Sermon for the Feast of Saint Stephen
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest them which are sent unto thee.”
Jerusalem!? I thought Christmas was in Bethlehem! It is, but to understand the mystery of Christmas, we cannot lose sight of Jerusalem.
Bethlehem and Jerusalem are the two centers around which Christian contemplation revolves like an ellipse. We cannot appreciate and celebrate the meaning of Christ’s holy birth in little Bethlehem without regard for the events of betrayal and death in Jerusalem. “Jesus Christ was born for this,” as the carol, In dulci Jubilo, reminds us. “This,” of course, is death and sacrifice, and only so can we celebrate the birth of a Saviour who comes that he may go “through the valley of the shadow of death” for us; only so “hath he ope’d the heavenly door and man is blessed for evermore;” only so we “need not fear the grave.”
Christmas is not a happy-clappy story, all fuzzy and warm with sentiment and good cheer. No. The joys of Christmas are deeper and greater than the sentimental trappings of this overly commercialised and rather caramelized season. Christ’s holy birth addresses the deep disorders of the human heart and the human community. Bethlehem is oriented towards Jerusalem from the get-go.
Remember Advent Sunday? We began the holy season of Advent with the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and his cleansing of the Temple. In other words, we make our journey to Bethlehem with the realization of the deeper meaning of God’s coming to us in the humanity of Jesus Christ. “He borrowed a body that he might borrow a death,” as St. Athanasius puts it. Death and sacrifice are inescapably part of the Christmas picture.
