Isaiah 9: 2, 6 & 7
2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
6 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.
7 Of the greatness 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.
Luke 2: 1- 12
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 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. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
I have recently been reading 'White Jacket' by Herman Melville, you may know him better from the novel, 'Moby Dick', but if you don't know him at all, he was a nineteenth century American novelist.
'White Jacket' is about life aboard an American 'Man of War', that is a navel fighting ship, in the mid eighteen hundreds. There's not much by way of a plot, instead Melville describes to the reader the day to day life of the ship. So we learn about how best to sleep in a hammock, about the continual washing of decks, about working in rigging a couple of hundred feet above a heaving sea, and about the cruel and unjust use of flogging. It is a unique insight into a way of life that has long past, it is also a fascinating reflection on human life and society as exemplified by five hundred plus men on a sailing ship, but it's not Christmassy – so why am I telling you about it?
On board was the Commodore of the fleet, an officer who was captain of all the captains of the assembled warships. He had a grand cabin to himself, servants, and a fancy uniform. He only ever spoke with the captain, or other officers, never with the common sailors, and because of his exalted position, he endeavoured to act as an example of navel virtue to the men. However, Melville writes, “To be efficacious, Virtue must come down from aloft, even as our blessed Redeemer came down to redeem our whole man of war world: to that end mixing with it's sailors and sinners as equals.”
Now there is a thought for Christmas. You may be a virtuous and good leader, but if you are not prepared to step down from your exalted position and mix with everyone else, then your virtue and goodness will be of little good effect. As Melville writes, “Virtue must come down from aloft, even as our blessed Redeemer came down...”
At Christmas we sing,
He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.
Virtue came down from aloft, God the Son became God our brother.
The virtue and goodness of God was made manifest in the flesh and blood of a man.
Hebrews 1:3 tells us that, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” That means, if you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus.
As we sing in Hark the Herald Angels,
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’ incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel.
God is not like the Commodore in Melville's novel, in Jesus God mixed with “sailors and sinners as equals.”
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, who shines a light on the image of God in us.
That means if we start to see the divine in the flesh and blood of Christ, we can start to see it in each other, and ourselves. And we can start to see that heaven and earth are not separate realms, but that they overlap where ever God's good and perfect will is done. Even in an American man of war in the eighteen hundreds, the light of Christ illuminates the loving, and the good, and by contrast shows the darkness of injustice, and hatred, and cruelty.
We are two thousand years familiar with this story of the Word made flesh, so perhaps we have lost the astonishment of it all, that God came down not to trumpet calls and banners unfurled, but to the hidden quiet of a cattle stall.
Bishop Edward Stillingfleet, an Anglican clergyman of the seventeenth century, wrote this,
“The Manner of our Saviours Appearance... hath been alwayes ...great offence to the admirers of the pomp and greatness of the World. For when they heard of the Son of God coming down from Heaven, and making his Progress into this lower world, they could imagine nothing less, than that an innumerable company of Angels must have been dispatched before, to have prepared a place for his reception; that all the Soveraigns and Princes of the World must have been summon'd to give their attendance and pay their homage to him: that their Scepters must have been immediately laid at his feet... That the Heavens should bow down at his presence to shew their obeysance to him, the Earth tremble and shake for fear at the near approaches of his Majesty; that all the Clouds should clap together into one universal Thunder, to welcome his appearance, and tell the Inhabitants of the World what cause they had to fear him whom the Powers of the Heavens obey.”
Stillingfleet continues,
But when instead of all this pomp and grandeur he comes incognito into the World, instead of giving notice of his appearance to the Potentates of the Earth, he is only discovered to a few silly Shepheards and three wise men of the East; instead of choosing either Rome or Hierusalem for the place of his Nativity, he is born at Bethlehem a mean and obscure Village: instead of the glorious and magnificent Palaces of the East or West...he is brought forth in a Stable, where the Manger was his Cradle.”
He writes that even when Jesus began his public ministry, he “persisted still in the same course of humility and self-denyal; taking care of others to the neglect of himself; feeding others by a Miracle, and fasting himself, to one: shewing his power in working miraculous Cures, and his humility in concealing them: Conversing with the meanest of the people, and choosing such for his Apostles, who brought nothing to recommend them but innocency and simplicity.”
If you are a Christian, and a member of the great and good, then you need to learn to walk with the humility of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, and a member of the great unwashed, then you need to learn that Jesus walks with you, and values your contribution.
But whether you are a member of the great and the good, or of the great unwashed, Jesus longs for you to be a disciple of his, working with him to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
I have been speaking about life on nineteenth century warships, and quoting a seventeenth century Bishop, to explain Christmas Day, but perhaps they are no use to you, perhaps you are moved neither by boats afloat, or Bishops a-preaching, so here is another picture for you. I once knew a captain of industry, the head of an international, multi million pound operation, who preferred the shop floor to the board room. He tells the tale of how one day, up to his waist in mud and dirty water, digging out a culvert with the navvies for a motorway slip road, a convoy of posh cars pulled up, and a set of be-suited characters got out and asked to speak with the boss. He waded out of the mud, which was plastered all over him, and introduced himself as the Chief Executive. There then followed a long conversation in which he insisted he was the boss, and the be-suited characters declined to believe him, adding phrases such as, 'pull the other one,' and 'if you're the boss then I'm Napoleon.'
It took a call to head office to sort it out.
God very rarely turns up looking like God, or at least, how we expect God to look. Actually, our expectations really get in the way. We hear that in Matthew 25,
“‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
If you want to see God, Christmas is the lens to look through.
Jesus our Captain became a common sailor, sailed with fishermen, and served as a carpenter, to show us the way to eternal life.
Amen.