Community Church Sermons
December 24, 2005
It’s
Christmas Eve!
A
wonderful night!
A
magical night!
Especially
if you’re a child!
Listening
for the sound of reindeer in the sky! And for footsteps on the roof! Hoping
beyond hope that Santa has carefully read your letter:
Dear Santa:
“This year, I would like world peace, a thoroughbred race horse, a Cadillac Escapade (sic) with spinners, and a Chia Pet.”
P.S. You still owe me the pony I asked for last year.
Dear Santa,
“May I have
a baby dog that comes with a collar and it has a bed and toys for dogs and a
little food dish with food in it? I also want a basketball. Make the dog
brown?”
Dear
Santa,
"All I want for Christmas is for my
brother to come home safe from Iraq. He's a marine."
Christmas has special meaning for children because children are free to imagine and hope and believe in mystery! It’s a little more difficult for the rest of us who’ve grown up now, and somewhere along the line have lost the wonder of childhood.
So often we adults say, “Christmas is for kids!” And we settle back to watch our children and grandchildren enjoy the holiday. And perhaps, if you are like me, you every once in awhile find yourself envying the kids, wishing you could have what they have - wishing, in some ways, that you could be a kid again.
Well, you can!
Did you know that? In fact one of the great gifts of Christmas is the gift of Child Power – the power to become a child! Now you won’t find this power under the Christmas tree or in a stocking hung by the chimney with care. You have to come over to the other side of Christmas to find it – the side where we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Listen to the astounding message of John 1: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…” Those are pretty familiar words to most of us, read year after year at Christmas. And John continues: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” That’s the whole meaning of Christmas right there – that in Jesus, God came and pitched his tent among us human beings! He became one of us! And then – and here it comes, so listen carefully – John writes, “…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave POWER to become….CHILDREN….”
Now I realize that’s not the whole sentence. Yes, it goes on to say, “…he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of the flesh nor of the will of man…” and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, you see, while we big people get all worked up over the theology of being born not of the flesh nor of the will of man, we may miss the most important thing of all:
“…to all who
received him, who believed in his name,
he gave POWER TO BECOME CHILDREN…!”
Christmas IS for children! Christmas is for helping us ALL become children again so we can recapture the mystery of life and the wonder of God our Creator. Listen to these letters - to God - written by little children
Dear God:
Are you really invisible, or
is that just a trick? - Lucy
Dear God:
Thank you for the baby
brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. - Joyce
Dear God:
If we come back as something after
we die don’t let me come back as Jennifer Horton because I hate her! – Denise
Dear God:
When was the last time you wrote God a letter like that? More importantly, wouldn’t you love to be able to say things and ask God questions like that again?
Well, you can! Because one of the most special gifts of Christmas is that all who receive Jesus are given the power to become children!
Don’t you see it in all the characters of the Christmas story?
Mary – the lowliest of all the people in the world - came to believe that God created her for greatness!
Do you remember the story of the
little boy out in his backyard with a ball and a bat? He’s talking to himself
saying, “I am the greatest hitter in the world!” He tosses the ball in
the air and takes a big swing. He misses! Without hesitation, he picks the ball
up. “I am the greatest hitter in the history of baseball!” He tosses the
ball – swings – misses! And a third time! “I’m the greatest hitter ever!” Swings!
Misses! Strike three! Then he picks up the ball saying, “I am the greatest
pitcher who ever lived!”
Mary had long since lost any sense of greatness. Life will do that to you. You start out thinking you can change the world, but over time, the world changes you and you accept mediocrity. But in the birth of Jesus, Mary hears again the call to greatness. “From now on all generations will call me blessed!” Mary sings in the Magnificat. In Jesus, Mary became a child again – full of hopes and dreams!
Joseph. He’s running lickety-split in the opposite direction, trying to get away from Mary as fast as he can! She is pregnant with a child not his own. But along the way, he dreams a dream in which an angel comes and says, “Joe, don’t be afraid to love Mary. Go to her, and help her raise the child.” And somehow, a new moral consciousness arises in Joseph and like a child faced with a hard choice, he chooses to do the caring thing.
My daughter’s nephew-in-law is a precocious 8-year old named Bryce. Bryce was at school on parents’ day and noticed that his classmate had a grandmother there, but not a mom or dad. Bryce asked, “Where are your parents?” The boy said, “They’re in jail.” Bryce paused for a long, long moment. Then he touched the little boy’s arm and said, “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Children have a tremendous capacity for putting judgment away in order to provide care. Children are the best caregivers in the world! And that’s what Joseph became …because of Jesus!
Child power! It’s found all through the Christmas story!
The shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. An angel of the Lord appears and the glory of the Lord shines round about them. And they are scared out of their willies!
But the angel tells them not to be afraid – that this is GOOD news, not BAD! And suddenly a multitude of the heavenly host appear (which I would number in the millions) and they’re all playing harps and blowing trumpets and singing rap music about peace on earth good will toward all!
Now, if someone came to me and said, “Marty, we’ve got to go over to Bethlehem and see a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths because a bunch of angels came and told me to,” I think I just might say, <SNICKER> “And what have you been smoking?”
Because, you see, in the world of big people, there’s not an awful lot of room for angels and spiritual encounters you can’t explain. But in the world of children, there’s magic and mystery and wonders galore!
And that’s what came to the shepherds in the birth of Jesus. They became children again!
And the wise men from the east. The Bible says they followed a star. Children will do that, you know. They’ll catch sight of a butterfly, or hear an interesting sound, or catch a whiff of something nice – and they’ll follow it, sometimes into distant places. My best boyhood friend Dennis Astrella and I once followed on our bikes the Goodyear Blimp when it flew over our neighborhood. We chased that thing all over the place…even into the middle of an intersection where the shrieking brakes of the oncoming car brought me back to earth. It missed me by about a foot! Where did that come from?
And in the same way, all of a
sudden the wise men from the faraway East look down and they’re in the middle
of the traffic rotary in the center of Bethlehem! How’d they get there?
And there’s a sign with an arrow that says, “Jesus’ Birthplace – 2 miles –
Free Parking”
And here’s the part of the wise men’s story we sometimes miss. Seeing the utter poverty of Joseph, Mary and the baby, the magi did what children often do. They gave them all they had – gold, frankincense and myrrh. People in those days did not have storage units for when they traveled, you know. They took with them everything they owned. And the story seems to suggest that they gave the little family just about everything they had. Children are generous with their love.
I’ll always remember the report of a missionary to one of the Central American countries. It was after a great natural disaster, and he told of a scene where hungry people were lined up by a truck, hoping to get some food. One little girl stood there with her smaller brother and sister. By the time she got to the head of the line, there was nothing left except for one rather mottled banana. She gratefully received the banana, then took her little brother and sister by the hand to the other side of the road where they sat down under a tree. The little girl carefully peeled the skin from the banana. Then she broke it in two. One half, she gave to her brother. The other half she gave to her sister. And she ate the inside of the peel.
Children. The most generous people in the world.
You know, we live in a world where religion often produces much more bad than good: suicide bombers; intolerant people who have nothing but judgment to heap on others; folks who divide the world up into "the saved" and "the lost" and, in so doing lose the commonality of each others' humanity; and, of course, there are many in every religious tradition who are so focused on getting themselves to heaven that they don't bother to work at getting heaven into the lives of people who suffer in the world.
Religion produces a lot of evil.
Maybe that’s why, when Jesus came, God decided to do something the world had never seen before. In the birth of Jesus Christ, God gave the world the power to become CHILDREN again! Not suicide bombers. Not the self-proclaimed saved. Not those who turn their backs on human suffering. And certainly not religious people who have nothing but judgment to offer others. No, when Jesus came, God gave the world the power to become KIDS! Isn't that awesome???? And this fulfills what the prophet Isaiah wrote of the Messiah:
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord…The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together – AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM!”
Child Power!
Tonight, on Christmas Eve, will you receive Jesus? Believe in him and what he came to do for you and the world.
For to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives power to become CHILDREN - loving, caring, hopeful, curious, imaginative, inquisitive, accepting, dreaming, believing, generous, giving, compassionate, joyful children…just like Mary and Joe, just like the shepherds and wise men, just like all who come to the manger of Bethlehem.
Come to Bethlehem and see Jesus tonight. For that is where all the children of the world are gathered to begin building the Kingdom of Heaven!