A Child of Promise
Isaiah 7:10-17
Matthew 1:18-25
I’d like to introduce you to Andrew Hsu. Andrew graduated in June 2007 from the University of Washington with three Bachelor of Science degrees; one in Neurobiology, one in Biochemistry, another in Chemistry, and a Minor in Mathematics. This fall Andrew entered Stanford University’s PhD program in Neuroscience, researching the brain and hoping to unlock its secrets. Andrew Hsu is sixteen years old.
Andrew learned how to read when he was two and could do algebra when he was five. It took him a year to complete High School; finishing all the courses and credits he needed by age nine. At age eleven Andrew identified a human gene, and won Grand Prize at the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair for his work which was entitled “The Identification, Characterization, and DNA sequencing of the Homo Sapien.” A newspaper story reported that young Andrew caused quite a stir at the fair with the judges, who questioned him twice, to make sure that the work was legitimately his own. They were convinced and were amazed at his understanding and comprehension. ([1])
Andrew is also a well rounded young man. At age five he learned how to swim and at age eight he broke four State swimming records in his division. He has already published his autobiography and it has been translated into Chinese. When he was ten, he and his brother started a nonprofit organization called the World Children’s Organization, which has produced everything from a series of 130 booklets that teach reading skills, as well as distributed water filters to developing countries.
When Andrew Hsu was born –can you imagine what his parents were thinking as they held him? What did they see in him – when he came into their life? Was it something they could tell right away, or did his abilities unfold as he grew? I am just as interested in Andrew’s parents, David and Joyce, as I am in him; because they saw within their son possibility and promise and that was the basis for how they treated and taught him.
I imagine that he rarely, if ever heard his parents yell at him, telling him that “he was no good.” I imagine that he rarely, if ever, was told they didn’t have time for him. I imagine he was never made to feel as if he was an inconvenience to them. When he was young his parents took him to a homeless shelter – because his father wanted him to learn compassion. And he was involved with sports; because his mother wanted him learn how to deal with failure. Notice that they didn’t want him to never fail; they wanted him how to learn to deal with failure in a healthy manner. Andrew is studying the field of neuroscience because he hopes that he will have a part in discovering the cure to Alzheimer’s, which has now affected his grandfather.([2])
Maybe he will.
Mary and Joseph also saw and understood that the child they were given, by the hand of God under miraculous circumstances, was also a child of promise and possibility.
Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and in our reading today from the Gospel of Matthew we finally hear the story of the birth of Jesus. This is the story of two people, who despite the fact that their lives were now totally disrupted, had faith in the promises of God and saw Jesus as a child of promise and possibility. What can we see afresh in this story of the birth of Jesus, who though born in a messy stable, was so full of promise? This is THE story about Immanuel, God who is with us, in our messy, dirty, smelly stable moments and who comes to us to encourage us to keep going. This is THE story of Immanuel, God who is with us, who asks us to believe that all of God’s children, young and old, including our own selves, are children of promise and possibility.
The birth of Jesus into this world is the incarnation – a moment of transcendence. It was a holy time when heaven and earth touched each other. It was the time when God reached down and placed his Son upon this earth, in a stable, for the purpose of bridging the gap between heaven and earth.
The Nativity story is a comforting story, but one we also romanticize, as we remember it so long ago. We can find ourselves detached from it as we look at nativity displays and pageants, Christmas cards and sing “all is calm, all is bright.” If we dare become less romantic about it and put ourselves in Mary and Joseph’s sandals….we might see things a little different. All of us could easily spend a few moments in the sandals of someone whose life took an unexpected turn, or a disruptive turn, and who had to deal with feelings of hopelessness and disappointment.
Poor Mary and Joseph! Mary was young and pregnant and unmarried. This was a messy situation for her family and for Joseph, to whom she was engaged. The reaction in those days to a young, unmarried pregnant woman would not have been the same as it is today. For example, Mary would not have been put on the cover of OK magazine or the Jerusalem Times, as was a 16-year-old television star this past week who announced , with great fanfare that she was expecting. In those days Mary could have been stoned to death and her family would have been viewed through eyes of condemnation and disgust. This new pregnancy was not what young Mary was expecting in life.
Poor Joseph was also shocked. The text indicates that he was wrestling with what he should do. Should he marry her? Should he divorce her and stay away from her? What was he thinking about the child that she was carrying? Yet we read that Joseph was a “righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace.” It appears that Joseph had a deep and respectful love for Mary, and they were now in a very tough situation. Their lives had taken an inconvenient and unexpected turn. They could have given up – but they didn’t. They could have given up on the child – but they didn’t – even when they didn’t know what the next day or even the long term outcome might be. Mary and Joseph lived their life “one day at a time.”
And then God breaks in and says “do not be afraid.”
“Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife……..she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. And this is taking place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means God is with us.”
And with that good word from God, Mary and Joseph, both looked at their situation and at the child differently. They saw that this was a child of promise and possibility, and that became the basis for how they treated him and taught him.
I imagine that he rarely, if ever heard his parents yell at him, telling him that “he was no good.” I imagine that he rarely, if ever, was told they didn’t have time for him. I imagine he was never made to feel as if he was inconvenience to them. I imagine that his father wanted him to learn compassion and his mother wanted him to learn how to deal with failure. And Jesus also caused quite a stir when he was just 12 at the “State Fair”, when he listened to and taught the rabbis in the Temple. They were convinced and were amazed at his understanding and comprehension of matters of faith.
Jesus of Nazareth was a child of promise and possibility, who would change the course of world and of our lives, through his death and his resurrection.
The nativity story reminds us to see children in the same manner as did Mary and Joseph. Even when we are having some serious messy stable moments, we need to realize that the way we respond to and talk with children will matter in their development. Whether the manger they rest in is our own home, here in church, in our community or in the world, the way we treat children makes a big difference. It doesn’t take much to hurt them and turn them in a different direction. One negative, harmful, derogatory comment, a dress down given in anger or in weariness or frustration, could turn a child away from faith, from church, from learning and from believing in themselves as children of possibility. And when those moments do occur – because they will - then we help them learn how to process criticism and disappointment in a healthy manner. We need to see with eyes like David and Joyce Hsu, as well as Mary and Joseph.
Rev. Wilda K. Morris, in an article about The Children in Poverty Initiative of the American Baptist Churches, challenges us to “really see children, to see their plight and their promise, and to see them as children created in the image of God.” ([3]) She reminds us to see them as God sees them and to treat them as God would treat them. Every child deserves that chance to thrive and to succeed.
There is more good news though in the story of the nativity, and the good news is that we all children of God. No matter what our age, we are all children of God and that means that we too are children of promise and possibility. Not every adult has had nurturing and caring parents, and too many adults are also the product of abuse or grew up hearing negative and derogatory messages. The message of the stable is that we are all children of God worthy of God’s love. God cares about us, so much so, that he would become one of us. Immanuel - God who is with us. God came as a little child to bring us love and life and hope. God sees us today - as children of promise. God wasn’t finished yet with Mary or Joseph and that is the same for each one of us.
This week, I read a story of a woman reminiscing about her grandmother, who would come over on Christmas Eve when they were little and spend the night. The grandmother was full of joy and excitement, energy and love for her grandchildren. She sounded just like a little child herself. When the children hung their stockings up – the grandmother would put her shoes out by the chimney. She would sleep in their room and would keep them awake until all hours of the night talking and imaging what gifts might come from Santa. They would play a guessing game, asking over and over again; “Do you think HE has come?” And finally at one point, the children would say “I think He has come” and they would all race downstairs to sit on the floor together, to discover together stockings full of presents, shoes full of fruits and nuts, and presents that were always perfect and good, no matter what they were. The gift that her grandmother gave them, was her presence and her unconditional love because was willing to be a child, to be one of them. The woman couldn’t remember many of the Christmas gifts that she received as a child, but she does remembers that her grandmother was willing to be a child, who was fully present with them, in their excitement, in their hopes and in their dreams. ([4])
This is the story of the nativity – Immanuel God who is with us – opening stockings, dreaming dreams, in the midst of our tears or our loneliness or helping us deal with failure – Immanuel God is with us.
May your Christmas be full of possibility and promise – because you know that you are a child who is loved by God.
Amen
Rev. Deborah J. Blanchard
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