(Portions of this sermon are based on the sermon by Deffner, Donald L., “Christmas as a Little Child,” Sermons for Church Year Festivals, CPH, St. Louis, 1997, pg. 36- 40.)
Introduction
In the book Mrs. Miniver, the author, Jan Struther, described her family’s Christmas. She wrote, “However much one groaned about it beforehand, however much one hated making arrangements and doing up parcels and ordering several days’ meals in advance—when it actually happened, Christmas Day was always fun.”
Tomorrow, though, may be the big let-down. In fact, it’s already come for some. In the not so distant past, on Christmas Eve in one grocery store, the woman at the bakery counter was methodically tearing down all the festive decoration—at 3:15 in the afternoon! Another clerk said to a customer, “I had so hoped they’d leave the decorations up at least until New Year’s.” Yes, the world’s so-called Christmas is soon over. Many are not looking at the celebration of a Savior who has arrived, but are focused on the sales pitch of the Christmas event. For some, Christmas is over in their hearts before the first carol is even sung. Some don’t know why Christmas is even celebrated.
How will you properly celebrate this blessed Christmas Day—and the joyous days that are to come in its aftermath? There’s only one way to celebrate Christmas: “As a little child.”
Our text is the well-known Christmas Gospel. In this lesson, one point is repeated several times: a baby—a son—a child. God in his majesty and might could have chosen to dazzle us with his omnipotent power in some spectacular fashion. Instead he chose to reveal himself as a lowly Babe in a manger. But, only when a child came was there a Christmas.
Only as you become like a child can you have, and keep Christmas. This morning, I want to look at the meaning of Christmas and the deeper implication of the holiday by seeing how we can learn from the child, learn as a child, and witness about the child.
Learn from the Child
First of all, we need to be ready to listen when God speaks, even when his message to us doesn’t come in a way we expect it. Sometimes, “a little child shall lead them.” Look at the some of the events around Jesus life. As a child, Jesus told a military captain that he could be healed of his leprosy. A child was called to our Lord’s knee as an example to show how one should view life to enter the kingdom of God. With one of Jesus’ miracles, a child brought the bread and fish which our Lord used to feed the multitude. And in these latter days God revealed himself to us through a Son—a child, Christ the Lord—who fulfilled the promise made in the Old Testament. Isaiah wrote “To us a Child is born, to us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6).
When we see this Babe “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12), we are tempted to forget that he is the Almighty God. But when we hear a heavenly host of angels celebrating His birth, then the Spirit moves us to confess, “Surely it can be no other than the Son of God!”
But many people are not ready to receive God “as a little child.” Many people on that first Christmas night were not ready for this news. Camped around Jerusalem were the Roman legions, none of whom were child-like. It was Christmas Day there too, but it was only for the shepherds on the Judean hills that the angels sang. It was Christmas Day in Herod’s palace, but the Savior was born in a lowly stable and to a humble virgin named Mary. Around the world were many wise and astronomers, but they saw no star. Instead, it appeared to others: the Wise Magi who longed to see the Light of the world.
Learn as a Child
Are you ready for Christmas? Are you ready to get down on your knees before the manger? Are you ready to stoop down to the level of a child so you can see the miracle in a manger?
In a playground in Chicago, there are many playgrounds build for our little boys and girls. Small children enter a “tiny tot play lot” through a low gateway shaped like a keyhole. To enter the playgrounds, a child must be able to walk upright through a low gate. It’s their size that allows them to enter.
Your size, too—the size of your ego—determines whether or not you can have Christmas and the kingdom of heaven this lowly Babe would bring you. “Remember this!” Jesus said. “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17). This is the only way.
We need the simplicity and trust of a child-like faith to say, “I am a sinner. Daily, I fall short of what God expects of me. I don’t deserve God’s mercy and forgiveness. But I have a Savior. I can’t understand all the mystery and wonder of Christmas—how God’s salvation can come this way. But I can believe it. This baby Jesus is my savior form sin, and the Savior of the whole world.
I need a Savior for the sin that tempts me. Forgive me, Lord, for often devising a god of my own liking and wanting my life on my own terms. Forgive me for the times I have doubted your love for me. Forgive me for not trusting that you know what is best for me. Forgive me for being selfish and inpatient.
Now, in child-like faith, O Lord, I ask your forgiveness. I come in penitent, trusting faith in this Christ-child as my Savior.
Many things weigh heavily on our hearts. Fears and sorrows many keep some of us from the great joy the angels proclaimed on high. Work and responsibilities may distract us from the celebration of our coming Savior. But, it doesn’t have to be like this. Look at the children around and see what we can learn from their actions. We can learn a lot from a 6-year old girl named Becky.
Becky’s home life gave little to be joyful about. Her father was an alcoholic who spent little time at home. When he was there, he and her mother spent much of their time yelling at each other. It wasn’t a very friendly environment and Becky would run to hide in her bedroom for hours.
Away from home, Becky liked Sunday school—especially practice for the children’s Christmas program. In the program, she was a sheep; no speaking part—not for quiet, introverted Becky.
On Sunday, when practice in the auditorium was over and the children had returned to their Sunday school rooms, Becky’s teacher found her still in the auditorium, sitting on the floor next to the manger. She had taken the Jesus doll out of the manger and was holding it tightly in her arms. She was singing “Jesus Love Me.”
Becky had found a moment of great joy amid the pain in her life. The answer to our failures and imperfections, too, is found in the perfection of Jesus Christ. He is the source of our celebration. (Adopted from Myles Schultz, in Seasonal Illustrations, 18-19)
Do you still have a child-like faith such as this? Can you this blessed Christmas Day still come as a child to see the child in the manger? To rephrase Jesus’ words, “Whoever receives the kingdom of God like a child will enter it.”
Witness like a Child
By the Holy Spirit’s power, those who have the faith of a child in the Babe of Bethlehem want to witness like a Child. “When [the shepherds] had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told about this child” (v.17). No matter how many Christmases you have celebrated, we still need to follow the child-like example of the shepherds in the Christmas story and tell those with whom we work and live about this child.
Look at how the simple act of a child can change the life of those around her. A little girl was about to undergo a dangerous operation. Just before the doctor administered the anesthetic, he said to her, “Before we can make you well, we must put you to sleep.” The girl said, “If you’re going to put me to sleep, then I have to say my prayers first.” She folded her hands, closed her eyes, and said, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take and this I ask for Jesus’ sake. Amen.” The simple actions of this little girl touched the doctor. When the surgeon returned home that evening, he remembered that simple prayer of his young patient, and prayed for the first time in 30 years. A simple prayer, from a simple child, with not so simple results. Witness from a child. (Three Thousand Illustrations, 103)
Conclusion
Only as you witness to this child with the unabashed simplicity of faith of the “little ones” of the kingdom of God can you celebrate Christmas. This very day, in David’s town, your Savior is born—Christ the Lord!
So come and enfold this Babe in the manger of your faith. Give yourself to Him as the shepherds did because He gave himself on the cross for your sins, and paid for your eternity in the bosom of the Father. By the power of the Holy Spirit make a Christmas gift of yourself as you tell others how Christmas is fulfilled in your eternal salvation through this wondrous Child.
Luther comments on the actions of the shepherds in one of his Christmas sermons. He said, “This is wrong. We should correct this passage to read, ‘They went and saved their heads, fasted, told their rosaries, and put on cowls.’ Instead we read, ‘The shepherds returned.’ Where to? To their sheep.” (Roland H. Bainton, translator and arranger, The Martin Luther Christmas Book [Philadelphia: Muhlberg Press, 1948], 50) The sheep would have been in a sorry way if they had not.
What does this teach us? We need to go back to our homes, to our neighbors, to our jobs. The sheep are waiting for us. Tell them of the Christ-child who was born a Savior for them. Show them what it means to be forgiven. Explain like a child what this Savior has done for us. Through the actions of this little child, a savior was born, and the gates of heaven were opened for us.
