“Christmas Day - Tell us about God – We have forgotten”

Karen Sloan

Readings -

When I was thinking about today, another Christmas and another Christmas sermon, I was at RPH, my research work place. When I told my workmates what I needed to do when I got home, they laughed uncontrollably.  What, don’t you know Christmas by now they said, surely you can just repeat last years, because the story is always the same! Ouch.

What they were really saying is that on the surface the stories seem the same, so why bother, just repeat them over and over again. No one cares.

Well I beg to differ!!

There is so much more to the Christmas stories than meets the eyes, at least my workmates eyes, but we have to look deeper, see underneath the stable, the crib and baby, the star and even the animals, to see the truth of them for us, even today 2000 years later. Because we do care and because there is a message for all of us if we look!

So what lies beneath the Christmas we come and celebrate today?

Well firstly I believe God lies beneath.

You may think it’s odd that I start here and not with Jesus, but let me read a quote from John Phillip Newell.

in The Great Search, his most recent book,  Newell writes,

'At the heart of the Christian tradition is the story of incarnation, of God born in the flesh. But what have we done with this radical story of the divine-human intermingling in the Christ Child? We have said it points only to one, Jesus, rather than to all. We have treated him as an exception to humanity and as an exception to the universe, rather than as a revelation of humanity and Earth, all flesh, all matter interpenetrated with spirit. The cherished song of Immanuel that has echoed down through the centuries within the walls of Christianity needs now to be sung clearly and emphatically as a song of the immanence of the divine in all things, pointing not simply to the divine with us in one person, one place, and one time but to the divine within us in every person, every place, and every time.' (The Great Search, p. 19)

Mm, so what is Newell really saying?

Well, that Jesus and his life and teachings are pointing to something larger and more universal.  Something we may have forgotten. 

That God lies beneath everything we say and do.  Not a God in the sky, not a God who intervenes in human affairs every now and again, but a presence hidden in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world, as Frederick Buechner would say.  A presence, a spirit, an energy, a mystery,  found in all of life, from the smallest molecule of the universe to the complicated but beautiful creatures we have become. A presence found in Jesus. But not just in Jesus.  In all of us.

As Paul Tillich also suggests, , `the particularity of Jesus` life and message points to the universality of God`s love and presence. If we stress the particularity of Jesus and forget the universality of God, we make Jesus into an idol and sing love songs to him, or Christmas carols, rather than follow him.

And many many people at this time of year do just that.

…

So with this understanding of God or the divine, lets come back to Jesus, a man who lived and died in 1st century Palestine?  A man said to be God’s son.

I believe the God of the universe is the God found in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus reveals most fully the presence and love of God to us, which is why the ancients called him Son of God. Funnily enough Jesus referred to himself as Son of man. As humans and God’s creation we wait not for a supernatural saviour to rescue us, but a saviour called Jesus, brave and faithful,  whose life was spent among the people and who showed us the way.  A way to a new life, here and now, a new kingdom of peace and love where everyone shall be included and no one shall go without.  A way of life incredibly political and subversive!

That last comment is sometimes a shock to people, wasn’t Jesus meek and mild?

Dominic Crossan, a New Testament scholar and Catholic priest  has spent all his life exploring the historical Jesus and has other ideas.

Crossan believes Jesus came at a time and a place offering an alternative vision of living, not elsewhere, not in another life, but in this life.  A vision of justice. He presented a stark choice to people, a choice between the Roman Empire and God’s kingdom.  An empire of violence and hate or a kingdom of love, compassion and deep joy irrespective of race, religion, class, gender or age.  But more importantly he challenged the Emperor himself, Caesar Augustus, who claimed to be Son of God and Lord of all.  It was Jesus who revealed God, not Caesar, and that was treason.  In the end it was inevitable that he was crucified, just as those who cry out for justice often are.

Crossan describes Jesus as a nonviolent revolutionary who practiced non-violent resistance to the powers of injustice unto death.  And in doing so he revealed most fully the creative and life giving presence of God in this world.  It was a Kairos moment, a moment when things break in to change direction and to highlight new possibilities.  This is the Jesus who stands before us today, not as a baby but as a man.

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So what then do we do with the birth narratives? The surface stuff! How do I explain them to my workmates!

Well, we have to remember each year that the birth stories of Jesus are an amalgamation of stories written about him after his death.  In fact the birth stories are quite late, and do not feature in all the gospels.  Neither the gospel of Mark nor John say anything about Jesus’ birth. 

 They are in fact not history, but rather myths, beautiful and powerful.  

They represent a way of human knowing that can be placed alongside scientific knowledge as two complementary pathways into life’s truth. They don’t have to be literally true to be true!

They give us insights we don’t see until we really see!   But perhaps difficult for engineers and physicists to get!!! Not that I want to be critical of my friends.

So if we examine them with new eyes we will see that they reflect the gospel message in miniature.  They challenge the Roman Empire.  Jesus is seen as a defenceless baby whose family can’t find accommodation and when they do it is a smelly stable.  The poor shepherds of the hills are the ones who hear the message of his birth, rather than kings or rulers.  There are lots of animals, not there for the children’s amusement, but to show that all of nature is included.  We have in the story a woman, Mary, and the Magi, who are foreigners of varying age, and who come bearing gifts.  In fact Jesus and Mary themselves are refugees escaping persecution. We see a powerful and ruthless King Herod, a threatening presence. And we have the angels singing about peace on earth and goodwill hovering over the whole scene, representing the God of all creation, of Jesus and the hope that this represents for all of us.

Beautiful, evocative and very subversive stories. 

They give rise to a Jesus whose teaching and life was universal and grounded in the indwelling love of God that guided his life and can guide ours.

As Keith Rowe suggests,

“There are no facts upon which we can say for certain that God is with us or  that God even is, but over the centuries those who have taken the stories of the birth of Jesus and the life of Jesus into their hearts and imaginations have been changed.  And maybe they have glimpsed this God we talk about”. 

So the stories are a revelation to us about where God is to be found and who God is .  Not just in Jesus but in us!!! I think it’s a universal message, aimed squarely at all those standing by the crib in that stable, gazing at this baby.. 

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So here we are this morning, what do we do with Christmas in 2024?

I believe our hope for the future, for all of us,  lies in the message of Jesus. And the God we meet in him. As I said before not some otherworldly God confined to the outer reaches of our reality but the life force that surges through all living things, that drives us to be better than we are, more loving, more compassionate and more forgiving.   Our hope lies in people touching and connecting to God’s spirit in ways that make a difference to everyone.  And by doing so, living the way of Jesus in the world.

But there is more.

What we have at Christmas is also the realization of what God’s spirit looks like in flesh and blood, in heart and mind, in thought and action.  Jesus brings us closer to the God already present in this world.  He makes us aware that we are part of the story, the grand story, the most beautiful amazing story of life.  And that we have a role to play in continuing the life giving affirming creative presence of God in the world. We! You and I!  We too can bring life and light and love where there is death and despair. We too can see our common bonds rather than our differences which divide.

We may not be a Desmond Tutu, or a Martin Luther King, or a Gandi, or even Nelson Mandela, who helped change the path of a nation and its people, or even those who travel to war torn places to serve, but we can be that young person down the road who helps out every weekend at an retirement village, or people who set up financial programs to support those in poorer nations, or that Dr. who volunteers in the Kimberley 3 times a year, or that couple who supports a refugee family on a temporary visa, or that retired man who writes business cases so that an aboriginal community can empower its members to grow and change.  Or those who write amnesty letters once a month or letters that support or challenge decision makers.  People like you and me.  We have plenty of ways we can live out the Christ life, and it starts here and now today, in every relationship we have and every choice we make.

As Martin Luther King has said, “hope comes in many forms, mostly not supernatural.  Rather in the shape of people, people helping people. God is found in the midst of this action, not separate from it.” Ordinary everyday people.

This is the promise and the provocative challenge of Jesus. Jesus represents a watershed moment in time, but the process goes on.  God is still here working within all of creation and in you and me and in all people everywhere.

And for this we are very thankful.   Amen