Christmas service

Looking for Baby Jesus

We have talked about how Gail wanted the baby Jesus to be here all year round, not just at Christmas. And for months he was there in his little manger.  Then after about six months or so, He just vanished. Not a trace to be found. Gail has talked about what happened to Him: he had things to do,  places to go and a ministry to build up.   Gail took the literal route, now I want to take the metaphoric route.  I want to ask the question where Jesus literally went, but where Jesus went in our lives.

Friends, Josh Groban recorded the song “Believe” for the movie Polar Express. He sings of losing our way and finding ourselves again on Christmas day.  It sounds a bit simplistic perhaps, but let’s look at this.  Here are some lines :”Trains move quickly to their journey’s end.  Destinations are where we begin again. Ships go sailing far across the sea, Trusting starlight to get where they need to be. When it seems that we have lost our way. We find ourselves again on Christmas day. Believe in what your heart is saying. Hear the melody that’s playing There’s no time to waste. There’s so much to celebrate Believe in what you feel inside. And give your dreams the wings to fly. You have everything you need. If you just believe. Just believe.”

Friends, you and I go through the seasons of our life.  We do believe (the title of the song).  We have beliefs. Some stay constant, some disappear or fade.  Unless we have never experienced it, we all believe in love at one point or another, but perhaps not as naively over time.  We get more philosophical and we learn that love has a lot more to do with commitment and hanging in there than with a feeling of excitement and physical bliss.  We believe in hope, even if we have been disappointed time and time again.  Not to believe in hope is like not believing in life.  We believe in our fundamental self-worth as creatures of God, but that self-worth is often severely challenged.  People may not treat us with respect. People may look down their noses at us.  But then there are a few moments in life when we all are on top of the world, feeling like we are really something, when all the paths converge.  We believe we need people so we believe in community, although all of have moments when we can’t stand people or certain people.  It’s all perfectly normal.  So we are believers, even those that belief ebbs and flows.

We also believe in the Baby Jesus.  But theories on Him differ.  We may say we believe He is the Son of God, we may accept all the Church teaches about Him.  But where we have trouble is with what He means for us.  Maybe the Baby Jesus gets lost during the year. Maybe He fades into the background.  Maybe we don’t even know that Jesus is missing.  But at Christmas we feel we belong.  Our faith and who we are and our culture get wrapped up in this colorful ball which is bathed in bright light.  It is then we believe more in love, in hope , in people and in our own self-worth.  We are renewed in some way or another.  We find that baby Jesus again and He feels familiar and right to us as the familiar songs touch our heart.  We belong to all that.  It makes sense.  So Groban may not be wrong when he sings that:” we find ourselves again on Christmas day. “ In a way we do.

When I was 26 and newly ordained I preached in one of the largest and oldest churches in the North of the Netherlands. I have a postcard of it in my office.  It has one of those pulpits that float up in the air.  My cousin was we up in the balcony by the organ playing the oboe.  I started the sermon with:” Dear friends, Christmas is a nice time.”  I knew what I was doing, but the problem was: it was the Easter sermon.  Got their attention. So today I want to say: let’s forget about Christmas for a second. Christmas is that high point in the church year when churches are full and people are in the spirit. But it’s kind of like the winning touch down in the superbowl of faith, to use a worn-out analogy.  The stuff we don’t see is all the hard work going into throwing and catching that touchdown.  It’s the same with faith.  It’s the hard work of trying to believe and struggling to believe that makes believing so meaningful and believing is never easier than it is at Christmas. It’s trying to find that baby Jesus in our lives and holding on to it even when we can’t see it here in church,  that makes believing so important.

Friends, in the end only you and I can say where the baby Jesus goes in our lives during the year. Yes, I know, he pops up during the holidays, but where does He go throughout the year?  What is it that makes us lose the baby.  Is it just that we are chasing time, or is it that we need all the props of Christmas to prop Him up in our lives.  I hope not.  But I think we have to accept, you and I, that believing doesn’t come easy.  Faith comes from God, but we still have to work for it.  We have to make ourselves available so the Holy Spirit can find us.  May God help us with that. .