From our Carols by Candlelight service.
Bible passage: Galatians 4.4-7
Christmas traditions
It’s nearly time… for mulled wine! And the big day is coming up… I love carols, especially singing them by candlelight. That’s when I know Christmas is close.
I confess, I find Christmas a bit… stressful. My job doesn’t help, but when it comes to family there are so many traditions we feel we need to keep – or are forced to keep by unreasonable relatives… A few of you are smiling, some of you look confused… if you don’t think you have an unreasonable relative… maybe it’s you…
One of the traditions in my family is taking photographs of my Dad and me asleep on the sofa. He’s a vicar too, so by the time we reach 3pm on Christmas Day instead of watching the king we are usually fast asleep, next to an empty glass of sherry.
One of my favourite traditions is best illustrated by the time I gave my cousin some socks – to make it more exciting I separated them, wrapped them individually, and spent the day giving him one wrapped sock at a time. He wasn’t impressed but I thought it was funny. Since then I have given my sister a gift of money as individually-wrapped pound coins, Dad a pack of 24 individually-wrapped batteries, and my brother-in-law a DVD box set with the DVDs removed and individually wrapped…
I also enjoy giving my sister presents wrapped using so much tape that there isn’t a single opening for her… on reflection I think perhaps I am that relative…
We keep up these traditions don’t we, because Christmas is about family, after all… isn’t it? We’ll come back to that…
God sent his Son…
I suspect most of you recognised most of the readings we’ve had this evening – the last one is a little more unusual. Our friend Nigel recently called it his favourite passage at Christmas’ and probably the most important piece of Scripture that focuses on what Jesus was going to do.’ It’s from Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia – modern-day Turkey. Let me read it again:
When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians 4.4-7 (NIV)
That’s a lot of stuff about sons – but there’s a reason for that so don’t worry ladies: you are included too.
It tells us about Jesus: (1) who he is, (2) what he did and (3) why he came. (1) Who is Jesus? He is God’s Son; we sing Jesus is, Very God: begotten not created.’ Normally when we say very’ we mean extremely’ – as in I’m very nervous about these candles.’
But it also means true’ or ultimate’ – as in I am on the very edge of my seat,’ or that was the very thing I needed to hear.’ That’s what the reading and the carol mean: Jesus is truly God.
And he is also truly man. Paul said Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law. That’s true of us, too: we all have a birthday, we all live under the law, even speed limits… supposedly.
So that’s (1) who Jesus is – (2) what Jesus did was redeem those under the law. We all know what redeem means: when you get a voucher you redeem it for something else. Recently Jess and I redeemed a voucher in exchange for a day making pork pies. More seriously, Paul’s friends knew in Roman law the most common thing to be redeemed was a slave: exchanging slavery for freedom.
(1) Jesus is God’s Son, truly God and truly human; (2) Jesus came to redeem us – but (3) why? Why did he redeem us? So we might receive adoption to sonship: not becoming male but being given the legal status of sons – in Roman law only sons could inherit. And it was common for rich Romans to adopt a member of their extended family or a slave if they had no children of their own.
This might sound a bit transactional – but that’s why the next bit is so important: Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father.’ Abba is an word used by Jesus, meaning something like Dad’: it expresses closeness, intimacy beyond the more formal Father’.
Let’s put all that together: (1) Jesus is God’s Son, born as human as you and me so he could (2) redeem us: exchanging our old life for a new one as (3) adopted children in God’s family. We get the rights of an heir and the intimacy Jesus shares with his Father.
The meaning of Christmas
I love being generous at Christmas – even if I do silly things like wrap socks individually or make it impossible to unwrap a present without a pair of scissors. I love being generous because at Christmas we remember God’s generosity: God gave his Son so we might be redeemed from slavery to sin and adopted as his children with all the rights of an heir; God gave his Spirit so we might know him as Abba, Father – the best parent we’ve always wanted. This is God’s generosity, this is the inheritance of all Christians – and it’s an inheritance even the government can’t tax.
It turns out Christmas is all about family – only not in the way we might expect. If we have family it’s good to spend time with them at Christmas. But whether we have family or not, we are all invited to join God’s family, to become brothers and sisters of Jesus. We might not be perfect, but our Father is, and it turns out life isn’t about being who I want to be, but becoming who my loving Father made me to be. And that is so much better.
Let’s not be so focused on how to celebrate Christmas that we forget what we are celebrating: the gift of God in Jesus. If you’d like to find out more that gift, about life according to Jesus, we’re running something called 321 in the New Year – here’s a taster…
Click here for details of any upcoming courses exploring the Christian faith.