Hebrews 1: 1 - 4
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
While Shepherds washed there socks by night
All seated round the tub,
The Angel of the lord came down
And gave them all a scrub.
I was speaking to an Archdeacon once about Christmas, an Archdeacon is a very important ecclesiastical personage in charge of other Vicars, a bit like a Deputy Head, as a Vicar if you see an Archdeacon about you have to look busy, anyway, he said he no longer looked forward to putting up Christmas decorations. When asked why, he explained that he found it difficult to go from the grave responsibilities of being an Archdeacon to the childlike joy of Christmas decorations.
This struck me as an interesting idea, perhaps there was a principle here, that the higher you rise in life the less able to be childlike you become.
As I am but an humble country Parson I find no such difficulties. I can step lightly from the solemn to the childlike and back again in the twinkling of an eye.
I wonder at what stage the responsibilities of Office become so great that delighting in childhood joys is too great a leap of consciousness?
Is it the same in all professions? Can Bank Managers not dance a jig?
Can Chief Executives not play hide and seek? Can Members of Parliament not make fools of themselves?
I think we might know the answer to that last one.
A Methodist colleague of mine took an assembly in which she showed the children a Crib Scene, and she asked them where they would like to be in the scene if they could climb in.
It's always a good idea to ask children questions.
One child said, "I’d be a shepherd, because although I am poor and can't afford much, Jesus still makes me welcome and I can still be involved."
Another said, ‘I want to be sat listening to the Angels’.
So where would you be?
Would you be a shepherd, or a donkey? A wiseman, or and angel?
Placing yourself in the Crib Scene would help bring to life the otherwise wooden figures. As you stand in the stable, you can see the shepherds are real working men, rough in appearance from living outdoors, and smelling of sheep. You can see that Mary is an exhausted teenage girl, holding a new born baby wrapped in improvised bed clothes.
If I was Joseph in that scene, I would be thinking ruefully of the cot I had made with great care and forethought for the expected infant. I would be thinking of it standing redundant back in Nazareth, and to be honest I would be wondering why God had not taken equal care and acted with equal forethought in providing for the child?
The greatest miracle in human history, the infinite being of Christ made flesh in the body of an infant, standing at the heart of history as a sign of the love of God, a sign that all creation is to be restored, this greatest of moments is accompanied by the chaos of a birth miles from home, and witnessed by illiterate labouring men from the edge of society.
Of all the scenes in which God could reveal His true nature, He chooses this scene.
As the hymn writer says,
Tell of His birth at Bethlehem,
Not in a royal house or hall
But in a stable dark and dim:
The Word made flesh, a light for all.
God placed His living image in the crib scene.
Jesus is the image if the invisible God.
Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Yet when we imagine God, He is nothing like this, is he?
The all present, all knowing, all powerful God, a little baby?
This is the image that God gives us to reveal the nature of divinity.
This is the start of God's great self explanation written in flesh and blood.
No one would make this up, who would believe such an image of Almighty God?
John writes, ‘He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.’ It took the disciples years of living with Jesus to recognise who he was, and years to find words to be able to describe this wonder.
The Son of God became a flesh and blood baby in the womb of Mary. He was born and grew into a child, became a man, and lived among us first as a carpenter, and then as an itinerant preacher. Mortal as you or I he died a criminal’s death despite, or perhaps because of the innocence, of his life. In his resurrection is the promise that God offers forgiveness to all, and that our lives, like his, are forever.
Archdeacons may struggle to be childlike, but if God can do it, then so should they.
And, for that matter, so should we.
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
It's always a good idea to ask children questions because they still have enough of the Kingdom of Heaven about them to answer honestly. Deceit takes years of practice, if we deceive others for long enough we may become accomplished at it, and eventually might even succeed in deceiving even ourselves, but children will say what they see.
I pray we may be childlike enough to delight in Christmas, and childlike enough to know its true meaning.
So lay aside your importance, your status, your power, and uncover the child you once were, the child that you have overlaid with worries, and burdensome expectations, and nervous pretence, and instead dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven. God may well then ask you to take up once more your importance, your status, your power, but to use them in service of others.
God asks the strong to serve and protect the weak, and that especially means adults must look after children. Having remembered what it is to be a child, we adults must take responsibility to protect children. Jesus said that anyone who welcomes a child, welcome him, and not him alone, but the Father also. So when you welcome a child, you are welcoming God. That's an awesome responsibility.
Jesus called a little child to him, and said, '“If anyone causes one of these little ones...to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.'
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and he is our model for how to live.
I wonder if from the manger Jesus could see the stars that through him had been created over countless millennia?
As the poet, Malcolm Guite, writes of the baby Jesus in the crib,
He does not look down from above
But gazes up at us
That we might take him in our arms
Who always cradles us.
There's an old prayer I like that asks we may follow the example of Jesus, lets pray...
My Lord Jesus, Who didst empty Thyself of Thine eternal glory and became a little child for love of us all: empty me wholly of myself, and make me a little child, that I may love Thee, and my neighbour, wholly, as Thou didst love me infinitely.
Amen.
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