Advent Week 1 – Hope: A White Elephant Gift
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text:
John 4:7-42
November 30, 2008
Sermon #0134 (Based on #0065)
This morning we begin Advent with the candle of Hope, and I’ve titled my sermon, “Hope:
A White Elephant Gift”
Some of you know what a White Elephant gift is and may be thinking, “That doesn’t make
any sense.” While the rest of you have no idea what a White Elephant gift is and are thinking,
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
So now that we are all on the same page, let me explain. There is a gift exchange game
played at Christmas parties called the ‘White Elephant Gift Exchange’. [Call children up.]
The term ‘White Elephant’ first appeared in English in the mid 1800’s. It almost certainly
comes from an old Legend about the King of Siam (modern: Thailand). According to legend,
white elephants were so venerated in Siam that when one was found it automatically became
the property of the King, and it was a grave crime to ride, beat, neglect or kill this elephant.
Now, keeping an elephant is extremely expensive unless you can generate income using it for
labor or transportation. The King realized that the special status of his white elephants,
coupled with their appetites, gave him a handy weapon against his foes. Anyone who
displeased the king was given a white elephant as a royal gift, and within months, unable to
do anything with it apart from feeding it, the recipient was invariably financially ruined.
Thus ‘White Elephant’ came to mean an object for which one has no use, maybe financially
draining, which is difficult or impossible to get rid of. Perhaps a gift someone had once given
you that you have never used. The fruitcake might fit this description for some people.
[Play game with children] I once gave my father the movie ‘JFK’ for Christmas because he
liked historical movies. Several years later we had Christmas at his house again and there it
was on his shelf, still wrapped in the plastic wrap. Apparently a ‘White Elephant gift’.
Oddly, an actual White Elephant is not worthless, but highly valued in countries like India or
Africa. So rare, they are respected rather than worked. Real White Elephants are priceless.
I know what you’re thinking, “This is all interesting information, but what does it have to do
with the Hope of Christmas?”
Well, I’m glad you asked. Because what I want to talk about this morning is the white
elephant gift exchange game that God started playing with mankind 2000 years ago that is
still being played to this day.
The white elephant was priceless and impossible for the recipient to afford. God had a gift for
mankind that was also priceless and impossible for any of us to pay for. His name is Jesus,
the light of the world, the bread of life, the living water, eternal Life. Confronted with this
Holy God, man was destined, not to be financially ruined, but destroyed forever. However,
unlike the real white elephants given by the king of Siam, God covered the cost by the death
and resurrection of Christ. We can have Jesus and not pay the cost of being in His presence.
God sent Jesus to restore us, but to many He is useless, something they can’t get rid of, that is
not financially draining, but eternally destructive.
 Those who reject His sacrifice have no use for Him
 No matter how much they reject Him, He can never excuse their sin
 Those who reject Him will eventually be judged by Him and condemned
Jesus is God’s White Elephant gift, What’s yours? What do you have that is a burden to you
that God could use? You have to wrap something or you can’t play the game. You can’t take
God’s gift if you don’t have one to give Him.
Some of you might be thinking that God’s gift to us doesn’t require anything in return, that
justification is by faith and not by works. I would agree, but the Bible is very clear that He
does expect something from us. That something is the gift I’m speaking about this morning.
Some of you may be thinking, “I will give Him thanks, praise and worship for His gift.”
But that is only words, it can’t be wrapped. While He deserves those things, they are not
tangible, and can not be given in exchange for His gift. Again, what gift do you bring?”
Let’s look at our Scripture this morning to see if it can help us decide. John 4:7-42
In John 4:7 we see Jesus initiating the game with a Samaritan woman at the well. When a
Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"
Jesus is trying to initiate a gift exchange. He asked to see what gift she would offer in
exchange for His, He is asking here if she would serve Him.
Would You Exchange Good Deeds for God’s Gift?
 Are you talking to me? She said, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How
can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) -John 4:9
o And Jesus says, “You’re right I don’t need you to get me water.” Jesus said, “If
you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would
have asked him and he would have given you living water.” - John 4:10
So service is not acceptable to exchange for the Gift of God. No amount of good works can
qualify as a White Elephant gift because good things are not a burden to us, they are things
we do use. Also they are not something God can make use of.
Are you wondering why I say God can’t use our good works? The Samaritan woman
wondered that too, certainly Jesus could use the water from the well.
 "Sir, … you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this
living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank
from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" - John 4:11-12
o Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - John 4:13-14
So clearly Jesus can’t use our good works because they aren’t good enough! Our greatest
work will wither away and leave one thirsty again, but Jesus already has living water, He will
live forever and never thirst again. This Samaritan woman recognized the value of His words.
 She said, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming
here to draw water." (John 4:15)
She now wants His gift, but has still not offered her own to Him, so he nudges her with this
next statement.
 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
o "I have no husband," she replied.
 Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is,
you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What
you have just said is quite true."
- John 4:16-18
Jesus is letting her know that He knows about her sin and He may be trying to see if she
would turn from it. The questions Jesus may be asking the woman are, “Would you give me
your sin? Would you repent and turn from your wicked ways?”
Would You Give Your Sins to God for His Gift?
Could it be that our sin is our acceptable White Elephant gift to God to exchange for His gift?
It is a burden to us after all, and would cost Jesus His life to take, right? Let’s see how the
Samaritan woman responds.
o "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in
Jerusalem."
- John 4:19-20
Some have claimed that what she is doing here is trying to change the subject to get the topic
away from her sin. Maybe, but what if she is saying, “How can I confess my sin to you. You
are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.”
 Consider if a Protestant was asked by a Catholic Priest to come to confession?
o “I don’t believe and worship like you do. How can you forgive my sins?”
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not
know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming
and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for
they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must
worship in spirit and in truth."
- John 4:21-24
Jesus is saying, “You’re right, we worship God differently now, but it’s not about Jews and
Samaritans. It’s about Spirit and Truth. The truth is, I can take your guilt away.”
So our sin can’t be our White Elephant gift either because destroying it is part of His gift to
us. He only has use for truth. The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is
coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who
speak to you am he."
- John 4:25-26
Now the woman really valued what Jesus had and wanted in even more, but still had no gift
to give. So she ran home to tell everyone saying, “Could this be the Christ?”
Have you figured out yet what is yours to give, that’s a burden to you, that God could make
use of, the gift that you are required to give in exchange for His gift of salvation by the
sacrifice of His Son?
The Samaritan woman gave it when she ran back to town. In verse 39 it says, Many of the
Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me
everything I ever did." (John 4:39)
Would You Give Your Life to God for His Gift?
What did she wrap up to exchange in the White Elephant gift exchange game? Her life. It
was the only thing she had that was a burden to her, that would eventually have killed her if
she held onto it (He who loves his life will lose it…), but at the same time something God
wanted, and could make use of, something that would be as priceless to Him as His gift
would be to her.
Giving your life to God does not mean:
 Instant change in all our behaviors and attitudes (it never says whether she left the man
she was with or if they got married. Nor does it say how long that took.)
 You enjoy all the benefits of God’s gift immediately (Consider the fruits of the Spirit
starting as seeds)
 That any great emotional experience will happen right away
Henry Nouwen once said, “Songs, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big
dinners, and sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying yes to something
beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying yes to a hope based on God's initiative,
which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of
the world is God's work and not mine.”
Giving your life to God means:
 You are no longer in control of what you do or where you go
 What God says - you do, whether you like it or not
 God will change your life from bad to good
Do you realize how much like a White Elephant gift our lives are to God? Like the White
Elephant in India, we are priceless to God. We are also an incredible burden – to keep us,
God had to sacrifice Jesus, the Son.
And God gives us Jesus, also priceless. He is destructive to us if we reject Him.
But this White Elephant analogy is far to simplistic. Do you realize how seriously unfair this
exchange is? Our life for Christ’s Life? How unbalanced, how one-sided it really is?
 Jesus must be far more valuable that we are! (Yet The Father gave Him up and
sacrificed Him to get us. Think about that!) We are also infinitely valuable to God!
Conclusion
Many of you here this morning have already played this game with God. Yet some of you
aren’t where you should be in relationship with Him today.
 You took God’s gift , but still haven’t given Him yours, you never really gave your life
to God completely
 You traded your life for Christ’s but you took yours back
 Maybe you exchanged gifts, but you still have never opened God’s gift to you to
receive every good thing He wants you to have
 Or maybe you are here today having never accepted God’s gift, you never really knew
what He was offering, or you didn’t believe your life was worth giving to Him in
exchange.
Whether you are saved or not, whether you have been a Christian for 50 years or 50 minutes.
I want everyone of you who are serious about the gift God has given you, or wants to give
you, to come up to the alter right now.
This is not just for those who want to receive Christ for the first time, but for all of us who
know we aren’t where God wants us. I know I’m not where I could be, and so I will join you
at the altar where we can make our commitment stronger to give our lives completely to God.
In this act, let your faith increase on this day of Hope since faith is the substance of things
hoped for. If you are serious about wanting the gift God offers in Christ more than anything
else, then don’t run home and tell everyone just yet, first run up here and:
 Thank God for life that will never end.
 Thank God for His plan to rebuild our broken lives
 Thank God for His power to do everything He purposes to do in us
 Thank God for His patience with us wandering sheep
Prepare room in your heart for His Spirit to fill you up and spill into every area of your life.
Philip Yancey, in his book ‘Where Is God When It Hurts?’ describes a unique funeral custom
conducted by African Muslims.
Close family and friends circle the casket and quietly gaze at the corpse. No singing. No
flowers. No tears. A peppermint candy is passed to everyone. At a signal, each one puts the
candy in his or her mouth. When the candy is gone, each participant is reminded that life for
this person is over. They believe life simply dissolves. No eternal life. No hope.
We who seek more of God this morning have Hope. The candle we lit today reminds us of
that. The candle is a symbol and will be extinguished, but our hope will not.