Laughter, peace and goodwill
Christmas Day: 25th December, 2004
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Merry Christmas – and welcome to St Peter's.
Those who know more of the details of this place would know that the vicarage adopted twins this year – furry four-legged twins that is. Around five o'clock this morning – not that far from the 2.30 am when I got to bed after midnight mass, there was a vigorous purr in my right ear. I stirred enough to register the time and then went back to sleep until my alarm got me up for the first mass of the morning. Usually on Christmas morning I have fun checking out which child woke earliest on this particular day to urge their parents into the opening of presents. I was looking to see if there were any earlier awakenings than mine. But this year at the 9.30 it was a man of about 45 years who immediately called out to say that he hadn't even been to bed yet! He had to win the prize, though he told me at the door that he was on shift work and had come directly to mass from there.
Last night at the Children's mass there were some 38 children in the congregation. Almost all of them participated in the Nativity Play – but it was different this year. All the major figures of our Crib scene were away from the stable and set up in front of the nave altar. All the characters in full costume lined up at the microphone, and in a very post-modern way told us, in the first person, who they were and what their part was in the story. My favourite was a sheep. This was an elegant sheep, wearing a sheep-skin rug and with an elongated brown paper long head with sleek eyes. The sheep said all the things you would expect a sheep to say at a time like this and then came the show-stopper: "And by the way, I am also the Lamb of God"! I just didn't know where to take that one, theologically.
It reminded me of a wonderful pre-nativity play I saw years ago when I was a grad student in London. The cast was made up of some fairly tough east end of London kids who had seen it all. The angel Gabriel had a major role and then in came a very pregnant Mary to explain to her unknowing Joseph just what had happened to result in her being so obviously with child. And then Joseph turned, took the microphone and spoke directly to the whole congregation: "You women are all the same!" Well, that brought the house down as well.
But it is wonderfully fresh occasions like these that tell us so much of what is important about this season. There is an exuberant and hopeful pleasure and wonder that can still be experienced and shared.
The faith and simple response of ordinary people is at the heart of Christmas. People like shepherds or children. Or, I guess, even like sheep. Uncomplicated people like the very old and the very young. They can serve to remind the rest of us battle-hardened potential cynics and doubters, of a much needed openness to God.
Two thousand years after the first Christmas, we still stop to think about its mystery, we still take the trouble to come to church to worship and we still try to live out its message. That hard question remains, have we all travelled very far along that road towards individual, community and world values of peace and goodwill? We know that it is very hard to answer that question positively. We consider ongoing civil violence in Africa. Iraq seems only to be getting worse. We have concerns about some of nearest neighbours such as The Solomons. Our own domestic policies regarding refugees and asylum seekers cause many of us great embarrassment and sadness. Beggars in the streets around us right here point to problems that are not being adequately addressed, that can be both matters of social welfare and public health. We know too the sad statistics of domestic violence and family breakdown, often indicating even greater pressures at times like this holiday season. So again this Christmas, we are acutely aware that the bringing into effect of this central Christmas message of peace and goodwill is something that cannot in this world and our society be simply assumed.
In all the exchanges of gifts that are made at this time, the most precious one to be received by any of us is God's gift of peace and love made flesh, in the gift of Jesus the Christ. The teachings of the one born in Bethlehem do indeed have something to say to us in this world as we find it. That birth was not easy and comfortable. Neither was that world of 2,000 years ago. Neither is this world at the turn of the year in 2004. We know that and we wish that things could be better than they are. The best aspects of our festivities and parties at this time of year – happiness and good humour; generosity and hospitality – remind us of the power and strength of those values, as opposed to say mean competitiveness or selfish greed.
So, how then does this great Christian festival once again speak to us in this context? Today on this Christmas Day we have God's alternative approach shown to us. It remains a clear alternative to so much that goes on in our world. Today we hear again that God himself entered our human situation, born of a woman like each of us. Jesus was born to show the way of peace and love: to show the way of salvation.
The true message of Christmas remains one which rises above all the bustle and all the parties. God's peace and God's love remains the most precious gift we can receive. Christians actually believe that a real answer to the world's problems rests on the broad reception of this message. Peace and goodwill - not only for ourselves, but also for the whole human family. We know the alternatives have been well-tried.
So, we return again on Christmas Day to hear this familiar story once again. It has not changed. It continues to declare its message of reassurance and hope. It is above all in our own hearts – each one of us, every community - that the Christ Child seeks to find a place. And that remains the Christmas good news: God is with us, where we are. Awareness of that truth is the gift that is offered to us.
Leunig the cartoonist is also a poet and a person of faith. He has offered these thoughts on this great festival.
Christmas, Michael Leunig
I see a twinkle in your eye,
So this shall be my Christmas star
And I shall travel to your heart:
The manger where the real things are.
And I will find a mother there
Who holds you gently to her breast,
A father to protect your peace,
And by these things you shall be blessed.
And you will always be reborn
And I will always see the star
And make the journey to your heart:
The manger where the real things are.
May we go from this church this morning with a renewed sense of what this happy festival is truly about, and also a renewed resolve, even in the smallest way, to try to live out more of its implications.
'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.'
The Lord be with you.
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