Sermon.
St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford.
25
December 2016. Christmas Day.
John
1.1-14
The
one Bible reading you absolutely have to have at Christmas is the one
we have just heard. The beginning, the opening, the 'Prologue' of the
Gospel of John. It has to be this way this morning, then - though
there is a part of me which wants to apologise. Apologise that is, if
you came expecting to hear about Mary and Joseph, the journey to
Bethlehem, the inn, the manger, the angels, the shepherds, and
another journey to the new-born. I could apologise, and then
undermine the apology by saying: 'Well, you should have come last
night, then! Plenty of shepherds at St Mary's last night!' Or more
seriously I could say that the Christmas story is found within
the gospel we have just heard.
It
is there at its most pure, in the deceptively simple words Christians
have been pondering ever since: 'the Word became flesh and lived
among us'. The Word of Gd, who was with Gd and who was Gd from
the beginning, Gd-the-Word became flesh, became a human being.
That's the essence of Christmas. Gd becomes a baby.
The
last time I stood in precisely this place I suggested that Gd
becoming Mary's child, a baby, can be seen as the logical
culmination of how Gd has always interacted with us, according to
the Bible. We were reflecting on Jesus as 'Emmanuel' as 'Immanu
El' - as one who shows us 'Gd is with us'. (Anyone remember?)
Well,
I was putting to you the idea that Gd is – always has been -
willing to limit Gdself, to humble Gdself, to constrain
Gdself, so as to be as it were one character within the story of
humanity within the world. That idea that Gd limits Gdself to
be alongside us is a thread that runs through the whole
Bible. From Gd in the garden of Eden, to Gd's simple call to Abraham,
to Gd speaking to Moses face to face, like one speaks to a friend, to
Gd negotiating with the People of Israel about whether and how to
have a King, and so on.
If
Gd has always been alongside us, it is thinkable that Gd may
want to be alongside us a human being himself.
But...
what happens when Gd becomes a baby?
Here
is a story you may or may not know:1
[Mary]
brought [the baby Jesus] to her own folk, carrying him. They said: 'O
Mary! You have come with an amazing thing... O sister of Aaron! Your
father was not a wicked man nor was your mother a harlot.'
Then
she pointed to him.
They
said: 'How can we talk to one who is in the cradle, a young boy?'
He
spoke: 'Lo! I am the slave of Gd. He has given
me the Scripture and has appointed me a Prophet, And has made me
blessed wheresoever I may be, and has enjoined upon me prayer and
almsgiving so long as I remain alive, and (has made me) dutiful
toward her who bore me, and has not made me arrogant, unblest. Peace
on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be
raised alive!'
Such
was Jesus, son of Mary: (this is) a statement of the truth
concerning which they doubt.
Do
you know or might you guess where this story comes from? It is
actually from the Qur'an, the Muslim Scriptures. But don't
dismiss it on those grounds alone – I know you wouldn't. For it
resonates with earlier texts which Christians had preserved. It seems
that, before Muhammad, Christians were puzzled by the lack of stories
of the baby Jesus growing up. And so to fill the gap, they invented –
or I suppose you might prefer to say 'found' – stories. Among them
is this one about Jesus speaking from his cradle. In another he
miraculously brings to life a clay bird he has made. And that is also
in the Qur'an [3.49].
Brothers
and sisters, from a Christian perspective, it does make most sense to
think of such stories as made up. After all, what is an infant? A
little adult? Try having a discussion with an infant, and you will be
reminded that an infant is not a little adult. The word 'infant'
comes from the Latin and means 'non-speaking'. An infant is a
young human being who does not, cannot yet speak. So, from a
Christian perspective, what we are marking – celebrating – today
is this:
Gd,
the Word, the Very Communication of Very Gd, limits Gdself to become
one who cannot speak. One who can gurgle and giggle, cry and
shriek, mouth nonsense sounds ('babababab'). But not speak.
And
that is what is different from all the earlier communications from
and by Gd. Here Gd restricts Gdself in a new way. To gurgles, to
giggles, to cries, to shrieks, to nonsense sounds. Gd the Word gives
up words (at least for a time and a season – or rather for
years). Others speak, not Gd. The angels speak; the shepherds speak;
the wise men speak. And, yes, Herod speaks with his murderous intent.
Gd-as-baby speaks not.
Why
did Gd do this? Brothers and sisters, there is no 'why?'. It is quite
simply Gd's good pleasure to be that close to us, to be that
aligned with us. We just have to receive that.
And,
if we receive it, what now, for us? Do we have a speaking part,
or are we too speechless?
In
the first place, let us make sure we always value silence. We
should be open to silence as a natural part of our worship and our
praying. It is nothing to be scared of (though it does scare us).
Then
we should make sure we do not speak out just to have something to
say. If we as a national Church don't really know how to untie
all the knots we've tied ourselves into over sex and gender, let's
not gabble to pretend we do. If we have no idea how to solve the
Syrian crises, let us not grandstand with many words. The old joke
says something seriously true: it is better to remain silent and
make people question whether you are a fool, than to open your mouth
and remove all doubt.
But!
But there are still times when we must speak out. I give an obvious
example. In the year to come, there will be more racism and
hatred of difference in our own country. The political climate is
going to make such things easier. (I am not making a party-political
point, I am talking about the context, the culture for all the
debates.) And because we are all terribly silent (reserved, passive)
by nature in the big, modern city, catching no one's eye, it is going
to feel wrong, or at least difficult, to challenge racist statements
when they are made in our hearing. But, well, then, we must, at
least often, speak.
But,
here and now, let us strip away the words of the world, and of
the Church. Let us even strip away the words of Mary and Joseph,
angels, shepherds and wise men, and Herod. And let us reflect –
meditate – on the sheer fact (if we can receive it), that Gd became
a baby, a speechless infant, just to be with us.
Just
to be with you.
And
he is... with you.
[Silence
is kept.]
Amen.
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