24th Dec 2006CHRISTMAS MIDNIGHT MASS

Fr Julian Browning

Isaiah  9  :  2 – 7 ; Titus  2  :  11 - 14 ; Luke  2  :  1 - 14 

Wherever you have come from, whatever you've done or failed to do in your life, this is the night when your story and God's story join and touch each other. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. 

A baby needs love; the child is now in our hands. What are we going to do about it? 

Your hopes, your fears, are  from now on understood by God. Christ is born in Bethlehem, and Christ is born today in another place of confusion and fear, the human heart. Jesus is born in a place were he is unrecognised, where we say there is no more room, your heart and mine. That is where he wants to be, and that is what is hard to believe. Surely we should be the ones who set out and be good and faithful and try to find God. But it doesn't happen like that. The surprise of Christmas is that God doesn't hang around waiting for us to go to him. Into this world, harsh and bitter as it is, full of suffering, misunderstanding, pain and betrayal, Christ comes to live among us. It is, I think, the surprise and joy of knowing ourselves to be loved again. It is the surprise and joy of a new start, it is the surprise and joy of the child in us being born again. For a new baby the first day of life is like the first day of creation; everything is new. That is what God gives us tonight. He gives us a new life, a chance for a new start, a world reborn. A baby needs love; the child is now in our hands. What are we going to do about it? When we put the needs of the Christ child before ourselves and our very worthy concerns, we live again in God's family, a family in which we never thought we really belonged.

There are those who say the whole story of God is a delusion. There are those who say it's about as true as a tale of fairies and unicorns. There are those who say it's bad for us to believe, and that faith is a sign of a low IQ. If you are a bit dim, don't worry; God doesn't give twopence for cleverness. And the cleverness of these critics means nothing in the end. They can't hear what we hear, the enduring melody of God in the world around us. Of course we use our imaginations, metaphors, allusions, and every human skill we have, to describe, on a human scale, the Love that saves the world. The only reason many of us find the Christmas story difficult to enter, is not because the story is a multi-layered fantasy, but because it is too real, too close for comfort. The child will grow into a man who is to be crucified. That's what happens when God puts himself in human hands. The Christmas message is that we have a God who loves and trusts us, Emmanuel, God with us, even when He undergoes the worst that a human life can bring. God's commitment is total, and as a sign of that Jesus will be raised from the dead to be with us for all time. Tonight we are at the beginning of that story, when God entrusts his life to us, as fragile as a little baby. No wonder we think twice before following the shepherds to Bethlehem.

But it's quite a story, and go we must, for here is the end of all our exploring. God is sheer joy, said Aquinas, and sheer joy demands company. Do you remember what the angel said to the shepherds? They were watching their flocks by night, and the angel of the Lord came among them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. The very first thing the angel said to the shepherds was, 'Do not be afraid'. What a marvellous line to be given, the first words of the story of Christmas night. 'Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.' Do not be afraid of the glory of God. Don't back away when you see God's human face. Wonder, yes, but don't run away from God's glory, do not deny it, any more than you would think of running away from someone's love. The glory of God is now to be found, not in signs and wonders and unicorns, but in our own human story, and that is the way, the only way, that God can get through to us. So the message of Christmas is that God's glory shines around us, every day of our lives, if we are not too frightened to open our eyes to it. Like the shepherds in the fields, who just happened to be there minding their own business, we have to go and see this unexpected glory, to be part of the Christmas scene ourselves. There's no need to be afraid. We see the forgiveness God offers, the new start. His Love will hold nothing back. If we have the courage to follow the story on from Christmas, we shall, in the end, hold nothing back from God. What can I give him, Poor as I am? The shepherds can give lambs. The wise men, those with a high IQ, will think of something. Yet what I can I give him – Give my heart.' And just watch, as the world awakes today to a Happy Christmas.