Two Short Sermons:           

 

Christmas Eve 24th. December, 2005

Reading: “the people who walked in darkness have  seen a great light.” Isaiah 9.2             

 

 

I remember the thunder storms in Africa – a whole day of heat, of humidity, of charged expectancy in the air. Then as night fell, driving rain, crashing rolling thunder from far off in the pitch black night. Then suddenly, the storm was upon us, the sky was suddenly lit up in a flash of lighting, and the bush round about and the buildings would be caught, for an instant, in a blaze of white light.

 

I wonder if this is what it was like that night out on the edge of Bethlehem ?

 

The shepherds sitting by a lit fire, all around them pitch dark. And then suddenly, all unexpectedly, that dazzling, blazing, pure light shines around them.

An angel appears announcing good news.  To go to the town of Bethlehem, for there they would find the Messiah, and as they get ready, – a vision opens up in the night sky, of glory, of angels worshipping and praising God.

 

Here is how Max Lucado describes it:

 

An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for what happened next, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away.

The black sky exploded with brightness. ... Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of glory……….

The night was ordinary no more.

For the living God had come………the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light.

 

Max Lucado in The Applause of Heaven.

 

When we look at the gospels, we see the same purpose of God unfolding - those on the edge of things – included. The good news overflowing to them in God’s purposes, the message of Jesus the Messiah, bursting through for them. A young girl visited by an angel – to her is announced that she will be the mother of the One to come, wise men called from far away in the east, shepherds called in from the fields. The good news overflowing to them in God’s purposes, the message of Jesus the Messiah, breaking through for them. And for us ! Were it not for God’s inclusive purpose, were it not that God’s glory shines upon us too in Jesus,  we would not, could not, be here this evening.  For this gospel is for the whole earth and…………..this is God’s purpose in Jesus.

 

AMEN.

 

Christmas Day 25th. December, 2005

 

Reading: “ They hurried off, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger……...” Luke 2.16 

 

 

 

On Christmas Eve, we heard how the light, the glory of the Lord shone on the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. This morning, Christmas morning, we follow them, into the stable itself in the town. This is what we read:

 

v. 16 They hurried off, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger……..

 

That moment fascinated the artist Rembrandt all through his life. In his twenties he had painted Mary and Joseph and Jesus with dazzling skill…… but by his 50s, a change has come over his art,  you can see it in the many etchings he made of incidents in the gospels. It is plain, from these etchings, that Rembrandt had come to know a deeper significance in what he was drawing.

 

Look, for example, at  The Adoration of the Shepherds with the Lamp,

 

What you see when you first look, seems a very ordinary picture, compared to other artists.  An Italian artist of the same period might have shown Jesus born in a rather elegant stable, with picturesque arches and columns,  Mary dressed in satins or silks of deepest shimmering blue, the shepherds in a variety of rich and colourful costumes.

 

Not so in this etching made by Rembrandt, now a man in his fifties.

Joseph sits on a wheelbarrow, Mary is huddled in the straw, the baby lies in her lap. The shepherds have arrived in the stable. One  has brought his wife, another his little boy.

But this picture speaks of more than just an ordinary stable.

On the faces of the shepherds and their families you can see awe and amazement.  One shepherd is taking off his cap, as you might do in a holy place, another seems to be raising his hand to pray.

 

Now, the message of Isaiah, the message of the Gospels is that the living God, the everlasting Lord, has come near once and for all, and for ever, in Jesus Christ.

That the most stupendous and astonishing wonder which could ever occupy  the human mind has taken place — that the eternal, infinite Creator of the universe has entered our human life, and taken to Himself our human nature, by being born as a child, laid in a manger. That we might have life, and life in all its fullness

 

Somewhere in the faces and the gestures of the shepherds, lit by the steady flame of the lamp behind them, you see that a little of that truth is taking hold of these men and women. The truth that they were promised - Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. The truth, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, here in this new born child.

This is the deeper meaning, the true significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

These are great and momentous things, are they not ?

But

may we, ordinary men and women like those shepherds,  come to know more and more for ourselves the deeper meaning, the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.

May we, like the shepherds, as each day, each year passes,  come more and more to praise God for all that we have seen and heard.

May He  make his home in our hearts ever more  through faith, so that  we may have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep is Christ’s love.

The One who by being born as a child, laid in a manger, has entered our human life, taken to Himself our human nature. That we might have life, yes - and life in all its fullness

 

AMEN