December 18th 2022: The Joy of Mutual Love

Christmas is the season of giving. At its best, it is a lovely and life-giving custom bringing joy into our families and communities. Anyone who has witnessed a child opening their gifts on Christmas morning has seen joy overflowing. That joy is important to our world. Creating joy is a good thing.  
But sometimes gift-giving can be fraught, especially in our consumer culture. We attach a value to the gift and it becomes a measure of love rather than an expression of love. We turn the gift into a transaction, which reduces the joy in the gift. We never want to reduce joy.

This Sunday we will look at how mutuality might permeate the event of the gift. Every time a gift is given there is a giver and a receiver. We will wonder about the roles of both the giver and the receiver so that we can learn how mutuality might bring the most joy in the world. Perhaps we might recapture some of the joy of a child on Christmas morning.

1st Reading: We Live For Others by Nudershada Cabanes
2nd Reading:From Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks