There was once a joke I heard about the fruit cake. It is said that there is only one fruit cake which gets repeatedly regifted because nobody really wants it. I liken the Christian doctrine of forgiveness (the gospel) to that proverbial fruitcake. In Christian theology, forgiveness is God's greatest gift. It is like a treasure buried in the ground. When somebody finds this treasure, he sells everything he has to buy that field in which the treasure is buried.  

     Christmas is about God giving us the gift of forgiveness. God sends his son as a sacrifice so we can be forgiven. Forgiveness is the gospel. The natural mind, the mind without the aid of God's spirit which convicts the world of its moral depravity, devalue this gift. Of all the problems of the world, what use do we have for forgiveness? How can forgiveness feed the hungry child or prevent war? Forgiveness is like the fruitcake nobody wants. 

     I admit that in my zeal to make the gospel more palatable to the natural mind, and also because of my pride, I have robbed it of its purity to the point that denominational authorities suspected that I don't really know the gospel. I have focused on the change that the gospel is supposed to produce in a person's life and to society that I became more of a moralist, coaxing people to look at Jesus' sacrifice and imitate it. Although it is true that Jesus' followers are called to imitate him, the gospel is not a call to pull ourselves out of our bootstraps and change into better people. The gospel is forgiveness and living according to the gospel is to bask in God's forgiveness. This basking (contemplating, meditating) changes us from the inside. The gospel is to drive us to joy that overflows into our relationships. How can infinite joy coexist with anger and bitterness?

      In a popular parable, the parable of the talents, a master leaves his servants treasures that they are to invest. Two servants did well but one didn't (he just hid it). The master was pleased with the two servants. Many preachers look at this parable as something about stewardship, using the things that God gives (material things, talents, etc.) us in a proper way, for his glory. I suggest that we look at this treasure as forgiveness. Forgiveness, the restoration of relationship with God and with others, is the treasure. How do we invest this? By letting the message of the gospel "You are forgiven" permeate our lives and other lives so that we and them change. In that way, the gospel grows as a mustard seed grows into a tree.

     I know I haven't arrived yet. I still need to appreciate God's gift even more and I need God's help to make that forgiveness make a differnce in my life and in the life of others. May this Christmas be a time when we grow in appreciating this gift of forgiveness, embodied in the baby in the manger.