Bishop's Sermon: Christmas 2011
Sermon preached in Newport Cathedral Christmas Day 2011
You may not be too surprised to know that most of the Christmas cards I receive are religious ones although I recently had some difficulty finding religious ones to buy in a card shop. I ended up buying up all the religious charity cards that they had for sale! Most religious cards, of course, are nativity scenes of various sorts – some depict the Wise Men, dressed as kings, sitting on camels and holding their gifts - or else on their knees presenting them to the new born king, but more commonly the scene is the stable in Bethlehem with the usual cast – Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child, surrounded by the shepherds with the angelic host overhead, and sometimes a few animals as well.
The shepherds are significant visitors because they were poorly regarded by the religious folk of their day. As they spent their time on the hillsides tending their sheep they were unable to keep all the religious rules and attend worship in the Temple or synagogues, and yet, they are the first to visit the Christ child - but what I want to speak about briefly this morning is the message that they were given before they set off to visit the manger. They were told, ‘Do not be afraid’ ... ‘I bring you tidings of great joy’.
Do not be afraid. We live in a world where many people are afraid. They are afraid of what the economic recession might do. They are afraid of what might happen with a change in power in North Korea. They are afraid of what will happen to their pensions. They are afraid of what will happen to them when they get old or sick. They are afraid of what will happen to their children or grandchildren. They are afraid of what might happen to their church. But Jesus says Do not be afraid.
In one of his letters, St John reminds us that hate is not the opposite of love – it is fear. When people are racist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic or sexist it is because they are afraid and fear is the opposite of love and its outward manifestation is hatred and sometimes violence. Do not be afraid. St John says that perfect love drives out fear and so the startled shepherds are told not to be afraid and we also need to hear that message Do not be afraid.
When you kneel before the crib or ponder the nativity scene on a Christmas card, you need to know that you do not need to carry any fears. Christmas is a time for letting go of the fears that enslave us and prevent us from being the people God wants us to be. At the heart of the Christian message is God’s unshakable love for us shown in the birth at Bethlehem. When there are big moments in life or when things go horribly wrong, we need to tell ourselves Do not be afraid. God knows what he is about – even if we sometimes question him and shout at him – his purpose is love and if we allow his love into our lives, it will drive out the fear.
And the reason that we do not need to be afraid is given in the second part of the message I bring you tidings of great joy. It is a joy we are told not just for the shepherds but for the whole world and the tidings of great joy are that a Saviour has been born, and that gives us hope. I remember one time having a discussion with some experts in marketing and they asked the church leaders what is your USP (unique selling point). We suggested such things as peace, wholeness, well-being and even salvation but they shook their heads and said that all kinds of people are offering those things. Then we mentioned ‘hope’ and they nodded – yes, they said, nobody else is offering hope.
For Christians, our hope is in the word made flesh – that God sent his son into the world. Hope is not wishful thinking but something that is deep inside us that tells us as Julian of Norwich put it, ‘All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well’.
The congregation here in this cathedral, and people throughout the diocese, were deeply saddened and perplexed at the sudden death of Dean Jeremy so soon after his installation as Dean, and yet we have hope that out of such a tragedy will come good and God will not let us down. He sees the bigger picture and never gives up on his people even when they give up on him. God continually reaches out to save his people.
There is an old story of a man who fell off a cliff and landed on a ledge half way down and shouted out, ‘Lord I know you can save me’. Some people lowered a rope and offered to pull him up but he sent them away and said ‘God will save me’. Then they launched a life boat and the crew shouted for him to jump into the water to be rescued, but he sent them away and shouted, ‘God will save me’. Then finally a helicopter arrived and they lowered a harness to winch him to safety, but he sent them away and said, ‘God will save me’. An as it became quiet and started to get dark, the man cried out to God, ‘Why won’t you save me?’ and God said, ‘I sent some people with a rope, and then a lifeboat and then a helicopter – what more do you want?’
Sometimes we need to remember that God continually reaches out to save his people even if sometimes, like the man who had fallen over the cliff, we manage not to see it. The Bible shows the history of God reaching out to his people through judges, kings and prophets and above all when he sent his son to be our Saviour – to save us from ourselves – to rescue us from our pride and short sightedness, our stupidity and our selfishness – and today our eyes focus on the birth of that Saviour. As John Betjeman wrote:
And is it true? And is it true?
The most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Became a child on earth for me?
And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant.
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was Man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
Today, at this Christ’s Mass, we meet that same Jesus who came to meet us in humility – not this time in lowly stable, but in humility – in bread and wine.