We have seen a great light
Christmas Midnight Mass: 24th December, 2006
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Midnight Mass at Christmas is a wonderful opportunity for lots of people to do something pretty strange and unusual. What would our hypothetical visitor from Mars make of it? All over this city, in the middle of the night, thousands upon thousands are coming to worship. With millions of Christians throughout the world we are gathering – it might be in great cathedrals or in tiny country churches, and for the few who make the effort to get through, it might be in Bethlehem itself. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself did this a couple of days ago. With the words of performances of the Messiah ringing in our ears, we ourselves can see that the people who dwelt in darkness, have seen a great light. We all come together to worship that light, even though all that is dark may well surround us.
At a time such as this, we remember. Christmas is a time for memories. Consequently, for some it is a sad time. Because of the nature of this festival we like to be with people we love, or, if we are away from them, to make contact. We receive and send cards and letters. We make telephone calls, we exchange gifts or e-mails. We take trouble to make or to re-establish connections. If we cannot, it is hard.
But, we have returned again this Christmas to hear this very familiar story. It has not changed. It continues to declare its message of reassurance and hope that is still to be heard and received. Peace on earth; goodwill to all people. Still something to be worked for; still an objective to be honoured.
Christians actually do believe that the 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 and they continue to fail.
Right here then, in the middle of our major time for getting family and friends together, for exchanging gifts and hospitality and for enjoying a good time in a summer break, we pause to remember and to give thanks for the initial reason for it all. God has entered into our human situation through a young woman giving birth to a child. This event at Bethlehem in Judea over 2,000 years ago, we are still responding to with celebration, using all the resources at our disposal. How lovely that is!
That holy birth in Bethlehem represents God's decision to stand right with us and right beside us, where we are. It is God's affirmation to us that this world and this life are good things and very much worth being part of. That does not mean that there is not to be pain or suffering or trouble – as the life of the Lord was to show. But God is with us in those aspects of living too. But there is more to life than birth, struggle and death. There is a much wider vision and purpose and wonder. That is what the shepherds first glimpsed. That is what the wise men came to worship. And those angels were singing about. And Christians through the centuries have continued to celebrate and tried to live out the implications. So do we. God with us.
So, how then does this great Christian festival once again speak to us in this context? Tonight we have God's alternative approach shown to us. It remains a clear alternative to so much that goes on in our world. Jesus came to bring God's peace and love: to show the way of salvation. The true message of Christmas is one which rises above and beyond all the tinsel and glitter. In our own time, the most precious gifts we can receive and share, are God's peace and God's love.
The words of the one who was born in Bethlehem still speak to us today. There are words of hope: "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me." There are words of love: A new commandment I give unto you; that you love one another, as I have loved you." There are words of peace: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." Hope, love, peace.
The faith and the simple response of ordinary people is at the heart of Christmas. These are the ones, we are told, who most readily were able to respond. People like shepherds and little children; uncomplicated people like the very old and the very young. These people are able to show most clearly that much-needed quality of openness to God.
The Christmas story of the coming of Jesus Christ, truly God and truly human, to be alongside us in this world, is a message then of great hope and great joy. This is even so, even if that story is heard again and again in a context that is anything but peaceful, anything but joyful. War, hatred, violence, injustice, disease, famine – or alternatively bushfires and drought and climate change: things we can change, things we cannot. Christmas is in the middle of all that too. God is therefore with us in all of that; where we are.
Dreadful things happen, but they go on alongside acts of the greatest self-sacrifice, compassion and care. There is basic decency and goodness. It exists side by side with the bad. We see it in ourselves. We see it in others. We know that we do not have to travel beyond our own city to find the whole breadth of the human condition. Domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, crimes against property, exist side by side with daily countless acts of outreaching care by individuals and groups. It is all mixed in there together.
This is our world. But this too is the world that God in Jesus Christ was born into: for our sake and for our salvation, as we declare in the Creed. In every generation, in the life of every individual, Christ was born to make a difference.
May the Christ be born in each one of us. May his presence enable each one of us once again to go from this church with a renewed resolve to try to live out this message of peace and goodwill, where we are.
The Lord be with you.
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