The Bishop of Beverley - Sermon for the Northern Provincial Festival

Christmas Sermon 2006

Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord. Luke 2 v11

In just a few hours time many parents are going to be awakened from their beds by children who can stand the suspense no longer. Stockings are going to be unpacked and presents opened. Giving and receiving Christmas presents is very much part of our culture. Yes, sadly, there will be all too many within our community, perhaps even quietly sharing in our church services this Christmastide, who will not be caught up in this sometimes even frenzied activity of giving and receiving of presents. It might be through poverty or through sheer loneliness. The best gift we can offer them is welcome and inclusion. What we find hard to bear, as Charles Dickens knew all too well, is Mr Scrooge. There are few people sadder than those who are completely turned in on themselves. They can no longer enjoy either the wonder of giving or of being the recipient of other people’s generosity. Some of us, yes, might long for the chance to do either or both. But, deliberately to turn our backs on the experience of giving and receiving, that strikes us as sad beyond all measure.

Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you.

Christmas is about giving. But, as we all learnt in our earliest schooldays, we give presents at Christmas because God has given us the greatest present of all. Almost the first words from the Bible, that many of us had to learn off by heart when we were small children, are those famous words from S John’s Gospel: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. God is a giver. God shares with us the most precious thing He has.

He shares with us His Son.

Early in the Bible we are told that God has made us human beings in His own image. If you and I are to be in the image of God then you and I have to be generous givers. I guess that quite a few of us have been discovering something of that truth this Christmas. Lovely as it is to receive gifts there is something very special about being able to give. Any parent knows that there is nothing more satisfying than giving to his or her children. That is far more fulfilling than anything we might receive in return. At Christmas time you and I are reminded once again that God gives us Himself. He loves us so much that He enters into the heart of our lives. If the poorest parent can give that kind of love to a child then it is worth far more than many of the other things we will be handing out this Christmas. It is usually so much easier for us to shower each other with material gifts than with the mutual respect, patience or affection that such gifts ought to embody.

Real giving of ourselves in love towards those of different race, or religion, or political outlook would help transform our world. People who live on their own perhaps need our time and our interest even more than the food parcels and the cards that we so rightly and generously send to them. This Christmas could be wonderfully memorable for us if only we were to recover something of the wonder of what it is to give of ourselves. That is what God does in Christmas and you and I are made in His image.

Christmas, then, is about giving. It is also about receiving.

When I was a young curate I used to call on an elderly lady who could hardly make ends meet. She was always selling odd bits of furniture to bring in a few more pounds. Whenever I visited her she would want to give me a cup of tea. Imagine my surprise when, after pouring a cup of tea for me, she would put the teapot under the cushion by where she was sitting, saying she wanted to keep the pot warm for her hot drink later. In the midst of such poverty it was embarrassing to accept even that simple hospitality, that is until I discovered that I was the only person for whom she ever had the opportunity to make a cup of tea other than for herself. In the same way, when one year I was able to take her a generous Christmas hamper from the local church, she was round at my door like a flash, with a bar of chocolate she had immediately gone out and bought for me. She hated receiving a gift without being able to give one.

Christmas is a time for learning to receive as well as to give. S John’s Gospel tells us that:

To all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

To all who did accept him…… We human beings have got to be able to accept the gift of Christmas if it is going to be any use to us at all, just as I had first to learn to accept hospitality from an impoverished old lady and she a gift from me. S John’s Gospel tells us that you and I are capable of becoming Children of God. Christmas offers each of us an invitation to accept Jesus. Jesus is the child lying in the manger. Jesus is that young man who comes preaching the Kingdom of God. Jesus hangs on a cross continuing to love us while the world hates Him as much as King Herod did at His birth. Jesus stands in the garden on that first Easter Day, fully alive yet still bearing the marks of the crucified one.

Those who do accept God’s gift become God’s children. And children gradually grow into adulthood. In other words you and I are offered the chance to share in the life of God. You and I are offered the gift of seeing things through God’s eyes. We are able to share in loving this world and in bringing healing, peace and justice to this world. We are able to know that in sharing the life of God not even death itself can finally destroy us.

That is a fantastic present for this Christmas. That is the one true present that this Christmas offers to us. That is the heart of all our Christmas celebrations whether we be young or old, rich or poor, on our own or in the company of others. May our Christmas sharing in Holy Communion bring us to a deepening awareness of the Christmas gift. We are invited to share in the life of God even as God in Christ shares in the life of the world.