EMMANUEL Neill Archer’s Christmas Message 2016
Christmas was slightly traumatic for me as a child. Actually it is still slightly traumatic for me as a vicar for different reasons. It wasn’t the Christmas dinners; I am a big fan of Brussels sprouts. And it wasn’t the carol services; I still love singing the descants to Hark the Herald and O Come all ye faithful. No. It was the presents and the expectation with many of them that I was expected to build something. I just about survived Lego, but what’s the point? If they want you to build a little plastic house why not just give you one in the first place. A couple of years after Lego I got Meccano - horrendous metal stuff with screws and bolts, a total nightmare. And then I got an Airfix model of a Spitfire. Bits of plastic that I was expected to assemble and then glue and then paint. My parents were mocking me. Christmas presents are much easier now. As a young man in my early 40s, all my presents tend to come in liquid form. They don’t last as long, but they are unproblematic. However last year I received a non-liquid present. Here it is. A Leicester City Football Club Santa’s Elf sweater that really captures the true spirit of Christmas. A bit of love, lots of fun, and big helpings of generosity; this tat doesn’t come cheap.
But then I asked the question, as well as showing the spirit of Christmas, is the true meaning of Christmas subtly hidden in its 100% acrylic fibres? You can see: The stars in the night sky, Bethlehem coming alive in machineknitted form. Golden bells perhaps signifying the gold the Magi brought from the East as they came to adore the Christ child. They jingle too. A little fox, yes the logo of The Foxes. Or perhaps one of many little animals that worshipped at the manger, and a subtle reference by the manufacturers to the ancient Latin hymn O Magnum Mysterium? The colours, blue and white. Yes, the home strip of our Premier League champions, but also, the traditional colours in art of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the 100% snuggly acrylic warmth of this sweater, like the swaddling clothes in the manger. Yes my LCFC Santa’s Elf Sweater captures the spirit of Christmas, but maybe, just maybe, it also brings the true You don’t seem convinced. Last year I met a couple who understood neither the spirit nor the meaning of Christmas.
I was shaking hands at the door after a service just like this, simply wishing everybody a Happy Christmas, and when I shook hands with them rather than them replying with ‘Happy Christmas to you too, vicar’ the man simply said ‘Hmmmmmph!’ I asked him what was up and he said: ‘you didn’t mention hell and judgement.’ I said ‘no, no I didn’t, it’s Christmas. I mentioned Bethlehem, the manger, the shepherds and angels, and the light of Christ coming into the darkness of our world.’ And then he said this: ‘but these people need to know about hell and judgement.’ ‘These people.’ He was talking about you lot. The inebriated and unwashed of North Wiltshire and South Glos. You see, what he was saying was this. He and his wife, they were in. I’m a vicar, maybe I was in too. But you lot - you’re out. And he thought you needed to be told. Hell, judgement, you’re out, and a Happy New Year. So I said to him ‘take your miserable theology and your miserable face and get out of my church!’ Actually I thought that. What I said ‘God bless you, Happy Christmas.’ But there was a man who missed both the spirit of Christmas and the meaning of Christmas. You see Christmas is not about who is in and who is out. The Christian faith isn’t actually.
But let’s be honest, that is an issue the church has been getting wrong for many years: In the Reformation the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church took it in turns to say that the other lot was out and they were in. We speak for God, not them. In, out. In WWII the Lutheran Church in Germany was divided, and those with power, who were in, decided that Adolf Hitler was carrying on the work of Martin Luther. Those who were out, known as the Confessing Church, were often imprisoned or hung, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Dutch Reformed church in 20th century South Africa openly supported Apartheid. You knew if you were in or if you were out simply by the colour of your skin. And let’s be honest, over the years the Church of England has had its issues over just who is in and who is out. We got it wrong before we got it right over slavery. We rather pathetically excluded women from the boy’s club of church leadership, until relatively recently. And we are still hopelessly wrong and hopelessly slow over the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the liturgy and leadership of the Church of England. But vicar, you say, what does all this have to do with a manger in Bethlehem? This is what.
Christmas is not about, and has never been about who is out and who is in. At Bethlehem, in the manger, God is in. God is in. Christ is in. We sang it a moment ago:
He came down to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all. God is in. The word Isaiah uses for this is Immanuel: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14) Immanuel. God with us. God is in. St John, in his first chapter, trying to get his head around this God being in idea, put it this way. If you consider all that is broken in this world, the refugee, the human that is trafficked, the homeless, the bereaved. If you consider all that is difficult and perplexing and heart-breaking in your life, and in the lives of those you love. And if you consider the totality of the painful reality of human existence as darkness. Well at Bethlehem, 2000 years ago, the Light of God shone in that darkness. And our worship this night, our hymns, our readings and perhaps especially the candles we hold in this darkened Abbey, remind us: It doesn’t matter how dark the darkest darkness of my life gets, it doesn’t matter how dark the darkest darkness of your life gets, the Light that first shone in Bethlehem still shines. The Light still shines.
May that true light illuminate your deepest sorrows and greatest joys; may that light be present in your homes and families this season of Christmas; and may that light guide your steps, this night, and always. Amen.