THE SIGN OF THE SPECIAL KING

Sermon delivered on Christmas Day the 25th December 2007 by Fr. Nicholas J.G. Sykes at St. Alban's Church, 461 Shedden Road, George Town.

Scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-7   Titus 2: 11-14   Luke 2:1-20

Luke 2: 11f "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

On Sunday we thought about God's signs that He gives to His people both in the present and in the past, and we considered the obedience of St. Joseph, who with great thoroughness acted on the sign or vision that was given to him, that he was not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Today, Christmas Day, is itself a special sign to us, that the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, as the second lesson this morning from the letter to Titus declares. In general it can be said that Christmas with all its trappings of lights, the tree pointing upward, and the presents, functions like a sign pointing to a way of living, of acting and of thinking that go beyond our regular ways of behaving. Today is a holiday, a "holy day" that we understand has special significance for our lives, and not even all the commercialism of the festival necessarily sets out to erase that. One of the things we understand from it is that it is good to have "time out" periods that transcend the regular flow of time that we are used to in our daily work and existence. Christian thought has always honoured the "magic moments", the "time out" the Sundays, the sabbath rests, that serve to renew life in meaningfulness and that serve to refresh the regular flow of time.

The ministry of the Word and Sacrament that takes place on Sundays and Holy Days is our own principal ministry of the magic moment, the time out or the sabbath rest, our principal ministry of God's sign or vision for our lives. Like St. Joseph, and as we see in the Gospel today, like the shepherds, we are called to receive the signs that are offered to us. The shepherds were given a special sign, and if they had been sophisticated argumentative types they might have had difficulty in receiving it. In their vision, which is described as the appearance of an angel to them and the shining around them of the glory of the Lord, they are told that the Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord has just been born in the city of David, Bethlehem. The sign they were given would not make sense to anybody that would argue that only the very best circumstances would do for that Saviour, Messiah and Lord. Nothing but the best should surely be the sign. But no, the sign was that they would find the babe wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in an animal feeding trough.

The Babe of Bethlehem certainly suffered no harm whatever from the humble circumstances of his entry into the world. The circumstances were makeshift, but He had His mother's love and attention and sustenance, He had his earthly father's watchful protection and He had physical comfort and warmth. He had everything a baby needed. Yet, if this royal Prince had had a public relations officer, such an individual might have cringed at the thought of anybody coming to visit. This was an extraordinary way to advertise the birth of a Prince.

It was an extraordinary way, and it was God's way, and it was an extraordinary Prince, one indeed who was destined to be a sign that was spoken against, as the old man Simeon would say, a sign that would cause a sword to be pierced through His mother's soul. The Cross would not be the way either that a public relations officer would advertise the goodness of a man, the royalty of a king, or the love of God. The uniqueness of the Babe of Bethlehem was being signed from the very beginning. The shepherds accepted the sign that was told to them, and like St. Joseph, acted immediately upon it. "They went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

This Christmas is the eighth Christmas in our own Church building. Many of us remember well the circumstances of its of being made available to us, and we will see them as the signs that God has granted us - and He has granted many since - that He has His special plan and purpose for us, in spite of the humble outward appearance of this place. The coming to life of our expansion project during Advent this year can be taken too as a confirmatory sign to us. Such are things I have to remember when I am alone without help in my rather small office, or fall to considering the rather basic nature of the various facilities we have. The important truth about this little remodelled old dwelling that is now the Church is that it continues to be a sign to point the way forward for God's people. We may recognise that it is a little manger of a place, but we should remember that the Saviour, the Christ, the Lord also once rested happily and contentedly in a manger, and by so doing offered to mankind the greatest of God’s signs.

His Mother who loved Him gave Him His contentment, and we learn of Her today that like Her husband she listened and received the signs that were given to Her. She kept what the shepherds said, pondering them in Her heart. Our hearts too will make our Lord content, by receiving and honouring the sign of our special King, and the signs that He constantly gives to us. And like the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph and the shepherds, we receive and honour God’s signs to us when we act upon them, joyously and thoroughly.