Christmas that changes everything
Isaiah 9:2-7
Luke 2:1-14
Happy Christmas!
I found this in a back issues of
Hello! Magazine recently:
Looking happy and relaxed together
after their first Christmas as the "Holy Family", Mary and Joseph
welcome Hello! readers exclusively into their new home. As their adorable three week old baby Jesus
plays happily on the floor-doing the Times crossword-Mary told us about the
rush to get everything ready in time for his birth.
"We only exchanged on the
property on Christmas eve-it was all a bit last-minute. Although he was born in the fullness of
time, Jesus was premature. Nothing was
ready. Joseph was marvellous. He just got his tools out and soon had the
place liveable." She gazes
lovingly up at his rugged handsome features-and affectionately squeezes those
strong sensitive craftsman's hands.
Joseph's design skills are apparent throughout the house. He has created a family home while still
retaining the original rustic features of Middle Eastern cattle shed-in fact
several animals still live there.
Mary proudly showed us the charming
nursery with its unusual manger feature, designed in the style of a cattle
trough. "Jesus loves it-in fact he
loves everything-he's just a perfect baby.
Of course, since he's been born we have had a constant flow of
visitors. It has been very busy. But we are fortunate to have a child minder
who is a real angel."
It's just perfect isn't it? Everything in its right place. I'm sure Mary wouldn't want to change a
thing this Christmas. But what about
us? Is there anything we would like to
change this Christmas? Swindon town's
league result? Our hairstyle? Perhaps our mother-in-law? I haven't spoken to my mother-in-law for 10
years. I don't like to interrupt
her. Clergy are going to change this
year too. We are going to take up
martial arts. I think this sounds like
a wonderful new approach to PCC management.
Or how to deal with people who take you up on your sermons after church.
But if there is one thing we would
like to have been able to change this year it is probably the image which is
burned deep in our minds of those people who fell and died, hand in hand, at
the World Trade Centre in New York.
Human suffering is nothing new, but somehow September 11th has acted in a
deep way to make us more conscious of the reality of the brokenness and
fragility of God’s world. There is a lot about this year that I'm sure
that we would like to rewind and change.
We had a little controversy in the
church in the last week or so. In the
light of recent world events, some thought it would be a good idea to put the
huge wooden cross which we use at Easter at the back of the church, so that as
you looked at the crib you could see the cross behind it, casting its shadow
over all the proceedings. There were
practical reasons why this was difficult and so eventually it has been moved
just here to the side of the church.
But this sign of Jesus’ suffering being here at Christmas is a sign that
God becoming a baby was a messy business.
It was an act of humiliation which brought God slap bang into the middle
of a confused and painful world.
The biggest danger we face at
Christmas is not commercialism or materialism, we all know about that. The biggest danger especially this year is
that a tinsel-loving, lights-twinkling, present-wrapping, Hello! magazine style
of Christmas would just be one big exercise in escapism. It would be a flight from the real world
into some kind of fantasy.
The reality is that Jesus’ birth
mirrors the problems of the world to a remarkable degree. Who else claims a God who has been born
illegitimate? Who else claims a God
born in poverty as a refugee? Who else
claims a God who could not find a place in his hometown, who had his life
threatened, who was born in occupied territory, whose parents had been forced
to travel in order to be registered for a census-so that the state could keep
an eye on them? Who else claims a God
born from the pain of a woman?
Christmas, the cross, and what has happened this year are all are linked
by common experience. And in such a
world of uncertainty the message that God is with us right in the depths of our
pain is the Christmas message of good news that we need to be proclaiming. God identifies with us, he is with us in the
midst of everything.
But we can also sound a more
celebratory note. The angel told the
shepherds: don't be afraid. Don't be
afraid. There is no other phrase used
more widely in the Bible. There is no
other message that God wants us to hear so much. He is the Prince of peace.
Don’t be afraid. Isn’t that what
babies do? Banish fear? Babies melt hearts. Babies show us that life can be reborn. Babies accept people, they give us the gift
of being open to all. Babies bring hope
and speak of a future. Babies tell us
to stop being slaves to fear. They
whisper in our ears: “Become slaves to
love.”
During the second World War, the Allied Army was advancing through
France. The Germans were making a last stand wherever they could. During a
night of heavy fog the opposing armies moved very close. Only a long green
meadow and one farmhouse separated them.
As dawn came, the fog lifted. Bullets and bombs began to explode, and men began
to die. After a long period of severe battle, the house in the green meadow was
hit and began to burn.
Then someone whispered, "Look!" It was unbelievable, but there
was a small baby crawling across the field. As the soldiers saw the
child, the shooting stopped. It became very still. Every eye was on the baby.
Suddenly, a soldier raised up from his position, ran out into the open, grabbed
the baby up in his arms, and ran back to his line. In a moment a great cheer
went up on both sides, and the bullets began to fly again. But for a moment, the baby changed things.
Oh, there is a lot this Christmas we would like to change. Where can we find hope which is rooted in
reality and not in escape? Where can we
find a love big enough to understand all people, our friends and our
enemies? Where can we find the courage
not to be afraid?
Here in the crib which is both a crucible of pain and a shout of joyful
hope. Jesus is with us in the dilemmas
of life. Jesus is the Prince of peace. Jesus changes everything.