The Savior to the Children of a Lesser God

The Savior to the Children of a Lesser God
Christmas Eve, 2007

In the early 1980's I saw a wonderful play on Broadway entitled, Children of a Lesser God. The play, for those who saw the movie, was significantly different from the movie, but that’s not the point. There was something striking in the play that gave the play its title, Children of a Lesser God.

It was set in a school for deaf students and the students saw themselves as the children of a lesser God than other people. Their disability in a hearing world made them feel like they were outcasts and obviously created from a God not as great as the one who had created all the ‘normal people.’

As we gather tonight on Christmas Eve people are beginning to relax, a bit, from the chaos of the season. Cards are probably out or not going out this year. Gifts have been purchased or it’s too late baby now. The ingredients for Christmas dinner are at home, ready to be cooked. Or not. In any case, it’s too late so everyone may be able to breathe. A little.

The Christmas story is one of people’s favorites. But I wonder how many people have actually read what is being said. It is a harder story than many people realize; but it is also a story of greater hope than people often give it credit for.

Lots of people like to quote Isaiah 7:14, about a virgin with child who shall be called Immanuel. They often overlook verse 15 which says, He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

If you were Jewish and from the era in which this prophesy was made, you’d be fixated on the words, “He shall eat curds and honey.” Curds and honey was the food of nomads. This prophesy was a prophesy that difficult times lay ahead.

Then there are the words of Luke. I’ve heard many people call this passage nice, sweet, and it makes them feel good. I suspect that Luke might be surprised at how people react to his narrative of the birth of Jesus.

Here’s the problem. Christianity and the Christmas story are now socially acceptable.

Often being a Christian, being a church members is seen as a status symbol to many. Perhaps even the church one attends is a symbol of status.

It’s been interesting watching the Presidential candidates use their faith for political advantage as they all try to out Christian each other.

Christianity has become nice and socially acceptable. As a result, Christianity has made Luke’s narrative nice and socially acceptable. But it really isn’t.

Here is what Luke is saying.

An unmarried couple is traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem because Bethlehem was where Joseph’s ancestry was. Mary was nine months pregnant----not socially acceptable to be unmarried and pregnant. And the explanation as to the paternity of the child. If one of your loved ones came home and said that the father was the Holy Spirit, it might be met with a tad of skepticism. Life hasn’t changed that much.

They are traveling the 65 miles between Nazareth and Bethlehem because of Joseph’s family background. The thing with this is that people back then didn’t move. If your family was from Bethlehem, you were born, lived, and died in Bethlehem. You didn’t move 65 miles away, a long distance back then, unless the family had a severe fracture or a scandal. Joseph lived 65 miles away and was going back to his ancestral home and no one was waiting for them.

There was no room at the inn. Or with any relatives. A young, unmarried couple wander into town and she gives birth in a stable and is visited by shepherds.

If you were to translate this story into modern day times into our community it would work out like this. A young unmarried couple wanders into town, there is no room at the Holiday Inn Express or the Hampton Inn, so she gives birth to a baby boy under the bridge. Then an angel of the Lord appears to a couple of dishwashers at The Waffle House who come and marvel at the sight. And I’m not being flippant. That’s the story. A disenfranchised, unmarried couple is not welcomed into the town by anyone and they find a place to have a baby and are visited by some people of little to no status.

That is the story Luke is telling. It isn’t particularly sweet. It’s a story of a child coming into the world in a totally disadvantaged way. It is like he is a child of a lesser God than many of the others.

The story went on and Jesus associated with the poorest of the poor, he healed the lepers who were considered to be unclean by the population, and hung out with the sinners. Jesus, born like a child of a lesser God spent his ministry ministering to those other children of that lesser God.

With a message. You are not children of a lesser God. No matter what anyone and everyone else says, you are not the children of a lesser God.

Tonight we celebrate the birth of the one who came with this message and gave the world hope.

Hope is not in the Christmas trees or the gifts we will exchange.

The hope is not in the colored lights or festive celebrations.

That hope isn’t even what we are about tonight. The hope comes because God sent His Son into the world to embrace those who were embraced by no one else. We live that hope, we share that hope, whenever we do likewise. Christianity is not about being socially acceptable, it is not about status, and it is not about what we can get out of it. It is sharing a message of hope and embracing those who no one else will embrace.

That is the hope we live by, the joy we share, as we gather to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the children of a lesser God.