24th December 2021

A headline in yesterday’s papers:

“Lipman fears that being funny will be cancelled.”

In the article the comedian Maureen Lipman explained that comedy was at risk of being killed off by cancel culture.

She said: “It’s a bit like laughter in church, something has to be forbidden to make you really belly laugh.”

I’m not quite sure what she meant, but the church can have a reputation for taking itself too seriously and perhaps Christians are not much given to laughter.

And thus the church provides ample material for comedy sketches. The Vicar of Dibley, Rev and Rowan Atkinson in Four Weddings and a Funeral to name just a few.

Certainly we the church and we as individuals all have our faults, and that is why at the start of our service we asked for God to wipe the slate clean by saying the Confession.

Which brings me onto another comedian, John Cleese.

He was recently the guest on the Radio 3 programme Private Passions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012gj3

The first piece of music he chose was the Easter Hymn from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana. The interviewer, the wonderful Michael Berkeley exclaimed surprise that someone who poked fun at religion (remember Cleese was part of the team who made the film “the Life of Brian”) should have chosen an Easter hymn.

Cleese’s reply was very interesting.

I poke fun at organised religion. Any religion worth its name is concerned with reducing the power of our egos.

it seems to me that’s what the Beatitudes are about – Blessed are the meek

or

Blessed are the Peacemakers

It’s about the side of us that is not strutting about trying to be important or powerful or trying to make money.

When it’s a quieter matter and unorganised and we are just dealing with the teachings of Christ or Buddha, then I think religion is extraordinarily important, probably as important as anything.

And perhaps that’s our reason for being here tonight.

And why people have been coming to St. John’s each Christmas Eve since this church was built in 1885.

Our reasons for being here tonight will vary, as will our levels of faith – and no one has to justify why they are choose to attend the first Mass of Christmas.

It is of course easy to see the faults in the church, as John Cleese does, to see its hypocrisy, misogyny and homophobia – all of which drive us mad here at St John’s.

But some have come tonight because they have a deep love of the church and in particular the gift of the Holy Eucharist.

We also receive great encouragement from each other, worshipping in community.

The message of Christmas, you might agree with me, is God acting in a manner that encapsulates what John Cleese describes as “reducing the power of the ego.”

For the story of Christmas is God is acting in a new way; not through an impressive king or a particular empire. God is acting in a new way through a helpless vulnerable powerless little child. The message of Christmas is of Immanuel, a title given to Jesus, which means God with us.

We celebrate the gift of the Christ child who teaches us how to live, by loving our neighbours and loving God.

Christ whose birth turned the tide away from darkness towards light, and enables us to narrow the gap between Heaven and Earth.

The early church father St. Irenaeus wrote:

“The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”

To narrow the gap between Heaven and Earth is to be fully alive.

And part of being fully alive is the gift of laughter – indeed it has been said that in the Palestine of Jesus ministry, if you heard laughter from a gathering, it was quite likely Jesus was in town.

What is less well known is that St. Irenaeus went onto say: “And the life of humanity consists of the vision of God”

Let me conclude with two prayers for 2022

First, this Christmas, let's celebrate with birth of Christ in our hearts and thank God for the gift of laughter.

Second we pray that over the next year, the vision of God grows in our lives

Fr. Peter Wolton

December 24th 2021