Sermon for the 24th of December - Fourth Sunday of Advent

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Romans 16: 25-end
Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever! Amen.

Luke 1: 26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a young woman engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The young woman's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

A Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve 2023

For nothing will be impossible with God. This is the message of the angel to Mary: with God, nothing is, nothing will be, impossible. For her relative Elizabeth, for her, for Christians who open their arms to the gift of her son at this Christmas-time---that is, for us.

It is a clear message---we don't have to take time to think about what it means. We don't have to consult dictionaries and commentaries and have a discussion about it. Nothing, nothing, is impossible with God. With God.

Christmas is often overloaded with impossible expectations of expert participation. Many women, in particular, are expected to, and expect themselves, to organise and prepare and "serve" Christmas as an ideal package-- of brightness, of appropriate gift- giving, of expensive food for dinners, of bounty and beauty. Of inclusion of everyone possible and thoughtfulness for all. You need to look good, feel good, and make others feel good, and all this without visible outward strain and stress.

No wonder many people dread this holiday above all others on the calendar!

A lot of us are just tired as we approach this day, and a lot of us remember all too well previous years' celebrations that define how Christmas ought to be. So that this day is freighted with heavy baggage---of delight that can no longer be awakened, of sensations that can no longer experienced, of persons who can no longer be present.

How can we receive, how can we re-appropriate, the gift that God offers us on this day--which is the calling-to-mind, the commemoration, of an event-bearing-hope in the past that carries the full weight of its reality into our present?

The incarnation.

God with us.

The impossible become possible.

I would like to suggest that we lower our expectations of presenting a "perfect" Christmas, to ourselves, to anyone. I have never heard of a perfect Christmas ever having happened in this real world. You would be surprised at how many people would welcome a Christmas that was reduced in its outward show, that consisted of a service of worship, or a phone call. And nothing besides.

God 's Spirit, that never ceases its activity in this terribly darkened world, still works to show us what is offered to us in this crib. We can allow the Spirit to re-set our eyes on this image, of vulnerability in an animals' stall, and remember that God is urging us toward the embrace of the vulnerable in our own world, in our own time. Because that is how the Spirit works. It re-presents the familiar image in a way that can radically change us. That can move us toward the impossible: genuine hope, genuine joy, genuine love for others impossibly different and far away from us.

Our received faith is about never losing hope, even in the darkest of times, which surely cannot get much darker than today. We recall the most vulnerable that we can summon to our imaginations this morning: the women and children under threat of death by a missile from the sky, the soldiers who are freezing in a trench or on the bank of a river in December's cold, the lonely elderly who are rarely visited, by
anybody.

All these images of the vulnerable in our world are brought together in the single image of God come to earth in the form of a poor child placed in an animal's feeding trough.

With God nothing is impossible. A God who comes to earth in such a way has to be a God who cares for us. Who longs to embrace us tenderly, and then send us out to embrace others with the same kind of love.

If God stays with us, and I believe that God never leaves us, then nothing is impossible. God will continue to act in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

This Christmas, may we re-fashion what we expect a Christmas celebration to be. May we lower our expectations. May we contemplate anew the image of the child in the manger. May we open our hearts to the Spirit's working. And may we never lose hope, that because God never leaves us, even now the impossible is being made possible. Love's light is penetrating the darkness; love is winning the battle against the darkness of evil in our world. In a few moments of silence may we imagine this triumph of light. And may God bless us with the hope of faith.
Amen!