Expectant father and Ordinand Danny reflects on what the birth of Jesus meant to his parents in his Christmas Day address. As we might share the good news of the birth of our new child he ends by challenging us “who will you share it with and invite into it next? “
Danny started by asking us about our Christmas parents and if we had been given any story books he continued:
I want to begin this morning by asking you to reflect on what your favourite story is. Perhaps it is a story you have heard from a friend, perhaps it is a story you have read in a book. Well, as I grew up, my head was always buried in a good book. I was mesmerized by Swallows and Amazons as a young boy, and craved adventure each time I read it. And in my early teens, I discovered the joy of reading Harry Potter, with the young boy wizard being the conduit for good overcoming evil. Even today, I am still an avid reader, although the time I have to read a good book or story has somewhat diminished amidst the busyness of life and studying theology! The best books and stories have an almost magical ability to transport us into their scenes, their plotlines and their characters, and are stories we long to share with others. In my own experience, the best stories are the ones that you can somehow read yourself into, and identify with the characters in some way or another. And sometimes, just sometimes, it can feel that the writer seems to know you personally as the story unfolds in front of your eyes.
A some of you know, me and my wife are expecting a baby in the new year, and in the last week, knowing that our baby can now hear with their ever developing ears, we have begun to read our baby stories, something I intend to do throughout their life, such is my desire to share the joy stories and books can offer.
The Christmas story is of course one of the most familiar and famous stories ever told, with hundreds of millions of people across the globe knowing the story of the baby Jesus and all of the characters encountered within the nativity story. But how well do we know the story really? Has this story become so familiar to us over the years that we simply read between the lines, read the characters stories with rose-tinted glasses and forget the astounding message contained within it? Who is it we can really identify with when we hear the story again? What is it God wishes to say to us if we open our ears and hearts fully?
Nativity plays, Christmas cards, even Christmas carols have a way of romanticizing the Christmas story, with warm fuzzy images that portray a perfect family on a perfect night. But the story of the Almighty God coming to earth is not something to romanticize, as tempting as that may be, but should continually shock us, bewilder us, humble us.
The Creator of all things, seen and unseen, came to earth at a cellular level, as one of the smallest things in this world, a fertilized egg in in the womb of an unmarried young girl, a young virgin to be more precise. This egg grew into a foetus, and eventually into a child, a child born into the world as any other baby would be. God did not give himself any privileges; this was the birth He chose. The Word became flesh.
As for the pregnancy itself, Mary’s partner Joseph was not the child’s father, and this fact therefore ensured that he and Mary would be mocked, scorned and derided throughout the pregnancy. Sharing the news of carrying a child is normally an experience filled with joy, delight and excitement. This pregnancy was far from this. To share this news with anyone would have quite literally placed Mary in very difficult and uncomfortable situation, her life quite literally on the line for fear of death by stoning, the pregnancy seen locally as nothing short of scandalous in the eyes of the Law. How often do we miss or even purposely leave this detail out when we hear the story, for fear of it making us uncomfortable? How often do we view the unplanned pregnancies of young girls today with cynicism and scorn?
And so fear of death combined with the Roman census drove Mary and Joseph toward Bethlehem, where things didn’t much improve. No room in a crowded town, the birth getting ever closer, and no luxury of a professional medical unit nearby mentioned once. With no other choice available to them, the parents-to-be took the only option available to them; an outhouse or stable filled with animals and their waste. The Son of God delivered not into a royal palace with a royal fanfare, but in secret, surrounded by the stench of faeces; not delivered by a professional team of midwives in a comfortable medical unit, but by whoever was nearby at the time, perhaps the innkeeper or their spouse. How often do we relegate Jesus to the smallest and dirtiest pats of our lives, unwilling to offer him the best we can? How often do we keep his presence in our lives a secret from others around us?
Emmanuel, God with us, is first visited by spellbound shepherds in the nearby fields, not by royalty and statesmen, those you would associate with a royal birth, and were chosen by the angelic host. This child’s arrival was not for the few, but for the many, for all of humankind. They rushed forth in obedience and wonder, saw the Christ child, and then rushed back to proclaim the wonder and glory of God to all who would open their ears to hear. The Magi, following the heavenly map of the stars in perseverance and awe, mistakenly enquired in the royal temple of Herod where the new king had been born; a palace was surely where to find him, right? But they were sent onwards to Bethlehem, made aware of Herod’s plan after their visitation and offering of gifts for royalty, and ordered to return home another way in order to give Jesus and his family a chance to escape the terror of Herod’s impending genocide. How often do we respond in obedience to the voice of God? How willing are we to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel to others in joy like the shepherds? How willing are we to persevere in order to find the presence of God despite the struggles we face like the Magi? How often do we turn our face away from the terror and evil in the world, comfortable in our own bubble and security?
The Christmas story is the remarkable story of the lengths God was prepared to go to in order to redeem His people. The artist and Creator come to dwell within His Creation in full in the person of His Son, in order to fully redeem humankind and all of creation upon the cross some thirty years later. The incarnation of God Almighty is a complex yet wonderful love story to marvel at year upon year, a story to reflect upon regularly, a story which we should allow ourselves to be shocked and challenged by frequently. It is a story to be shared with the world and a story that we are all connected to intimately through faith in Jesus Christ. His story is our story, and it is a story that belongs to the world. My question as I leave you this morning is who will you share it with and invite into it next?
