Don't Forget The Child!
Sermon
Don't Forget The Child
Sermons For Advent And Christmas
Most of us are familiar with the blockbuster movies, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. They played around Christmas time for two consecutive years. In Home Alone, little nine-year-old Kevin is accidentally left behind in the Chicago suburbs while his family flies off for a Christmas vacation in Paris. In its sequel, Kevin mistakenly boards a plane for New York City while the rest of his family heads off to Florida.
Several recent real-life cases of child neglect have made the concept of leaving young children home alone a whole lot less funny. Remember the Chicago couple who left their nine-year-old to take care of herself and her four-year-old sister, while they went off on vacation for nine days to Mexico?
I'd like to see Kevin's parents have to explain a few things to a judge: explain why they're not guilty of child neglect! They seem like nice people. They take great vacations. But especially around Christmas, you don't forget the child!
But then, if we're honest with ourselves, we might have to admit that sometimes we can be guilty of "child neglecting" around Christmas. Not neglecting our own children or grandchildren, of course. They have their ways of not letting us forget them, especially around Christmas!
No, the Child we sometimes "ignore," "overlook," "leave behind," "neglect" is God's Son. For many of us, this Christmas season, and especially this last week of Advent, is a frightfully busy time: the biggest shopping days of the year, one of the busiest travel periods of the year, a time when many businesses hope to make, often need to make, up to 45 percent of their annual profits. For many, it's a time of mounting celebrations and office parties, a time of writing out cards, wrapping gifts, hanging lights, decorating trees, baking brownies. Sometimes we get so absorbed in preparing for Christmas that we forget the Reason for the Season. One of our church members puts it well. In the midst of all the frantic activity in this season, our Christmas can become "Xmas," with the Christ "X-ed" out.
But then, it's often been easy to overlook the Child. He was, after all, largely ignored, overlooked, and neglected by the world on that first Christmas. "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11 RSV). You see, during the period when Christ was born, the world's attention was focused, not on Bethlehem, but on Rome.
"All roads lead to Rome." Rome was where everything important was happening. The Roman Empire was the greatest political and economic creation of the Ancient World. It was huge, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the west, to the Euphrates on the east. It stretched, at that time, as far south as the Sahara Desert and as far north as the Danube. And all this massive empire was ruled by one man. Caesar Augustus was his name.
Tucked away in Caesar's mighty empire was a narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean known as Palestine, an impoverished, conquered territory that was considered a cultural backwater. Tucked into one corner of Palestine near the south, in a hilly region, was the little town of Bethlehem. Its name in Hebrew means "House of Bread." It was a village as plain and ordinary as a loaf of bread.
Now if someone had told Caesar Augustus, sitting in his palace in the capital, Rome, that history was about to be made by a Jewish baby being born in Bethlehem into a family headed by a hillbilly father, born to a teenage mother, he would have laughed. Caesar would not have known where Bethlehem was. It was too insignificant a spot to attract the attention of someone like him. Besides, Caesar would have contended that history is made, not by weak, defenseless babies, but by people like him. After all, hadn't he just ordered a census so that "all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1 RSV) that was disrupting the entire world? Even if he had known about the birth of Jesus, Caesar Augustus, in his pomp and circumstance, would have considered it of no account. Caesar Augustus was among those who overlooked the Child.
Most of the people of his time ignored him. We may sometimes forget him. But God does not forget Jesus! Eight hundred years before Caesar Augustus, Micah, God's prophet, informed the world about how it would go. Micah spoke these words in the name of the Lord:
Bethlehem ... you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you will I bring a Ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times. When he comes, he will rule his people with the strength that comes from the Lord and with the majesty of the Lord God himself. His people will live in safety because people all over the earth will acknowledge his greatness, and he will bring peace.
-- Micah 5:2-5a (TEV)
Eight long centuries before Christ, the Lord God put his finger on little Bethlehem, the insignificant "House of Bread," and announced that this backwater village would be the birthplace of his Son. Caesar Augustus no doubt thought he was pretty clever ordering that census. But mighty Caesar was only a messenger boy, a minor character in the plot. Caesar, and the whole machinery of the Roman Empire, were merely God's instruments to get Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a distance of eighty miles. God had a plan. God had never forgotten the Child!
You see, it's often what we consider insignificant that God considers important. And what we consider important that God considers insignificant. An impoverished land, a backwater village, a run-down stable, a teenage mother, a poor child's birth: we might overlook them. A mighty Caesar, an enormous palace, prestige, and power: we might be impressed. But God's values are often the reverse of this world's.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a woman who was humble, plain, and simple. But also obedient, insightful, and faithful. With her simple faith, Mary understood a lot of the values of God. Mary praised God's ways in the Magnificat, a hymn that the early church attributed to her:
[God] has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud (like Caesar Augustus) in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those (like Mary) of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.
-- Luke 1:51-53 (RSV)
Christmas is more than just a family holiday; more than just a winter-time celebration to "knock back" the dark and the cold; more than just an economic and social event; more than just an opportunity to play host to coworkers, neighbors, and friends (although it is all of these things, too!). It is the breaking into our world of God's long-awaited Messiah. It is God's overturning of the values of our world. It is the promise that, through this Child, this Christ, the spiritually hungry and the physically hungry will be fed. It is the miracle of the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. It is the beginning of the ultimate act of love: God wanting so much to communicate with us, to share God's self with us, that God breaks into our world and becomes a human being. A human being who willingly dies for us on a Cross! It's the Light of God shining in our world's darkness, and overcoming the darkness.
You don't see all this if you only look at the birth of Christ with the eyes of Caesar, with the jaded eyes of the world. You have to look at Christmas with the eyes of Mary, the eyes of wondering faith.
I really hope you enjoy this Christmas! Go out and celebrate! Laugh and exchange gifts and eat too much, rejoice in life, thank God for family and friends, squeeze your grandchildren until they think they'll burst! Like any loving Parent, God is happy when God's children are happy. God rejoices in our holiday joy.
But don't forget, Christmas is not just something passing. It's something radical. It's the bursting of God into our world. It's the overturning of the values of this world. It's the fulfillment of prophecy and God's plan which has unfolded since the beginning of Creation. Let it be a time of awe and reverence and wonderment, of inviting the Child into your heart.
Do it all! Really celebrate Christmas! We need that light in the darkness. But in the midst of it all, don't forget the Child!
Several recent real-life cases of child neglect have made the concept of leaving young children home alone a whole lot less funny. Remember the Chicago couple who left their nine-year-old to take care of herself and her four-year-old sister, while they went off on vacation for nine days to Mexico?
I'd like to see Kevin's parents have to explain a few things to a judge: explain why they're not guilty of child neglect! They seem like nice people. They take great vacations. But especially around Christmas, you don't forget the child!
But then, if we're honest with ourselves, we might have to admit that sometimes we can be guilty of "child neglecting" around Christmas. Not neglecting our own children or grandchildren, of course. They have their ways of not letting us forget them, especially around Christmas!
No, the Child we sometimes "ignore," "overlook," "leave behind," "neglect" is God's Son. For many of us, this Christmas season, and especially this last week of Advent, is a frightfully busy time: the biggest shopping days of the year, one of the busiest travel periods of the year, a time when many businesses hope to make, often need to make, up to 45 percent of their annual profits. For many, it's a time of mounting celebrations and office parties, a time of writing out cards, wrapping gifts, hanging lights, decorating trees, baking brownies. Sometimes we get so absorbed in preparing for Christmas that we forget the Reason for the Season. One of our church members puts it well. In the midst of all the frantic activity in this season, our Christmas can become "Xmas," with the Christ "X-ed" out.
But then, it's often been easy to overlook the Child. He was, after all, largely ignored, overlooked, and neglected by the world on that first Christmas. "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11 RSV). You see, during the period when Christ was born, the world's attention was focused, not on Bethlehem, but on Rome.
"All roads lead to Rome." Rome was where everything important was happening. The Roman Empire was the greatest political and economic creation of the Ancient World. It was huge, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the west, to the Euphrates on the east. It stretched, at that time, as far south as the Sahara Desert and as far north as the Danube. And all this massive empire was ruled by one man. Caesar Augustus was his name.
Tucked away in Caesar's mighty empire was a narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean known as Palestine, an impoverished, conquered territory that was considered a cultural backwater. Tucked into one corner of Palestine near the south, in a hilly region, was the little town of Bethlehem. Its name in Hebrew means "House of Bread." It was a village as plain and ordinary as a loaf of bread.
Now if someone had told Caesar Augustus, sitting in his palace in the capital, Rome, that history was about to be made by a Jewish baby being born in Bethlehem into a family headed by a hillbilly father, born to a teenage mother, he would have laughed. Caesar would not have known where Bethlehem was. It was too insignificant a spot to attract the attention of someone like him. Besides, Caesar would have contended that history is made, not by weak, defenseless babies, but by people like him. After all, hadn't he just ordered a census so that "all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1 RSV) that was disrupting the entire world? Even if he had known about the birth of Jesus, Caesar Augustus, in his pomp and circumstance, would have considered it of no account. Caesar Augustus was among those who overlooked the Child.
Most of the people of his time ignored him. We may sometimes forget him. But God does not forget Jesus! Eight hundred years before Caesar Augustus, Micah, God's prophet, informed the world about how it would go. Micah spoke these words in the name of the Lord:
Bethlehem ... you are one of the smallest towns in Judah, but out of you will I bring a Ruler for Israel, whose family line goes back to ancient times. When he comes, he will rule his people with the strength that comes from the Lord and with the majesty of the Lord God himself. His people will live in safety because people all over the earth will acknowledge his greatness, and he will bring peace.
-- Micah 5:2-5a (TEV)
Eight long centuries before Christ, the Lord God put his finger on little Bethlehem, the insignificant "House of Bread," and announced that this backwater village would be the birthplace of his Son. Caesar Augustus no doubt thought he was pretty clever ordering that census. But mighty Caesar was only a messenger boy, a minor character in the plot. Caesar, and the whole machinery of the Roman Empire, were merely God's instruments to get Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a distance of eighty miles. God had a plan. God had never forgotten the Child!
You see, it's often what we consider insignificant that God considers important. And what we consider important that God considers insignificant. An impoverished land, a backwater village, a run-down stable, a teenage mother, a poor child's birth: we might overlook them. A mighty Caesar, an enormous palace, prestige, and power: we might be impressed. But God's values are often the reverse of this world's.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a woman who was humble, plain, and simple. But also obedient, insightful, and faithful. With her simple faith, Mary understood a lot of the values of God. Mary praised God's ways in the Magnificat, a hymn that the early church attributed to her:
[God] has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud (like Caesar Augustus) in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those (like Mary) of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.
-- Luke 1:51-53 (RSV)
Christmas is more than just a family holiday; more than just a winter-time celebration to "knock back" the dark and the cold; more than just an economic and social event; more than just an opportunity to play host to coworkers, neighbors, and friends (although it is all of these things, too!). It is the breaking into our world of God's long-awaited Messiah. It is God's overturning of the values of our world. It is the promise that, through this Child, this Christ, the spiritually hungry and the physically hungry will be fed. It is the miracle of the Incarnation, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. It is the beginning of the ultimate act of love: God wanting so much to communicate with us, to share God's self with us, that God breaks into our world and becomes a human being. A human being who willingly dies for us on a Cross! It's the Light of God shining in our world's darkness, and overcoming the darkness.
You don't see all this if you only look at the birth of Christ with the eyes of Caesar, with the jaded eyes of the world. You have to look at Christmas with the eyes of Mary, the eyes of wondering faith.
I really hope you enjoy this Christmas! Go out and celebrate! Laugh and exchange gifts and eat too much, rejoice in life, thank God for family and friends, squeeze your grandchildren until they think they'll burst! Like any loving Parent, God is happy when God's children are happy. God rejoices in our holiday joy.
But don't forget, Christmas is not just something passing. It's something radical. It's the bursting of God into our world. It's the overturning of the values of this world. It's the fulfillment of prophecy and God's plan which has unfolded since the beginning of Creation. Let it be a time of awe and reverence and wonderment, of inviting the Child into your heart.
Do it all! Really celebrate Christmas! We need that light in the darkness. But in the midst of it all, don't forget the Child!
