RonBlog

Sunday 25th December, 2011 Christmas Day

Sentence
I bring you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, Christ the Lord. Luke 2:-10-11

Collect
Almighty God, Who gave Your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon Him and as at this time to be born of the Virgin Mary; grant that we being born again and made Your children by adoption and grace, ma daily be renewed by Your Holy Spirit, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the same Spirit, ever one God, now and for ever. Amen

OLD TESTAMENT LESSON Isaiah 9:2 – 7

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God
PSALM 96
O sing to the Lord a new song: sing to the Lord, all the earth
Sing to the Lord and bless His holy name: proclaim the good ns of His salvation from day to day
Declare His glory among the nations: and His wonders among all peoples
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: He is more to be feared than all gods
As for the gods of the nations, they are mere idols: it is the Lord Who made the heavens
Majesty and glory are before Him: beauty and power and in His sanctuary
Render to the Lord, you families of the nations: render to God glory and might
Render to the Lord the honour due to His Name: bring offerings and come into His courts
O worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness: let the whole earth stand in awe of Him
Say among the nations that the Lord is king: He has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved; and He shall judge the peoples with equity
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad: let the sea roar and all that fills it
Let the fields rejoice and everything in them: then shall the trees of the wood shout with joy before the Lord
For He comes, He comes to judge the earth: He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth.

EPISTLE Titus 2:11- 14

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

GOSPEL Luke 2:1 – 14

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all on whom his favour rests.”

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved


NOTES ON THE READINGS ……………….

Old Testament
One can well imagine people being more than a little bemused by this passage from Isaiah and it may well
take a little imagination to catch sight of what the old prophet is saying. This is well and truly pre-exilic, and comes from a time when conquest was a real and terrible threat. On top of that, Israel itself did not have the best of kings and rulers, and the possibility of life being marked by justice and integrity was more than a little limited.

In such a time of oppression and hopelessness, the prophet anticipated a time when all that was ugly and damaging would be a thing of the past. Even that rather ugly reference to boots and garments blood-soaked was seeing them as passé and invalid. In other words, you know and I know that warfare and violence produces nothing at all beneficial, so here is a tirade for the peaceful approach. In world weary even then of warfare and plunder, people were looking for a sensible, tangible, worthwhile way to operate that would bring something rather more settled and worthwhile.

So the longing and hope and expectation is there expressed in the second paragraph: it is all about peace, ‘with justice and righteousness.’ What sort of a world would we have if those ancient values held sway? The answer is obvious. But how to get there …………….

Psalm

You may well find that many of the Psalms are rather more in the way of daydreaming than of down-to-earth reality, but you need to look and think a little deeper if you want to catch sight of what is really being conveyed. Day-dreaming this is NOT.

One of the things about faith that even the most naïve Hebrew knew was that God is there to be followed, obeyed, taken notice of. Certainly God is always there, as guarantor of all that is true and just and equitable, but He does not do it all for people. He offers the different way to operate, pointing people to where real life is to be found. In other words, God is not going to lean on or punish those who ignore His ways, but leave them in the world of their own creating to see that there has to be a better way. When people ‘own’ the truth and follow, only then will life have its changes.

Epistle

In spite of some appalling and shallow teaching about grace, the Gospel is not something that costs nothing either from Christ or to us. There is always the challenge to accept, to follow, and to bend one’s life to the truth and the values of God. Salvation needs to be seen in terms, not of life after this, but of a completely different view of life, of relationships and responsibilities. It is not an emotional experience. It is a deliberate choice.



GOSPEL

The story must be so well known as to need no repetition whatever. In fact, I usually choose to select the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel, so that we are talking about the implications of the Christmas event, not the details. However, the thing never to lose sight of is the sheer ordinariness of it all. That sign of the child wrapped in ‘swaddling clothes’ is not something outstanding and different. Every infant at that time and in almost any other would have been wrapped similarly. The point of the Christmas story is such that it underlines the way God works and the sort of people through whom He works. There is nothing outstanding or notable about any of the characters involved, but they were all as ordinary as you. So what does that say to you?

NOTES FOR A SERMON

It may be a case of giving myself away, but I have long had problems with the celebration of Christmas, not for me but for others. Over the years of my life, I have seen a huge decline in the numbers of people attending Midnight Mass or any other Christmas service, and I suspect I have some idea why this is so. From my youth upwards, there has been so much brouhaha about the Season, and most of it had no ‘legs,’ if you follow, nothing of substance behind all the fuss.

I guess it is possible to carry on with the fizz long after it has lost its effect on me, for the sake of the kids. It is a little like the Father Christmas business, which while it has its roots in distant history, there is remarkably little connection between the old man in red and St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra.

So where does that leave us? From where I sit, I think we need something of a reality check.

There are often some rather ridiculous claims made in Christmas sermons, and I am not talking about Virgin Births and all that sort of thing. I am talking about the extraordinary claims about Christmas, epitomized perhaps by the ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all men.’ For most people, and especially those with children, the peace business doesn’t last any longer than the opening of presents. And on the wider scene, there is not a lot of peace amongst Christians sometimes, in the Holy Land it is abysmal from where we sit, and it all sounds like a lovely idea that has not the slightest hope of fulfilling its expectation.

You may feel that I am overloading the picture, and you may be correct. But I do have a problem with some Christians and their credibility. In fact I have a problem for those not of the Faith, with their perception of incredibility of the Faith. It is not as if there is no truth in the story; it is a matter of knowing what the truth is.

One of the problems that people have (and not only Christians) is of rather wider concern. It may be a case of living in the electronic age, where answers are expected at the push of a button. Or it may be that we are being pressed into expecting a sort of ‘messiah’ response to all problems. You know what I mean, do you not? It is like expecting our political leaders to have all the answers to all the problems, which they are expected to do without any input or cost from us. A good messiah will do it all for you. SO with the combination of both the above, we are left with the very false expectation that the world owes us a living, and a damn good one at that, and it that means someone else goes with out, stiff cheddar.

Now, if that is the sort of expectation you have from the Christmas celebration, then, FORGET IT. You do NOT have a Lord Who is going to do it all for you, You do not have anyone who is going to remove responsibility from you, or remove decision making from you. You DO have a Lord Who is pointing you in a direction that is going to offer you the sort of peace that he story is all about.