I met Jesus Christ this week. Your reaction to this will be either: How impressive, what a holy man our Vicar is. Or on the other hand what a poser ? A religious extremist !
When I took holy communion to an elderly woman who lives alone in great mental anguish, I was with Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. When on Christmas Eve we hosted a lunch for the homeless, I met with Jesus Christ abandoned by his disciples and maligned by the authorities, because that is how things are for the many in this town whose lives are precarious. They are a problem…fortunately at Christmas there are many good-hearted volunteers who are happy to welcome them. And there’s Jesus again, in the smile and the hospitality of the volunteers, reaching out with love.
Not on a sunny hillside in 1st Century Palestine but on a wet Lancashire hill, but there he was looking with love on the needs of those who are poor, addicted, seeking refugee and asylum from war. I met with Jesus there, in the Christian, the Muslim, the unaligned.
He just keeps cropping up. This is the insight of the incarnation, that God was made flesh and dwelt among us. (And at Christmas we hear his words echo “Whatever you did for the least of these you did for me)
The incarnation is a wonderful thing. It changes the way we see the world. If you accept that the Creator of all, God our Father has an ongoing relationship with us through the Holy Spirit then you will see signs of God made flesh, the incarnation, of Jesus as you make your way in this world.
A wonderful thing.
Christmas is a time for wonder; aren’t the carols good at getting us to gaze in awe and wonder. Have you looked at the crib? It’s survived another year of curiosity by our children. There are few chips and cracks, and perhaps you can see the glue in places. What’s really wonderful is that our God should come to us, should lower himself, empty himself, says St Paul in human form, in a manger, in a nowhere sort of place called Bethlehem.
That says something about God’s love for human kind and for all living things on this planet which he made. He loves it, that includes you and me. That’s why it’s worth looking after each other, and caring for the planet, because Christmas says it all matters very much.
That’s truly wonderful that he should come as one of us. Not only for the Christians, not only for Brits or Brazilians, but as a human, for allthe people of the world. It’s hard to get your head around such a good news message. Some years ago there was a hit single by Joan Osborne entitled One of Us It was her only hit, from a song written by Eric Bazillian of the US Rock band the Hooters.
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
It’s a provocative, rude question…. But as the song goes on it, it becomes clear that answer to the question is that God has come as one of us, is with us on the bus on the way home, and is found in the face of our neighbour. God as one of us.
The incarnation is good news but does it mean anything in our lives ? True, the language of the incarnation may be strange to many, that’s true, but I think we have an instinctive sense that there is something of the divine at the heart of everything that is good, that matters. It’s not all up there, in the sky. Immanent as well as transcendent, you could say.
I hope that’s still at the heart of our sometime rather commercial Christmases. God is there, in that crib at the Church, and to be met along the road to the shopping centre, if you don't rush !
The incarnation matters so much. Because of this God made flesh we get involved in the work with the foodbank and the young carers and make tea for homeless folk.
Many of us are involved in inter-faith work in the town, and have had the joyof many good conversations particularly with Muslim friends. The incarnation of Jesus Christ encourages us in a direction of friendship and mutual respect, because if God is one of us we are going to meet Him/Her in those who are different to us. We cannot lock the incarnate God in a denomination or a nationality or even a faith. It’s a wonderful world, as the song goes.
So this Christmas (and with the Epiphany it lasts for several weeks) please look out for Jesus Christ.. you will meet with him, in the neighbour, in friendship of the needy, in your hearts too I pray. I hope you get caught up in wonder, at God with us, God as "one of us" even. Rejoice because our heartfelt yearning "O Come O come Emmanuel" we sang, has been answered.