“The Christmas Question”

Luke 2:1-20

Christmas is full of questions! Questions of all kinds!

What do you want for Christmas?

Have you been good?

What are your plans for the holidays?

Do reindeer REALLY know how to fly?

Christmas is full of all kinds of questions. And in the Bible, we encounter questions galore about Christmas, too.

Mary, when told by the angel that she will bring forth a son, asks, “How can this be since I have no husband?” Great question!

The Wise Men, arriving in Bethlehem after following the star ask, “Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?” Great question.

And the shepherds, out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night, experience a blinding light, and heavenly music, and a whole choir of angels, and they look at each other and ask, “What the heck?”

That’s not in the Bible, but I’m sure that’s what at least one of them must have said.

Great questions. Christmas overflows with important questions.

But there is one question looming large over all the others. It is a Christmas question asked in the lyric of a song that wafts through every Christmas season. It is the question offered to all humankind as a question to ask ourselves whether we are Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, or even Presbyterians.

Here is the question we are all challenged to ask – the most important Christmas question of all.

“What child is this…who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds’ watch are keeping?”

What CHILD is this? What Child IS this?

Great question – the most important Christmas question of all!

Do you remember the old “Noah!” comedy routine done by Bill Cosby? Bill Cosby – playing the role of Noah - is just going along, minding his own business when a bell rings, and a deep voice speaks from heaven. “Noah!” says the voice. Stunned, Noah looks around and asks, “Who IS this?” The voice says, “It’s the Lord!” Noah says, “Right!” – because, you see, not everyone who hears disembodied voices that claim to be God just automatically believes it IS God! I mean, would YOU?

But, the conversation continues, and God tells Noah he wants him to build an ark, that he wants it a certain size – three hundred cubits by fifty cubits by thirty cubits, and big enough to hold a pair of all the animals in the world. And Noah responds with a series of insightful questions like, “What’s an ark?” and “What’s a cubit?” and “Who’s gonna clean up after all those animals?”

Great questions!

Then God tells Noah he’s going to make it rain for forty days and forty nights and the whole world is going to be drowned out. Noah says, “RIGHT!” And then comes the roll of thunder and the sound of falling rain, and God tosses a question at Noah: “How long can YOU tread water?”

And Noah, caught in that in-between place where you partly believe something, and yet you partly don’t believe it either, asks the most important question of all.

“WHO IS THIS, REALLY?”

You see, that’s the critical question when you’re being asked to stake your life, your well-being, your family, and your future on another person’s claims. Who is this, REALLY?

“What Child IS this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?”

WHO IS THIS CHILD WHOSE BIRTH WE CELEBRATE, REALLY?

That’s the most important question of Christmas.

Now listen to the answer found by the people who first asked that question long ago.

Mary asked, and the answer came: “…the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”

Joseph asked, and the answer came: “…his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.”

The shepherds asked, and the answer came: “…unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

What Child is this…REALLY…who is the reason for the season, the heart and soul of Christmas? The song’s question is answered this way:

This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing!

This, this is Christ the King, the babe, the Son of Mary.

Who is this, REALLY?

This is Christ – the long-awaited Messiah – the Savior of the world.

There has been a lot of discussion lately, and a large amount of news coverage, about how Christmas seems to be under assault in unprecedented ways. Not only are we experiencing the tension normally felt because of the Constitutional requirement for the separation of church and state, but it has now gone to a new level. Even out in the commercial marketplace, the very word Christmas is being scrubbed out and eliminated in favor of the generic term Holiday. So store clerks do not wish us, “Merry Christmas!”, but “Happy Holidays!” Stores are having their big “Holiday Sales”, but not “Christmas Sales”. And this is being done intentionally, the retailers tell us, so as not to offend non-Christians. Translated, that means they think they won’t make as much money if they call Christmas Christmas.

But many people – including myself – while we agree with and support the notion of separation of church and state - find this latest assault on Christmas totally bewildering. How can you have Christmas and delete from it the word Christ? A Christ-less Christmas maybe ought to be a holiday of its own, and maybe those who are offended by hearing and seeing the word Christ should go and get a date for it and celebrate it by themselves. And maybe the retailers ought to go with them. And stake their economic bottom line on that handful of obnoxious, intolerant folks. But when you purge the name Christ from this holiday it is NOT Christmas anymore. Christ is what holds Christmas together.

Now let me come to the main point of this sermon. In the same way that Christ is what holds Christmas together, the answer we hear tonight to the question, “What Child IS this?” is what holds our LIVES together. This Child is the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world! This Child comes to make our lives whole, and our world well. This Child comes to redeem humanity and restore to us our dignity, our vitality, and our true identity as the children of God. The job of the Messiah is to BRING THE WORLD TOGETHER

And tonight, when we leave here and look up at the stars, just like the Wise Men did; and as we watch over our families, just like the shepherds watched over their flocks; and as we ponder the difficult circumstances of our lives, just like Mary and Joseph did – surely we see what they saw…

A world torn apart by war and terror. Children suffering the consequences of violence, poverty, greed and lawlessness. Marriages teetering under the weight of temptation, economic need, and misunderstanding. Men and women living in circumstances they can’t handle or understand.

Don’t we see tonight the same world they saw that night long ago? And don’t we come face-to-face with the same kinds of concern? How are we going to find our way to peace? How are we going to protect our kids and give them the world they deserve? How are we going to find our way through our personal problems, and the incredibly complex problems of modern society?

And tonight, we – like them – lift all these Christmas questions to God. And in the stillness of a silent night, God answers…in the birth of a baby.

And as we, with those of long ago, hold Him in our arms and ponder tonight that most important question of all - “What Child IS this…REALLY?” – the angels tell us wonderful news:

This is the One who will show you the Way, teach you the Truth, and lead you to the Life your heart yearns for.

This is the One who will bring the world together, not through war, but by Love, and he will establish true Peace among the nations.

This is the One who loves your children and grandchildren as much as you do, and has dreams for you that even exceed your own.

This is the One who can set you free from the sins of the past, and launch you on the way to a new tomorrow.

What Child is this?

This is the One who is not only the Christ of Christmas, but the Savior of the world.

Tonight, I hope you will let Christ come into your life, and through you into a world that desperately needs an answer to the question:

“What Child is this….REALLY?”