Why The Baby Came

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

December 28, 2003

Text: Matthew 2:3, Luke 2:25-33

Today we are celebrating that Christmas has happened. We are celebrating more than December 25th having come and gone, and that we have survived all the parties, shopping, guests and food. We are celebrating that Christmas has happened.

In deed and in truth, Christmas has come! God has entered history in a special way that is beyond our understanding. God's grace has come to live with us in our world of business problems and family squabbles, in our world of terrorists and the ongoing conflict in Iraq, in the world of ski trips and football games, in the world of children laughing and friends coming together. Into this world of problems and of pleasures the grace of God has come. Christmas has happened, and this is what we are celebrating.

Whether we believe this to be true or not is really beside the point. God's grace does not depend on whether or not we see it or believe it or accept it for it to be at work in our world and in our lives. Like the baby Jesus born so long ago, Christmas comes whether we see it or not, whether we believe it or not. And today, we celebrate that Christ has come.

So, what is our reaction to this amazing proclamation? Sometimes, we are like most of the people in Bethlehem. Sometimes we respond like Herod. And sometimes we respond like Simeon.

The story of the people in Bethlehem is unwritten because there was nothing to write. They were unaware of the history transforming event happening in their midst. They were as unaware of the incarnation of the God and God's grace, as we are when our lives are shaped by preoccupation and insensitivity. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of Herod. Herod was not looking for Christmas. I am sure he had heard stories about the people expecting the Messiah, but such stories had been around a long time, and undoubtedly he viewed them as little more than the empty wishes of people without power. But then came news that some foreign scholars, wealthy men, probably important men (as the world judges such things) were in the country, looking for a child who had been born to be king of the Jews. But Herod viewed himself as king of the Jews. Could it be these foreigners were representatives sent to give official recognition to another king? Was he and all those who profited by his being in power threatened with the loss of what they had? The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when King Herod heard the foreign wise men were searching for the one born to be king of the Jews, not only was he frightened, but also all Jerusalem.

Herod did not know that Jesus did not want his throne, his court, his armies. That is not why the baby came. However, I suspect Herod would not have been any less troubled if he knew the real reason the baby came and what Christ wanted.

Christ comes to us not wanting our crowns and thrones and two car garages. The baby came wanting something more valuable than all that. The Christ has come wanting us to pick up our cross and follow him. But for Herod or any of us to pick up the cross we have to put down our scepter. To pick up the cross, we have to put down the tokens of status that claim so much of our attention. We have to put down the stuff we hang on to, if we are to pick up the cross.

Herod was wrong in thinking Jesus was interested in his throne, but I doubt the story would have changed much if Herod had understood what Jesus really wanted because Herod did not want to give up any of the things he had plotted, planned, struggled and even murdered to achieve and accumulate. All that stuff -- all that power, authority and wealth kept his hands full.

Yet as cruel and selfish as Herod was, I suspect, if someone had asked Herod if he wanted God's love in his life, he would have said yes. Even the worst among us wants the love of God; it is what comes with God's love that we do not want. We do want to be accepted as we are, but we do not want to be transformed from the way we are. We do not want to change; we resist conversion. Like Herod our hands are full of stuff and we really do not want to put any of it down. Herod loved his stuff; he loved it so much he sent his troops to get rid of the one he saw as a threat.

It is not unusual for us to feel uneasy and even frightened, when we become aware of the kinds of changes this baby came to set in motion. Regardless of the mess we may be in, we resist putting down any of the baggage we are carrying around with us. It may be causing us discomfort, but we have learned to live with it. We resist putting down the stuff we are carrying around, and we will even get fighting mad if someone insists too boldly on changing the mess we live in. But unless we can let go of the stuff we are hanging onto and the stuff hanging on to us, we will be unable to embrace the new life that is being offered. A third way we respond to the proclamation that Christ has come is illustrated in the story Luke tells about Simeon. Simeon was not aware the Christ child had been born. The scripture does say how old Simeon was, but tradition and legends picture him as an old man, stooped with age, and yet he carried within him the eager anticipation of a young child. He was looking for the Messiah, praying he might see the Messiah before he died. So, each day he went to the courtyard of the temple to look into the faces of all the boy babies being brought there.

I can imagine this old man being something of a temple character, the kind who frightens strangers because he seems so weird, going from mother to mother asking: "Is it a boy? May I see him? Please let me see him," and then, poking his wrinkled, age spotted hand into the blankets so he can see and touch the child.

When the old man saw the child Mary and Joseph brought to the temple, the Holy Spirit enabled Simeon to recognize who this child really was. This helpless baby in the arms of his teenage mother accompanied by a small town carpenter was the savior of the world. Only an act of God's grace enabled Simeon, or enables any of us, to recognize the Christ. And when Simeon recognized the Christ, he heart was filled with peace and with joy. He was aware, God's saving grace had come among us.

Simeon saw because he believed the promise. He saw the coming of God's grace because he was looking for it. Simeon had not allowed his agenda to crowd out his ability to be on watch for the coming of the Lord. Simeon could welcome and celebrate the coming of Christ because unlike Herod and his followers, his hands were not so full that he was unable to receive what was being offered. And in embracing what God was offering, Simeon's life was transformed by the peace that comes only when we know God is present with us. This is peace is not a peace of inactivity, but rather the kind of peace that empowers us to live as God intends.

This is why the baby came. Later as an adult, Jesus would say: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." Simeon received this gift of awesome peace because he embraced what God was offering. And when we embrace the Christ we too receive this gift of peace that empowers our living. This is why that baby came: to give us life, life shaped by grace and empowered by the unexplainable, awesome peace of God that enables us to pick up our cross and follow him.

God, enable us to recognize and embrace why the baby came. Amen.

Pastoral prayer: God, as you surprised the world so long ago, coming among us in the Christ child, surprise us once again with your saving grace. We need your strength to sustain us, especially in the face of whatever causes us heartache, pain, anxiety or fear. Enable us to live as you intend us to live by giving us courage and confidence that springs from placing our faith and hope in you. We ask your grace to reach out to those who feel they are beyond hope. Comfort the bereaved; inspire those wrestling with temptation by giving them a vision of a higher good; give courage and faith to the perplexed; to the confused and frustrated give guidance and peace. We pray for all homes in every nation, for all parents who like Mary and Joseph cradle crying babies in their arms. We pray for all hungry children; may we who have plenty be inspired to share more. We pray for all the unwanted and abused children; may they find safety and experience the healing power of being loved. We pray for all those who are suffering; may the cause of their pain be removed and in its place may they experience peace and comfort. All this we pray in the name of the one who was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father ...."