READING: Luke Ch 1 v 39 – 45
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”
SERMON
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Well not long now. I have noticed in the foyer of a local supermarket that there was a display board counting down how many sleep were left. The cynic in me tells me that it is more likely how many shopping days were left. The schools have finished their nativity plays and it is the nativity scene that I wish to talk about this morning.
At one time some aspect of that scene was the most common and familiar images to find on a Christmas card, it is part of the school play when 3 or 4 shepherds dressed in bath robes and had a tea towel on their head, 3 wise men with foil crowns, and a few children dressed up as sheep, donkeys, and cows would gather around a young Mary and Joseph and gaze at a little bundle laying in a small pile of straw in a manager. Although I am now reliably informed that acts of inclusion have brought about many other characters to the nativity scene!
There is a feeling of warmth and peace to that scene, a scene that for many people becomes the essence of Christmas.
It is as if the nativity scene, communicates a little bit of what God is all about and that somehow, those who look upon a reproduction of that scene, whether it be as a play or as a set of figurines placed carefully on a shelf or a table, understand the Christian message more completely than they do at any other time of year.
For a lot of people, that understanding comes not through any knowledge that they may have about the Christian message, but through the memories that they have attached to Christmas through the experiences that they had as a child.
The nativity scene, the carols and songs of Christmas, transport’s us back to the times in which special things seemed to have happened, magical things, like the times of helping mum stir the mixture for the Christmas cake and being given the spoon to lick at the end or the times on Christmas Eve when we snooped amongst the presents under the Christmas tree, wondering what was in them and the times when we left a mince pie and a glass of beer for Santa and carrots for his reindeers.
Christmas for many of us, even those who had no attachment whatsoever to the church, was a magical time, a time in which no matter how bad things were, something special happened.
Christmas was a time of parties, of family gatherings, songs, gifts, rejoicing, warmth, food and drink, it was a time of hope, peace, joy and love, and all this more than at any other time of year. All this despite whatever else might have been going on in the world.
Even for many who did not have Christ and who did not go to church – except maybe that one time of year sometime near to midnight, Christ was somehow important. The nativity scene became central, with its images of donkey, sheep and cow, shepherds, wise men, and angels, and father, mother and child. Santa Claus, or given is correct title St Nicholas, despite his incredible attractiveness just couldn’t compete and still can’t compete with the Christ child even amongst the commercial society.
You see – ultimately all adults – and most kids got it all figured out about Santa and with just a bit of encouragement they get it all figured out about Christ.
Santa is seen as the bringer of gifts and it is delightful to scramble under the tree and find something with your name on it. Santa is a good guy – even if he is has been strangely distorted by advertising but ultimately he is just Santa, he is not the child after whom the season is named.
As much as we may love all the stuff that we associate with Santa, each one of us is built in such a way by God that we can love the spiritual stuff more. And Christ – well somehow he represents all the spiritual things – the warmth, the love, the open doors, the singing together and all the other good stuff I have been speaking with you about.
And what is more spiritual – even to the untrained eye who knows nothing about the cross and the resurrection, or the sermon on the mount and the parable of the prodigal son, than the spirituality of the nativity scene?
The birth of any child is special but the birth of Christ is the very pinnacle of special. We see in the birth of Christ a gathering together of many things that are very encouraging.
We see poor shepherds who must tend their sheep at night, who are separated from their families by the demands of their work. Shepherds specially invited by angels to see the new-born Messiah, and we see them in the warmth of the candle lit stable to be the first to discover, the birth of child, a child of great promise.
We see wise men from far away, men who in their wealth and wisdom realize that there is something more, something greater, than that which they already know or have, we see them find that something greater, we see them find the king that they seek, and kneel in awe before him – though he is but a baby.
We see Joseph, a village carpenter, a man who works hard for a living, a man who struggles to do what is right by the girl he loves, a man of integrity standing next to Mary, strong, silent, protective and deeply caring.
And we see Mary herself – radiant in her motherhood, a woman who stores up in her heart all the things that are said to her about her child.
Who cannot be moved? Who cannot see themselves there in the scene and wonder? Wonder at the sheer fact of the birth? Wonder at the star – and at the stable, and at the silence that is broken only by the sounds of the animals, the songs of praise, and the contented sighs of the tender child?
There is tremendous power in the nativity scene, a power that cannot be overcome by bombardment of commercial advertisements.
It holds the power of the ordinary, of the humble, the power that Mary sang of when she said in Luke Ch 1 v 46-48. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant’’.
Deep inside us there is, I believe, a profound power of appreciation of what it means to have the Son of the Living God born in a manager that is meant for the feeding of animals.
We recognize the ordinariness of Mary that Joseph was not especially important, that the shepherds were just plain folk, and the wise men were the kind of folk that are usually ignored by the truly powerful people in the world.
We know this – and we celebrate the fact of their ordinariness and of how God chose to bring a new life into their lives, of how God gives himself to just these kind of folk, the kind of folk that we, for the most part, are.
You see, Christmas bears to us the gifts of God and it bears those gifts in ordinary ways, in humble ways, in simple ways, in ways that are accessible to humble, ordinary, simple people.
The ordinary is the place in which the gifts of God can be found. The small towns like Bethlehem, the simple folk like Mary and Joseph.
And so we – deep inside us – also bear the gifts of God. We bring those gifts forth and give birth to them, in every act of love and in every communication of hope that we make to one another.
So don’t let the commercial-ness steal our Christmas. Let us care for one another with what God has given inside us and let us worship the Lord born in a manager – born to set us free. The Lord who sits within our hearts.
May the peace and the hope and the wonder of the nativity be ours at this time. Amen
PRAYERS
Let us pray in silence to our God and thank him for all his benefits…. Our souls praise you, O God, and spirits rejoice in you, our salvation – for as you did unto Mary, you have done unto us: you have been mindful of us, and of our humble state, and you have been merciful to us, and have satisfied our hungering hearts. So as did Mary, so do we declare, O God, the greatness of your name. We proclaim your might, the deeds your arm has done. We affirm your power, we herald your dominion, and we tell out the glory of your word!
Lord, in your mercy… hear our prayer…
Help us O God to rely upon your promises and to put our trust in you anew. Grant us wisdom and discernment and a faithful keeping of Christmas – a keeping in which we give that which is most important – your love and your hope – the love and the hope that is made flesh in deeds of caring and sharing.
Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer…
Grant O God, to those who gather during the next week safe travel and a time of joy and peace with their families and friends – and grant too O God that those who are alone may be visited and cheered by their neighbours, and by us.
Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer…
Grant O God, to those who are dwelling in the darkness of want, of need, or of despair – a new light at this time. Keep us mindful of those who cannot sing or rejoice during this season and so direct us that we might be ones that bring a new song to their hearts.
Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer…
Grant O God, the silent requests of our hearts at this time – our prayers for our family, our community, and our world.
Lord in your mercy… hear our prayer…
Giver of the greatest gift – move in our hearts and make us a people worthy of the name of Jesus – raise up that which is has been brought low, and bring down that which has been lifted up. Prepare in us and through us the way of your Son Jesus Christ we ask it in his name.
Merciful Father accept these prayers in the name of your son our saviour Jesus Christ.
Revd Kevin
Associate Priest at St Wilfrid’s and St Thomas’
