Christmas Day

The words of the angels ‘I bring you good news of great joy: To you is born this day in the City of David, a saviour who is Christ the Lord.’ Who is that good news for? To whom are those words addressed? Are they addressed to the shepherds? Or are they addressed to us? Some words of Queen Elizabeth I may give us a clue: ‘Were Christ a thousand times born in Bethlehem yet never once in my heart then it were to no avail.’

The birth of Jesus brought good news to the shepherds, but just as importantly it brings good news to us and to our world. Because the celebration of Christmas brings us to the heart of God and to the heart of humanity as God wants it to be – as God wants us to be. Christmas shows us what God is like and what we are meant to be like. And so it is good news for us all.

The 14^th Century spiritual writer Meister Eckhart wrote this: "The Incarnation of the Son of God is the crucial moment of all human history. Jesus is the eternal Son Of God. His birth in our flesh and blood gives hope to the entire human race. For God has embraced our human condition for us to share in his divine life. Now we are invited to allow that same birth to take place within us, in the depth of our spiritual being’.

The birth of the Son of God is the crucial moment of all history because it does two quite fundamental things for us. It reveals God to us – it points us towards God and reveals his glory to use – as much as we are able to fathom it. The birth of Jesus reveals the truth about God. And it shows or reveals to us what we are meant to be like when we share in the life of God. The birth of Jesus reveals the truth about our humanity. And it reveals the truth about God. What truth does the birth of Jesus as the Word made flesh reveal to us about God? The truth of God revealed in the birth of his Son is the truth of God’s humility and the truth of his generosity. It tells us to look at the moon and the stars and see their maker who is the baby in the manger. We see the absolute unfathomable immensity of God present in the utter vulnerability of a new born baby and the naked humanity of a man upon a cross. And so this birth speaks to us of the humility of God. The breathtaking humility of him who in power created and continues to sustain the vastness of all that is. And who in powerlessness comes to be part of it. The self-emptying of God, and then the generosity of God.

This child comes to us as pure gift from the self-giving heart of God. It was unexpected, unearned and undeserved. It is pure grace. It is given because of our need, and God’s loving compassion. Our need and God’s loving compassion meet in the crib. ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son so that all believe in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.’ Says the Gospel of John.

The humility and the generosity of God are revealed to us in the birth of his Son. That revelation of God can if we allow it reveal fundamental truths about ourselves and our lives. These qualities of humility and generosity must define our humanity and shape our daily living, if we are to live in God’s grace and achieve personal happiness and peace in the world. What would our lives be like if by God’s grace we shared in the humility we see to be true of God of all creation who is found in the babe in the stable? Our pride makes us so determined to stand centre stage ourselves with disastrous consequences for ourselves and our world. Humility on the other hand insists upon our dependence upon each other and upon God not just upon ourselves. Self-contained individualism is a prison from which we need to be freed to live lives of true community recognising each other’s need and each other’s gift.

The failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference points to what can happen when the humility which recognises our dependence upon each other is lacking at the national and international level. And the same can be true in our life of faith. Religion lacking in humility is a dangerous thing. We need the humility to listen to people whose experience of God is different from ours – and all of us have to recognise our dependence upon God however we experience him.

As Christians we can claim this humility on our knees before the crib. Only by stooping down can we truly look in to see the face of God. The second truth about ourselves that the birth of Jesus points to is that of generosity. The Chrsit child is God’s generous gracious gift of himself to us. Just as the truth of God is expressed in the gift of Jesus, so too we only understand ourselves aright when we acknowledge that in our deepest being we receive as gift all that is truly most precious. Life itself, and within our lives love, our children, indeed happiness itself, comes to us as gift.

We shall find then that our true fulfilment as human beings is in reciprocal generosity. To give of ourselves as we have received. Generosity is the only antidote to the constant temptation to define ourselves by what we have and by our constant desire to acquire more. The history of the past year surely points to the futility of that mind set. We are always much more than we possess despite what the commercially led media try to tell us. And part of that more is the nobility of generosity. And so this Christmas as we venerate the humility and the generosity of God revealed in the birth of Jesus so may he renew in us a sense of who we truly are and who we are meant to be. May this Christmas renew in us a sense of humility, of never exaggerating our place and of open recognition of our dependence upon others. May this feast restore a true generosity within us, not as acts of giving from our surplus possessions, but as a fundamental characteristic of all that we do. Then this will indeed be a blessed Christmas. Amen.