threatening.
Once we understand the gifts of the Magi we can better comprehend what kind of gifts we too should be bringing to our Lord and Savior. We hold in our hearts and in our hands the ability to offer Christ's own healing presence to the world everyday, not just at Christmas. The gifts of goodness, grace and love, as well as frankincense, gold and myrrh represent the gifts the Christ child truly wants from us - our whole selves.