by CCW | 24 December 2009 23:00
Christmas parties ought to come with an advisory, a cautionary warning, not about the dangers of drinking and driving – but, of course, do be careful! – but about the Christian faith itself. Recently, I was at one such gathering at which Christmas carols were sung, quite lustily and in good cheer, in fact, but after one carol – I forget exactly which one – someone cried out, “Doesn’t sound very Christmassy!” Though perhaps a wee bit tipsy, he was right!
In a way. But here is the problem and, hence, the need for an advisory. Christmas carols are often quite direct and clear about the realities of the Christian faith, about the meaning of Christmas itself, we might say. And no, don’t worry! I am not going to go down that rather over-worn and obvious path about Jesus being “the reason for the season”! Of course, he is. It is Christmas, after all. And yet, it is the sad reality that in a recent survey among school children, Christmas is associated with everything except Jesus Christ and his birth. Santa Claus wins out. Not enough Christmas carols, it seems. The point is who is this Jesus whose birth we celebrate? Can we really ignore the rich images of this season and its profound message conveyed through music and song, through story and service, especially in worship and in all the rich trappings of this season? I don’t think so.
There is hardly a Christmas carol that doesn’t proclaim Jesus Christ as the Son of God become the son of man for us and for our redemption; hardly a carol that doesn’t allude to sacrifice and death, to sin and grace, to our darkness and the light of Christ, to God and man. They go to the very heart of Christmas, but if we think of Christmassy things as just being happy thoughts and bonhomie, then, of course, these things may seem, well, ‘unChristmassy’. They may even disquiet and disturb us.
That may be a true Christmas blessing. For the carols of the season open us out to the deep and true joys of this blessed season. In the words of one of the carols, “Christ was born for this!” For what? “He hath oped the heavenly door, and man is blessèd for evermore” and “Now ye need not fear the grave”. Many of you know about hardships and painful losses, about anxieties and worries, and about the fear of death; these things too are addressed in the carols of the season. In other words, the message of Christmas speaks to the deepest yearnings and longings of the human soul- “he hath opened the heavenly door, and man is blessed for evermore” – and to the human experience of suffering and death – “now ye need not fear the grave”. Without an appreciation of such things, our joys are much diminished.
The carols of the season challenge the illusions of our culture. They point us to the deeper mysteries of this night and season, the deeper mysteries of the Christian faith which however much forgotten, despised, unknown and unrecognised are there to challenge, to comfort and to cheer. The carols of the season point us to the great wonder and mystery that belongs to the Scripture readings at the Mass of Christmas night.
It is the Mass of the Eternal Word of God. The lessons from Hebrews and from the Prologue of The Gospel of St. John speak of the most profound and wonderful things. And all without hardly a mention of any of the more usual and outward aspects of Christmas; there is no mention in the Scripture readings for tonight, for instance, of the familiar and touching details of the Bethlehem scene; no mention even of Bethlehem at all. No. It is all theology, we might say. All about the divine Word by which all things were created, “without [whom] was not any thing made that was made,” the divine Word who is Light and Son, the divine Word which “was made flesh and dwelt among us.” No greater mystery, really. A mystery greater than creation itself, and a mystery greater than the dark mysteries of the world of human sin and folly, of suffering and death. It is the great mystery of Immanuel, of God with us, the mystery of the Incarnaion. “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” It is the great mystery which captivates our minds and hearts and yet can never be exhausted by us. We have ever to enter more fully into its meaning and joy.
“Without forsaking what he was, he became what he was not.” Without ceasing to be God, he became man, “Very God of Very God”, “born of the Virgin Mary”, as we said in the Creed; like us in all respects except that which makes us less than ourselves, namely, sin.
“Not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of manhood into God”, as the Athanasian Creed, that forgotten creed, so emphatically and directly expresses the doctrine of the Incarnation and the logic of human redemption. Others may tell tales of kindness and happiness on this night, but here is the love of God, the love which shapes and forms all true forms of kindness and happiness, the love which came down at Christmas “that we might live through him.” Here is the love which redeems and sanctifies, the love without which human kindness risks becoming the kindness that kills, empty and false, desperate and despairing.
In other words, what we have in the soaring and resounding readings of the Christmas Mass is the heart and soul of the Christian gospel. This child is God with us. This child is the Son of God. This child is the Word of the Father. This child is the Word made flesh. This child is God made man. And this, all this, makes all the difference. This shatters all human illusions and this redeems all the pleasing sensualities of this holy time. This gives meaning and purpose to all our social joys and all our partyings. Without it, they become but the occasions of deeper disappointment and darker despair. For this is love, the deep and abiding love of God for us, the love which came down at Christmas.
“Love is in the nature of a first gift through which all other gifts are given” (Aquinas). Christmas celebrates the great gift of God’s own Word and Son who enters into our world and day bringing countless gifts of joy and gladness, of hope and peace. The Word made flesh dwells among us in the gifts of the Word proclaimed and the Sacraments celebrated, and in lives of prayer and praise, sacrifice and service. Be advised. We learn it here in the readings and the carols of the season.
Fr. David Curry
Christmas Eve, ‘09
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2009/12/24/sermon-for-christmas-eve/
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