Sermon for Christmas Morn
admin | 25 December 2013“Now it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus”
A sermon, snowstorms notwithstanding! This is beginning to become a habit. This is the third time in ten days that I have had occasion to say that.
“A decree from Caesar Augustus,” and yet there is a greater decree, a greater Word, a greater command that “has come to pass” and which brings us, like Mary and Joseph, to Bethlehem, if not literally, then spiritually and intellectually. You may hope that it is not to be taxed!
It has often struck me how for Christians the aspect of the holy land has a different connotation and meaning than it does for Jews and Muslims, complicated as that may be for them as well. It is curious in a way because Bethlehem and Jerusalem, to name the twin poles of the Christian doctrinal and devotional imagination, are barely mentioned in the Islamic Qur’an, Bethlehem only once and Jerusalem by name not at all, and, while Jerusalem has a kind of pride of place in the Jewish Scriptures, the place of Bethlehem there is a bit more nuanced, at once “the greatest” and “the least” of cities, for example, providing one of many cases for some creative and imaginative interpretation on the part of Christian commentators, I might add!
The crusades notwithstanding (and that story is more nuanced that some would have us believe), all of the ancient holy places of the Scriptures have taken on a different kind of meaning for Christians. Prince Charles has recently and rightly decried the attacks on Christians in the Middle East, fearing the grim reality of no Christians in the land where Christianity had its birth. True, and yet there is something profound about an understanding which transcends, albeit without denying, the sheer force of locality and place. It is especially part of the story of the Jewish diaspora and an undeniable part of the Christian as well as the Islamic story. There is not only the journey to Bethlehem by shepherds told by Angels and by Magi-Kings led by a star; there is also the flight into Egypt of the holy family and the return of the Magi-Kings “into their own country another way.” Christmas would have us abide in Bethlehem, to be sure, but already the story takes us away from Bethlehem; it suggest another kind of abiding, our abiding in the truth of God wherever we are.
At issue is not whether there will be Christians in the Middle East where persecution is the story of the day but about the continuation of the Christian witness and life in the prosaic West, our world, where the hostility is not just from without but also from within. The hatred of Christianity or, at least, the Church, has never been stronger in our western world. The question is: why? A question for another day, it may be enough to suggest that the Christian Faith challenges our self-sufficiency, confronts our evil, and counters all the fateful illusions of our secular atheisms. We rebel against the idea of the authority of God as something greater than ourselves, the Other whom we cannot control.
More of interest is the phenomenon that we have in this gospel story. It complements and has its fulfillment of meaning in Christ’s words to Pilate, Caesar’s man in Jerusalem, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” There is another authority, the ultimate authority of God’s Word and Will that works in and through the machinations of humans and even human evil.
Christmas morn opens us out to this significant mystery. Only God could use death and taxes to open us out to the mystery of his being with us! This is the great Christian mystery, not just the mystery of the awesome splendour of God himself, but the greater mystery of God’s being with us in the intimacy of the humanity of Jesus Christ.
This lies at the doctrinal core of Christian belief. Without it we are not only the traitors of our faith, but the deniers of our humanity. The claim is very simple, really. Apart from God our humanity has no meaning. What the Gospel story for Christmas morning reveals to us is the wonder of the Incarnation. Couched in simple and humble terms is the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, set in motion by the presumptions of worldly powers but moved by the greater power of God’s providential purpose. God’s will works in and through our lives, despite ourselves and all our intentions, whether for good or evil. As another Joseph says to his brothers who had cast him into a pit and sold him into slavery in Egypt, “do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” That theme is echoed and extended in the mystery of Christ and his holy birth.
“Fear not,” the angel of the Lord says to lowly shepherds, “for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” And it is good news for “all people.” “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” The city of David – little Bethlehem and yet great; a Saviour, the Christ, the Lord. All these words illumine the landscape of Christmas. They open us to the mystery of God with us. “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
We celebrate nothing less than the grandeur of God who has embraced our humanity and shows us its true dignity. It is found in Christ Jesus, in the humility of God, in the one who did “not abhor the virgin’s womb,” as the Te Deum and the carol, Adeste Fidelis, put it, but willed to be little among us, showing us that only through humility shall we participate in the greatness of God. His power is all; the power of the Caesars of the world are only borrowed or stolen, all of limited worth. We issue our decrees like pathetic potentates only to discover God’s greater will and purpose for us. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, And on the earth peace, good will toward men.” His will for us is found in praise and worship which are the conditions of peace and good will, even through the decrees of the Caesars of the world.
“Now it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus”
Fr. David Curry
Christmas Morn, 2013