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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the Old Testament reading from the prophet Micah for the text, please be seated. In a TV show years ago called Kids Say the Darnedest Things, kids were asked questions. They would usually say something silly and people would laugh. It’s a great concept.
Example, one kid was asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? And he said, a pilot. And the host said, oh, what if you were flying a plane and all of the engines stopped? What would you say? And the kid responded, our Father who art in heaven.
Another kid was asked, who’s the boss at your house? Your mom or your dad? And the kid said, both. And the host said, ah, you’re a diplomat, aren’t you? And the child said, no, I’m a Catholic Baptist.
The best one. A girl was asked, what is the perfect husband? And the girl said, a man who will provide lots of money, lots of horses, will let you have 22 kids, and doesn’t put up a fight. The host asked, so what do you want to be when you grow up? And the girl replied, a nun, although they’re little. Truly, little kids say the darndest things.
Little things matter. The TV show helped to show that, but it’s in the Christmas story that we really see that little things mean a lot. We see it in that reading from the prophet Micah, which is a prophecy of where someone is coming from who will be the ruler of God’s people. It’s the town of Bethlehem.
We read from Micah, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel.” Now in those days, Bethlehem was a little insignificant place. It wasn’t hugely populated and there was nothing really important about it going on there industry-wise. Although the name Bethlehem literally means “house of bread,” there’s no indication that their bread output put them on the map then.
But Bethlehem was the hometown of the greatest king of Israel, King David. And although it was little and insignificant, Micah says that Bethlehem is going to be the birthplace of another ruler. Little Bethlehem was going to be the host for another little and insignificant thing, a little child, a baby in fact.
Even in today’s world, it’s oftentimes painfully easy to see how little and insignificant children are treated. The evil in our world can take advantage of little children: abuse, abandonment, abduction, abortion, Amber Alerts, child trafficking, slavery, and even murders of little children. Again, it’s far too easy to see what evil and what sin does to children.
But it’s also easy to see what sin does to us. Recently I was talking with a friend—not a Christian—talking about people’s actions in certain situations, and she said, you know, basically everybody is selfish indeed. I like to call it the sin of self-promotion, of trying to establish our own self-worth and making ourselves look big and significant. And we may take advantage of little and insignificant things to promote ourselves and to make us look big and significant.
There may be people that you’ve stepped on climbing up the corporate ladder. You may have said, posted, or texted things about people to make yourself look better. You said bad things about them so that you would look better. There may be people whose reputations were hurt by your self-promotion. You know, maybe that little white lie you told wasn’t so little. Maybe that little thing that you stole really wasn’t that little. Maybe that little thing that you said about someone, well it sure didn’t hurt a little.
Yes, even adults can say, do, or think the darndest things, the darndest sinful things. And your sin may seem to make you big and significant, but really it makes you little and insignificant to God because it separates you from Him. When you seek to make yourself big and significant, your focus is off of God and it’s on you. It separates you from God.
And sometimes when you realize your sin and are convicted of it, you probably feel little. But God doesn’t leave you that way. God loves the little and insignificant and He wants to forgive your sin and bring you back close to Him—not separated, but with Him—and make you significant. And He does this by using the little and insignificant. He uses the little things to save you from your self-destruction of self-promotion.
God uses a little baby born in a little town of Bethlehem by a little-known young girl who put her little baby into a little manger. And all of it happening at night, out of sight and with very little fanfare. It all happened as a little thing, not as some big event.
We hear this really well in the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” which theologically has so much great stuff in it. You know it: “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie, above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by,” painting this picture of this little town of Bethlehem where nothing big is going on. It’s insignificant. It’s hardly on the map. Life just kind of goes by. But God uses it. He uses little things for a big purpose.
Because the carol goes on: “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” In this little insignificant place, Bethlehem, God uses it for a huge event that gathers the hopes and fears of people and relieves them and brings this Savior, this one who would rule God’s people, into the world. This shining light in the darkness of the streets of our life.
This little baby Jesus, who comes from Bethlehem, comes to rule His people—not with power, but in love and in grace. Jesus comes to lead us out of our sin of self-promotion, and He does it by eventually dying on a cross—not by ruling us with some sort of power and being big and significant like some ruler, but as something little and insignificant that dies on a cross, which should have happened to us. Our sin should put us there, but Jesus takes it for us. He comes and dies for us even though we’re little and insignificant.
In fact, maybe it’s better to say Jesus comes and dies for us because we are little and insignificant, because we’re sinners. Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even while we’re sinners, even though we’re little and insignificant, Jesus dies for you anyway.
In Jesus dying for us, God says to us sinners, He says the darndest thing: just two seemingly little and insignificant words: “You’re forgiven.” They’re not so little and insignificant, are they? When we think about the things that we’ve done, when you think about what you’ve said or thought or actually done, those two words, “you’re forgiven,” are not so little.
God continues to come to us in little and insignificant things. God uses words—we use words all the time; we hardly pay attention to them sometimes—but God uses words to proclaim that good news of this little baby coming to us. And God uses water in baptism, just a little water that yet is a flood that washes away sins.
And in the Lord’s Supper, in a little bit of bread and a little bit of wine, there’s a feast of God’s grace and forgiveness. In these things—in words, in water, in bread and wine—God uses them as a means of His gracious forgiveness. Something so little it seems, but it’s huge. Again, God uses little things for a big purpose.
And He uses us. He uses us to care for little and insignificant things, to protect the little, to protect the insignificant, to provide for their needs. And God uses this church. St. Paul Lutheran Church is not a huge church. We’re not a mega church by any means, but God uses us. None of our organizations in the church are all that big, but God uses us. He uses the LWML, and the Altar Guild, and the Christian Concerns, and Outreach, and Music, and Fellowship, and Finance, and Education, and Elders, and Council—and if I’m missing you, I’m sorry, I’m just shooting off the top of my head here—but God uses all of us to serve Him and others through this church.
And He uses little old you to proclaim the good news to others, especially those who need to hear it. Maybe even especially during this holiday season where it’s not so joyous for them. God can use you to bring this word of good news to them about this little baby born in this little town of Bethlehem, lying in a little manger, who comes to save them and forgive them too.
You get to tell them the same little words that Jesus has said to us: “You’re forgiven.” And maybe there’s someone that you need to forgive. Maybe there’s someone who needs to hear those darndest little words come out of you to say to them, “Hey, you’re forgiven.” God uses little old you for that.
With God, it’s the little things, sinners like you and me—who’ve been saved by a little child born in a little town—who did big things for us. Perhaps you’re feeling particularly little and insignificant in life right now and you need to hear that you’re not little and insignificant to God. You matter so much that He gave you His Son, and that through His death and resurrection you have those words—the darndest things—that God says to us: “You’re forgiven.”
That is for you, brothers and sisters, for all little insignificant sinners. We mean everything to God. It’s His name that we rejoice. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
