I’m a really sentimental person. All of the ornaments on my Christmas tree at home have some history, some memory associated with them. I have boxes and boxes of memorabilia I’ve saved from 45 years of life experiences: ticket stubs from concerts, programs from churches I sang at, cards I’ve received from special people over the years, and much more. I love to look back at old photos and videos and reminisce about days gone by. Because of this sentimentality, gift giving has always felt sort of like an artform to me. It’s not just about giving someone something of value. It’s about giving someone something of meaning. It’s about matching up the gift with the person you are giving it to. I don’t always do that well, but that is always my goal. Now, whether you are a similar gift giver or not, we’ve all had experiences with both really good and really not-so-good gifts, am I right?

When Jesus was born and Herod grew concerned that this baby might grow to overthrow him, he sent magi (astronomers) out to look for the child. They began their search and a star to the north guided them to the right place. When they arrived at where Jesus and his parents were, they knelt and paid homage to the child. Then, as our text from Matthew says, “they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never been to a baby shower where the baby was given gold (or frankincense or myrrh, for that matter). Those just don’t seem like really practical gifts for a family with a new baby. And Jesus sure wasn’t going to use any of them for quite some time. So, what were those gifts about? Did they just offer to Jesus whatever they happened to have with them? Or was there a specific reason for these specific gifts?

Now, you may know that frankincense and myrrh were expensive spices. These certainly weren’t cheap gifts by any means. Frankincense was burned in the temple alongside the burnt offerings. It was extremely fragrant when burned. It was the job of the priest to handle the burning of the frankincense. It seems perhaps this gift was representative of the hopes of who Jesus would become, the hope that he might grow to be a priest, which he did, but not in the traditional sort of way, not in the way that would have utilized frankincense. Myrrh, on the other hand, was a burial spice. It was used for embalming. Now, talk about strange gifts to give to a baby. What better way to welcome someone into the world than with a gift reminding them that they will die? So uplifting and hopeful! These gifts seem to be more symbolic of the hopes for who Jesus will become than about offering something useful to Jesus and his parents.

Gold also has some symbolic meaning behind it. Gold was the symbol of kings. Gold represented wealth. And who had more of it than kings? Solomon had so much gold that when he built the temple he covered the inside of it entirely with gold. Jesus was no king in the traditional sense. He was not born into the royal family, though he was a descendant of David. He was born in a humble stable and raised by a carpenter and his wife. Yet, gold, of the three gifts brought by the wise men, represented the most practical for this new family of three. Gold was money. Joseph and Mary could have used it to purchase the things their growing family needed to live. So, while it was a kingly gift, a gift with symbolism and meaning, it was also a practical, useful gift. And perhaps those are the best type of gifts.

We’ve passed the season of gift giving with Christmas now in the rearview mirror for a while. But we’ve now entered into the land of New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are an interesting thing. I don’t think they so much as tell us about who we are as they do about who we want to be. Out of curiosity, how many of you have made a New Year’s resolution for this year? Over the years I’ve moved away from the language of resolutions to the idea of goals, but the idea is essentially the same. We all have things we value and places where we have found ourselves not living into those values. And we realize that something needs to change. And the new year provides us with the opportunity to consider enacting those changes. It gives us a new start, so to speak. It’s a gift for our future.

The gold that the wise men brought to Jesus and his parents offered him some hope for the future. We don’t know how much gold it was or how long it lasted for them. But it was the seed for the start of Jesus’ earthly life. We all need those seeds planted in our lives, those golden nuggets that lead to growth and change. As I’ve thought about this story of the wise men coming to see Jesus, I think about the random blessings we receive throughout our lives that impact us, even if those who blessed us never see those impacts. The wise men were from a far. They may have never learned of what happened to Jesus. But their gifts had an impact on his life. They blessed him and his family.

Today, we have star words to hand out to all of you who want one. This is a practice we started a few years ago. A star word serves as a guiding word for the year ahead. I’ve found that for me, oftentimes the word I get doesn’t seem like something I will need in the year, but by the end of the year I find that somehow the word worked its way into my life. Have any of you who’ve done this with us in the past experienced that same thing? I keep waiting for the year when I draw a word that just feels perfect for me from the get-go. Maybe this will be the year. But the beauty of the star words is that at the beginning of a year we often don’t know what we will truly need as the year goes on. But that word we get can help shape us in ways we don’t really understand. And it can be a pretty amazing and intriguing experience. So, I hope you will be sure to get a star word before you leave today.

But some of you may be looking at my sermon title and wondering what I was thinking with that title. Aurum Est Potestes is Latin meaning Gold is Power. I learned this Latin phrase in the book series I’ve been reading. The series is Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Aurum Est Potestas is the Fowl family motto and young Artemis Fowl will go to great lengths to attain more gold for his family. But what Artemis learns throughout the series is that gold is helpful and can afford you many things in life, but it is by no means the most important thing. In our passage for this morning from Exodus, we see the people of Israel finding value in the wrong things as well. They take all of their gold and have Aaron make for them a golden calf that they then worship instead of God. Gold can be a gift or it can become an idol.

The same can be said for many things in our lives. We can take any blessing we receive and turn it into an idol. Maybe you’ve all seen bumper stickers that say things like Fishing is Life or Live Breathe Pickleball or I’d Rather be Golfing. Now, those are cute, fun sayings that express our love for certain activities. And none of those activities are bad. But have you ever found yourself getting so engrossed in an activity that you ignore other things? Your spouse? Your kids? Your work? God? For me, the shutdowns with COVID-19 reminded me of what life can be like without the fast-pace of an abundance of activities every night. And it has caused me to rethink my priorities. Now that things have opened back up and most things have returned to normal, I find myself struggling to keep pace with even a fraction of the things I did before COVID. And it has made me realize that at times business and meeting societal expectations has been more important to me than family, health, and God.

As we enter into this new year and as we make resolutions or goals or as we follow our star word, may we pay attention to the blessings we receive and may they serve as seeds for us to help us grow into the future. And may we seek to share blessings with others, not knowing what seeds they may plant for future growth. And may we seek out God in our midst, just as the wise men sought that baby Jesus. And may our greatest gifts be given to God for God’s honor and glory. AMEN!