Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Luke 2:1-20

Proclaimed on December 24, 2003

It was just a few days before Christmas. A mom went to a nearby shopping mall. With her was her five-year-old son. The first store she went to was the toy department at Macy’s. Lo and behold, there sat Santa as big as life. So she took her son and placed him on Santa’s lap. Said Santa to her son, “Ho, ho, ho! And what do you want for Christmas?” The little boy, somewhat skeptical, stated plainly, “Well, you better write this down.” To which the Santa replied, “Trust me. My memory never fails.” So the little boy rattled off a list of endless wants. Afterwards, they went to another department store, where he once again saw Santa. Breaking away from his mother, the boy ran and jumped up into Santa’s lap once again. And once again, Santa said, “What do you want for Christmas?” Immediately the little boy jumped down. Now feeling very dejected, he complained, “I just knew he would forget!”

This is just one story of many about people who are now cynical because someone they were supposed to trust has disappointed them. In some ways, this is the same story that we read in our Gospel reading tonight. The Hebrew people of that long ago time were a people long acquainted with one disappointment after another. At this point in their history they had lost just about everything, including their land, their king, and maybe even their special relationship with God. All they had now was hope. Though they had been returned to their land, it was not enough, because they did not possess it. While they had a King, he was just a fake--a psychopathic, pseudo-Jewish overlord, who was not even related to King David. Likewise, their Temple, the symbol of their special relationship with God, was now in the hands of corrupt priests. Like the child in the shopping mall, these people were disappointed and cynical. Unlike this boy’s Santa, the God of these people had written down their important wants.

What we have in our Gospel reading this evening is God’s faithfulness in the midst of human cynicism. The written promises were now being fulfilled. In this story about the birth of Jesus we have the Gospel in Diapers. What is this Gospel in Diapers? It is about God reaching into the very core of our beings, for it is only there that we can be truly acknowledged. It is only deep within our beings that our own specialness can be validated. It is at that special place within us that we call “me.”

There is a company in California that understands this “me” within each of us. It is a publishing house that puts out a special Christmas catalog which features a made to order children’s gift. It is called a “Me Book” All the books have the same color illustrations, along with the some prose. But each one is highly personalized. What you do when you order one is send in the personal information of the child it is for, such as its name, age, birthday, address, names of brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, friends, pets, as well as a bunch of other things. From this information the publisher will create a special book in which the given child becomes the main character.

A boy by the name of Patrick, received one of these. His father, who was quite pleased, stated, “You can hardly imagine Patrick’s surprise and delight when he pulled the gift from under the Christmas tree. He unwrapped it, and began to read, ‘Once upon a time, in a town called Hendersonville, there lived a little boy named Patrick Benson. Now Patrick wasn’t just an ordinary little boy. This is a story about one of his adventures. It is the story of the day Patrick met a giraffe.’” Over seventy times stuff about Patrick comes up in this book. Indeed, the giraffe has the same birthday as his. Did Patrick like the book? It’s his favorite! It’s his favorite because it is his me in the book.

Now I ask you, isn’t that a whole lot like the rest of us? We all have a deeply imbedded need to feel important. And that is how tonight’s Gospel in Diapers relates to each of us. Unlike the Santa with the boy in the mall, God has not forgotten us. Indeed, this Gospel story is for all of us. Yes, we can honestly make it our very own Me Story. For tonight each of us are witnesses to the birth of Jesus. We are with the shepherds as they hear the angels announce the birth. We are also with Mary and Joseph in the cave that was a stable.

Now imagine, if you will, kneeling near the manger. There you look down and see the baby. He smiles at you, almost breaking out in childish laughter. He’s glad to see you. Then you kneel down. You are nose-to-nose, eyeball-to-eyeball. Suddenly, he lifts his arms as if to embrace you. Now rejoice, for the King of Kings has just received you! Rejoice also, for this is your Me Story. It is a story about you. It is the story that has literally divided time in the Western world. And as it has divided time, it also is quite capable of splitting open our beings, driving away all of our cynicism and making each of our hearts a manger for the Christ Child!

This is the good news--this Gospel in Diapers, if you will. For now this Christ Child is ours to take care of, as well as our story to prize. And yes, like Patrick’s Me Book, we are now its main characters. Halleluiah! For on this night we have been redeemed! For unlike that little boy, whose Santa had failed to write down his information, our God has written it all down. With this information God creates our very own “Me Story”--this Gospel in Diapers--this story of our salvation.