Christmas 2007
My dear Friends,
At the darkest hour of the darkest time of the year we will light up the church with colour, music and drama. With light bursting into the darkness, dispelling the darkness of our hearts and lives, singing praises to the highest heaven, we will shout for joy at the arrival of Christ – it will indeed be a “celebration-of-Christ' – mass.
The pageantry, the solemnity, the strange hour – all combine to make the Christmas Eve services some of the most moving liturgies of the Christian year. We will hear again the stories of the Babe born in Bethlehem, and anticipate the arrival of the three wise ones. It is all wonderfully familiar.
But one of the advantages of living in an age when church-going is no longer normative, is that we are pressed to understand more deeply than ever what it means to worship a saviour born in a stable and visited by wise ones. Since most of our culture associates Christ-mass with Santa Claus and boxing day sales, in some ways it's easier, in contrast, for us to discover what those stories were meant to communicate, and why they were the source of so much joy.
When Luke wrote about Jesus being born in Bethlehem his point was that the Saviour appears right in the midst of global politics – which in his day was a world-wide census by the Roman government. When Matthew wrote about the three wise ones visiting Jesus, his point was that it was their story told to the Jewish king which precipitated mass infanticide and caused Jesus' parents to escape for their lives to Egypt, their ancient enemy. This dark side of the Christmas stories is shunned by modern culture. The result, for most people in our world, is a fairy-tale suitable for children or nostalgic adults. If that is all that Christmas were about, we'd be wise to stay away.
So why is there this dark side to the Christmas stories? It's because we need hope and joy when times are dark. It's the same at the other end of Jesus' life – in the midst of his death is when resurrection happens. It's the reason we celebrate his birth at the darkest time of year with lights and music in the middle of the night.
'Liturgy' means 'the work of the congregation'. In this case, the work of the congregation is to enter into the deep meanings of those stories and do the work of opening up the application of those stories in our time. Our work is to locate God at the very centre of the threatening global processes of our time – we are being asked to find God at the centre of global climate change, at the centre of global economics, at the centre of global violence. It seems like a tall order, perhaps even an impossible one. Matthew and Luke thought that, too, until their astonishment at Jesus' resurrection made them realise that the breakthrough of God's light and light at his death must have been there also at Jesus' birth.
Matthew and Luke intend you and I to be the gospel writers of our time in a world that has lost all hope that peace, joy, and mutual love could ever become global realities. But it is essential that we proclaim the birth of God's hope and love in the darkness of our time. It's the only way for us to become fully alive. And the only way forward for our world to come alive. Without that hope, our world will have to depend upon violence and the despair of consumerism as the only hope they have.
But we proclaim that in the darkest moment of our modern world, Christ is born! Come and renew your faith, renew your hope, renew your joy at the liturgies of Christ's birth. Entering deeply into those stories, we will be strengthened to carry that hope out into our world and proclaim “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” We will proclaim that God's light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will never put it out. That proclamation will transform us and our world!
You will find many opportunities to enter more deeply into the Christmas proclamation in the enclosed calendar. I would draw to your attention particularly to the series on inner and outer pilgrimage with Herbie O'Driscoll and Bishop John Hannen December 6th, 13th and 20th, the Christmas pageant on December 14th and 15th, White Gifts for Burnside Gorge families on Sunday, December 16th, the special liturgies of Christmas.
A Christmas envelope is enclosed for your use to make possible the proclamation of the gospel of the good news of Christ by word and deed at St. John's.
With wishes for a very blessed Christmas,
Harold Munn
The Rev. Canon Dr. Harold Munn
Rector
