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This is my first Christmas here at First Church, and I was told that this service is essentially, and above all other things, a family service, and that what I should share with you should be for children of all ages, from four to ninety-four. So tonight I'd like to think with you about when Christmas came to the manger, or we might call it when the baby

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came to the barn. I have thought a lot about the animals who were gathered there. I suppose if you asked most children today who the best-known Christmas animals are, they would refer to the reindeer. And I suppose it is appropriate that reindeer be remembered as those that fool Santa's sleigh. I just learned recently that reindeer can run more quickly than horses

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and dogs. So it would take reindeer to get him all the way around the world in just one night. And of course the best-known of all of them would be the red-nosed one, Rudolph. Other animals that are popular at Christmas would include the mouse. The mouse is more conspicuous because of what he has not done. Not a creature with sturry, not even a mouse.

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But there are other traditions which concern animals at Christmas. About 750 years ago, in the year 1223, St. Francis of Assisi, whom I believe to be the greatest Christian who has lived since the time of the Apostle Paul, was living near a small town called Grecio. And he was very disturbed at the fact that as the season of Christ's birth drew near,

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there was no sign of reverence or awe in the people. And so St. Francis conceived an idea. He located a cave in the hills, and there he gathered the things necessary to make a kind of nativity scene. There was a manger, there was a young couple who even brought a child, and he insisted that there be animals. St. Francis pointed out that animals praise

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God as they ought to praise Him. The way in which we best praise God is to do that which God has made us to do. Now many times we as humans don't do that. We tell fibs, and we fight, and we sometimes become envious of one another and can do ugly and mean things. But birds do what they were made to do, they sing. And cows do what they were made to do,

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they give milk. And the bees, they carry the pollen just as God told them. Animals then praise God in the purest of all ways by doing that which He made them to do. So St. Francis said the animals, who certainly were present in the original nativity scene, had to be present in this one. He had a farmer friend named Giovanni, and he borrowed his animals

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and brought them there. And then at an appointed hour all the villagers from Recchio were invited to come. And there they saw before them what historians tell us was the first after the original nativity scene. And until this day we see them in many places, and we see them always as St. Francis saw them, with animals. A lot of stories have accumulated about the

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animals. It is said, for example, that the cow gave up her dinner. It was her hay that was used to fill the manger box. And she looked with big, moist eyes and satisfaction on what she had done. The goat is in the story because tradition says that Joseph brought a goat with him when he came from Nazareth in order that Mary might have milk on the hard and

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difficult journey. The cock was there, and according to legend, he sang all night long, cock-a-doodle-dooing over and over again, because of the new light which had come into the world. And you know one of the most famous of all playwrights, in the most famous of all playwrights, has a line in which a character, Marcella, says that at this season of the

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year, the bird of dawning singeth all night long. Other birds were there, according to the story. They lined the rafters, and some say that the cardinals spooked down like great drops of blood. And the oxen were there with their shining horns, for the horn in scripture speaks of peace and safety. And the poet has picked up that theme, and Mr. Meek shared

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with us just a moment ago a poem about the oxen on their knees. And the sheep were there, according to the story, they gave their wool for the coverlet with which the newborn baby was covered. And there were also newborn lambs. You see, the season of the year is the season of the year in which Christ was born is in that part of the world, the season in which

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lambing occurs. The new little lambs come into the world. There is a special story that tells of how when the angels came to the shepherds out in the field and told them to go and see this thing which had come to pass, the shepherds went and took their flocks with them, but they didn't take one little lamb, an ugly, crippled, gray lamb. They tied him to a tether

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and left him there, because he was not whole and pure and white as he ought to be. Now while this little lamb was there, and the shepherds and the other sheep had gone, the animals who were native to that part of the world at that time gathered together in those days long ago. The Holy Land was heavily forested, and so the legends which come from that time

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tell us that there were many other animals that inhabited the region. And they came together to the place where the angels had come. And according to the story, the angels came back and one of them said that one animal would be selected to bear upon his back the newborn baby. And the lion was there, he has mentioned in scripture, and he squished his tail and

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he said, "I will no doubt be chosen, since I am the king of these." And the elephant was there, he's also mentioned in scripture, and he moved his trunk with great dignity and said, "I will be selected, for I am the grandest and the greatest of all the beasts." And the camel was there, with his supremely arrogant face and that magnificent lower lip,

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and he said, "I will be chosen, for I am the ship of the desert and the most sure-footed of all God's creatures." And there was a donkey there, but the donkey said nothing. And the angel said to the donkey, "Why is it that you do not want to carry the newborn baby?" And the donkey replied, "Because I am the least of all God's creatures." And the angel

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answered, "Then you are chosen, for you are meek and lowly at heart." And sure enough, just a few weeks later, when Joseph was led to take Jesus into the safety that was a park when Herod the king was seeking to kill him, it is recorded that he went on the back of a donkey. So off these animals too went to see what happened in the manger, but they

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left that crippled little grey lamb behind, still tied to its tether. And all the other animals gathered in the manger to see the scene. Imagine what it must have been like. Imagine, side by side, together. Do you ever sit down after Christmas and look at the Christmas cards? There are the silly ones, dogs, pooling, holly berries, and Santa Claus is enslaved.

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And there are the old-fashioned ones, which show skaters and farms and scenes from yesterday. There are the manger cards, which depict the scene of the Nativity. And there are always the lion and the lamb cards. Usually a kind of a paunchy old lion and a very sweet little lamb. But they are there, side by side, just like Pam and Abe, or Punch and Judy, or Laurel

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and Hardy. It goes back to that word of the prophet Isaiah. Do you remember what he said about the first Christmas? He said, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the sheep together, and the little child shall lead them." What's being said by the prophet, of course, is that there

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is going to come a time when, because of this little Jesus baby, people will be at peace with each other. Peace and power will be one. The victim and the victimizer will no longer be in opposition. The lion who wants to rule people, the lion who tends to ruin them, the lion who cares nothing but for himself, the lion who feeds upon others, that lion in each

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of us which sometimes roars and does ugly things, and the lamb who sacrifices the earth, the suffering, the poor, the widows and the beaten, and those without jobs. Well, the lion and the lamb will, according to the prophet, no more be afraid in one another's presence. They will be made whole. That's part of the miracle of Christmas, you see. It brings differences

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together. Lions and lambs, animals and people, shepherds and kings, children and adults, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and masters, and the Lord. God and man. All because the baby came. There will come a time when all will nuzzle together. Even that little gray crippled lamb that the shepherds left out there in the wilderness.

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Because you see, the story goes on to say that he was forgotten then. And tied to that place he became very weak from hunger and almost could not bleate anymore. And then a caravan passed. It was a noble caravan, a very rich parade. And amongst its personages, the principal, were three kings. Because of the torches carried by those in the procession,

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the kings could not clearly see the star that they were following, and so they left the procession and walked off to where it was darker to see the star again. And there they found that little lamb tied to its tether. And they released it. And they fed it. And then they went on, but because the little lamb knew not where else to go, he followed

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after. And they came, all of them, to the manger. All were gathered there. And the little lamb, crippled and gray, could not see. And so he pushed and squeezed until, gray and ugly as he was, he got right up to the front where he could see the baby in the manger. And according to the story, the baby opened his eyes and saw the lamb and reached out

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and smiled and touched him. And in that moment, he became as white as snow. And ever since that time, many ugly, gray, crippled lambs have been touched by the power of Jesus and made whole and pure again. Well, those are the stories of the animals. And they go back, some of them, across many years, and we don't know which ones are true

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and which ones are not true. But of this we are sure. Jesus was born, and the animals were there because animals are always in barns and about manger. And they still praise God by doing the things that God made them to do on Christmas and every other day of the year. So tomorrow, boys and girls of all ages, won't you put out some bread for the birds?

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Some steward for your feathered friends? A big bone for your dog? And a large saucer of milk for the pussycat that lives at your house? And other nice things for God's little creatures? It's Christmas time, and we ought to remember then, and we ought to remember too, how Christmas came to the manger when a baby first breathed in a barn. May God bless

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to you this simple witness in His name. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]