Christmas Eve

Reformation, Media

Larry V. Smoose

What are the qualities that you like about a baby?  I like

• The way that they can sleep with such utter confidence and peace
• That they are only concerned about their basic needs
• They trust that their needs will be met
• Their automatic acceptance of everyone
• They don’t have a problem with being dependent on others
• That somehow they know they are loved and simply accept it

When do we begin to lose these qualities?  It’s so gradual that I’m not sure anyone can determine when we begin to worry and stay awake?  When do we begin to become suspicious of people who are different?  At what point do we think independence is better than inter-dependence?  When does accumulation of desires outstrip our needs?  When do we lose self-esteem or learn to blame others for our mistakes?   It happens so gradually, it occurs so quietly that we hardly notice the changes – like dust or oxidation, layer upon layer they accumulate: cynicism, suspicion, self-absorption, prejudice, insecurity, fear, anger, and all of the emotions and characteristics that take away our humanity. 

How many times have we looked at an infant sleeping and said, I wish I could sleep like that?  How many times have we watched, amazed at how a baby, tossed in the air, can  laugh with delight and have no fear, trusting that they will always be caught? 

A couple of years ago, I was visiting my friend, Bill Janson and he showed me a beautiful oak table.  It had been in his parents’ basement for a lot of years – I think it was originally his grandparents’ table.  It was all black and grimy from years of neglect.  But Bill saw something in that table that others had not seen.  He thought the old, forgotten, neglected table had some style and character and asked if he might have it.  His parents were happy to get it out of the basement.

Well, any of you who have done furniture re-finishing will know where this story is going.  It took a lot of time and pain-staking work, but Bill began to peel away layer after layer of that dirt and grime and even the old varnish, originally meant to protect it, but now dark and scaly.  After months of work, he was able to reveal the original beauty of the wood, made even more beautiful with the patina of years of aging.  But he had to get rid of those layers of grit and grime before the beauty of the table, as it was meant to be, could once again be appreciated. 

The angel tells Joseph, Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus…” Sounds like the Christmas we all know. But then there’s the matter of another unfinished verse which ends, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

That’s the dilemma. That baby is the greatest gift ever given. But it’s as if someone handed you a beautifully wrapped gift and said, John, I am giving you this because I love you. And when you open it it’s a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, or When Bad Things Happen To Good People, or a new copy of Miss Manners or a certificate to an Anger Management Program. You can’t miss the message that someone is trying to tell you something. Christmas tells me that God has launched a great rescue mission, God has come down into this basement called earth and sees humanity, with all of the potential of the original beauty in which we were created but covered by centuries of the grime and grit of sin.

I don’t know what you want this Christmas, but I believe God knows what we and all humanity needs – to be stripped of all the layers of grit and grime, of death and decay, anger and frustration, hurt and pain, violence and alienation and all other forms of sin in our lives -- and to be restored to our original beauty so that we live in harmony with each other and with the world around us. 

That is the dilemma that we find ourselves in. God has sent us a Savior, and there are a whole lot of people who don’t want to be saved.  Who of us wants to be counted among the fallen, the erring, the perishing.  We have lived so long with the layers and they accumulated so slowly, that we are in denial about our own needs, and can only see the obvious needs of others for change or improvement.  If all we know or can remember is an unhealthy life, we become relatively happy with the way life is, and don’t want the effort, or pain or cost of making changes. 

On 20/20 this past Friday there was a story, about a little girl with rare blood disease.  Katie did not know anything other than her limited, weak life.  But the family knew she was sick and without help would die.  The family went to the best doctors and tried everything, but the only thing that could save her was a bone marrow transplant with an exact duplicate of her DNA.  Neither parent was a match.  They had another child and its blood was not a match.  Then a doctor told them that through in vitro fertilization they could choose an embryo for implant that would be an exact match. 

They went through the procedure, and watched with hope as the pregnancy progressed and their sick daughter got weaker.  Finally the new baby was born and after six months he was strong enough for the marrow transplant.  Katie had to go through chemo-therapy to kill all of the diseased blood cells, losing her hair and getting even weaker, but then she received the new marrow from the baby brother born specifically to save her – and it worked. 

Today, Katie is running and laughing with other kids her age.  She is blowing out candles on a birthday cake for years that she might never have seen.  Her life is so different that she hardly remembers how sick she was and how little she was able to do.  Of course she will still have to go to the doctor every six months for blood work, to be sure everything is okay, and she will need an infusion of a special medicine to keep her healthy, but she has life – life never anticipated and certainly not taken for granted.

The family, Katie, the doctors, risked everything for the chance to give her life as it was meant to be.  When 20/20 asked the now five year old Katie if she knew what her infant brother had done for her, she said, “He was born to fix me.”

That’s says it all.  Jesus was born to fix us.  To put to death those qualities and characteristics that kill relationships, destroy our humanity, damage our planet, and alienate people from each other and restore us to the original beauty and harmony and supportive interaction that God built into us at the beginning.

I don’t know what you want this Christmas, but I believe God knows what we all need.  What if, for a moment, we could look at ourselves, and identify just one layer that we might strip away to be more like our original child-like self.  What if we could acknowledge just one imperfection that, if replaced with the blood of Jesus, could make us more healthy.  Because tonight, in this very place, Jesus offers his blood and body to infuse you with his presence and grace, to make your life new and bring the healing that you need. 

Undoubtedly, even if the transfusion is successful, it will require a lifetime of check-ups and infusions, but the result of your decision, the outcome of your effort, the gift that God offers is new life, a life better than you might imagine, restored to the original beauty that God intended, and even better, with a patina of age and experience that appreciates all of life.

You will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.   He was born to fix you. 

Amen.