Christmas Eve – “midnight” Communion
Sunday 24th December 2017
Christmas Eve (First Communion of Christmas)
Isa. 52. 7-10
John 1. 1-14
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Often when I am listening to one politician or another I am tempted to echo the words of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady…. “Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words. I get words all day long, first from him, now from you. Is that all you blighters can do?”
In her case, the words are addressed to her lovelorn suitor Freddie. Mine are usually flung towards the TV or radio!
In a year when it seems like all we hear about is “Fake News”, it is difficult to remind ourselves that the Word is the prime way in which God chooses to communicate with us, his creation. And the gift of language is one of the most significant that marks the human animal out from all the others in Creation.
And tonight we are not here to concern ourselves with Fake News, but Good News. Good News for us and for all humankind. For to us this day/night in the city of Bethlehem is born a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord! That was the message of the angels to the shepherds on that windy and cold Judean hillside all those years ago, and it is still the same message that comes down to us tonight here in Pattingham.
Worth remembering too that the New Testament was originally written in Greek and the Greek word for ‘word’ is logos, which gives us our word logic. So God used reason to create the world, and uses his words to reason with us until we see the truth. The truth of Good – as opposed to Fake – News.
Words are also used to explain ideas that we cannot yet grasp. God speaks to us, to explain that all we see and are is actually because God intended it to be so.
If we find it hard to believe what some people tell us, they may protest, “But I give you my word; my word is my bond!” The word of God is not only a person, but a promise. His guarantee that we can depend on him – specifically for his promise to give us eternal life.
And while George Gershwin famously told us that “De t’ings dat yo’ li’ble to read in de bible, dey ain’t necessarily so ….”, that probably reflects a misunderstanding on the part of many, and a misinterpretation of what the words of the Bible actually say. The overall message is still that God loves us, and that is certainly so. Religion is not the story of our search for God, but rather of God’s search for us.
By our words – the things we say – we gradually reveal aspects of our character to other people. In much the same way, we learn of the character of God through his Word – who is the person of Jesus; his life, his passion for truth, his healings, his compassion for the needy, his willingness to forgive those who recognise their need of God, his encouragement of those who are lonely, or depressed. God is not a remote and stern tyrant; God is like Jesus. So can you see now, how Jesus is the very Word of God? Jesus is God’s means of communication, his means of creation – of the universe and of a society of loving, caring people. Jesus is God’s logic, the reasoning through which he explains his promises. Jesus is an aspect of the One God, through which God reveals to us his character.
And St John tells us that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. We could not form a very close relationship with God while he remained remote. So one aspect of God’s personality became incarnate as a human being at Christmas time. Not only that, but when many of those he loved rejected him, he made his home among and in us who love him. He also gave us power to live with him in eternity – which is to say he gave us the power to become children of God with him.
And that is the meaning of Christmas. Whatever other presents you may be getting this year, God gives you his word. Nothing fake about that!