Gloucester Cathedral, Christmas Day 2025
The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester
Gospel reading: Luke 2:1-20
I wonder what big words come to mind as you look at the world around you this Christmas? For me, there are two words etched on my mind, and those two words are ‘certainty’ and ‘mystery’.
As I have listened this year to the voices of children, young people and adults across this diocese; the voices in Westminster, and indeed in prisons; and the voices across the wider world whether on visits or simply through the media – I believe there is a yearning for certainty amid the turbulence, anxiety and uncertainty, and the endless messaging of crises. But I also perceive a yearning for mystery – a reaching out for something beyond ourselves and how things appear to be. You only have to look around you to see all that continues to spring up regarding mystic otherworldliness e.g. the mystical films and computer games, or the weird and spooky shops – (even though they seem more about the dark than the light).
And of course, angels are everywhere.
They have flown through my door on the stamps of envelopes as I have received beautiful Christmas cards – many of them with images of angels. Our own diocesan Christmas card is a photograph of the huge angel of light outside Longhope church.
And up and down the country, children will have been dressed as angels – circles of tinsel on their heads. And I’ve noticed that many decorative Christmas streetlights this year include angels …But we do have to look up to see them.
And perhaps if we truly want to encounter angels beyond the images and pictures and decorations, then we need to really lift our eyes, beyond how things seem to be. And in our yearning for mystery, I wonder if we are also listening for the angels?
Hark. The herald angels sing.
I admit it’s not easy to hear the angels in a world full of so much earthly noise – the daily chatter, the noise of media and endless social media, whether that of joy and laughter, or that of vitriolic criticism and disdain. And then there’s all the political noise and the loud voices of those with power. There is the noise of protest and counterprotest. And amid the noise of celebration and delight, there is the noise of conflict and brutal killing across our world; the noise of the cries of children, and parents in despair; the cries of those who mourn or are fearful. And the groaning of creation.
And of course, there is also the noise inside us – not only that of joy and excitement but also the noise of anxiety, and the reverberating echoes of endless uncertainty.
And perhaps that first Christmas over 2000 years ago, was not so very different from today. There was the noise of political turbulence in an occupied land, and the uncertainty of Mary and Joseph – not only about where to spend the night as they arrived in Bethlehem, but also their anxiety as young parents, wondering what the future held.
And the angels sang. Mysterious angels. And just as when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary saying, ‘Do not be afraid’, so too those angels appearing to those ordinary shepherds on the hillside going about their ordinary business, they repeat those decisive words, ‘Do not be afraid.’ And the mysterious angels actually sing of certainty. The unchanging glory of God and the good news revealed in Jesus Christ. God whose love and mercy and hope is unchanging, has come to earth to be with us. Here is the incomprehensible mystery of God mirrored in mystical angels who proclaim certainty.
I was in Bethlehem again this year. The external noise remained diminished because the tourists and pilgrims were still largely missing, but there was certainly lots of expression of internal noise. I visited a charity working with Palestinian children and families, and I saw their artwork poignantly revealing the noise within them of anxiety and fear, of pain and uncertainty. Yet I also heard the language of the certainty of love and commitment, spoken by leaders as I stood with them on their rooftop looking out at the ugly wall of separation .. and perhaps I heard the angels.
On another day, I too was out on a hillside with people keeping sheep – visiting the South Hebron hills with amazing members of the YMCA team working among communities – they and their sheep under constant attack by Israeli settlers; and I met mothers in support groups sharing the trauma of children and young people arrested and held under military detention – and I longed for them to hear the voice of angels saying ‘do not be afraid’. I long for that for people in our communities here experiencing any sort of struggle or trauma. I long for it for our Jewish friends and neighbours, fearful as abhorrent antisemitism continues to increase. I long for it for all those experiencing hatred and othering. For those that experience racism or disdain of their background, story, political views or creed; all those who experience abuse through the misuse of power – and so on and so on…
‘Do not be afraid’ say the angels – Glory to God in the highest – We bring good news of great joy for allpeople. And those yearnings for certainty but also for mystery, are held together in the child lying in the manger – God come to earth to be with us and among us. This mysterious baby, Jesus Christ, has revealed the certainty of God’s love and hope and justice and mercy.
There is nowhere that God’s love cannot be present (even if rejected). Even where the darkness seems to claim the power, and people even prefer to cling to it – even there the smallest flicker of light will be stronger than the darkness. And there is nowhere that the angels cannot sing. They fly high, and their song is not diminished, even if we find it hard to hear…
There is a beautiful early 16th century painting by Botticelli entitled ‘Mystical Nativity’, painted at a time of political turbulence in Italy. Above Mary and Joseph and the Christ-child, mysterious angels are depicted above the animal shelter dancing with the certainty of God’s love, forgiveness, and hope; dancing too with the shepherds and ordinary people, and the demons of darkness are fleeing.
‘Do not be afraid’, dance the angels. ‘Good news is here which cannot be undone’. The tiny child lying in the manger who grew to be man, who was strung up to die yet mysteriously came back to life – in him is the mystery of God come to earth revealing the certainty of love which is stronger than even death itself. The light and love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and present now through the power of the Holy Spirit, will never be thwarted, and one day, all will be made new.
Listen to the angels. But more than that let us try and learn their language…
Amid the beauty of our world there is so much division with people choosing to turn their backs on one another, or attack one another – A world of intolerance and binary view; a world of exclusivity loud with the noise of blame, of disdain, of fear and anxiety, even amidst the laughter and joy. A world in which, amid the love and happiness, there is so much broken relationship with one another, with the earth, and with God. We have not learned the angels’ song.
The angels in the Botticelli painting show no partiality as they dance among kings and shepherds, and animals and all creation. They are there among all and with all.
And as I thought about that painting, I was reminded of a glorious Sunday in Hempsted church not so long ago, in which there was dancing by children and young people as they worshipped God and waved coloured flags. So much has been said about flag-waving in recent months, but there in the worship of Hempsted, the flag waving was joyous, uncontroversial, and inclusive as people of different abilities danced with joy, giving glory to God, and celebrated our belonging to one another and to God.
We will soon sing that famous Carol ‘It came upon a midnight clear,’ and we will sing of the Angels’ glorious song of old, and we will sing of our brokenness with each other – The noise which stops us from hearing the love-song of the angels: ‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing’.
This Christmas, whatever your story and whatever the noise within you and around you, in a world that longs for certainty and yet also yearns for mystery, let us listen to the angels – mysterious and certain.
Happy Christmas!
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