Christmas
Sermon Preached by Reverend Michael Hillier on Wednesday, 25 December 2024.
In the Wisdom of Solomon, there is this wonderful passage: ‘For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was half gone, your all-powerful word leapt, from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed …’ (18.14-15).
What a marvellous description of the coming of the Christ child! And how beautifully phrased. That is how a poet would describe the momentous event on that evening 2000 years ago.
Poetry would probably not come to mind for the participants caught up in that drama. The Child is to be born at any moment; there is nowhere to stay and rest; finally, a stable is found – the smell, the filth; no, sterile theatre and hospital bed for this mother and her child to be.
Then, there is the joy of the newborn healthy child, the Shepherds’ coming to see, and the Wise Men coming to pay homage.
And then the terror, that psychopath King Herod killing all the male infants under two and Mary and Joseph and their baby fleeing as refugees to Egypt, only one step ahead of Herod.
We have heard the story many times, but it remains gripping. Each year, countless children recall these events in untold numbers of nativity players, much to the delight of their parents and grandparents, who don’t mind seeing it for the umpteenth time. Teachers breathe a sigh of relief when the curtain comes down, and the play has gone roughly according to plan with no significant hiccups.
I lived in England for a few years and remember hearing of one nativity play where the general direction suddenly took an unexpected turn.
Joseph and Mary had arrived at the inn, and the innkeeper answered Joseph’s question about whether there was any room, ‘Your wife can come in, but you can’t!’
The innkeeper wanted to be Joseph, and he wasn’t having a bar of the Joseph who got the job. How do you get the play back on track after that?
If you like, though, all this is at the level of folk religious belief. For the Christian and the world, the question is, what is the true significance of God the Father sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to live on our planet?
A passage in John’s Gospel makes the answer abundantly clear: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (3.16)
Quite simply, God loves each one of us; each of us is incredibly special to Him. At the same time, though, we have successfully fouled our lives and this world to such an extent that we cannot sort them out.
God’s gift to us at Christmas of His Son was meant to show us something of God’s great love for us, to enable us to find forgiveness for our sins and a way forward. The truth is that each one of us, each human being, needs Jesus Christ in our life, and until we recognise that and do something about it, our lives will continue to be fragmented, and we will never experience that deep peace that only He can give.
Let me give you an illustration. Have you ever laid awake and listened to a dripping tap that needs the washer replaced? One way to fix it is to tie a string to the faucet and quietly let the water run down the string. And as a temporary solution that will work well.
But if you want a more permanent solution, something else is needed. We need to get to the heart and source of the problem. We must replace the temporary ‘string’ with a more lasting ‘corrective surgery’ – a new washer.
In the same way, it’s a mistake to expect to cure our problems of worry, stress, tension, emptiness, meaninglessness and guilt with the temporary ‘string’ of tranquillisers, alcohol, more material possessions, and more ‘good times’.
Happiness, serenity, peace of mind, and abundant life are not found in these fantasies, temporary intoxications, self-seeking satisfaction and passing pleasures.
The honest answer to happiness, meaning, and peace of mind can only be found in God. It is discovered by losing ourselves in God, in the love and grace of Jesus Christ. That’s the permanent solution. Anything less is only a temporary fix.
And millions of lives down through the centuries have testified to the truth of that. This is not a nice idea but a fact based on human experience.
So, each of us is faced with a choice this Christmas. Each of us has four options. God is offering himself in Christ to you – now, at this moment. You can ignore Him as if He were someone you want to avoid.
You can decline His offer – you can say ‘no’. You can formally receive it – like a Christmas present you don’t want and will never use. The fourth alternative is that you can wholeheartedly accept it as someone thirsty accepts a glass of water, or if they were drowning, accepts a life buoy.
Unless we choose this fourth way, wholeheartedly accepting Christ, this Christmas will be like all the rest: a temporary fix, like a piece of string on the faucet. The day after Christmas, the magic will have departed, replaced by an emptiness.
May you choose Christ this Christmas and wholeheartedly accept Him into your life. And, as a consequence, may your life be filled with a richness beyond compare and may His love flow through you and fill you with deep peace.