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.

 

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