I begin this morning with two views of Christmas. View number one:
My husband and I had been happily (most of the time) married for five years, but hadn’t been blessed with a baby. I decided to do some serious praying and promised God that if He would give us a child, I would be a perfect mother, love it with all my heart and raise it with His word as my guide.
God answered my prayers and blessed us with a son. The next year God blessed us with another son. The following year, He blessed us with yet another son. The year after that we were blessed with a daughter.
My husband thought we’d been blessed right into poverty. We now had four children, and the oldest was only four years old. I learned never to ask God for anything unless I meant it. As a minister once told me, "If you pray for rain, make sure you carry an umbrella." I began reading a few verses of the Bible to the children each day as they lay in their cribs. I was off to a good start. God had entrusted me with four children and I didn’t want to disappoint Him.
I tried to be patient the day the children smashed two dozen eggs on the kitchen floor searching for baby chicks. I tried to be understanding when they started a hotel for homeless frogs in the spare bedroom, although it took me nearly two hours to catch all twenty-three frogs. When my daughter poured ketchup all over herself and rolled up in a blanket to see how it felt to be a hot dog, I tried to see the humor rather than the mess.
In spite of changing over twenty-five thousand diapers, never eating a hot meal and never sleeping for more than thirty minutes at a time, I still thank God daily for my children. While I couldn’t keep my promise to be a perfect mother, I didn’t even come close, I did keep my promise to raise them in the Word of God.
I knew I was missing the mark just a little when I told my daughter we were going to church to worship God, and she wanted to bring a bar of soap along to "wash up" Jesus, too. Something was lost in the translation when I explained that God gave us everlasting life, and my son thought it was generous of God to give us his "last wife".
My proudest moment came during the children’s Christmas pageant. My daughter was playing Mary, two of my sons were shepherds and my youngest son was a wise man. This was their moment to shine.
My five-year-old shepherd had practiced his line, "We found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes." But he was nervous and said, "The baby was wrapped in wrinkled clothes." My four-year-old "Mary" said, "That’s not ’wrinkled clothes,’ silly. That’s dirty, rotten clothes." A wrestling match broke out between Mary and the shepherd and was stopped by an angel, who bent her halo and lost her left wing.
I slouched a little lower in my seat when Mary dropped the doll representing Baby Jesus, and it bounced down the aisle crying, "Ma-ma, Ma-ma." Mary grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and held it tightly as the wise men arrived. My other son stepped forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown, knelt at the manger and announced, "We are the three wise men, and we are bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur."
The congregation dissolved into laughter, and the pageant got a standing ovation. "I’ve never enjoyed a Christmas program as much as this one," Pastor Brian laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. "For the rest of my life, I’ll never hear the Christmas story without thinking of gold, common sense and fur."
"My children are my pride and my joy and my greatest blessing," I said, as I dug through my purse for an aspirin.
Then there is view number two from Matthew 2:13-17
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to try to kill the child.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them about two years earlier. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah:
“A cry of anguish is heard in Ramah—
weeping and mourning unrestrained.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted—for they are dead.”
I think most of us prefer view number one to view number two. We do not want to think about bad things this time of year. We want to think about good things, warm things, loving things, or things that make us laugh and smile. And we need to!
There is enough in the other 11 months of the year to make us sad, and cynical and angry and a whole host of other things. We need a break from all of that.
Ultimately, Christmas is about the joys and blessings and laughter of the first view. Because of the coming of Christ and His life and love and sacrifice and resurrection, there is joy, love, life, and laughter because of the forgiveness and freedom that is ours through Christ. God wants us live and laugh and love. ‘The joy of the Lord is our strength!’ ‘The greatest of [faith, hope, and love] is love!’
But Jesus came to earth and was born into a world in which violence, death, and hate and jealousy was very, very alive and well. And in this second view of Christmas, which is part of the Biblical story of Christ’s birth, there are terrible, terrible things that happen that should not happen to anyone especially not to children.
It would not be the first time that Jesus would be threatened with death and it would not be the last time that He was threatened either. Nevertheless, it is a part of the Christmas story and because it is, we need to understand it in the context of the larger and more important picture – the gift of forgiveness, the gift of the second chance.
Chris Seiple writes in an article entitled ‘The Politics of Christmas,’ ‘Westerners, 2,000 years removed from the first Christmas, are tempted to assume that there could hardly be anything more innocent, non-threatening, and "non-political" than a baby in a manger. Yet the birth of a baby that first Christmas resulted in a horrific wave of persecution; thousands of young boys under the age of two were killed while the baby’s family fled to Egypt.’
Last week I said that we were a lot like the Magi who asked Herod about the ‘King of the Jews’ and where they could find Him to worship Him. However, we also have the potential of becoming like Herod. Listen to Seiple, ‘Herod was more than a puppet. As a non-Jew who appropriated the mantle "King of the Jews" for himself, Herod was, like so many dictatorial rulers throughout history, a paranoid populist acutely aware of the power of public opinion. He built theaters, fortresses, and altars throughout Judea, and an amphitheatre in Jerusalem, all to buy popular legitimacy and proclaim his greatness.’ In other words, Herod was motivated by the fear of rejection and did whatever was necessary to maintain his power and control because Jesus became a threat to him.
Seiple goes on to say this, ‘In modern geopolitical parlance, Herod’s ability to anticipate and manage a complex "threat matrix" preserved his power. Therefore, when the Magi (wise men from the East) arrived in Jerusalem, inquiring about where they could find the recently born "King of the Jews" so that they could worship him, Herod the Great quickly became Herod the Frightened. This important man in his late 60s, a creator and survivor of so much political intrigue, was shaken by the birth of a seemingly unimportant baby. Why? Herod understood the political power of religion.’
Maybe we need to change that last phrase, ‘the political power of religion’ to ‘the religion of political power.’ The English Historian Lord Action once said, ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ We see this take place in Herod. We have seen it take place in human history and in our own personal journey when the temptation of power becomes too great for someone (including ourselves) and terrible things happen.
In this tragic part of Jesus’ early life, fear becomes a prominent emotion for Herod fears that he is going to lose his power and he acts in a drastic and to him, politically necessary fashion. I think that it is safe to say that politics is therefore a part of the this Christmas story just like it is today. However, I remind us of a few important points that Jesus makes in the Gospels regarding politics.
Jesus came not advancing a political platform although He often spoke of the Kingdom of God and its agenda of justice and righteousness. Jesus came not for social justice although He made clear that caring for the poor, the prisoner, and the sick was an important witness and statement of commitment to God the Father.
The reality of Christmas comes from the truth that Jesus was born into the reality of human existence – the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is where our main text for this morning, Matthew 1:21, comes to prominence. “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus came to transform humankind through an act of great love and sacrifice. And it is that transformation that we need more than ever today.
It is a change that makes possible love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All things that we are desperately in need of these days. (What great Christmas presents as well.) It is a change that makes possible a change in our character that empowers us to let go of the paranoia, the anxiety, the hatred, the jealousy, the anger, and a whole host of other sins that Jesus came to forgive.
That’s the Good Word for today! For in spite of all the junk called sin in our souls and in this world (including the fear of losing power and tragic and unnecessary death of children), the gift of forgiveness, the gift of a second chance is still the greatest gift of Christmas this holiday season. It is the reason for the season.
The reality of Christmas transcends politics, fads, and advertising. It is more than the hottest toy or the most fashionable gift items this shopping season.
The reality of Christmas is about the reality of the human condition – messed up and flawed. Full of pain and frustration – and the reality of possibilities – of forgiveness, of a second chance, of reconciliation.
I conclude with a public proclamation that Christians of all backgrounds throughout the history of the faith have proclaimed in the routines of worship and in the turmoil of life on earth….
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Universal Church, the communion of the Saints, the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and life everlasting. Amen!
Opening story was from an e-mail received on December 6, 2005
Chris Seiple, The Politics of Christmas, www.globalengage.org/issues/2003/12/ftp-p.htm
Lord Action quote: www.libertystory.net/LSTHINKACTON.html
