Sunday Worship 14 December | Lessons and Carols

This morning was the third Sunday of Advent, and our lessons and carols style service, with music on our fabulous organ. We also remembered John the Baptist as we lit the third candle on our Advent wreath.

Luke 2:1-7 - The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

Jesus found welcome in a borrowed manger in the place where the animals slept. It probably wasn’t a stable as we now imagine it, cold and dark and isolated, but rather the main living space of a family home, where the animals were brought inside at night for warmth and safety. The word we usually translate as inn is better translated as guest room, which probably means the spare bed was already taken, so the family shuffled up and made space on the living room floor. And this was perhaps not just any family, but Joseph’s family. The census required everyone to be counted in their own city, which suggests Joseph himself was originally from Bethlehem, and if he had family still living there, they would surely have hosted the expectant couple. 

There is something poignant about the image of Mary and Joseph and Jesus alone among the animals, but the incarnation is God getting stuck right into the thick of humanity, so it seems very fitting that Jesus may actually have been born into the chaos of a house bursting with guests, right in the heart of a family home. I imagine Joseph’s aunt acting as midwife while his youngest cousins scrapped in the corner and his grandfather tried to settle the donkey. Jesus found welcome in the muddle and mundanity of an ordinary home, and in so doing showed us how things were always meant to be.

I wonder who needs to be welcomed and where God finds welcome today.

God of Mary and Joseph, we thank you for the family that welcomed them in, and by so doing welcomed you. May we also make space in our hearts and our homes for you and for others. Amen.

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Luke 2:8-20 - The Shepherds

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven,    and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

The shepherds ran to tell the good news of what they had seen that night, but first they had to run to actually see the good news. Because it was not Jesus himself that appeared to them in the starlit fields, but a host of angels announcing the birth of the Messiah that had been promised for centuries. They could have ignored the message, too cynical to believe it or too afraid to respond. They had to take a chance on this improbable encounter being true, leave their flocks behind in the fields, and search the streets for the house that held this miraculous child. I imagine them listening out for a newborn cry, then knocking on the door, wondering how to explain what had brought them there.

So why did they hurry off to find the baby lying in the manger? I have heard and read this passage for almost four decades, but this year for the first time I noticed that they say to each other they will go and see “this thing which has happened, which the Lord has told us about”. The angels do not announce themselves as messengers from God, but the shepherds understand that it is God who has spoken to them, who has come to them with this wonderful news, and God deserves a response. It is perhaps this same instinct that leads them to believe that the child they find is the one the world has been waiting for, just as they had been told. No wonder they run to tell the good news of what they have seen.

I wonder when we have recognised God and who we will tell.

God of the shepherds, we thank you that they recognised you in the words of the angels and the cry of a baby. May we also recognise you and share that good news with the same abandon. Amen.

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Matthew 2:1-12 - The Wise Men

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler    who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The magi journeyed together to find the newborn king the star promised. They were most likely Zoroastrian priests from what is now Iran, so they did not know the prophecies of the coming Messiah that we heard last week. They had their own traditions and their own beliefs, and God spoke through their knowledge and reading of the stars to lead them to Jesus. God told Abraham that one day all nations would be blessed through him, and Isaiah declared that one day all nations would gather on the holy mountain, and here we see the nations being blessed and gathered through the birth of Christ, in a way that graciously respects and reflects their own culture.

And they don't arrive empty handed. Despite not knowing the Hebrew scriptures, they bring gifts that speak to the prophecies they contain, and to the role Jesus will fulfil. Gold for kingship, frankincense for worship, and myrrh for sacrifice. Although one of my favourite discoveries of recent years is that the gifts probably had a practical use too. Frankincense and myrrh were used in ointments for postnatal healing, and the gold surely came in handy when the family had to seek asylum in Egypt. God used these travellers to speak the truth about Christ and look after his family, so that others could also find what they were seeking, because there are no limits to who God will reach.

I wonder what we are looking for and who is on the journey with us.

God of the magi, we thank you that they found what they were seeking at the end of the journey. May we also seek and find, and have good companions along the way. Amen.

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So we have heard the Christmas story. A baby is born, the utterly extraordinary in the midst of the perfectly ordinary. He is announced to those on the outskirts as a saviour. He is heralded to those from afar as a king. He draws people to him in hope and they leave in joy.

But we know because we have remembered the patriarchs and the prophets that this was not the beginning of the story. God had been engaging with the world since the very beginning and this baby had been promised for generations. He was the one to be called "Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace". And we know because we have remembered John the Baptist that this was not the end of the story either. God had a message for the world and this baby would grow to be the one to deliver it. He was the one who would baptise with the Spirit and heal the sick and preach the kingdom and defeat the grave.

To really understand Christmas, we have to hold the whole story together. But it works the other way too. To really understand any other part of it, we have to remember Christmas. Because what we celebrate is not just the birth of a baby, but the incarnation of God as one of us and with all of us and for each of us. So when we read in the prophets that a messiah would come who would bring good news to the poor and bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim liberty to the captives, we need to remember that it was God who would do those things in order that we might do those things. And when we hear Jesus preach about the kingdom of justice and joy, we need to remember that it is the word of God we are hearing. And when we see Jesus embrace the outcast, we need to remember that it is the love of God we are seeing. And when we commemorate Christ’s death and celebrate his resurrection as we gather at the communion table, we need to remember that it was God who went to the cross and walked out of the tomb.

It is an extraordinary claim, but it is the heart of Christianity, and it is the reason I am a Christian. There is no story more compelling than that of God taking on our humanity. There is no story that holds greater truth or meaning. And there is no story that better helps me know how to live my own story. Life is beautiful and it is terrible and so I need a God who understands that. That is the God I find in a borrowed manger, sung into the world by angels and welcomed with history's unlikeliest baby shower. I hope that is the God you find this Christmas too.