GOD'S GLORY IS SPOKEN

Sermon delivered on Christmas Day the 25th December 2009 by Fr Nicholas JG Sykes at St. Alban's Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands.

Scriptures: Isaiah 52:7-10              Hebrews 1: 1-12                    S. John 1:1-14

 

Hebrews 1:2 “In these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.”       

Nine years ago I reported at this point in the Christmas Day service that according to the doctors my daughter Margaret should be presenting my wife and myself with a grandchild “any time now”. Well, here is our Christmas Day nine-year old along with her family, with us this morning. Our daughter Nicola presented us three years ago with a December grandchild as well, and that three-year old is also with us along with her folks. There are others in the congregation that are December-born and even Christmas Day-born, and I suppose that must be a very special thing for them, though perhaps not the most convenient. Having a baby arrive in the family in ordinary circumstances is of course a classically disruptive event. All the family parameters must be changed to adjust to the new presence with its absolutely unignorable demands. The family is irrevocably changed for ever, dying to its old form of no children or having children of a particular age, and rising anew as a new grouping.

 

NEW BABIES DEMAND CHANGES

The world too was never the same again when Jesus was born. The changes were not exactly like those demanded of a family with a new baby, in that the world is not itself a family, and for the most part is not conscious of any family responsibilities towards a new baby. In some ways it is a pity today too that mothers about to give birth go off to hospitals and have their babies there, rather than, as was the case when I was born, give birth in their own homes. As when dying takes place in a hospital or other institution, the privileges and responsibilities arising for the family from these most serious events can be diminished, if it becomes easier for the family to be inattentive or uncaring. Convenience may win the day over meaningfulness, and that should not be the case.

 

THIS BABY'S UNIQUE DEMANDS

In the Lord Jesus's case the world as expressed by state authority had pushed His Mother and Joseph out of their home and compelled them to a situation symbolised by the manger scene. New-born Jesus was not tucked into a cot in a nice brightly decorated and clean nursery or equivalent. Yet the family focus was very much there. The Holy Family would certainly never be the same again. When the coming birth had been announced to Mary by the angel, she knew from then that her whole life was going to be shaped around this person to be first carried by her and then given birth to. Her life would be changed far beyond the way other mothers must change their lives. Her baby was uniquely special. She was to be the God-bearer, the Theotokos. Her Baby too would have His unique demands to make upon her, because He was the Son of God.

  

ADJUSTING TO THE PRESENCE

In a wider circle all around the Holy Family the world in spite of itself and the coldness of its rulings about where that family and others had to go, was changing. Unbeknown to most of it, it was beginning to adjust to the new Presence within it, the Presence of its true but unrecognised Lord: the Presence within it, indeed, of the One who bears all things by the word of His power, as our text from the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it. St. Luke's Gospel tells us of the angels' message to the shepherds, who then came specially to Bethlehem to see this Baby. St. Matthew's Gospel tells us of the visit of Wise Men from a far country to worship this infant. St. John's Gospel tells us that the True Light, from which all enlightenment is derived, had come into the world. The Word of God that had spoken the creation was now lodged within His handiwork. So that handiwork could never be the same again.

 

THE CALL TO ACCOMMODATE

The Risen Jesus told St. Paul when he was in rebellion against Him that it was hard for him to kick against the spikes. In today's world we consider that whether we take Jesus as our Lord or whether we don't is a matter of our own choice. We express this by saying that we have a right to choose our belief or religion. Well, certainly we may choose to love Him or to try to ignore Him, but there are unintended consequences to such a choice - because whether we love or ignore Him, either way we will be affected. No jealous brother trying to ignore his new baby brother is unaffected by that presence. The elder brother may choose to imagine his family the way it was, but he cannot re-make his family the way it was no matter how hard he tries. Even for the reluctant elder sibling, there is only one way to go for peace. So for some, submission to Jesus Christ may be a reluctant necessity because now that He has come into His world there is no peace for them there otherwise. But in fact He offers more. For all His brothers and sisters He offers not just peace but Redemption. He who was made to be a baby is the radiance of God's glory and the express image of His person. We joyfully submit to that radiance, whether in the bliss of the manger, in the shockingness of the love that required crucifixion, or in the majesty of enthronement at the right hand of Power. Let us perceive ourselves as family to Him, let us practice the art of being family to Him, and let all regions of our life be accommodated to God's glory who has spoken to us definitively by His Son!