Christmas Homily 2007

Poor baby Jesus!

Every year we take him out, and for twelve days and we put him in hay.
And I imagine that for 2000 years Jesus looks down from heaven at this tradition and says to his Mother and to Joseph, “Oh no! They’re doing the hay again! It was bad enough the first time—why do they have to keep putting me in hay!?”

Lets face it…hay is NOT the best place for a baby. It has animal drool in it (if it’s from the clean end)….it has mites and mold…and little bugs. Not to mention that it’s very uncomfortable and prickly. Hey, you could poke your eye out!

But that’s not the end of it. After 12 days in the hay, what do we do next?

I should pause a moment here to mention that I’d bet that a Christmas song has been written about almost every aspect of Christmas. There are the “waiting for Christmas songs” like “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “O Come Emmanuel”…there are the actual Christmas songs from the sublime “Silent Night” to the ridiculous “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”. But to my knowledge no one has written a song about the end of Christmas. Until now.

I imagine it would go like this:
(sung to the tune of “Away in a Manger”)

Up into the attic, we’ll put him away.
The little Lord Jesus no longer in hay.
Right next to the camel and sheep there’s no gap.
We’ll put the Lord Jesus inside bubble wrap.

Yes for all but 12 days of the year, we put Jesus away, out of sight, in bubble wrap.
What kind of spiritual tradition is this?

At first we might think – oh this is only a baby statue we’re talking about. But sometimes, just sometimes what we do with our statues reveals something deeper about ourselves.

Bringing Jesus out at as a baby for 12 days and then storing him out of sight for the rest of the year might symbolize a desire for us to manage God and keep God from getting too involved in our lives.
Sure, we WANT God to be involved in our lives when we have needs and fears and hopes. But when God is afraid about what’s happening to us – like friends of mine who I just learned are addicted to cocaine – then they don’t want God to be too involved. Their drug is their God.

When God needs us to be close – like on Sundays and if that gets in the way of whatever we want to put first, then we don’t want to picture God bounding into our rooms this Sunday morning and saying, “C’mon let’s go get you fed and blessed! I have such a great need to be with everyone in my family.” By the way, you know the way some people feel about birthdays?...they have a need for people to be around them. They don’t feel complete til everyone who matters shows up or at least calls. That’s the way it is with Jesus. Why is he telling so many lost sheep stories and why does he burst into tears overlooking Jerusalem when he realized so many people have left him? He needs us. He needs me. He needs you.

Maybe you don’t feel like God needs you. Well tonight it’s my job to convince you otherwise. Let’s look at what Jesus does when he travels through Galillee looking for disciples. First. Let’s remember he is a rabbi. We forget that for the people of these little villages, no one was held in greater esteem than the rabbis. The kids who were good at memorizing the bible were selected by rabbis to be their disciples. And if they weren’t devoted enough, the rabbis sent them home to do the family business. They would only take the best of the best.

But look at what Jesus does: he sees these kids who are working for their father – that means they’re not the “best of the best” in the holiness department. [In the movies these apostles are cast as older people, but in reality they might have been around 15 or 16 – life expectancy was around 30, so if their parents were around, they had to be pretty young.]

And he goes up to them and says, “Follow me!’ And they drop their nets and immediately follow him. Why? Because this rabbi asked. The other rabbis rejected them. But this rabbi asked. He saw something in them that would make a difference if only they would follow him and be fed by him and be blessed by him.

Like those first disciples, we sometimes have been rejected by life and so we settle for something other than what God hopes for us. Maybe it’s not God in the bubble wrap….maybe it’s us! I don’t want any further rejection or pain so I’ll wrap my heart in bubble wrap and stop risking.

Then Jesus comes along and does to us what we love to do to bubble wrap – he pops our bubbles and reaches into our hearts and says, “Ignore those folks who say you’re not the best of the best. I know who you are and who you are meant to be. Are you willing to spend time with me to find out?”
If we keep Jesus as the baby in the hay and then the stored baby in the attic, we’ll go nowhere. He doesn’t want us to put our religion away with the Christmas decorations, but he wants to move in with us and grab us by the hand and run out into the world with us and show us how we can stop settling for what’s dead and instead claim what’s alive.

His disciples see sickness and disease. Jesus sees it too but won’t settle for it.
Tonight—are you going to settle for sickness and disease? Or will you go up the road with Jesus? His disciples see real hurt and injustice that people do to each other. Jesus sees it too but won’t settle for it. Tonight – are you going to settle for hurt and injustice? Or will you go up the road with Jesus? His disciples see hypocrisy in religion, in government, in society. Jesus sees it too but he won’t settle with the hypocrites. Instead of letting their falsehoods tempt him to give up, he gets into high gear and challenges the hypocrites to follow his purer, more loving way of being in religion. Tonight are you going to settle for hypocrisy or will you go up the road with Jesus?

He really wants to take you with him. And maybe he fooled you tonight with the expectation of a comforting picture of a baby statue in hay. Well he’s got your attention now. “You came to celebrate my birthday?” Jesus says, “well here’s what I want more than anything – I want you to be be my follower. And here’s why…when your parents conceived you, my Father in heaven – who is your Father too – had a plan for you. And if you follow me more closely, I let you know about that plan. And you will be filled with such peace and happiness and wisdom and strength because I’ll be at your side.

Unless you want to put me back in the bubble wrap for another year.”