Christmas Day

Throughout advent we have paused to consider in what ways we contribute, or share: hope, peace, joy and love. Today we come together to remember the birth of Jesus. We hear the Bible story, we sing the carols; Christmas is a time when tradition, and family traditions, come to the fore.

But each year there are people for whom Christmas does not follow the familiar rhythm and pattern. As people move house, and relocate for work, some families no longer get together for Christmas. Children grow and marry, there are two family traditions to try and attend to. People die. Marriages end in separation or divorce. I know 2 families this year, who are with a parent about to die.

Traditions change, and that is fine; life is continually changing, but one thing the Christmas story does, is to anchor us into something we find hard to put into words.

Luke records the story of the birth of Jesus, to a young woman, away from home.  This story still amazes me.  

The Christmas story includes angels in a few places, and they always seem to say “Do not be afraid”, so maybe angels aren’t cute and sweet looking?

An angel  appears to the shepherds, and says:

"Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

 ‘Good news of great joy for all the people’. What is the good news of Christmas? Presents, food, family, parties, holidays?

‘Good news of great joy for all the people’. “all people” I wonder what good news there is for ‘all people’ this Christmas, not only the ones who received gifts they like, not only the people with enough food and a place to holiday. ‘all people’ . the angel is recorded as saying “all people” ; ‘Good news of great joy for all the people’ – so that means the families who are mourning a death, it means people with no one to call family, it means people who live in fear.

Christmas is amazing, because the birth of Jesus happened amidst the ordinary world of ordinary people. Mary was faithful to God, but Mary was not a princess, she wasn’t a spiritual seeker off on  a pilgrimage, all we are told about her suggests she was a teenage girl engaged to Joseph. And Joseph, he was a carpenter; not a priest or a king. Two people, like many other couples of their time.

And then after the birth, the shepherds come to visit. Now in the play at carols 2 nights ago, the shepherds were clean and well mannered; but shepherds at that time in history were people who could not get any other work.

That is part of the joy of the Christmas story, that God chooses the outsiders, the rejected, the homeless.

What does this story of a baby born to a young mother and laid in a feeding trough, of shepherds coming in from the hills, of no room for travellers, of Roman imperialism, what does this story have for us today?

At the beginning of the service today we watched a video clip of people singing in a shopping mall, I believe it is called a flash mob. In the midst of people’s activity, Christmas broke in.

That is ‘the good news of great joy for all people’; that God broke into our existence, not to emperors and bishops, but to ordinary people in out of the way places.

The good news for each of us today is that God breaks into our lives, offering hope, peace, joy and love.