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Midnight Mass John 1: 1 – 14 It is my view that the details of the Christmas narrative sung out in the lyrics of our carols, acted out by children in Christmas plays and pageants, graphically illustrated on cards and decorations, have become so familiar to us, that it is easy to miss the message behind the story told and re-told generation after generation. The Introduction to the Gospel of John helps us to focus on that very message. It begins with the words “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God…” These words are reminiscent of the very first words of the Bible, page one, Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created…” As in the book of Genesis which tells of a new creation, so we see in the Gospel of John, the promise of a new creation, a new understanding and a new opportunity to live the life we have been given differently, more spiritually, more in tune with the Source that created us, which we name God. Here in John’s Gospel we learn that God is doing something wonderful yet again. That same creative power which spoke the world into being at the beginning of time is speaking once again. This time the spoken word of God becomes flesh and dwells amongst us, incarnating the human experience. The Narrative tells us that God expresses His love for creation by incarnating human experience in the shape of a small child, born to a humble couple, in some inconspicuous town called Bethlehem. Our faith teaches us that Jesus came to reveal God to us. In which case it is prudent to ask ourselves: What can we learn about God from this nativity story? It would seem to me that its greatest teaching is in what it reveals to us about the way God operates, more especially, what God does with his power and influence. We live in a world where the powerful laud it over the disempowered. This is evidenced in the way in which the world’s economies work,(see how 80% of the world’s resources are in the hands of 20% of its population) in its political structures (look at what is happening in Zimbabwe as we speak) and in its social structures (notice who makes the rules and who finds themselves in prison for breaking them). This is clearly the way of our world. The powerful have all the advantages in the race for success. And so based on our worldly experience, we might with some justification predict and even expect that God also would use the limitless power and influence that is His, to laud it over us and to control us. Yet if the story of Christmas teaches us nothing else, it teaches us that this is not the way God works. In the story of Christmas we see that God uses his power and might to come to us as a vulnerable child, humbly, gently and inconspicuously. God comes in the most loving expression available to human beings, as a little child born in love, who will grow into a man who will use his power and control to love and serve others. This is what the birth in a stable teaches us: the God who came to earth did not come in a raging whirlwind nor in a devouring fire, nor as a stomping conqueror hissing and roaring and ordering armies about as we might expect. Almost unimaginably, the Creator of the universe contracted himself and all his power and might to become a microscopic fertilized egg that would divide and re-divide until a foetus took shape and would enlarge cell by cell inside a nervous teenager until he could be born as a baby. The messiah came in glory but the glory of humility. The wonder of Christmas is not around the bigness of God, for that concept we know and understand, rather its mystery is around the paradoxical smallness and fragility and vulnerability of an omnipotent God. “How silently how silently the wondrous gift is given”, so the carol goes. Why would God choose to enter into our lives this way? Perhaps to show us that contrary to the teachings of the religions of the day, where humans were taught to fear the gods who were unpredictable and unapproachable and needed to be addressed in a spirit of fear, the story of Christmas teaches us that God is ever so approachable. The huge gulf between humanity and its creator is spanned by a newborn baby. Lets take a moment here, Do you remember holding your newborn to your face and feeling their sweet innocent breath on your cheek? Walking your child in the middle of the night when they had colic or a sore ear and just couldn’t sleep? Watching them sleep when they could and little dribbles of saliva tracking down the corners of their mouth? The God of the universe came to us, comes to us in this vulnerable approachable way and breaks into our lives with his love and truth and this is what we celebrate at Christmas, our approachable God! As Christ followers, let us affirm the humility of the God we adore, let us resolve to be as approachable to the needy as our Saviour is and let us exercise what ever power and influence we may have, in the service of others in what ever way we are able to , endeavouring to meet their needs and to bring health and healing to their lives. As we do so let us enter into the lives of those around us as gently and lovingly as the child we worship, let us enter into our relationships with a similar child-like vulnerability that will enable us to love and be loved and so to share the love of the one who has shown us how to love, for it is in love that God will be revealed today as he was first revealed on that Christmas night so long ago. As we reread these rich transcendent words from John’s gospel, may we stand in awe before the magnitude and mystery of the Christ child, as we kneel here tonight in silent wonder may we come to understand that the secret of the ages of the universe is being revealed within the human cry of new born child. God who loved the universe into existence in Genesis, continues to love the world into salvation through his Son who came to us as a vulnerable child. And so as we discover this truth about God for ourselves may we share it with others: God is both powerful and yet immensely vulnerable for he gives his power away in the interests of love and service. As we move on from Christmas into the New Year may we learn to do the same.
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