Sermons

A sermon preached by Richard Newton, Christmas Midnight 2009 

1.         John 3.16 

John Chapter 3, Verse 16 – one of the best-known verses of the Bible – reads like this: 

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

Next year is a world cup year, and I was wondering (the other day) whether we would be seeing placards around the stadiums (in South Africa) with “John 3.16” written on them, as we have in previous world cups – placards that simply have “John 3 dot 16” written on, and either remind the viewer of the words of that verse, or which challenge a viewer (unfamiliar with the phrase) to fathom out what that little code might mean.  Would we be seeing them again, I wondered, next year? 

I was sufficiently curious that I went onto ‘Google’.  You may already know this, but I discovered that the person behind the John 3.16 placards was an American called Rollen Stewart, known as “Rainbow Man” because he wore a rainbow-coloured Afro wig when he took his placards to matches, and attempted to attract attention to himself by dancing wildly (when he thought he was in camera shot). 

He didn’t just turn up at the World Cup, though.  He attended the Olympics, the Masters, NFL games, Indy cars, horse races, and even the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. He claimed, at that time, that he travelled 60,000 miles a year to all these events. 

As time went on, unfortunately, his behaviour got more and more bizarre – and eventually he held a maid hostage in a Los Angeles hotel room, and threatened to shoot at planes landing and taking off at the nearby airport.  When a SWAT team stormed the room, they found a handgun and 47 rounds of live ammunition – and he‘s currently serving three life sentences in Mule Creek Prison. 

Will there be placards saying “John 3.16” at next year’s world cup?  Maybe, maybe not – if there are placards, it certainly won’t be the Rainbow Man who’s put them there!    

2.         What we celebrate at Christmas   

John 3.16:  Leaving aside the world cup, that one verse is a pretty good summary of what we celebrate at Christmas.   

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

What we celebrate at Christmas is God’s free gift of himself to us in being born in the frame of a fragile baby.  God gives that gift to us freely, and we receive it by grace, not by virtue of any effort of our own.  That is the wonder of Christmas.  “God so loved the world … that he gave”. 

The writers of the Gospels give expression to that in the readings (from their Gospels) that we traditionally focus on at Christmas. 

The beginning of John’s Gospel – in the words I read just a few minutes ago – tells us how the “Word became flesh”.  In just 14 short verses, John concisely sums up what’s been happening between God and humankind from the beginning of time up until the birth of Jesus. 

He tells us how God created everything and gave us life, and how he was in the world, but human beings weren’t able to recognise him or accept him.  Finally, the Word becomes flesh and enables us to see his glory and to be transformed into children of God. 

In all that John describes, the initiative is firmly with God, reaching the climax of his coming to us in Jesus, his free self-giving which we celebrate at Christmas.

Matthew and Luke tell us about the same Christmas event, but they tell us about it in a very different way.  They tell us about it by means of a story – the Christmas story which forms the basis of our carols, and our cribs and our Christmas cards, and so on. 

Luke begins by telling us how the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced that she was to be the mother of Jesus, and how Mary willingly accepted that role. 

Matthew fills us in about Joseph being visited and learning about this in a dream, and how he did what the Lord asked him and stuck by Mary and supported her. 

We then learn that the baby is born in Bethlehem, and Luke tells us of angels appearing to local shepherds and telling them to visit the newly-born Messiah and to spread the good news of what they find. 

And Matthew tells us of the Wise Men noticing a star and travelling to find a new-born king, and meeting Herod, and finding and worshipping Jesus, and then returning home another way (after being warned in a dream), and of the holy family fleeing Herod by going to Egypt. 

That’s the bare bones of the story that we know so well.  It’s a very different expression of Christmas from what we find in John’s Gospel, but it describes the same thing – God’s gift of himself to us in Jesus, freely given.  And at all steps along the way, the initiative comes from God, who offers us salvation and new life because “he so loved the world”.   

3.         The invitation to play a part       

So, what we celebrate first and foremost at Christmas, is God’s free gift of himself because he “so loved the world”. 

But just because the initiative comes from God, doesn’t mean (to say) that we don’t have a part to play or a response to make.  God never forces people to do anything – but God does invite us to co-operate with him, and he does call us to take responsibility upon ourselves. 

And the Christmas story – as Luke and Matthew relate it to us – is a good example of that. 

Take Mary, for instance.  Before the angel visits her, she has no plans to have a baby, let alone to give birth to the child who will be called “the Son of God”.  What she’s told comes as quite a shock, and she even says to the angel “how can this be?”.   

But the angel hasn’t made a mistake!  Against Mary’s expectations, God is asking her to play a part in the unfolding of this momentous event.  And Mary says “Yes” – she says “let it be, according to your word”.  She accepts the enormous responsibility, even though she’s very young, even though she’s not prepared in any sense for the task, and even though it will bring her heart-ache and emotional turmoil. 

So Mary gives us a good example of having a part to play.  She doesn’t say, “no, I can’t be bothered” or “I’m afraid I’m a bit busy at the moment” or “there are other more interesting things I’d rather do” – no, she takes responsibility, even though it’s a momentous thing for her to be asked to take on. 

Let’s focus on Joseph.  If it was a surprise to Mary that she was going to have a baby, it must have been an even greater surprise for him.  We’re told that his first thoughts were to quietly break off their engagement. 

But Joseph turns away from that course of action.  He takes on board the role (that’s been given him) of support and care for Mary, though potentially there’s some shame involved in that for him.  He sticks by her, and takes responsibility for seeing them through (what are going to be) challenging times ahead. 

So Joseph doesn’t choose the easy option, any more than Mary does.  He goes beyond what is right, in a sense, and is there for her, and there for God. 

And a third example we can focus on is the shepherds.  

We find the shepherds out in the fields with their sheep, as usual.  They weren’t people who interacted much with others in their society.  They were regarded (pretty much) as social outcasts, and most people were happy for them to remain on the margins of their world. 

It’s as they are out in the fields as normal, keeping watch over their sheep, that they learn what has happened.  What’s more, they, of all people, are invited be the first to visit this new-born child.  And not only that, but they are to share the joy of this great news with everyone else. 

So the shepherds suddenly find they have a part to play.  They’re encouraged not just to go and visit Mary, Joseph and the baby, but to participate by telling the news.  These uneducated, social outcasts are asked to take responsibility for spreading word of what’s happened to people they have the bare minimum of contact with.  It’s not a task that’s necessarily going to come very easily to them, but they rise to the challenge.              

4.         Our responsibility 

So Christmas is about God’s free gift of himself because he “so loved the world”.  But as God comes to us in Jesus, he invites human beings to play a part, and to take responsibility.  Just as that was true for Mary, and for Joseph, and for the shepherds, it’s true for you and me too: 

·         You and I are invited to be involved in the unfolding story of God’s relationship with humankind; 

·         You and I are invited to say “Yes” to accepting the part that God’s asking each one of us to play; 

·         You are I are invited to take responsibility ourselves. 

What (precisely) does that mean?  Well, it means all kinds of things. 

 for creation: 

You can’t listen, it seems to me, to those words from the beginning of John’s Gospel about God creating everything and giving us life – words that are set in the context of God’s relationship with us as human beings – without recognising that we have a responsibility for the created world and for the divinely-created life that God has given us.   

When you reflect on those words from John’s Gospel, and then reflect on what happened last week in Copenhagen, it’s obvious that we don’t have a grasp of that (at all).  Collectively as human beings, we’re abrogating our responsibility for creation and for life.  Somehow we have to keep up the pressure for everyone to play their proper part in being stewards of creation and stewards of life.     

for one another: 

The Christian faith also tells us that as well as having a responsibility for creation, we also have a responsibility for one another – and we see hints of that in the Christmas story. 

·         Mary has the role of giving birth and nurturing this baby 

·         Joseph has a role supporting and caring for both of them 

·         the Wise Men have a responsibility not to endanger the well-being of this family in their dealings with Herod. 

Jesus, when he’s grown up and has begun his ministry, talks about our being called to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves.  He goes on to give all kinds of examples of what that actually means in the parables he tells, and he himself enables all sorts of people he meets to discover their real selves and to discover life.   

We’ve got the rest of the Christian year to unpack all that – and to explore the moral obligation we have to love and care for one another!  But we do see the beginning of that in the Christmas story itself – enough, for the moment, to prompt us to reflect (tonight) on our responsibility towards one another, and towards others beyond our immediate circles of family and friends. 

for the Christian faith and the church: 

And we can’t properly celebrate Christmas, either, without thinking about the part each of us is called to play in sharing the Christian faith, and in being part of the church. 

The people in the Christmas story aren’t just asked to play a part in nurturing and looking after Christ as he is born and begins to grow up – they’re also called to share the news of his birth. 

·         the shepherds take news of this great happening to the nearby population; 

·         the wise men make known what has happened to other parts of the world. 

That, in a sense, pre-figures Jesus himself calling people to follow him, and sending them out to tell good news, and later, that process continues when his followers start to call themselves Christians and become the church. 

If the event that we celebrate at Christmas is important – and none of us would be here if it wasn’t – then we should reflect on our responsibility for sharing the good news, for sharing and living out our faith, and for being committed to our church. 

The evidence seems to be that (increasingly) people who profess to be Christians are not taking on board that responsibility: 

·         A report published last month predicted that (if trends continue) annual Sunday attendance, which is now about a million, will be less than a 10th of that – down to about 88,000 nationally – in 40 years time. 

·         Church giving has fallen so far behind – whether you look at parish level, or diocesan level, or national level – that at no level is the church (any longer) able to meet its financial obligations.  In this parish, we were thousands of pounds in deficit (once again) this last year. 

·         the numbers of new priests coming forward can’t (anything like) keep up with the numbers retiring, to extent that it seems impossible that we can carry on providing for all our churches. 

If we truly wish to affirm our belief, at Christmas, in the Christian faith, and in what God has done in giving us his only Son, because “God so loved the world”, then we must ask ourselves what you and I are going to do to stop the church (in our country) gradually fading away – whilst the church in many other parts of our world thrives. 

5.         Conclusion 

Luke tells us that when the angel appeared to the shepherds, the angel said “see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people”. 

What we celebrate at Christmas – God’s giving himself to us, because “God so loved the world” – is good news of great joy.   

·         it’s good news to share 

·         it’s good news to take to the heart of our lives 

·         and it’s good news to inspire us to play our part in living out the unfolding story which begins at Christmas with the birth of this holy child, Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Son of God.