Christmas 2023

This sermon was preached at our Midnight Mass service on Christmas Eve 2023. It's a rehash of my sermon from the same service in 2021. I hope you enjoy reading it, anyway! Happy Christmas to you!

Can you feel it?

Have you got that Christmassy feeling yet?

 

However old we get, there’s still something magical about Christmas isn’t there? And tonight, when Christmas Eve turns into Christmas morning is – for me – the most magical time of the whole season.

Maybe it’s all that sherry I drank earlier? Or maybe, it’s the fact that it *is* night time – the witching hour, if you like, and just being here with you all, with the flickering candles and the beautiful, stirring Christmas music evoking that sense of magic for me. Perhaps that’s why you’re here too? To seek a small glimpse of that Christmas magic?

 

Even as we grow out of childhood and into adults, I think we still, deep down, hold out hope that the magic of Christmas still exists. We cling to the possibility of all that Christmas promises; reconciliation with alienated family-members, children playing happily – and quietly – together in a way we know they would not on any other day, perhaps even the rekindling of lost or long-dimmed love? Who knows? Maybe we’ll even see the big man himself soaring across the sky on his sleigh as we leave here tonight?

 

I don’t know about you, but I think we need that magic right now. We’ve had a difficult number of years, haven’t we? Austerity, the divisions caused by the arguments around Brexit, covid, and now our current economic disaster is hitting us hard. And that’s just at home; the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Israel and Palestine makes everything seem hopeless.

It’s at these times, though, when the magic seems so far away that we’re not even sure we believe in it anymore, that we need it the most. 

 

I’m going to get into trouble! We’re not supposed to talk of magic in Church; Christians will tell you it doesn’t exist.

But it does. Magic exists. The Christmas magic exists. We just call it something different; miracle.

 

And that’s why we’re meeting tonight. That’s what this whole thing is about; the miracle of a baby being born. On average these days, 250 babies are born every minute – and each one of those births is a miracle in itself; the creation of life is always miraculous. But this one is different. This baby changed everything.

Even if you don’t completely buy into all this ‘religion’ stuff, you cannot deny this baby changed the world forever. You would not be sitting here tonight had this child not been born over 2000 years ago.

But, if you do buy into it – if there’s a part of you deep down inside that believes in God, then this baby is the most magical miracle of all; for this helpless tiny child is also the mighty creator of the universe, entrusted to scared, tired, human parents. This baby is both human and God. Both God and human.

God and humanity, together – from that point forward, then, now, and forever. God With Us. Close enough to touch. Close enough to smell that new-baby smell on his infant head. Close enough to kiss. 

So tonight, we celebrate that magic, that miracle, that allows God to be human and walk with us and talk with us and understand us completely in our humanity. The miracle that changed the relationship between God and us forever. The miracle of a child being born. And tomorrow, we will celebrate, by ourselves, or with our families and loved ones. And, no doubt, we’ll hear or see on the news of more things that will make us question our belief in faith, our belief in hope, and our belief in love. 

But those things that make us question will not persist forever. Faith, hope and love will always remain. Faith, hope and love will last forever. These are the things of God. These are the things that bear miracles.

The magic of Christmas still exists. It’s always existed. And it will exist forever. It is God. It is a baby. It is both.

Happy Christmas to you!