December 24, 2006
(Christmas Eve)
Christmas is When God Gets a Belly Button
By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean
Exodus 34:1-8 - Psalm 8 - Romans 1:1-7
- Luke 2:15-21
(From
The Lectionary Page)
The Christmas story is one of my favorites. Another favorite story is by Dr. Seuss, a story is about the Sneetches, some who had plain belly buttons, and the others who had belly buttons shaped like stars.
The story begins:
Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches
Had bellies with stars.
The Plain-Belly Sneetches
Had none upon thars.
The snooty Star-Belly Sneetches decided that they were better
than the Plain-Belly sort and would not include them in
"frankfurter roasts,
or picnics or parties or
marshmallow toasts."
Next, Sylvester McMonkey McBean enters the scene
and "put together a very particular machine"
that put stars upon the bellies of the Plain-Belly Sneetches for
three dollars each.
So what do we soon have? All Sneetches with stars upon thars!
Clever McBean didn't end there, for he realized
the original Star-Belly Sneetches became distinctly aware...
that if all Sneetches looked the same,
how could one kind of Sneetch be better and make such a claim?
Eager to please the money-rich Sneetches,
McBean changed his machine,
And for ten dollars eaches,
his new Star-Off Machine removed the stars upon the
upper-crust Sneetches.
(You see what's happening here, don't you?)
So in and out of the machine all the Sneetches would go,
to add stars, to remove stars, it became a sad show.
Meanwhile, McBean's money pile continued to grow,
and when the Sneetches would realize how silly they were, no one
could know.
(This went on for some time:
the Star-Bellied Sneetches taking off their belly stars,
while the Plain-Belly Sneetches added stars to thars.
And Mr. McBean would take all their money,
until finally, finally, the Sneetches cried out, This is silly!
And the story ends, "I'm quite happy to say
That the Sneetches got really quite smart one day,
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars
And whether they had one, or not, upon thars."
[adapted from a posting by Chris Dunmire, Creative Slush, www.chrisdunmire.com]
The Sneetches worried too much about belly buttons. Sometimes you and I worry too much about how people look, or what they wear, or how they talk, or if they stare.
And instead, we should love, and respect and our love share.
I picked this particular story tonight because I would like for you to remember that Christmas is when God gets a belly button.
When Jesus was born, I imagine that his mother Mary, before he was wrapped in bands of cloth, examined his little body from head to toe. She caressed his tiny body; touched his perfect little fingers and toes.
Perhaps it wasnt so amazing to her, and to Joseph, but to me the most amazing sight she laid her eyes on was the stub that protruded from his belly, what we call a belly button.
This is an amazing thing. The Holy Child, whom angels sang to, the Son of God, has a belly button.
And just like the Sneetches, and just like Jesus, you and I, all of us, have a bellybutton. Its either an innie or an outie, maybe even a star or maybe something shiny now lives there. (If so I dont want to know.)
But it doesnt matter what your belly button looks like. What matters is that you know that your belly button tells you that God loves you, and that you were born just like his Son.
The belly button says that you are part of the human family. There was a cord that bound you to your mother when you lived inside of her. Through it you were fed, protected, and given everything you needed for life until you could be born.
When you were born the cord was cut, and you became an independent person, but the belly button reminds you that you are forever tied to her, and to the whole human family.
In that baby lying in the manger at Bethlehem, God now has a bellybutton. God is forever tied to the human family.
You and I and everyone we know is part of God's family and God is part of our families. Christmas is a day of great hope because Gods Son is now not only divine, but is also human. God will never turn his back on us, because Gods Son is one of us.
That's the astounding miracle of Christmas, what we call the Incarnation. Christ, our belly button brother, is one with God and with us. Now nothing can separate us from God's love. That is what the belly button means.
[Adapted from a sermon by the Rev. Leonard J. Vander Zee, South Bend Christian Reformed Church, South Bend, Indiana]
