麻豆社

Good morning,

Over the weekend, a small parcel came through my letterbox. When I opened it, I was stunned to see a beautiful bracelet from two dear friends. It is not my birthday. It鈥檚 not an anniversary; and Christmas is weeks away.

What moved me to tears was precisely the fact that it was entirely unexpected.

As I prepare for our family鈥檚 Secret Santa, I鈥檓 struck by the importance of gift-giving to cement bonds and express love between family and friends.

This is true at both an individual and a societal one. We鈥檙e inextricably linked to one another, bound up in mutual giving and receiving.

It鈥檚 nearly 100 years since French sociologist Marcel Mauss wrote his work The Gift, in which he demonstrates the importance of giving and receiving as ways to build human relationships.

But Mauss questioned whether a gift can ever truly be selflessly given. Giving, he argues, always requires reciprocal exchange 鈥� we give a birthday or Christmas present knowing that some date in the future, we鈥檒l get one in return.

We might give, knowing that we鈥檒l be rewarded 鈥� even if that reward is simply the recipient鈥檚 gratitude.

In contrast I was struck by the story of Casey McIntyre 鈥� a 38-year-old New Yorker 鈥� who鈥檚 just died from ovarian cancer. Before her passing, McIntyre raised enough donations from friends and loved ones to pay off the equivalent of 17 million dollars of other people鈥檚 medical debt.

Because she herself had had access to high-quality medical care, she wanted to gift others with the same experience.

She did so through the charity RIP Medical Debt, which uses a system to pay off a dollar of medical debt for every penny donated.

What鈥檚 so profound for me about this generosity, is that McIntyre will never be able to receive thanks or a gift in return.

Those who receive this writing off of medical debt may feel what Christians describe as grace 鈥� the unmerited favour of the divine gift at the heart of the Christian story 鈥� Jesus鈥檚 incarnation, death and resurrection. This gift frees us from having to prove ourselves in order to be welcomed by God: a love you don鈥檛 earn, nor work to be awarded.

CS Lewis describes the embarrassment of the gift of God鈥檚 grace as the 鈥渋ntolerable compliment鈥� of 鈥渢oo much love鈥�.

And although this unexpected, unearned gift 鈥� like that of Casey McIntyre 鈥� may seem too much, I feel a sense of freedom 鈥� an exhale - at the communion table where the gift is remembered.

In the words of the hymn Amazing Grace, the origin of which we heard about on this programme yesterday, 鈥渉ow precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.鈥�

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