Christmas Day Gloucester Cathedral 2024
Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Hebrews 1:1-4; John 1:1-14
‘Calm and bright’ – That has been a national church strap line for Christmas, taken from that beautiful carol ‘Silent Night, Holy night’ with the next line ‘all is calm, all is bright.’
I wonder how calm it has been in your home this morning? I hope it’s been bright. Happiness and cheer; excitement and laughter.
Of course, I’m under no illusion that in many homes and on many streets and in many places, there will be little resonance with those words ‘calm and bright’, and I have reflected on that strapline quite a lot recently, amid issues in people’s lives; in the Church; in my role with prisons; and of course amid the places of conflict and suffering across our world.
For people in Magdeburg, Ukraine, Sudan, and so many other places, often unseen and unheard, there will be a disconnect with those words ‘calm and bright’.
And of course, at Christmas we are acutely aware of the Middle East as we sing and hear of Bethlehem and Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. I have quite an ache in my heart as I look back on my visit this year to Israel Palestine, particularly listening to the heartbreaking experiences of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, and across the Occupied Territories. And in Gaza it won’t be calm and bright for Israeli hostages held in dark tunnels or for their families and communities; and it won’t be calm and bright for Palestinians without shelter or resources, and in fear of attack.
I was reflecting on all this and that Christmas strapline ‘calm and bright’ as I was travelling on a train in the early morning when it was frosty and there was an amazing early morning sun. Everything did seem beautiful, calm and bright. And then came the announcement over the tannoy about being aware of thieves at this time of year, and within seconds I heard that familiar train strapline: ‘See it, say it, sorted.’ And I found myself musing on whether that might actually be quite a good strapline for Christmas.
In those beautiful words we have just heard from John’s gospel there is a deliberate and strong echo of the very first pages of the Bible, ‘In the beginning’. At the start ofthe Bible those beautiful and mysterious narratives tell of God’s creation and seeing that it was good – beauty and perfect relationship. And then came fracture and brokenness. And when we look at our world and in our lives, those places of pain are always about broken relationship – with God, with one another, with creation, within ourselves. God saw that too and committed to sort it. God sees it – and God says it.
In our reading from the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus Christ came to earth, we had the image of the messenger, the one who says, who speaks good news. And those words we heard from the Letter to the Hebrews refer back to the prophets: ‘Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.’
Indeed, that Son, Jesus Christ is mysteriously describedas ‘The Word’: ‘The Word became flesh and livedamong us.’
The one who was present at the very beginning of time,now at that first Christmas Jesus Christ becomes flesh,because God sees, and God says…but sorted?
‘Sorted’ is probably not the word which would be used by those living with pain, injustice, abuse, loneliness, hunger… Life seems far from sorted.
And yet – and yet – in the baby lying in a manger God has promised to sort it because God has seen, and God has spoken. One day that sorting, that restoration, will be complete. One day there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more dying, and we glimpse that even now in a tiny baby lying in an animal feeding trough, in a small place on the earth’s globe over 2,000 years agoamid political turbulence, uncertainty and fear.
For shepherds on the hillside outside Bethlehem in the dark and cold night, suddenly everything did become extremely bright. Angels light up the sky singing glory to God. Angels! Mystery! And the shepherds hurry toBethlehem to see this thing – this God coming to earth in human form – this mystery – the one who will reveal who God is so that people see, and say and tell. Not just then but now too.
One day that baby grew to be man and was cruelly strung up to die, and those who were outraged by himthought they had seen. They said what they thought,and they thought they had it sorted. But so far from the truth. Death was not the end – resurrection was to come. There was to be yet more seeing, and more saying, and a deep recognition that now it was sorted. Death would never have the final word.
And of course, all this is mystery way beyond that pragmatic strapline ‘see it, say it, sorted’. That is devoidof mystery. But perhaps those words can prompt us to lift our eyes to see, and to dare to say, which is what we are doing today in this Eucharist.
As we gather around the table to be fed by Christ in bread and wine, we tell again of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ as we look for the coming of God’s kingdom which will one day be complete, and the brokenness of life and of our world will be sorted. To quote those words from Isaiah: ‘All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’.
That is why Christmas is bright. And why we can have deep inner calm – even amid the tears and struggle as well as the laughter and celebration. The light and loveand hope which came into the world that first Christmas shines in the darkness and the darkness did not, and will not, overcome it.
Here is hope beyond our greatest fear. Here is light beyond the greatest darkness. Here is life beyond evendeath itself.
With those shepherds and angels, see it, say it, sing it: ‘Glory to God in the highest’. That’s not to deny the pain and struggle or to make light of people’s suffering and the injustices of our world, but it is to be confident thatultimately God has it sorted – even now – and one day it will be brought to completion.
Happy Christmas!