CHRISTMAS DAY 2011

Madonna and Child (2011) -- Ruth Tietjen Councell by kind permission of the artist

http://www.councell.net  

Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12)
John 1:1-14
Psalm 98  


The lectionary readings for Christmas – officially ‘The Nativity of Our Lord’ -- are the same in each year of the three year cycle. Variety lies in the fact that provision is made for three services. The Gospel for the third of these services famously starts with this verse : “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. This wonderfully majestic sentence points to a question that has long troubled philosophers – why does anything exist at all?  -- and it identifies the source of all being in a single purposeful will – God’s Word -- through which ‘all things came into being’ and without which ‘not one thing came into being’.


Though utterly familiar to millions of Christians, these affirmations are as deeply theological as anything anywhere in the Bible. They are also extremely difficult to understand. Where does the key to their significance lie, and how are those whose minds do not run to metaphysics and theology to gain insight into their meaning? The answer is, in the Incarnation. The finite human mind can penetrate the infinite purposes of God only because God has chosen to become human.


The Epistle to the Hebrews expresses the point exactly. In Jesus we can find ‘the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being’. This being so, we do not need to grapple with difficult theological puzzles and paradoxes. We may of course choose to, and there is a lot to be learnt in doing so. But it is sufficient to track the story of the birth, life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We do so partly by modeling our lives on his, as best we can, partly turning repeatedly to God in prayer and sacrament, and partly by following the pattern of worship that the Church calendar prescribes.


That is why, though Christmas comes at the end of an old year, it signals the start of recurrent journey towards the divine that is in us and beyond us, and for which we could not ask a better light than Christ.