Homily copyright (c) 2025 Dan Harper. As delivered to First Parish in Cohasset. The text below has not been proofread. The homily as delivered contained substantial improvisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014from Stray Birds<\/em> (1916) by Rabindranath Tagore<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know about you, but it feels like it\u2019s easy to get discouraged these days. Wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and all around the world. Violence here at home, including a couple of high-profile shootings a couple of weeks ago in Rhode Island and Massachussetts. The Epstein files. Forever chemicals and micro-plastics in our brains. AI is going to take away all our jobs. If you\u2019ve ever doom-scrolled through the news or social media, you know the feeling you can get that we are all in a big mess, and it\u2019s only getting worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, while I was having that feeling that we\u2019re in a big old mess, I ran across the quote by Rabindranath Tagore: \u201cEvery child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity.\u201d Since I am by nature something of a cynic, I immediately began an argument in my head in which I contradicted what felt like an overly optimistic viewpoint. First, having spent twenty five years of my career working with children and teens, I could not help but think of the kids who were themselves discouraged and might have disagreed with Tagore. Second, if we\u2019re going to say that God is sending a message, then I want to know how we\u2019re defining God before I agree that God sends messages. Third, even if we assume that God is not discouraged, that doesn\u2019t mean I have to agree with God\u2019s assessment of the situation. Fourth\u2026 well, I\u2019ll stop here. You don\u2019t want to hear the rest of the argument I had in my head, partly because it was not uplifting, but mostly because I began to think that maybe Rabindranath Tagore was actually correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider that Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1861, at a time when the British ruled India. His whole family was part of the Bengal Renaissance. The artists and social reformers of the Bengal Renaissance questioned British colonial rule, at the same time as they questioned many of the old Indian rituals and customs. They wanted to replace the old oppressive social systems with a modern liberal society that valued each person as an individual. The Bengal Renaissance was an integral part of the effort to transform India from a British colony into the world\u2019s largest democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he was just 16, Rabindranath Tagore published his first book of poetry, to widespread acclaim. His literary career grew from there, culminating in 1913 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature; he was the first Asian ever to win a Nobel Prize. The British King recognized Tagore\u2019s talent by conferring a knighthood on him in 1915.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, British rule in India seemed to become more and more oppressive. Tagore was especially horrified by the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, when British troops fired upon unarmed civilians who were peacefully protesting, killing and injuring perhaps two thousand people.(1) In response, Tagore wrote to the British ruler of India and renounced his knighthood, saying: \u201cThe enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to my mind the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rabindranath Tagore lived in a time of oppression and violence. He could easily have let himself be overwhelmed by the feeling he and all of India were in a big mess that was only going to get worse. But instead of engaging in the early twe3ntieth century equivalent of doomscrolling, Tagore refused to give in to despair. In 1916, he published the very short poem I read to you earlier: \u201cEvery child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I came across this very short poem by Tagore just a couple of weeks before Christmas, I couldn\u2019t help thinking of Jesus of Nazareth. Not that Tagore was thinking about Jesus when he wrote this; he was a part of Brahmo Samaj, a very liberal Hindu reform group. So Tagore was not thinking about Jesus, but he nevertheless expressed something that I sense in the story of Jesus\u2019s birth. Jesus was born into a tiny powerless country ruled by the Roman empire, an empire that was mostly concerned with extracting maximum profit from its subordinate states. Jesus was born into a Jewish family, a minority group with none of the rights enjoyed by Roman citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you were not a Roman citizen, life in the Roman Empire was nasty, brutish, and short. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, would have had every right to worry about the fate of their child. Yet instead, so the Christmas story tells us, they allowed themselves to be filled with the wonder and love that attends the birth of a child. Ultimately, Jesus did in fact turn out to be a truly exceptional person; yet at the same time, Mary and Joseph only felt what every parent feels at the birth of a child, indeed what all humanity feels at the birth of a new child: that we should not be discouraged with ourselves, for there is still hope. Every child comes with this message: God is not yet discouraged with us; there is hope for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, by the way, is why this congregation is so glad to have babies show up at our services. The baby who giggles during a Sunday service? That\u2019s a message that offers more hope than any sermon I can give. The baby who cries in the middle of a service? That\u2019s a message of joy more poignant the the best soprano or tenor soloist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I think of babies in the Christmas season, I can\u2019t help but think of the baby Jesus. I can\u2019t help but think of the stable with the friendly animals and the angels and the shepherds and the wise people from afar, all admiring a newborn baby. All this reminds me of the words Dr. Kate Sullivan spoke during our Christmas pageant two weeks ago: \u201cWhy would all these people stand around for such a long time to admire a tiny new baby? There’s only one reason I can think of: because the birth of a child always brings hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so it is that we value the babies among us. Maybe these babies are not as special as Jesus of Nazareth (although their parents might not quite agree with that). Children show that God is not discouraged with us; or for those of us who don\u2019t believe in God, we can understand this metaphorically: children show us that we need not be discouraged. Each child represents hope for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So let\u2019s cut back on our doomscrolling. Rather than staring hopelessly at our screens, let\u2019s pay more attention to the children out there, each of whom represents hope for the future. And since we Unitarian Universalists are pragmatic people, always looking for something hands-on we can do, we can each figure out how we can support babies and children and their families. If you have babies or young children of your own, you\u2019re already doing this work. To give another example, our congregation operates a preschool, our way of helping to support the growth and development of young children. Or if you have friends or family who have babies or young children, you can support them. Teachers and childcare workers and children\u2019s librarian are already doing this work, something to remember if you\u2019re looking for a career change. Or if you\u2019re able to contribute to this evening\u2019s offering, everything you give will go to Boston Healthcare for the Homeless,<\/a> which means you\u2019ll be supporting children, because families make up two thirds of the homeless population in Massachusetts. These are just a few examples of how we can support children. You\u2019re probably already doing one or more of these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ane here\u2019s one final suggestion. As we support the children here and now, in our own time, perhaps we can remember the tiny baby born in a stable two thousand years ago. That tiny baby went on to change the world for the better, with his philosophy that love is the most important force in the universe. Each child comes with that potential. Instead of doomscrolling, maybe we can stay focused on that life-giving thought: Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristmas Homily<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Note<\/h3>\n\n\n\n