Christmas Day 2009, Rev Canon Ann Philp
I always have a feeling of a rising tide of excitement as well as awe and wonder as we approach Christmas. I like Christmas and love the excitement and the sheer wonder that seems to be around, even in the midst of the buying and the glitter and, in this year, the ice and snow.
There are important things to fight for at the very heart of Christmas as it has been celebrated over the centuries and somehow it's all tied up with the excitement....and even some of the commercialism
And it does matter. Lets think of the variety of things that matter...just once a year to keep in touch with old friends and maintain links with more distant relatives............to try and pick up threads of some relationships which have gone off course...to maintain the sometimes rather tenuous links with the past.
It is also good to have festival, to make party and have fun and have a reason for doing so. We need times to put down the daily, routine, things and rest, however briefly, and simply enjoy ourselves along with others in the community
We all need to hear a message of peace in a war torn world and one where many suffer and one where particularly this year there are many families living with anxiety.
These things may not be specifically Christian but they are important.
And it is all these things that bring people to carol services each year; it all enables people to acknowledge the greater and deeper message ....sometimes despite themselves...
The message of the angels still means something and shepherds on a hillside listening to their message and making their way to a baby in a stable is a powerful and potent way of praying for the peace that the child promises.
Phrases like 'behold I tell you a mystery' and 'I bring you tidings of great joy' speak to the very depths of our souls.
Some would say its all for the children...yes for some it is... but it is more than that....some of our celebrations are for the child in me, the child in you.....there is, if you like, a respite from fear, from being entirely responsible, as we give way to a sense of play and even more there is an extraordinary generosity around that never ceases to amaze me.
This beautiful and intimate story of love and birth at Bethlehem and the mystery of God's love for us has the power to touch even hardened hearts... and yes we do need to pass the message to our children but we also need to listen ourselves....there is a security in trees and lights and presents and carols that we need to own and to pass on. Some of our joy is rooted in the traditions and securities of our own childhoods....the little family rituals surrounding Christmas which are part of us. For me as a child in the 1950s the magic started with the bringing to the rug in front of the fire a battered box full of trinkets and baubles and long paper chains to string across the ceiling.
There is a case for the excitement and sheer enjoyment of Christmas.
And yet we also know that it is all so much more than this. The flip side of the tinsel is serious stuff... the child born this day became a refugee, the child became a man and died for what he believed and we believe, for us...our carols are shot through with references to the cross......go and re-read the words of the Holly and the Ivy and you will see them...the coming of God is to embrace our world as it is, not as we would wish it to be. It is not all sentimentality.
The real meaning of Christmas hinges on Good Friday and Easter....this is the historical fact that is anchored in history and is at the deepest place that Christians go...it is the height of our liturgical year that is has a date and time around which all else whirls. The loveliness of Christmas has many origins...winter solstice... among them but the adoption of a feast of light to represent the time of the birth of the man who was to die is inspired....for his death and resurrection indeed bought life and light. It is to that act of redemption that the nativity points.
And the Tidings we tell this day are of a deep and great joy...and if you have read the Narnia books by CS Lewis...you will know Father Christmas only came when the ice in the world melted, the evil witch destroyed and the forces of Aslan had conquered the evil that rendered us all ice.
The message of Christmas...the bit to remember... is that we are loved...without condition...without limit...beyond measure. At Christmas the Word made flesh in Jesus says, 'I am for you', your lives are precious to God.
But even that is not all. Not only are we loved but we know because of it, that we can love. We are far from perfect and failure is an experience common to us all...but by grace...such wonderful grace, we are not defined by our failures.....we are all capable of growth in loving....that is the meaning of Christmas.....we are forgiven.....and we can forgive. As we follow the man the child was to become we will grow in that knowledge and grow too in courage so that we will reach out to others just like that child. The light does shine in the darkness...and if you hardly dare believe it....just hold out your finger to the child....reach out to the baby in the manger and like all babies...he will grasp it and in that grasp you will know that all is well.....and that our joy at Christmas is about deep mystery....the mystery that was before time began. It is in this personal relationship with the baby become man that we know he holds us still and will do for the rest of time.
The superficial froth of Christmas will still have its place but deep inside we each will know that the world changed for ever on the day this child was born...because God reached out to us and because of that ...nothing can be less than well.
Rev Canon Ann Philp