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Christmas Day
25th December 2009

God has walked on Earth

When did you first become aware of Christmas? I don't mean when did you first become aware of a sackful of presents at the foot of the bed, but when did you become aware that there was such a time as Christmas, and that it was different from the rest of the year?

I think for me that awareness began when I was about four years old and standing outside a shoe shop in Tunbridge Wells. My sister, my mother, and I were walking back home after some shopping; it was dark and very cold. In those days we didn't have a car. We had met up with Mum's friend Betty and that was always fatal for making progress on any journey. Notwithstanding the fact that Betty lived just round the corner and could also be spoken to over the garden fence, Mum and Betty always had a lot to say to each other. So my sister and I stood there, cold, bored, waiting for them to run out of things to say. So I was drawn to look in the window of the shoe shop. I think it was shut by then but the light was still on in the window. It was a small shop with space for only a few single shoes tiered strategically on a sort of frame. They were rather dull shoes; this was, I hate to admit it, the late 1950s and these were sensible shoes; lace ups, big strap shoes, and those funny little dyed sheepskin boots that ladies used to wear. There was nothing to capture the attention of a young child... or was there? For I had noticed that running among the shoes on display in the window was a Christmas decoration: a length of metallic paper, gold on one side, silver on the other, and twisted so that the gold and silver were alternately displayed. As decorations go, it was probably rather restrained, in keeping with the rather restrained tone of the shop. Nevertheless, glinting in the warm light in the window and curling its way among the shoes and over the metal stand it was beautiful. More than that, it was in some way thrilling. At that moment, I think I understood what sort of a time Christmas was; a time when a grown up and rather traditional shoe shop would put a decoration in the window that would glitter and glint in the light.

I have to be honest and say that, in my understanding of Christmas, Mary and Baby Jesus came along later. Not that they weren't there - we were a church going family - but they were just the story, and at that stage I had no real understanding of the significance of the story. But this length of twisted gold and silver paper said much more: it spoke about a thrilling, magical time, and a time when the ordinary things of life, while still present, were shot through with things that were beautiful and fascinating and sparkling and rich. I realised then that I liked Christmas; that it was a good time and a time to look forward to.

In due course of time, I would come to understand something of that deeper mystery that Christmas celebrates. I couldn't put it better of course than St. John. Every time I read or hear the opening words of John's Gospel, I realise what a huge debt we owe to him. St. Luke and St. Matthew between them give us the events of the birth of Jesus, but John reaches behind those events and puts into words what Incarnation means. When John says In the beginning, he means from eternity: The Word was with God, the Word was God. And then the Word comes into the world to dwell among us, the Word made flesh, the child and the man Jesus. Jesus isn't just someone God chose to be his Son; this baby is God's son from eternity, is in fact God himself, the Word made Flesh. And John goes on to say that it doesn't matter who we are, or what we have, when we start out in life: if we accept this Incarnate God, then we have the right also become his children - we can have a share and a place in this eternal mystery.

Of all the services we hold over Christmas, it is perhaps this Midnight one that brings us closest to that mystery; partly because there isn't anything else to be doing at Midnight if we're not in bed or celebrating late with friends and family; and at Midnight we're not worrying about the Christmas lunch! We're just here to focus on this wonderful mystery, that there is a God, and that God is Emmanuel, God is with us. Born as one of us into an ordinary human family, and placed in a makeshift cradle in a stable because the rooms are full.

If we look to the coming year, 2010, it may be that some very exciting things lie ahead: a wedding perhaps, a qualification, a special holiday, a big birthday? But we can be pretty sure that much that comes will be quite ordinary: the daily work, keeping the house in good repair, doing the chores, sleeping, going to school... all as ordinary as the shoes in that shoe shop except that, like them on those days before Christmas, the ordinariness of our lives will be shot through with something that might look like a coiled gold and silver paper; something bright, something beautiful, something glittering, something rich: the knowledge that God has walked on earth and now walks with us in our journey through life and all that it brings.

If you are not usually with us, thank you for coming to share in our annual celebration of the mystery of the God's Incarnation; remember that the baby does not stay here - he goes with you into your life. And have a very happy and blessed Christmas.

Amen

© PCC St Martin's and St Paul's Canterbury 2008 - 2009