The WHY of Christmas

 “The WHY of Christmas”

 Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Dec 16, 2012

Kids Christmas Program Devotional

Thank you to all of the kids for doing such an amazing job this morning of telling us the Christmas story.  My name is Brad Sumner and it’s a privilege for me to be a parent of two of these young ones and to be part of the pastoral team here at Jericho Ridge.    

I don’t know if you share this memory, but when our kids were younger, I think that the most common three words out of their mouths were “Why, mommy, why?”.  It was almost never “why daddy, why?” – I think because in our house, mommy and daddy have very different styles of answering your basic questions.  Mommy is crisp, sharp and on point.  “Why is the sky blue, mommy?”  “Because God made it that way.” Ask the same question to daddy, “why is the sky blue?” and you’re likely to hear “Well, you see when sunlight reaches earth's atmosphere it is scattered in all directions by the gases and particles in the air. And blue spectrum light is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.”  

I think you can see why mommy gets asked more questions in our house – because if you ask daddy, you’re likely to get a long, rambling answer that sometimes finishes with a question back at you.  Which isn’t such an exciting game for a 2 year old.  They want to play the game “why” “because” “why” “because” until you blink J. 

But the question “why”, though it seems like such a simple and innocent inquiry, is also perhaps the most profound question of our lives.  Why was I born?  And it is certainly the most important question of Christmas:  WHY do we celebrate?  Why all the fuss over the birth of a baby? 

Author Eugene Peterson says that “birth, simply as birth, even though often enough greeted with wonder and accompanied with ceremony and celebration, has a way of getting absorbed into business as usual far too soon.  The initial impulses of gratitude turn out to be astonishingly short lived…  [Birth is] a miracle to be sure, but a miracle that very soon gets obscured by late night feedings, diapers, fevers, and inconvenient interruptions of fussiness and squalling.  Soon the realization sets in that we are in for years and years of the child’s growing up time that will stretch our stamina and patience, sometimes to the breaking point. 

“So how did it happen that this birth, this Jesus birth, managed to set so many of us back on our heels in astonishment and gratitude and wonder?  And continues to do so century after century, at least at this time of year?  The brief answer was that this wasn’t just any birth.”   (from God with Us)

Shepherds saw angels who announced to them that this wasn’t just another birth; this was God Himself coming to our world in human form.  Magi from the east saw a star that caused them to ask why it was there and to expend great personal energy and cost to seek for an answer.  Righteous and devout people like Simeon and Anna devoted their lives to waiting and asking questions of anticipation, and on the day they met this baby, they believed that this infant was the One, sent by God.  And this infant they all discovered prompted each of them to bow in worship.  Why? Because this wasn’t just any birth.      

Which brings us to our own questions of why…  Why do millions upon millions of people, not only in our day and time but stretching back through history believe in this child and celebrate this birth?  Listen again to Peterson as he wrestles with this question: “That God was made incarnate as a human baby is still not easy to believe, but people continue to do so.  Many, even those who do not ‘believe’, find themselves happy to participate in the giving and receiving, singing and celebrating of those who do.  Incarnation… God in human form in Jesus entered our history: this is what started Christmas. This is what keeps Christmas going.” 

This is the answer to the question “WHY Christmas?”  Why make such a big deal about a baby born so long ago?” The answer is because that wasn’t just any birth in Bethlehem that night.  That was the day God answered all of our why’s with a who.  With the birth of Jesus, God showed and continues to show you and me and all of humankind just how far he would go to answer our deepest questions.  Why?  Because God loves you.      

Let’s pray together.

Song of response – This is How We Know