My father used to tell me tales of growing up on a farm with his four brothers and two sisters, but I always had a difficult time really believing that he had ever been a child.  Mom and Dad had always been adults, as far as I knew, and I just couldn’t imagine them playing in the yard or swimming or going to school.  It was impossible to believe that they ever had ever been disobedient children!  But once they were children, and once upon a time, my grandparents were parents!  What an unbelievable mystery this seemed to be to me!

Will Ferrell, who played race car driver Ricky Bobby in the movie Talladega Nights, refused to imagine Jesus as anything but an infant!  At mealtime, he would pray, “Dear 8 pounds 6 ounces baby Jesus, new born, not even spoken a word yet…”  That was the Jesus Ricky Bobby could love.  In our churches, we quickly put away our mangers and Chrismon Trees, and before we know it, we are talking again about the cross and Jesus’ death.  If we are not careful, we carry Jesus too quickly from manger to cross, not pausing to imagine what it was like for the Son of God to be a child of Joseph and Mary.  In their hurry to get to the cross of salvation, some churches gloss over the important things that Jesus had to say, as if His death is all that matters.  But in the words of that song by Jimmie Rodgers, “Once he was a child, a beautiful child, a child of clay, shaped and molded into what he is today.”

The Gospel writers were not very interested in Jesus’ childhood, and that is our loss.  Two of them told their Gospel narratives without even mentioning Jesus’ birth.  Therefore, if we are to learn anything about Jesus’ childhood, we really have to read between the lines and use our imaginations.  But we also have to use our imaginations in our attempts to understand Almighty God, don’t we?  God is just too great for us to comprehend with our finite minds, and so we turn to symbolic language to help us understand.  We use the symbol “Father” for God because God’s care for us is parental in nature.  We are God’s children, not His pets or His zoo.  God’s attributes – all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, eternal, without beginning or end – that takes some imagination to understand!  Perhaps there was nothing all that remarkable about Jesus’ childhood, and perhaps Luke intended us to use our imaginations in picturing the youthful Jesus as just another of the boys who grew up in First Century Palestine.

Like all other children, Jesus had to learn to sit up, to stand, to walk, and to talk.  Like all of us, Jesus spent several years in diapers – before disposable diapers had been invented!  He had to learn reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic.  He learned a skilled trade, carpentry.  He had to learn the importance of obeying His parents, and the scripture says that He learned obedience through suffering.  Can you envision this, that the eternal Word of God, the preexistent son who spoke the world into existence, poured Himself into infant flesh that could not talk at all, and that the One who spoke the Law of Moses has to learn the 10 Commandments from His parents?  As an infant, Jesus was just like every other infant.  Like each of us, Jesus had to find His way in life, to discover His calling.  I wonder how old He was when He became fully self-aware and knew Who He was and what He had to do?

What else do we know about His childhood?  For one thing, his family was a bit above average in their commitment to and involvement in their faith community.  In the verses following chapter 2, verse 21, we learn that Jesus was circumcised and given His name when He was presented at the temple when He was eight days old.  Jesus attended synagogue every week; that was his custom, we are later told.  His family participated in the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the spring to celebrate the Passover, commemorating how death had passed over the homes of the Hebrews when it took the eldest sons of all Egyptian families.  Not everyone practiced their religion as faithfully as Jesus’ parents did.

We also know that Mary and Joseph had done a very good job of training Jesus in the faith.  By age 12, Jesus had learned to question and reason with noted teachers, showing that He was already responsible, self-assured, and quite mature.  Twelve-year-old kids are special!  Who here is 12?  Watch out!  Twelve-year-old are capable of some profound thoughts and that is why we invite them to become members of our church through the Confirmation process.  Some of their profound thoughts are lost by the time they hit age 14 when they get a case of the sillies due to the obsession with the opposite sex!  But a 12-year-old will make you marvel at their wisdom.  Once when she was 12, having heard her mother and me fussing about the messy conditions of our house, Hillary profoundly said, “You will have your clean house one day, when John and I are grown up and gone.”  All of a sudden, having a cluttered house seemed to be just exactly what I wanted.

In the story of Jesus at the temple, we see the beauty of another 12-year-old in action!  As the story begins, the Passover celebration is over, and Mary, Joseph, and their other children (James, Jude, Joses, and others) leave Jerusalem for their home in Nazareth.  Jesus was old enough now to travel with friends or cousins, and his family assumed that this was the case.  It wasn’t until they stopped for the night that they discovered that Jesus wasn’t with some kinfolks.  Where could He be?  You don’t suppose that He got left behind like the Home Alone kid?  One can only imagine the blaming and self-recriminations and also the anxiety!  At sunrise, Mary and Joseph traveled a whole day back to Jerusalem with the younger children to begin their search for Jesus.  Perhaps He would be at a cousin’s home; perhaps He would be in the city market area.  “You don’t suppose someone would harm him, do you, Joseph?”  The Holts always had an emergency meeting place at Carowinds and Disney World or the mall, just in case someone gets separated from the others.  But apparently Mary and Joseph hadn’t made such arrangements with Jesus.  Retracing the steps of their pilgrimage, they went to the Temple, a very tall building in that time period, a place rich with history and a place that was the faith center of the people.  To their utter amazement, that is where they found their 12-year-old son.  There He was, just talking with the well-educated religious teachers who considered Jesus something of a prodigy!  His wisdom amazed them.  He asked questions and gave opinions that astounded them.

Mary’s anxiety and anger can be seen in her accusatory words to Jesus: “How could you do this to us?  We’ve been frantic – worried sick!”  Since we only have the written account of Jesus’ answer, we don’t know the tone in His voice, but again we can use our imagination and our knowledge of 12-year-olds to help us.  Here Jesus is, in the presence of great teachers, perhaps some people that the boy Jesus really looked up to, people that Jesus wanted to respect Him as an almost grown man, and here come His parents, scolding Him like the child that He still was for His lack of concern for them.  Sure, He was in a good, safe place, but He had known that he was supposed to join the caravan home several days ago.  But He had stayed behind – “just a minute, Mom and Dad.  I’ll be right there, in a minute or two.”  Isn’t that just like a pre-teen?

Now confronted with His failure to follow directions, Jesus doesn’t apologize, does He?  He doesn’t say, “I’m sorry.”  He sounds like a young man trying to save face when He replied, “Well, I don’t know why you worried about me.  You should have known where I was.  You should have known that I would be about my Father’s business.”  Boy!  If I had spoken to my mother like that when I was 12, my Daddy would have had a thing or two to say to me right then and there!

As we often do, we get to see both the humanity and the divinity that was in Jesus.  His answer is fairly sharp, like that of any other typical boy that age.  But His insight – the awareness that God is His Father, that God’s claim on His life was the highest claim, and that He was becoming aware of His mission in life – shows His divinity.  All in all, His response to His parents was a wake-up call to them.  It signified a certain arrival at a place of maturity of character.  It was a signal to them that the way that they had been dealing with the little boy Jesus had to be adjusted so that they would be able to guide a young man who was growing in His abilities to take care of Himself and make His own decisions.

I never will forget when our son John showed us that he had come to that place of maturity of character that demanded that Penny and I change the way we would deal with him from then onward!  It was at Christmas when John was in middle school.  His big sister had given him a wall calendar with adult humor on each page.  Penny and I decided to secretly return the calendar for one more age-appropriate, and when John saw that the original calendar had been replaced, he didn’t explode in anger as he would have a few years earlier.  Instead he calmly asked for an explanation which we gave him.  Then John cut the chains of childhood off of himself when he responded, “You know, if you had asked me about it, I probably would have agreed with you that we should exchange the calendar, but because you didn’t trust me enough to ask my opinion about it, I’m just not sure if I can trust you any longer to help me make decisions.”  That is just the kind of answer that Jesus gave to Mary and Joseph that made them realize that their son was no longer just a child.  He was becoming a man, and with greater frequency, they would have to allow Jesus to follow God’s direction on His own.

Once He was a child, a beautiful child.  Even in His childhood, Jesus assures us that God understands and loves us!  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about’” (Luke 2:15).

So very often, when God is in the midst of revealing Himself to us, the Almighty shows just a little bit of playfulness, peaking our interest, making us want to depart from our normal routines to see for ourselves just what God is up to!  Moses came upon a burning bush that was burning and yet not consumed, and his interest was peaked, causing him to turn aside from his routines to see.  The shepherds were camping out in the fields, keeping their sheep safe, when they heard the joy of heaven’s choir break the sound barrier and spill out into the night sky.  Maybe there were some shepherds who heard the angelic chorus and then just went back to sleep – like I did in Alaska whenever someone woke me up to seek yet another glacier – but at least one group of shepherds decided to go into town to see that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes for themselves.  Meanwhile, some scientist-priests saw a new star in the sky.  Thousands upon thousands had to see that bright star, but these Wise Men decided to go see what it meant, bringing with them their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Later in the story of Jesus’ life, when He was calling students to follow Him, Philip responded to Jesus’ call and went to find his friend Nathanael.  When  Nathanael expressed doubts about Jesus, Philip simply responded, “Why don’t you come and see.”  It seems like a very effective pattern that God uses!  He peaks our interests and then invites us to check it out for ourselves.

I wonder if there are some people here tonight who are filled with doubts, who really aren’t ready to proclaim Jesus as God’s Son and their Savior?  I want you to know that this is perfectly all right and that you are always very welcome among us here at Memorial United Methodist Church!  We aren’t even going to try to convince you, but we are going to invite you to see for yourselves, to check it out.  Like the shepherds who heard the angels sing, if you will decide to go see for yourselves, to see what life with Jesus can be like for you, like Nathanael your doubts just might turn to faith!

Those of us who have examined the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and have heard His message and believe that Jesus is God’s Son, we sometimes feel so ill-prepared to be His witnesses in the world.  Sometimes witnesses for Christ become impatient and argumentative, determined to win someone over to the Lord, and I really don’t believe God has called us to do this.  If all God asked of angels was to for them to sing about Jesus so that the shepherds would have their curiosity raised, would God ask more of mere mortals?  Perhaps all God expects from us is to live in such a way as to make others curious about what motivates us and fills our lives with hope and love!  Perhaps it is just like Jesus said: we are light to show people the way and we are salt to make others thirst for Christ.  I wonder just what would happen in our world if you and I lived in such a way as to peak the interests of people around us, to make them curious about this life in Christ that we find so fulfilling.  What if we didn’t worry so much about being able to answer all the questions people have about God but instead simply said to people, “Come see for yourselves”?  Perhaps we are called, not to be the highway but just the road sign.

A baby arrived at a less than perfect time to peasant parents who had taken shelter in a stable.  The baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a feed trough.  Some angels were heard singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests,” and some shepherds went from their field to Bethlehem to see for themselves just what all the singing was about.  God has sent us His Son to be our Savior!  Come, let’s go and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

In the 1970, Charlie Hawkins became the CEO of a little-known company that produced men’s aftershave and deodorant items.  His commercials not only catapulted his products to the top of the sales charts, but they also produced a phrase that has since become a part of our language – even being reduced to an acronym for text messaging.  Perhaps you remember that 1970′s aftershave commercial that ended with a blubbering gentleman receiving an unexpected slap of aftershave lotion across the face.  Brought to his senses, he straightened his tie, and in a confident voice uttered the classic tagline, “Thanks, I needed that.”

When I think of the great mystery of the incarnation – God taking up human flesh to live among us to reveal God to us – and the greater mystery of dying for us, and I wonder why God would do such a thing as this for us, I eventually come to the conclusion that God did all this because we needed it.  I needed to learn of the purpose of living.  I needed to know what God is like and what my Maker expects of me.  I needed to know how to live.  But most importantly, I really needed a Savior!  I needed a daily supervisor (Lord).  And I needed God to be with me (Emmanuel). “Thanks, God!  I needed that.”

In the opening verses of Matthew, we don’t see the term savior, but it is there nonetheless.  The name “Jesus” means “God is our Savior.”  All of our names mean something.  If your name is “Smith,” then someone in your ancestry was probably a blacksmith.  “Johnson” means that someone back up your family tree was named “John” and you are the descendant of his son.  Holt means “forest” or “woods” in the German language, and so my ancestors probably were wood workers or lumbermen, or maybe they just swung in the trees.  But in the case of the child of Mary, His very name “Jesus” meant “Savior.”

And, boy! Did we need a Savior!  We needed a savior because our souls were in great peril due to our being great sinners.  Sometimes church folks are not aware of their being sinners; we develop spiritual Alzheimer’s Disease!  When we realize that a sin is not only a moral transgression but that it is also failure to do a good deed when the opportunity presented itself and also any thought, emotion, or attitude that is wrong, then we see that we all are sinners.  Some of us have just managed to keep our sins secret!  Jesus tried to make church folks of His day aware of their need of forgiveness by reminding them that anger was murdering someone in our hearts, that lust was adultery in our hearts, and that thinking of someone as a worthless fool was to put our souls in eternal danger!  We are all in equal need of salvation!

Dr. James Kennedy speculates that on our best days we would only err in thought, word, or deed maybe three times.  I’d be doing pretty good if I just sinned three times a day!  I might qualify for sainthood!  But in the course of a year, that would mount up to 1000 sins, and that would equal 70,000 sins in a 70-year lifetime.  I sure wouldn’t want to go up before judge with that many outstanding tickets!  On my best behavior, I am a sinner who needs salvation!

I was a B student in high school and college.  Some of you former and present high school teachers know that this was pretty good, but I could have done better. I wonder what grade you would give me if you graded my life each day?  I’d be very happy with a B!  If a student gets 70% of test answers correct, we pass them with a D.  But that is not how God grades us.  If we were going to be able to save ourselves, we would have to score 100 every day because anything less that 100 is imperfect.  All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, Isaiah said.  I need a savior.

Why was it necessary for God to come for us in Jesus Christ?  Because we needed a Savior!  Thanks, God.  I needed that!

Why else did Jesus come?  He came because we humans needed an authority to guide us, a Lord to obey.  We look everywhere for authorities to guide us.  When we apply for a job, we present our education and past work experience as our authorities to commend us for a job.  We quote the newspaper, we study Consumer Reports, we seek doctors’ advice, we follow recipes.  So much of our lives depend upon us finding the right authority.

In the spiritual realm, how do I know that there is a God who loves me?  It is because Jesus is my authority on these matters, and He said so.  He came to tell me what God was like.  Great minds might have come close to comprehending God, but nobody has ever revealed God to the world as completely as Jesus did!  Upon what do I base my hope of life beyond death?  I certainly haven’t seen anything that would make me believe in eternal life. Here again Jesus is my authority.  He said that heaven existed.  He said that His death would take Him to Paradise.  His closest friends saw him after He was raised to life, and they gave up all things – home, possessions, their very lives – to witness to the world that they had seen Jesus alive again after His death, and this made Jesus their Lord, the authority in their lives.  How do I know that I’m going to heaven?  I know because I have a Savior, and I rest on His authoritative words, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  How do I know how to live?  I follow Jesus’ example, loving sinners, remembering the forgotten, and proclaiming Good News to the lost.

Why did Jesus come?  First, because I needed a Savior.  Secondly, I needed a Lord, an authority.  Thirdly, I needed God with me each day.  The name “Emmanuel” means “God with me.”  Jesus came to be with us, to make His home in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit remains with us and in us.  God is with us now!  You see, I don’t just need a God who is with me only when I am at church.  I need him when I wake up each day and try to find the inspiration to get out of bed!  Perhaps you are like me, and you say this little prayer each morning: “Lord, I’ve done real good today.  I haven’t been upset, I haven’t raised my voice, I haven’t used any bad words.  But I am about to get out of bed now, so I will need your help with the rest of the day.”  I need God to already be there when a crisis suddenly erupts in my life, like the morning in 2001 when my sister called and said, “Arthur, I think Mama has died” or the morning in 2004 when John called and said he had been in a terrible wreck.  I need God to already be there when I encounter anger or hostility or indifference.  I need His guidance daily.  I don’t need to have to go find God when a need arises!  I need Him to already be there with me.  The birth of Christ happened so that God could be with me – Emmanuel – always.

I really need a Savior.  I really need a Lord.  And I really need Emmanuel!  Thanks, God.  I needed that!  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt