Luke 2:41-52
A Little Christmas… But Not Too Much
James Sledge December
27, 2015
I’m
not sure what prompted me to use song lyrics in sermons two weeks in a row, but
for whatever reason, as I studied the verses we just heard from Luke, a line
from a Christmas song popped into my head. It’s a song I heard many times on
the radio growing up, but I actually knew few of the words. I had to look it up
and then discovered that it’s actually from the musical Mame. The opening
chorus goes,
For
we need a little Christmas Right this very minute,
Candles in the window, Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas Right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry, But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
Candles in the window, Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas Right this very minute.
It hasn't snowed a single flurry, But Santa, dear, we're in a hurry;
The
song ends with variation on the chorus.
For
we need a little music, Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy "Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little singing Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy "Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
With
all the terrible things in the world, I’m sure that a lot of folks felt like
they could use a little Christmas this year. Candles and music, a little
laughter, and wouldn’t some happy ever after be great. Yes, who wouldn’t love a
little Christmas. But not too much. A little will do for most of us, which may
be why Luke tells the story we just heard, as a reminder of what Jesus’ birth
is really all about.
When
you think about it, it’s amazing how little we know about Jesus outside the last
years of his life. Mark and John’s gospels make no mention of his birth or
childhood. Matthew and Luke have brief stories connected to Jesus’ birth. And
Luke alone has a single story of Jesus as a 12 year old boy in which Jesus
speaks two brief sentences.
Christians
have been curious about Jesus’ childhood from the beginning. There are writings
that purport to tell of Jesus the boy, written during the church’s early centuries.
But when the New Testament was put together and made official, those got discarded,
and for good reason. They were fanciful accounts of Jesus animating clay
animals, causing the death of a child who bothered him, even raising a playmate
from the dead so he could testify that Jesus wasn’t the one who pushed him to
his death.[1]
Such stories were written by people of faith who imagined what Jesus might have
been like, sometimes in absurd fashion, but Luke is not doing that.