Christmas is all about children.
Mind you, I’m not saying that Christmas is FOR children, which is often the observation of grown-ups whose eyes have lost the Christmas sparkle and whose hearts are running a quart or two low on Christmas spirit. Children certainly have a special relationship with Christmas, but Christmas is not just for children alone. Christmas is for all of us.
However, Christmas is ABOUT children!
Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that Jesus is not the only child in the Christmas story? Every Advent, on the second Sunday, we meet another child without whom the Christmas story would not be the Christmas story – John – the world’s first Baptist – Jesus’ cousin! In fact, we are introduced to John long before we see him baptizing people out by the Jordan River. At one point, we actually encounter John in utero – not quite born yet! – in fact at about 24-weeks gestation! His mother Elizabeth is six-months along when Mary comes to visit her with the news that she, too, is going to have a baby. And the Bible says that the baby in Elizabeth’s womb did a big somersault of joy when he heard the news!
Yes, Christmas is about CHILDREN!
And not just Jesus and John.
One of the saddest moments in history is described in the Christmas story when King Herod, frustrated in his attempts to find and kill the child Jesus, orders the murder of all the baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of two. And the Bible describes the tragedy this way:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel wailing for her children and refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
– Matthew 2:18
Christmas is about children.
My good friend Herb Freitag once preached a masterful Advent sermon called, “A Necessary Celebration.” Among other things, Herb called us to step back from just the literal facts of Christmas and ask ourselves about some of the larger, non-literal meanings of the story. Were we to do so, Herb said, we would hear a wonderful message:
EVERY CHILD is a holy Child, and EVERY PLACE a child is born is Bethlehem.
Christmas is about children! It is about God’s relationship with ALL the children of the world – young and old. And it teaches us so many beautiful things about ourselves – about our neighbors – about people!
First of all – in the stories of both John and Jesus – we learn that long before we were the gleam in our fathers’ and mothers’ eyes, we were a dream in the heart of God. Even before Elizabeth and Mary became pregnant, angels came and told them God had a surprise on the way – in fact, God had not only initiated the creation of these babies, but had already picked out names for them, too!
Can you accept that about yourself – that you came into this world as the direct result of God’s will, and that the name your parents finally decided upon and gave you was the very name God had chosen?
It was God who named John “John”, it was God who named Jesus “Jesus”, and it was God who named you! All our parents had to do was figure it out! Some of us don’t like our names. I mean, I am Martin Conrad Singley, III! What a name! I’ve never really liked it! That’s why my son is Peter Martin Singley rather than Martin Conrad Singley, IV – although Pete sort of grimaces when his wife reminds him his initials are PMS! I wish I had a better name, like “Lance Starbuck” or something like that! Oh, some of us don’t appreciate our names, but we should learn to cherish them because our name is a gift direct from the love of God.
Would you speak your name right now? Go ahead and speak it. It’s okay! (Pause)
And now say, “Thank you, Lord, for my name!” (Pause)
What a gift your name is – a gift direct from heaven!
All through the Bible, there are stories about God and children. And in many cases, we are told about God’s wonderful pre-birth relationship with us. I love the words of Jeremiah 1:4 where Jeremiah makes a beautiful discovery about himself:
“The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
Before you were born, I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”
– Jeremiah 1:4-5
Children are known to God before they are even formed in the womb. Every child is a holy child.
But there’s a second discovery to be made here. Before Jeremiah was born, before John was born, and before Jesus was born, God had set them apart to fulfill a divine purpose. They had important work to do with their lives!
Every child is a holy child, and every child is born with a holy purpose.
You were born for a reason.
I guess the part of the Christmas story that troubles me most is that part about the kids of Bethlehem who were murdered by Kind Herod. Every one of them was a holy child, named by God, and sent into this world with a holy purpose.
But what happened to them is what happens a lot to children in the world, even today. One of their own – another holy child named by God and born for a reason – somewhere along the path from childhood to adulthood must have lost all sense of who he really was – and now driven by greed or the lust for power or whatever other evil motives, gave the order to kill the holy children of Bethlehem.
And making the tragedy even deeper, still other holy children – named by God and called to high purpose – now deluded by the allure of national allegiance, and uniforms, and spears sharpened for battle – carried out the order without question.
Holy children murdering other holy children.
No wonder a voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel wailing for her children and refusing to be consoled, because they are no more.
Christmas is about children – holy children born into a world that often strips them of their divine dignity, robs them of their humanity, denies them their most basic needs, and murders them without remorse. It happens in Bethlehem – and in Gaza – and in Darfur – and in Knoxville – and in every nation, including our own. Christmas is first and foremost about holy children who are the victims of the Herods of this world.
But Christmas is also about children of all ages and places who – in hearing the Good News about Jesus and John and Jeremiah and countless others – take hold of the names God has given us, and the holiness of every child, and commit ourselves to the purpose for which we were born:
To save all the holy children of God, and to transform this world into a HOME where God’s family dwells together in peace, and Rachel’s tears are turned to joy.
Christmas reminds us of what the Church is called to do and to be. Christmas shows us the purpose of our lives as individuals. Each of us has work to do!
And Christmas proclaims that every child is a holy child. And every place a child is born is Bethlehem.
Christmas is all about children.
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