Reality and Response

What is christmas all about? And the reality and response?

'Christmas is all about stats' was an Office of National Statistic’s headline to their Twelve Stats of Christmas the last of which was that (I quote):

…with lunch eaten and the presents unwrapped…believe it or not on Christmas Day…2,590 people decided to file their online tax returns.

Of course, Christmas isn’t 'all about stats', even The Scotsman’s best cracker jokes, including last year:

…why has Santa been banned from sooty chimneys? Carbon footprints!

Christmas is all about the reality of Jesus. The reality we heard about in our first reading from John’s Gospel, that (John 1.1):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And (John 1.14):

the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John, a disciple of Jesus, who had lived with him for three years, was summarizing the reality. He was saying (with allusions to an ancient philosophical term, the Word), that the baby born and laid in a manger was none other than God almighty, come in the flesh. As we sang, in our opening carol:

God of God, Light of Light. Lo! he abors not the virgin’s womb; Very God, Begotten not created.[F. Oakley & Others, O Come All Ye Faithful]

Many today find that unbelievable. For many confuse the unbelievable with the unimaginable. Last week, the BBC’s Reith Lectures were on AI (Artificial Intelligence). When this Church was founded, most would have thought AI was unbelievable because unimaginable – though we now know it is not. Then some people think that doubts and skepticism are modern and the New Testament writers were uncritical and believed anything. That is not true. The Jews had their courts of law where evidence was weighed deciding on how much it was worth. They had a rule, often referred to in the Bible, that no evidence was admissible except you had two or three witnesses. This rule was employed monthly for settling the calendar. On the 29th of every month the priests’ committee waited until two witnesses had arrived to report seeing the thin crescent of the new moon. If they arrived before six o’clock, the next day was the first of the new month, but if none arrived, the next day was the thirtieth of the old month. One witness was not enough. There must be at least two, and then they were closely questioned. Now, we don’t have just two (or even three) witnesses to the life of Jesus in the Bible. We have four (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) all with different emphases, but all pointing to the same reality - to the good news about Jesus Christ, our Lord. And it was good news.

First, note the Angel’s words to the shepherds in our 6th reading were (Luke 2.10):

good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

And all the people means young and old, black and white, east and west, rich and poor – in fact for everyone everywhere. Christ is for all the world. And, note secondly, what that good news was. This (Luke 2.11):

Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

So the reality is that we have a Saviour. Mary, as we heard in our 4th reading, was told by the angel Gabriel the new baby was to be called Jesus - that is the Greek form of the Hebrew, 'Joshua' – meaning 'Yahweh' or 'the Lord saves'. And how the world needs salvation! For the main problem for humankind is not climate change, it is not Covid. It is human sin - thinking and acting as if we, not God, knows best. And our 2nd reading teaches, through the primeval account of Adam and Eve, all of us sin and all sin is serious. To a holy God sin is 'missing the mark' from the conflicts the statistics predict occur in most homes at Christmastime to a step-mother’s recent conviction for her little son’s murder! It includes the bad we do but also the good we don’t do! And that 'two thousand years of wrong; and man at war with man' - (we sang about) is at a national, family, and individual level.

How we need saving from the reality of sin, as we are reminded at Christmas midnight Communion. For we remember at Holy Communion the Good News that Jesus died in our place, bearing our sin, on the Cross. So if we truly admit our sin and trust in Christ we receive forgiveness. We then can obey him and so live more as God intended, with the help of his Holy Spirit. But what is our response to this reality of Almighty God, coming into our world through the birth of a Saviour, who forgives sin and enables new life? Let me mention three Responses – the Gospel of Luke mentions 2; the Gospel of John mentions 1. The, first response is what has been called:

1. THOUGHTLESS PREOCCUPATION.

In our fifth reading we heard that Mary (Luke 2.7):

…gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The translation inn has been disputed. But, if it was an inn, it probably was overfilled with other people going back to their birth-place, Bethlehem, for the Roman census. And the inn keeper, or someone else, was too busy to have time for Joseph and Mary. But happily someone did make provision, even though the baby Jesus had to share the same roof as animals! How many people here this evening are too busy, or thoughtlessly preoccupied, for Jesus Christ, this Christmas 2021? In contrast, secondly, there is the response of:

2. THOUGHTFUL CONVICTION illustrated by the shepherds. We were told in our 6th reading, that (Luke 2.15):

…When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’

They probably wanted to make sure they hadn’t been dreaming or hallucinating, and that their experience was for real, by seeing what had actually happened. They wanted reasonable proof. So what was the result for the shepherds? Answer, Luke 2.16:

they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

They had the proof they needed. I’m sure there are people here tonight who are like those shepherds. You want to make sure that all this is believable. If so, we’d like to give you a present of Rebecca McLaughlin’s 63 page little book, Is Christmas Unbelievable (if you promise to read it). Therefore, if you do promise to read it, just take one from the wicker baskets by the exits.

So there are the responses of thoughtless Preoccupation and thoughtful Conviction. But, thirdly, unfortunately, there is the response of:

3. IRRATIONAL OPPOSITION.

We heard about that in our first reading from John’s Gospel (John 1.10-11):

He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

You have that opposition brutally illustrated in Matthew’s Gospel. There, you are told how the ruthless King Herod, aided by (Matthew 2.4) all the chief priests and scribes of the people, wanted to kill the infant Jesus. However, Jesus’ family secretly escaped to Egypt. But Herod went ahead with the murder (Matthew 2.16) of:

…all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the region who were two years old and under.

Of course, not all or most opposition to Jesus and his followers is violent and murderous. But some still is, in other lands. And we call it 'irrational opposition', (1) because of Jesus’ resurrection from death, leaving an empty tomb and then appearing to his disciples. So Easter celebrates this reasonable proof that Jesus is alive and Lord of all. And (2) irrational opposition has no answer to those four last things which are a focus of this Advent season, along with Christ’s Seconding coming: death, judgement, heaven and hell. So the challenge of the Christmas reality is, are we going to be like Jesus’ opposition who did not receive him? Or we going to be like (in our 1st reading - John 1.12-13):

…all who did receive him, who believed in his name, [to whom] he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

I must conclude. God so loved the world, he gave us his only Son, Jesus, that first Christmas. So, may we, for our part, this Christmas, follow the:

4. THOUGHTFUL CONVICTION of the shepherds who (Luke 2.20), after telling others:

returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

Amen.