Who has value? And who decides?

Christmas Eve Message 2025

In the ancient empires of Rome and Egypt, Babylonia and Greece the answers to these questions were simple: “only those whom rulers regarded as their peers” or more specifically what the Romans called dignitas. Etched out in the Babylonian legal code of Hammurabi from 4,000 years ago, the value of a person was granted or denied by the king. Rights were only conferred based on rank or caste. As historian Elaine Pagels writes,

“The king who authorized the code- assigned punishment based on the social status of the offender and the victim. Ancient kings and emperors enforced their power through terror and violence” 1 claiming to derive their position from their own gods-Ra in Egypt, Jupiter in Rome, Marduk in Babylonia.

And kings who saw themselves as above most everyone else, higher and god-like are often so different and damaged by their positions that they are deeply insecure, worst case scenario they become narcissistic kings, showing little empathy, a constant need for admiration, using grandiose expressions, crushing dissent, exaggerating their record, seizing power at every turn.

As scholar Nour Sabbagh writes of the epic of Gilgamesh, a tale of a legendary Sumerian king, from the beginning it is the story of a “quintessential narcissistic king, wielding his power over the city of Uruk with an iron fist and imposing his will upon his subjects. His tyrannical rule and exploitation of the "lord's right" to claim newlywed brides debilitates his people and renders them desperate for the gods to intervene.” 2  

Only the king decides who has value.

King Herod was like this too, only performing religion for a transaction with the Magi to get what he wanted. Throwing a tantrum, flying into a royal rage after he learns that he had been duped. Herod was comfortable with cruelty as a policy- he was familiar with anger, defaulting to revenge and using intimidation to ensure everyone stayed in line. He ordered the slaughter of innocents, find them. Kill them.

1 Pagels, Elaine. "The Moral Foundation of America." The Atlantic, Nov.

2025, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/11/america-founding-morals-rights-life-liberty/684327/. 

2 https://www.differentlens.co/p/the-narcissistic-king-exposed

As you will hear in the story, Herod says, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

He was threatened by a child. Because the story being shared, the word being spread then was that something was happening among the people that was making them think kings don’t decide who has value. Maybe they whispered the words of Genesis amongst themselves as they walked under the stars, the word adam, Hebrew for man/humankind, says, humans are created in the image of God. All humans are of God. In the beginning…

God created humankind in God’s own image, in the image of God they were created…

This is what threatened Herod.

Authoritarians and narcissistic kings manipulate fear, promising simple solutions, reducing complexity to answers like scapegoating entire groups of people, trying to remove challenging voices, furthering hierarchies of humanity, moving fast.

But the story being told, the word being passed around was that something that could only be described as angelic had been appearing and things were shifting and people were hearing that they should not, must not be afraid… that they were called upon to believe in something different than what the king was saying. Instead hear this: Behold all humans are of God, all come from the same Source, that is best known to us as love, the ground of being for all life, this is good news of great joy for all people. So look for signs that that point to good news for everyone… Follow those… As the prophets foretold Our God will give you a sign. God is with us.

This is exactly what King Herod didn’t want.

A group of people who were no longer afraid and who understood the power they had.

This is exactly what King George didn’t want either. He too exuded the arrogance of the aristocracy, only the king decides who has value.

Thomas Jefferson knew when he was working on the Declaration of Independence that the notion of a right to life and liberty for all was not just novel, but bold, and as we know, many have died to protect this idea. This another attempt to live up to the words found in Genesis. All human beings are created in the image of God.

If you are new to our expression of Christianity, we know this birth story isn’t found in the oldest Gospel, so it likely didn’t happen like this and we are quite sure that Jesus was probably born in the spring as many scholars suggest, and still we believe this story is true- that it offers us ancient and abiding truths, for this moment right now.

This story we tell again tonight is one where God comes into the world in the form of a baby from a young couple with questionable relationship status at best, with no economic power, who had to flee to another country to protect their own.

It’s a story about love breaking through under an evil leader trying to kill people whom he decided aren’t valuable.

It’s a story telling us that when kings, or those who act like kings, when they act like they are above most everyone else, higher and god-like, when rulers who are deeply insecure, showing little empathy, a constant need for admiration, using grandiose expressions, crushing dissent…God summons us to remember what we knew before we could say it out loud, a king does not decide who has value! Or even someone pretending to be a king. We all come from love. And when a king tells us to fear each other, we must choose faith over fear because much of what used to be news is now propaganda. It’s so easy to fear. Don’t absorb it, or the hate will continue to rise. Fear not!

When the rule of law is murdered along with a functioning government, when support for disasters is politicized and revenge and meanness enshrined into law, when healthcare is removed, when prices have been hiked, when the intellectual pursuit of answers for the collective good has been demonized, and attempts to massacre the innocents of science with our National Center for Atmospheric Research, I believe we are called upon now to live this old story now- to remember this old story tonight and this coming year. When the truth is being drowned, we are summoned to pull it up, to help it, to save it, the gospel of John says the truth will set us free!

Christmas is about what can happen when a group of people who are no longer afraid, who understand their power, who don’t give up on the truth and who decide they will not passively accept or tolerate an unchecked king. This is the story of Christmas. Let the story being told tonight, let the word being passed around be about that something angelic that is appearing between us and in us, let it be about the things that are shifting and the people that are hearing we should not, must not, cannot be afraid… that we are called upon to believe in something different than what the king is telling us. Hear this: we are all made in the image of God.

Cynicism and despair are tools of the Empire. We will put those down tonight and instead pick up hope…and light.

There are times in human history, when we all must unite our voices against the kings that say who has value. God breaks through in the flesh, in love: There is no king but Christ. Hark! the herald angels sing!