Christmas carol service, 12 December 2021 – St John the Baptist

I find what we are doing tonight, quite extraordinary… gathering to hear readings, sing carols, listen to exquisite anthems because of….

Well, because of a baby born in obscurity, in a backwater town, in occupied territory, to undistinguished parents 2000 years ago. Doesn’t it strike you as rather bizarre? But here we are, doing what 100s of millions of other people are doing at this time of the year.

We will all have different reasons for being here tonight and whatever they are, you are very welcome. I have no idea how many of you would label yourself as Christians and how many of you would give yourselves another label. I’m not sure it really matters. But I am curious about those who label themselves as no-religion in the national census. According to the research, most aren’t actually atheist (and I don’t want to knock atheists). Those who tick no-religion have an interesting mix of spiritual beliefs and practices. While less people attend church, and many are disenchanted with institutional religion, there is still a deep, deep hunger for a spiritual reality.

Many wonder whether there is more to life than consumption and accumulation. What is the story that helps us make sense of our life?

I loved reading the bestselling book by Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. It’s a brilliant survey of the history of humankind from the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century. Taking the assumption that God is dead, Harari frames a reality by which we live if that’s true. He helpfully puts it very clearly and bluntly: “As far as we can tell from a purely scientific viewpoint, human life has absolutely no meaning. Humans are the outcome of blind evolutionary processes that operate without goal or purpose…Hence any meaning that people inscribe to their lives is just a delusion.”

In his next book, Homo Deus, he describes how science and technology are showing us that all life, including all human life, is series of algorithms. And when it comes to algorithms, AI is already a lot cleverer than we are.

The end result is that humanity will come to be a mere ripple within the cosmic data flow.

Well, that’s one way of describing who we are in the modern world. And it’s quite different to the Judeo-Christian belief that we are all made in the image of God, we have the spark of the divine, and are to be afforded a non-negotiable dignity.

That may sound self-evident common sense, but that’s because we’ve so be shaped by a narrative that can be traced back to the child whose birth we celebrate tonight.

Tom Holland – not the Spiderman actor, but rather the historian – explores this so well in his book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.

We believe in human rights, in the equal dignity of every person, in the value of the poor and weak, and the necessity of caring and advocating for them all. We still believe that love is the greatest value and that we should forgive our opponents. We still believe that some things are good and some things are evil, and particularly that oppression of the powerless is wrong.

These ideas were laughable and incomprehensible to the Greeks and Romans when they first heard them. But most of us still do believe these things.

From Noah Harari’s perspective, if we believe we’re here by accident through a process of survival of the fittest, then there can be no moral absolutes, and life is about power and the mastery of others, not about love. That’s what Nietzsche argued how life is to be lived in the absence of the Christian no God.

It is of course easy to see the faults in the church, see its hypocrisy, misogyny and homophobia – it drives us mad here at St John’s.

But this Christmas, can I encourage you to think again and be inspired by this child call Jesus because he gives a glimpse of what God is like?

What might God be like, well, it’s like when a woman is caught in adultery and the religious people want to kill her, Jesus shows love and compassion.

It’s like, when Jesus sees a despised tax-collector half way up a tree, he invites him down for supper. It’s like when a young man goes off and spends his father’s inheritance on dissolute living, he’s welcomed home and there’s a huge party. This is what God is like.

And this is what good religion is like – not judgemental, condemning, fearful, or tribal. Rather, it’s generous, welcoming, regardless of our failures, our past, our social status or education. It’s open to learning, discovering something new from other religious traditions. It’s open to change and transformation.

Christianity offers existential significance to all human beings regardless of culture, colour and class and affirming the transcendent dignity of every human person.

I wonder what the church would be like if we could really love people who are different to us, maybe a bit messy or a bit strange.

This Christmas, let’s remember the child born in a messy insignificant stable all those years ago – let us remember how much we are loved, and let us try and share that love with all those we encounter, and with our beautiful, messy and fragile world. I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.