25th December 2006CHRISTMAS DAY
F David Cherry
Isaiah 52 : 7 - 10 ; Hebrews 1 : 1 – 4 ; John 1 : 1 – 14
Those stupendous words from today’s gospel: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
The ongoing work of Creation is to bring healing and justice to a broken world… , not by magic or force of power; but by the sheer loving vulnerability of a child
I want us to let go of tinsel and Chistmassy stuff this morning and
think theologically– to try to allow something of the mature
meaning and wonder of the dawn of our salvation in Jesus Christ to come
home to us.
We tend to think of God the Father as Creator and then there came Jesus
who is the Saviour. Two distinct functions. The one creates
and then something goes wrong and so Jesus is sent to put it right.
But the great mystical prologue of St John to his gospel arises out of
a church, a people, who are meditating on the extraordinary happening
towards them in the birth of Christ. They are beginning to
realise, from where they are in time and looking back, that Christ was
there at the dawn of Creation : “The same was in the beginning
with God”, writes St John. “All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
And S Paul echoes that in Colossians : “He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for
through him were created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible… all things were created by him and for him.”
Creation and Salvation is part of the same movement of God towards us
– the oomph of God. And they are beginning to realise a
stupifying truth, which they can’t quite get any more than we can
… that the Creator God was continuing his work of Creation in
the Jesus who they had known and not only that, was continuing his work
of creation in those on whom he had an impact, in the lives of those on
whom he leaves his imprint.
(Perhaps I should just have a little tangent at this point and admit
that some of us who are so caught up by the wonder of such a truth ARE
in fact left quite dotty, unable to let go of what we have been caught
up by; while others are considerably less dotty than they might have
been had that not been caught up into the wonder of God and the culture
and tradition of the church which conveys this to us .
We’re left feeling strange).
The disciples are realising in Jesus that God is continuing his work of
creation: The Creator God from outside all eternity had entered into
their own time. It is almost unconscionable, ridiculous,
scandalous. God has become dangerously close to us. He has
become flesh of our flesh. This realisation is like a light being
turned on where there was only skewed comprehension - no link between
Saviour and Creator. Now it looks different – Creation,
Incarnation are one movement, one colossal ‘oomph’ of the
Creator God towards us, to bring us into a new ‘aliveness’.
And this overture, the prologue to the gospel, spells out what is going
to be told later in the gospel in greater detail. This
Jesus is the Light as at the dawn of Creation in Genesis, a light that
brings the warmth which enables life; a light that reveals to us the
truth of how things are.
The ongoing work of Creation is to bring healing and justice to a
broken world, not by magic or force of power; not by discarding what
has been so lovingly created, not by brushing aside who we are
(“You’ve made a hash of it. Let me put it
right.”), but by the sheer loving vulnerability of a child
inviting us into relationship with others and with all that is Created.
In a world where there is so much loneliness for lack of relationship
we are addicted to quick fixes. Jesus isn’t one of
them. We’re in for the long haul – relationships with
any meaning or any affect on us – take time. Even
Churches can be successful, rather than real communities of persons in
deepening commitment to one another and to God.
And he will continue through his life content not to be proved right or
better than anyone else. The Truth does not need to demand
attention. God simply is. Jesus is God.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not
St John is saying : please don’t be surprised if only a few take notice.
It is still true now – huge indifference to this stupefying and
wonderful truth - if not outright antagonism to the Church community
who celebrate it. Indifference to the extra-ordinary truth in
this society while Middle Eastern Christians are fleeing or dying for
their faith.
He will not join the fray of competition or rivalry. But neither will he be a wimp in the face of injustice:
He will call the self righteous and those vying for power a
‘brood of vipers’; and to a vain and stubborn generation
looking for a sign, he will say that no sign will be given them.
He came to his own and his own received him not.
To those who are beginning to acknowledge their spiritual poverty, to
those excluded, marginalised and left empty, he will give sufficient
grace for them to discover themselves clothed in the dignity as
daughters and sons of the Most High.
Rather than claim his diginity, he will be the victim of human disorder
– ceaselessly loving; and on the Cross proclaim that Creation is
accomplished! The new age is here. All things are made new
for ever.
Can you hear the wonder in your heart as John tells us: the Word – that which eternally is,
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we (yes even we); we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth?
This is what has happened to us. We are invited to let it impinge on us, unsettle, disturb, invigorate and thrill.
Here on Christmas morn we find ourselves the recipient of a Truth,
no-one has ever quite got their heads round. The bursting,
the irruption into our humanity of God.
In Holy Communion at this Christ Mass may you and I rejoice in such a
wonderful truth. God joins himself to you and to me so that you
and I may convey to others such Good News.
And the Word was made flesh, and
dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Amen