A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

Where is Jesus?

John 1:1-5,10, 12,  Preached at the Congregational Church of Boca Raton's Christmas Eve Candle Lighting Service, December 24, 2006

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca, age 8 "Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy, age 6 "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby, age 7 

The reason we do what we do at Christmas time is to share the love we feel. But what we feel is not in the wrapping paper, nor is it actually in the box, and it’s not quite, not really the ipod that, you know, Santa gives. It’s not all of the yummy food that takes hours to make and minutes to devour. It’s not the shopping that takes days and perhaps even weeks to complete and moments to unwrap. So where is Christmas? It’s all of these but it’s in none of these. Every year we reach out to touch it and come so close. Do we ever grasp the reason for the season? Do we ever obtain what it means to say we believe in the Babe of Bethlehem? It’s as if we are reaching through a hole that’s barely, just big enough for an arm, trying to reach the golden ring that’s fallen in there, alas we can only brush it with the tip of our fingers. But don’t give up. You are so close to reaching Christmas. You are here tonight, after all, aren’t you?

There was a man named Moss Hart. He was a Broadway playwright and director, and he describes one particular Christmas Eve at the turn of the century when he was ten and the family was living in New York City. Because of their poverty Moss was surprised that special night when his father said "Let's go downtown" and set out on a walk "down to 149th Street," a part of town where push carts full of toys were lined up for shoppers. Moss knew his dad was going to try to buy him a Christmas present, but he also knew that his dad had very little money (later he figured that his father might have had 75 cents in his pocket). As they walked by these carts, Hart said he saw all sorts of toys he wanted. But after his father asked the price, the two of them would move quietly to the next cart, his father putting his hands in his pocket and fingering the coins. So it went from one cart to the other. Nothing the youngster wanted could be purchased for what his father had been able to save. This is how Moss Hart remembered his feeling that night: "As I looked up at him I saw a look of despair and disappointment in his eyes that brought me closer to him than I had ever been in my life. I wanted to throw my arms around him and say, "It doesn't matter ... I understand ... this is better than a chemistry set or a printing press ... I love you!" But instead we stood shivering beside each other for a moment - then turned away from the last two pushcarts and started silently back home I don't know why the words remained choked up within me. "I didn't even take his hand on the way home nor did he take mine. We were not on that basis. Nor did I ever tell him how close I felt that night - that for a little while the concrete wall between father and son had crumbled away and I knew that we were two lonely people struggling to reach each other."

It can be hard to find the life you’re looking for when you are trying so hard just to live life as its coming at you. But that’s the Christmas hope come to life in a newborn baby, born on the outskirts of a little town in the middle of nowhere lying in a food trough, a manger, in a stable. Yeah, it’s difficult to find the life you desire and deserve: “He was in the world…yet the world did not know him.” Nonetheless, the search is worth the effort: “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”

What Christmas means is that another way of living, the life you are seeking, is possible. You are willing to come out at night to sing carols, listen to Scripture, light candles, and be filled with hope for a world God would approve of. You have spent days and even weeks planning for meals, going to stores, thinking about what your loved ones would like to receive as gifts, but not just them, but friends, neighbors, colleagues, and perhaps even strangers and those in need. In other words, we have considered not just ourselves but others; and given, not to ourselves, but others; and we have fed and shared and made happy, not ourselves, but others. And isn’t this the will of God? Isn’t this just like Jesus’ life, the life that is the light of all people? Haven’t you perhaps then traveled on that Bethlehem road, by the light of a heavenly star, and found what you are looking for already? And it was inside of you the whole time.

This is what the Lord was talking about when he said to Jeremiah: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jer.31:33 And the Lord spoke to Ezekiel about this when he said: “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone … and give them a heart of flesh.”

For those who search for Jesus, for the life that is light, our journey has ended, for we have followed the brightest light in the darkest night. We have forgotten ourselves and remembered others. We have rejected a heart of stone and listened to our heart of flesh. We have been reborn not of blood or of the will of man, but of God. We have found Jesus, who came looking for us first, looking for people to love and people who love. So Christmas isn’t in the packages or the meals, but it’s in the hearts of all who love enough to do the things that make Jesus’ birthday a day unlike any other.

Now, of course, God would be awful happy if we take the same road for the next 364 days as well. May the star of Bethlehem, your heart of flesh, continue to watch over your steps tonight, tomorrow, and throughout the coming year.

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