Christmas Day

‘The Word became flesh and lived amongst us’

A five year old girl was engrossed in art work at school. ‘What is that you are drawing?’  Asked the teacher. ‘I’m drawing a picture of God’ came the reply. ‘But nobody knows what God is like’ said the teacher. The little girl replied: ’ell they will do when I’ve finished my picture.’

Well we are in the happy bad blessed place of knowing what God is like. No picture to show us, but rather God speaking for himself to us in the Word made flesh. As the writer to the Letter to the Hebrews wrote:

‘In times past and in various ways God has spoken to our ancestors in various ways by the prophets, but now he has spoken to us by his Son, through whom also he created the worlds.

He is the reflection of Gods glory and the exact imprint of Gods very being. God has spoken to us clearly and unambiguously and intimately through his Son born of Mary – the Word made flesh.

Words can communicate who we are and what we are. The word of God reveals to us all that we need to know of God indeed all we can know of him in this life. God’s word to us comes in the form of a human life Jesus of Nazareth born of Mary and yet the very word of God from all eternity.

The early Christian teacher Basil of Caesarea puts it thus: 'God speaks gently and with kindness in a human body. God in the flesh’

We do know what God is like. He has spoken to us in Jesus Christ. St John’s Gospel tells us that this speech of God is the word that brought the whole creation into being.

‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God – all things came into being through him, not one thing was made without him.

The incarnation of the eternal creating Word of God points us to his presence in the whole of our lives. Incarnation is about the way we see things. The way we get hints of the holy hidden nature of everything. It all comes as gift. Seeing the world  as an enchanted place full of the presence of God.

Think for instance of the most complete loving moment that you can remember – when you know that you are loved as much if not more that you love. Think of all that has ever moved you profoundly – whether it is the silence of the darkest starlit night. Or the courage of a friend against all the odds. Or the wind in the winter trees. It is God’s gift of himself in and through our world and our lives in the world. And it is all free. It is God’s word to us – a word of generosity born of eternal and immense love. And we know it because the creating Word has been made flesh. We know it because of the baby. God amongst us in the Word made flesh

I love St John’s description of all that God has revealed of himself by his word. The glory that we have seen is described as full of grace and truth. Grace – it means simply gift. God gift of the fullness of himself in his word. What does this word say to us? Most importantly he says: ’I am with you.’ I know you. I love you unconditionally. In life’s loneliness and exile and isolation. In life pains and its weariness our anxieties and our fears. In our doubts and bewilderment. The gentle word of God speaks through this baby  and says ‘I am with you’. A word we long to hear. A word we need to hear. A word we cannot live without. Yes and in our need for forgiveness and healing. He is there too.

Think of the light that comes to your life when you experience the forgiveness of family and friend that you have hurt. And know that Gods forgiveness is even greater. For his love is unconditional. And it’s all there in the birth of the baby.

This marvellous prologue to St John’s Gospel describes the coming of the word as grace and also as truth. ‘Full of grace -  and truth’.

This past year we have been celebrating the 400^th anniversary of the publication in 1611 of the King James Authorised version of the Bible. It has of course been much more than the publication of an extremely beautiful book – a prime example of English language. This year has been a celebration of how Gods word that is Gods truth, through the Bible has shaped the life of our nation down the years. Our language our literature our law – have all been shaped by the truth of God revealed in his word to us in scripture. Our life in community, in our families and our personal lives have in the past been shaped by Christian view of life and morality and behaviour. That word of God‘s truth about how we should live his world for our own well-being has been muted. We have lost the Christian vocabulary and grammar with which to describe how to live our lives. The voice of the Christian ethic has diminished and nothing has replaced it. The riots last summer. The scandal of MPs expenses. The cavalier intrusion into the sacred privacy of people lives by elements of the press. The unrestricted greed of the few in banking and finance at the expense of the many. The poor treatment of the elderly and those suffering from dementia in some of our hospitals and care homes.

All this points towards a loss of a moral compass – particularly around the way we behave towards one another. All this is what happens when the Christian voice is diminished. For the Christian understanding of each and every one of us is that our origin is in God. That we come from God in his word in creation – in him was life. And that  each person each and every one of us has been raised up to God and given an eternal destiny and dignity when that Word assumed our humanity. That dignity with which each person is invested by the Word of God by the Word of God becoming one with us that we might become one with him.

If you lose that Christian insight into who we are and what we are for then you lose something essential about what it is to be a person. I think that we are coming to realise that we can’t go on like this. That we need to rediscover what we have lost sight of. The spiritual part of our being longs to be fed with the knowledge of God’ s free and life transforming love. The birth of Jesus the eternal; Word of God in a human life has revealed that nature of God to us – That he is made of Love. And he has revealed the nature of human life as it is meant to be lived that we are made for God and made for love. This love is a love that can transform not only our own lives but indeed the life of our nation.

‘The Word was made flesh and lived amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth’.