The readings for Christmas Day (including Christmas Eve) are as follows. To read them, click on each reading for a link.
Sermon, by Canon Liz Beasley
I have some breaking news for you.
You know what breaking news stories are. Breaking news is a story that we are not expecting, that suddenly explodes upon the world. Like when you’re watching a program on TV, and a news flash appears across the bottom of the screen, or when some media outlet sends you alerts on your smartphone. They always say, “Breaking News,” and then give you a headline and a few sentences about some major event. Often the event makes us gasp, tugs at our heartstrings, leaves us feeling concerned or worried.
We’ve had lots of breaking news stories of late:
Omicron variant becomes dominant
Volcano erupts in Indonesia
Tornadoes ravage the southern and midwestern United States
Lockdowns begin in several countries in Europe
And sometimes of course the latest celebrity gossip
I could go on and on, but you get the picture.
But I have a different news flash for you. It is this:
Christmas is here. It has arrived. We do not have to wait any longer. And we are here in church, worshipping together, to celebrate it, for the first time in two years. Thanks be to God.
Now you might say you know this — that is why you are here. But this event is of eternal importance, and it does not depend on outside events. Christmas has come, whether or not we have finished our shopping or written all the cards (if we send them), or decorated the house, or finished any of the many preparations that people are referring to when we ask one another, “Are you ready for Christmas?” Just like breaking news stories suddenly appearing, no matter what we are doing, Christmas has come in the midst of all our imperfect, incomplete preparations, to break in upon our world.
The first Christmas, so long ago, was accompanied by a breaking news flash. This news flash came through an angel, who declared to some shepherds on the hillside outside Bethlehem,
“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”
Usually our breaking news stories these days do not start this way; they are not what we would call good news. They especially are not “good news of great joy for all the people.” With that line, the angel is saying to the shepherds, and to us, “Listen up. Something very important is coming. Something momentous and wondrous, even earth-shattering, an event that will forever change the course of human history.” And then the angel delivers the news: “To you is born this day in the city of David [that means Bethlehem] a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
And then, just to make sure that the shepherds get the message, just to make sure that we ourselves realise how huge this piece of breaking news is, a whole multitude of angels appear, praising God: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace…”
No, our breaking news stories do not usually happen this way. But that is because this news from the angel, repeated today, is very different from the news stories that appear on our smartphones and scroll across the bottom of our TV screens. These stories we see and hear in all our media outlets — they come and they go. Yes, they are momentous, some shake up the world, even change the course of history. And then they pass. They are gone, or they fade away, to be replaced by the next story, the next breaking news flash. They are tied to a moment in time, they are tied to people and events and even countries that come, and go.
But this news flash from the angel, to the shepherds, to us, is eternal. It is timeless. It does not depend on the state of our world, it does not depend on events. It is of God, who was and is and always will be, for the news is that God has been born among us in the person of Jesus, to show us God’s love and care and mercy. Anything of God is eternal, for all time and forever.
As you no doubt know, there has been concern this year whether we would be able to have Christmas services, or whether there would be another lockdown. Would we be able to shop, to have Christmas parties, to visit family? Would Christmas be what we are used to?
But as worrisome as these questions might be, they do not affect the arrival of Christmas at all. Christmas still comes, the angel still announces good news of great joy for all the people, that to us has been born a Savior, the Lord, God come among us in human flesh. Christmas comes because it is of God, who is timeless and eternal and ever-present. It does not depend on events in the world, because Christmas transcends events in the world. In fact, it is because of the kind of events we deal with, it is because of disease and worry and uncertainty that God came among us, to bring to us love and care, to give us reason to hope, so that we can, with the angels, sing and shout our praises and thanksgivings to God.
With this in mind, I close with a poem by Madeleine L’Engle, called “First Coming”:
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine.
He did not wait till hearts were pure.
In joy he came to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
he came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!