Our Hearts Grow

First Sunday of Christmas- A25
Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

When the Grinch stole Christmas, they say his very small heart grew four times that day once he heard the joyful singing of the Who’s down in Whoville celebrating despite the shocking discovery that all their Christmas presents, holiday food, and decorations were gone. The Grinch repented. His heart was changed. He suddenly had the strength of 10 Grinches once he realized that Christmas is about grace-filled community more than empty materialism. Even more amazing, the Who’s did not slap him in jail for what he had done but welcomed him in fellowship at their Christmas table.

There’s a whole lot of gospel in Dr. Suess. Yet I wonder, would his heart have soften as much if the Who’s insisted on welcoming resident aliens or people of a different religion to their town? Does the outcome change once Whoville became diverse and pluralistic—including perhaps Star-belly Sneetches and Plain-belly Sneetches, Sam-I-Am, Yertle the Turtle, and the Lorax?

Perhaps you heard about the nativity scene outside Lake Street Church in Evanston? It was attacked recently. The scene had featured baby Jesus wearing zip ties, Mary and Jesus wearing gas masks, and all three flanked by Roman centurions dressed as ICE agents wearing masks and sunglasses. Vandals decapitated and smashed the statue of Mary. The church replaced the destroyed Mary with a sign saying that Mary had been beaten and dragged away in front of her son and is being held in immigration detention.

Anti-ICE nativity scenes sprouted up in communities across America this year. Many, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, condemned them, declaring such politically divisive displays are incompatible with being a place of prayer and worship. I wonder, have they read today’s gospel? “When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt…for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’” (Matthew 2:13). The Nativity scene, like Dr. Suess’ Whoville, is a parable of radical hospitality and empathy. In a country where white Christianity has become a weapon of authoritarian violence, anti-ICE nativities re-center the reason for the season: Christ’s humble beginnings amid political violence. (Emma Cieslik, “Anti-ICE Nativities Are the Reason for the Season,” Sojourners Magazine, 12/22/25)

The Word was born in the flesh of a human mother and laid in a manger. God became just as vulnerable to trampling boots and automatic rifles as the children of Gaza and the children slaughtered in and around Bethlehem by order of King Herod (Mt. 2:16). “Here is where the mystery deepens so profoundly as to escape comprehension. It goes against what we think are our deepest instincts. We do everything to make ourselves less vulnerable, from putting on plated armor, to hardening our feelings, to buying weapons to defend us from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” to quote Hamlet. If the Word, without whom nothing that was made was made, is willing to be so defenseless, then perhaps it isn’t really our deepest instinct to defend ourselves so aggressively after all. (Andrew Marr, Moving and Resting in God’s Desire, ch. 5, “A Word from Above,” pp. 91-93.)

“The birth of Jesus is a new birth of mercy in the world. The fearful world of Pharaoh/Herod dreads mercy. But, says the story, mercy will have its way. Neither Herod of the empire nor the raw power of death will stop the future given in God’s good mercy.” No wonder heaven and nature dance and sing.” (Marr) From beginning to end, Matthew’s gospel intends to awaken minds, hearts, and bodies left for dead by the powers of domination and violence.

In her own reflections on this text, Lutheran pastor Pam Fickenscher observes: “You could make a good argument that we should save this story for another day — Lent, maybe, or some late-night adults-only occasion. But our songs of peace and public displays of charity have not erased the headlines of child poverty, gun violence, and even genocide. This is a brutal world. Today the victims are statistically less likely to be Jewish and more likely to be from Darfur, or [Gaza], Zimbabwe, or Ukraine Iraq, but the sounds of Rachel weeping for her children are not uncommon. If we could hear them, they would drown out our cheerful, tinny carols every few seconds or so.” (Pam Fickenscher, “Remembering Rachel: The Slaughter of the Innocents,” Journey with Jesus, 12/30/07).

The birth of the baby Jesus is the antidote to Christmas sentimentality and every form of cheap comfort. The events surrounding his birth remind us how the savior of the world “shared in our humanity” and was “made like us in every respect.” Because Jesus suffered our every pain and sorrow, beginning from an infanticide at his birth and lasting to his death as a criminal, “he is able to help those who suffer” (Hebrews 2:10–18). (Daniel Clendenin, “Beyond a Sentimental Gospel: The Slaughter of the Innocents,” Journey with Jesus, 2010)

The king Herods of the world, whether ancient or modern, are right about one thing; if Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is decidedly not lord. These kings do the opposite of the magi; they work hard to make the subversive kin-dom of Jesus subservient to the political power of the state. The Christmas message kindles a preposterous hope. The Herods, Pharoahs, Caesars, and Christian nationalists have power to do great harm, but they do not prevail.

This week the Department of Homeland Security posted, “This Christmas, our hearts grow as our illegal population shrinks.” The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shared an AI video of Santa Claus putting on a bulletproof vest, then handcuffing an immigrant, processing the person, and then loading them onto an “ICE” plane for deportation. Journalist Jennifer Rubin writes, “…White Christian nationalists generally do not seem interested in good works, helping the most vulnerable, or personal character. This is a movement seeking power, not redemption. Its adherents are motivated to remake America into a white, Christian dominated nation. Lacking the votes to bring their goals about through democracy, they are all too willing to suppress voting and rely on other anti-democratic measures. Blowing up people on the high seas, separating children from parents, brutalizing Hispanics, and taking away SNAP benefits are features, not bugs for people lacking empathy who seek racial and religious dominance.” (Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian, 12/23/25).

We need something more than holiday cheer to recover from what ails us. We need strong gospel medicine to turn from the fever dream of unilateral power and to embrace the golden rule of love. We cleave to Christ and not the gun. This is how we begin to make a difference in this world. As we face a New Year, the only resolution we need make is to let Christ live in us and through us. The way of Jesus goes through reality—the reality of suffering—not around it, or over it, but through it. This is the Good News for us as we head into January and return to our post-holiday realities. Our hymn of the day is our prayer: “Give us, God, such faith and courage when we move from place to place, and to those who come among us, make us channels of your grace. Let us see in every stranger refugees from Bethlehem, help us offer each welcome and receive Christ in them, (ACS #1060). And let our hearts grow four times larger filled with God’s compassion and love.