The Meaning of Bethlehem: Christmas, the Manger, and Holy Communion

Սիրելի հավատացյալներ, այսօր բոլորիդ դարձյալ կսենք, քանի որ Սուրբ Ծննդյան յոթ օրերի մեջ ենք՝ Քրիստոս ծնավ և հայտնեցավ: Ամենալույն հայտնությունն Քրիստոսի, և դարձյալ կշնորհավորենք բոլորիդ Նոր Տարվա առիթով, սա և հարգանք Սուրբ Ծնունդը: Ձեր ներկայությունը այսօր դարձյալ նշան է ձեր հարգանքի Քրիստոսի մարդեղության նկատմամբ: Գիտեմ, որպես հայեր, մեր տոնախմբությունը Քրիստոսի Ծնունդին համար կշարունակի և շարունակվող երևույթ է մեր եկեղեցվո կյանքի ներսում, մեր համայնքի կյանքի ներսում: Ինչպես այսօր բոլորս դեռ այստեղ ենք և գրեթե հունվարի կեսը հասած ենք և դեռ Սուրբ Ծնունդը կտոնախմբենք: Սակայն սա է նշան մեր եկեղեցվո նվիրվածությանը Քրիստոսի նկատմամբ:

Beloved faithful, even though we find ourselves already deep into the month of January, January 12th, we are still proclaiming to one another the glory and the beauty and the blessing that is the incarnation of Jesus Christ and wishing one another a Merry Christmas. The rest of the world perhaps has moved on, but in this sanctuary today, we are still celebrating Christmas. And as you know, the Christmas holiday, the Feast of Nativity and Theophany in the Armenian Apostolic Church was celebrated this past Tuesday. However, we continue to mark that as we find ourselves in what is called the Octave of Nativity. That is the eight days that follow the Feast of Nativity and Theophany, a continuation of the celebration of Christmas. And we’re still in that period right now. In fact, today is the seventh day, and we will be performing the special blessing service which is done on the occasion of Christmas, the blessing of the water.

[Children’s sermon]

My beloved Sunday school students, I’m so happy to have you all in church today and back in Sunday school after our holiday hiatus. I think our whole congregation is happy to have you in the congregation today because everybody knows that their favorite sermon is the one for the kids, even though they don’t get to have it when the kids aren’t here. So we all have a good excuse to have a kid sermon today.

Today we are doing Water Blessing. Did you guys learn about that at all in Sunday school? What did you learn about Water Blessing today? Can you tell me one thing? The most important thing about blessing the water is why do we bless the water?

Sako: They make the oil every seven years.

That’s right. The Holy Muron that we bless the holy water with today is a special oil that we bless every seven years, and that’s called Holy Muron. This time it was actually like ten years. But we just received it after the oil was blessed last September here at Saint John, and that’s the oil that we’re going to be blessing the holy water with.

Does anybody else remember why we bless the water? What else in the church do we do with water?

If we have pain, we can put it on our pain.

Sure. That’s our custom, that when we receive the blessed water, which everybody’s going to get a portion of today, we can drink it or we can put it on those places of our body where we want God to heal us.

And what else do we do in the church with water in general?

We get baptized.

That’s right. We get baptized with water in the church, in the baptismal font. Good job, Sako. We get baptized with water in the Holy Church, and that’s very important because the way that we become a Christian is by being baptized. Now, we do that today because who was the most famous person to ever be baptized?

Jesus.

Jesus Christ was the most famous person to be baptized. His picture’s right there. He’s being baptized in the River Jordan by St. John the Baptist, and he did it so that we would know that we’re all supposed to do it, and it’s something good for people to do.

Mellie: Why we got baptized was because we can get closer and closer to Christ.

That’s right. We get baptized so we can get closer and closer to Christ. And not just when we’re baptized, but throughout our entire lives. And it’s a very important first step. And that’s why we have communion. And that’s why we take communion, so we keep getting closer and closer to Christ.

Now, we’re still celebrating Christmas. And the reason why we bless the water at Christmas time is because the water is the fullness of Christ being brought into the world. He came into the world during his birth, and then the culmination, the climax of that was when he was baptized.

But I want to take a second and talk about his birth right now, because that was the Bible reading that we read today from the Gospel of Luke. Now, who knows where Jesus was born?

Bethlehem.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And why was Jesus born in Bethlehem? Was he from Bethlehem? Was Bethlehem Jesus’s hometown? I was born in the city of Torrance in Los Angeles. That’s my hometown. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Is that his hometown? What do you guys think?

His hometown was Nazareth, which is in a very different place than Bethlehem, and it’s very far away, especially if you’re walking. But they had to go to Bethlehem because of something called a census. They were counting all of the people, and at that time, everybody had to go back to the place where they were from, and the place that they were from was a place called Bethlehem. Jesus is not Jesus of Bethlehem; Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth. Two very different places. But they had to go all the way to Bethlehem, and when they got there, she had to give birth, but there were no hotel rooms available. So they had to go to a manger.

Now, who here knows what a manger is? Arnie says it’s a barn with animals in it. First things first: it’s not a barn. It’s a cave. And when you go to Bethlehem, you have to go down, down, down into a cave. And it always was a cave, a special place, a protected place where they did keep animals. And in that cave, there is a manger. The manger is in the cave. So what’s a manger?

A manger is not a barn. A manger is a thing that animals eat out of. It’s like a trough, or a long thing that they put the food in, and they walk the animals up to the manger, and the animals eat their food out of the manger. That’s where Jesus was born, which is to say that after Mary gave birth, they took the baby Jesus and they put him in this animal feeding trough. That’s the only flat, safe space that wasn’t the floor that they had to put him in as a newborn baby.

Now, I have one other thing to say about this. Who here knows what Bethlehem means? It’s got a very special name. It’s a Hebrew name, and the first part of the word Bethlehem in Hebrew, Beth, means house, and the second part of the word Bethlehem, lehem, means bread. So Bethlehem means the house of bread, because a long, long time before Jesus was born, that was a place where they made a lot of bread. In a different way of speaking, Bethlehem also means the house of meat. House of bread, house of meat, and a manger.

So let’s put it all together right now. Baby Jesus was born in a place where they talk about bread and flesh, and he was placed into a place that creatures eat from. And that’s what we’re doing today here at church. When we come and we receive Holy Communion, we’re receiving the bread that is Jesus Christ because he was brought into this world to feed us, to nourish us, to give us what we need, from the very moment that he was born. That’s why it’s important for us to understand why Christmas matters. And we’re very fortunate as Armenians that we have all this extra time after the holiday stations have stopped playing Christmas music, and after all the decorations have started to come down, so we get to think about why does it matter that Jesus was born. And he was born so that he can give himself to us. And by receiving him, we can live. That’s our Christmas lesson for today.

[Concluding adult message]

To conclude our message for today, for our adults who are here, who perhaps learned something already from our children’s sermon, I would like to connect the element of the story of the Nativity of Jesus Christ which has to do with the transience of Christ’s holy parents, of the Holy Family, of Saint Mary and of Saint Joseph. When they had to leave their home to be registered in Bethlehem, and then shortly after, because of the pogroms of King Herod, they had to leave their homeland altogether and go to Egypt to keep their son, Jesus, safe. Their future was unclear, and they lived like homeless people for a time, not knowing what tomorrow would bring, until eventually they would be able to return to Nazareth to raise their son, Jesus Christ, in glory and in perfection so that he would be able to give his life so that we may be restored.

However, there was that time of uncertainty where they had to live by the hope of God. And so our prayer today is that for all of our brothers and sisters in Armenia, but also to those in Los Angeles who are living uncertain of their future and do not have a place that they can call home at this moment, we should only pray that a portion and lot of the hope of God is given unto them so that they should abide and survive until such time as they, too, are restored to the fullness of their lives.