Midnight Mass

Reading Isaiah 52

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
       are the feet of those who bring good news,
       who proclaim peace,
       who bring good tidings,
       who proclaim salvation,
       who say to Zion,
       "Your God reigns!"

⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
       together they shout for joy.
       When the LORD returns to Zion,
       they will see it with their own eyes.

⁹ Burst into songs of joy together,
       you ruins of Jerusalem,
       for the LORD has comforted his people,
       he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰ The LORD will lay bare his holy arm
       in the sight of all the nations,
       and all the ends of the earth will see
       the salvation of our God.

Gospel John 1

The Word Became Flesh

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only [Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Prayers

Father, [in this holy night] your Son our Saviour
was born as a child among us.
Renew your Church as the Body of Christ.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] there was no room for your Son
in the inn.
Protect with your love those who have no home
and all who live in poverty.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] Mary, in the pain of labour,
brought your Son to birth.
Hold in your hand [… and] all who are in pain or distress.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] your Christ came
as a light shining in the darkness.
Bring comfort to [... and] all who suffer
in the sadness of our world.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] the angels sang
‘Peace to God’s people on earth’.
Strengthen those who work for peace and justice
in [… and in] all the world.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] shepherds in the field heard
good tidings of joy.
Give us grace to preach the gospel of Christ’s redemption.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] heaven is come down to earth,
and earth is raised to heaven.
Keep in safety [… and] all those who have
passed through death in the hope of heaven.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

[In this holy night] Christians the world over
celebrate his birth.
Open our hearts that he may be born in us today.
Holy God
hear our prayer.

Father,
[in this holy night] angels and shepherds worshipped at
the manger throne.
Receive the worship we offer in fellowship with Mary,
Joseph and the saints
through him who is your Word made flesh,
our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Sermon

Some preachers at Christmas think that faced with such a wonderful gospel reading they can in one stupendous sermon make all things plain, awaken all our imaginations, and provide the answers to life, the universe and everything. They think they can bat out the entire innings and win the game single handed. Me? – my ambitions are more restrained. A couple of fours and a few well judged singles would suffice.

So for my first four I’ll take the first verse, and for my last, the last. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.

The concept of Logos was already well known in the world of Greek philosophy. Here John applies it to Christ. We can only begin to comprehend what this is all about – scholars continue to debate the source and meaning of Logos and why and how it was used by John. But I will focus on three aspects tonight: was – was with- was.

Jesus the Logos was. At the beginning. He existed.
Jesus the Logos was with God. He had a relationship with God.
Jesus the Logos was. He was God. That was his identity.

Pretty dramatic stuff – and let’s reflect on these claims by John the Evangelist before we get overtaken by Luke’s baby tucked up in his crib and the nativity scene, or the overindulgence and commercialisation of the long-forgotten Christian festival.

Existence. Relationship. Identity. He was. He was with. He was.

The claims made by John are astounding. Jesus, he says, was the Word of God. Jesus existed before creation, and was with God from the beginning. Not only did he have a relationship with God, which we now call the Trinity – but Jesus was no less than God himself. The claims have lost nothing of their drama and impact 1,900 years after they were first written down. No wonder there have been so-called heresies, asserting Jesus was Man who became divine during his earthly lifetime. Or that he was Man divinely inspired and adopted by God. Or that he was unbegotten – a being created by God and not of one being with the Father as we say in the creeds.

But we are a Trinitarian church. We believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – together in relationship but of one being – inseparable – and it is in this light that we must try and understand the first verse of John’s gospel.

My second four is in the last verse. What happened to the Logos? The Word became flesh. The Word made his dwelling among us. Past tense, not present. A fleshly Logos, no longer here.

Imagine, if you will, a nomad’s tent. This is the Logos – he pitched his tent among us. During his incarnation, people passed in and out of the tent. His words and actions were played out in that tent. Now the tent has been struck. It is no longer here, but we have a record of what was said and done, and we can see the marks on the ground where the tent once was.

John goes onto say We have seen his glory...full of grace and truth. That was what people saw in the tent, but the word ‘saw’ here has a deeper meaning. They did not just see Jesus the Logos physically with their own eyes. They perceived. They saw with their mind’s eye and not just with the eyes in their heads.

That’s the secondary meaning of ‘we have seen his glory.’ They saw the identity of the One who had taken up residence among them. They perceived who he was. Beyond mere visual identification. They were more than eye witnesses.

In the same way, our challenge this Christmas is to look beyond the baby in the manger. Beyond the stuffing and the commercialisation. Beyond even the carols and the liturgy. And by doing so, we can perceive his identity, Jesus the Logos for ourselves. We can know who this One is. We can enter this relationship with him, and not just observe from afar.

So tomorrow, 14 minutes after getting up, 15 minutes before you have breakfast, and 2 hours before the first family row – as you pick up your first gift from under the tree – stop and reflect on the true gift to us of Christmas.

The true gift of Christmas is not some neatly wrapped present from a loved one. Nor some neatly worded sermon. Nor even some neatly laid out nativity scene.

The true gift is what is behind them. Jesus the Logos – who was, was with, and is God. The one who pitched his tent among us, full of grace and truth. The One who interacts with us throughout the year, and not just during the season of Christmas.

So after the wrapping paper is recycled, the credit card paid off, the New Year resolutions made and broken, and Christmas forgotten until 2010 – let’s still make time to reflect on Jesus the Word, and try to make sense for ourselves of that mystery that is the Logos, of one being with God the Father, in the relationship of the Trinity – with Jesus the incarnate, the Word made flesh, who pitched his tent for a while among us – no longer here, but with us for all time. Amen