Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:15-21
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
So that’s Christmas for another year. I don’t know about you, but there’s something satisfying about tidying away the tree, the decorations, the candles, and getting things “back to normal”. There seems space to breathe, to live, to move again, without Christmas getting in the way. Although, those of you with real trees will probably be finding little reminders of the season in the pine needles which seem to hide away right up until Easter. There now, back to normal. The crib is swaddled again in copious amounts to newspaper to preserve it just so. And the last portion of turkey and sprout curry has been served. All is back to normal.
I wonder if all went back to normal for the shepherds after their eventful night! Did it all just get packed away in their minds, as real life and troubles pushed the images into memory? Did the song of the angels just become a long-remembered dream? Something to talk about on those long, cold, dark nights …”Do you remember when?…”. Did the time when they were taken out of the ordinary, when they saw heaven and earth touching and were inspired to go running into town, leaving the sheep on the hillside, to find this thing that has taken place just become a distant memory? Was something left to remind them – like the pine needles in the carpet – or did everything just return to normal? Or perhaps, everything became a new normal? Did something change for them?
Because yes, we do have to return to “normal”, to pack away the tinsel, glitter and glitz. Just as after the birth of a baby, once the crooning and doting family and friends have come and tickled, and huddled and adored the newborn, the parents are left to figure out what happens next. What do we do with this thing that has come to us? This gift that has been given? And the responsibility! Grandparents and friends can step aside, but the parents, are left literally “holding the baby”. And this is sort of where we are now, after Christmas. We are left holding the baby. We search for routines and normal life, but something is different. There’s something else to take notice of – it is a new normal. And life should never be the same again. For Mary and Joseph, life had changed. And for the shepherds? They had seen heaven on earth, had seen the promise fulfilled. And they went back rejoicing and praising God. They responded, let the message change their reality, even if only for a few days.
And with our Christmas? Do we just unpack it, enjoy the festivities and then pack it away again until next year? Or do we let it change us? We have been given the gift, we have heard the angels’ message, heard of the promise fulfilled, and seen the baby lying there, vulnerable, defenceless, relying on us to pick it up, care for it, love it. The gift from God entering our world, driving out darkness, showing us how to love and live as God’s children and heirs. And so, after the warm glow of Christmas services, carols, mince pies and mulled wine, we now need to decide what we are going to do next. Do we just pack it away and forget about it – once it’s in the loft, out of sight out of mind? Or do we pick it up, take responsibility and accept this gift and all that means?
Because, to paraphrase an old advert, Jesus is for life, not just for Christmas. In fact, Jesus is life. The birth of Jesus brings change to the world – no longer is God keeping his distance, but from this moment on God is with us in a unique, intimate, deeply spiritual and real way. God has come into the world, entrusted us with the Son and we have the choice to take up the Son and learn from him – just as parents learn so much from their children. In Jesus we see humanity, ourselves. Jesus shows us how to live as humans, shows us what is possible. And Jesus shows us God, what God wants for us and from us. Jesus shows how powerful the love of God is – so powerful it can transcend even death. A love that trusts us, places itself in our hands, vulnerable, and which gently walks with us on a journey. Our journey. Guiding like the star – leading us back, even when we go astray. Waiting for us to see the light again and turn back. Jesus reveals who we are and who we can be, if we choose to follow his example and obey his commands: the commands to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbour as ourself. To love with the love which reached out to the shepherds, the ones kept on the margins of society, and sent them to the manger as witnesses. The love which brings the excluded inside, makes them included. That brings the outsider inside. The love that makes itself vulnerable, a love willing to suffer for us, to die for us, to show us we are loved and how we are to love others.
And so, as we pack away Christmas in its separate boxes, as we move on from this season, we need to remember that although the trappings have gone, the baby in the manger is still with us, still reaching out to us, still among us, in us, in each other. We need to remember Jesus is for life: life led in all its fullness, for everyone. We need to remember that Jesus still asks us from his vulnerability to love him as he loved us. And we are asked to accompany him in the world, to take him and his message of peace and goodwill to all into the world, living as he showed us to live, as fully human. Loving as he showed us to love: with all our being and to all beings. And, like him, we need to include the excluded, to listen to the poor, and reach out to the outsiders, those who are shoved out of the way, like the shepherds on the hillside. After all, they were so important to God that God’s angels sang God’s message to them first of all; and their response of joy and wonder, glorifying and praising God, taking the news and the message back into their world is one we are called to emulate. So let us go forward into the New Year like the shepherds, returning from our Christmas glorifying and praising God, but also like Mary, let us treasure what we have heard and ponder what it means for us in our lives today. I end with the last verses of Betjeman’s poem “Christmas”:
And is it true? And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?
And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,
No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.
Amen.
https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493411-Christmas-by-Sir-John-Betjeman