A Christmas message preached by Revd David Holloway of Jesmond Parish Church, Newcastle upon Tyne, on 20 December 2015.
Let me begin tonight with a jingle – not of a Christmas bell, but a verse by a church goer:
“The colour of our curate’s eyesI cannot well define.For when he prays he closes hisAnd when he preaches, I close mine.”
That, certainly, never could have been said about Jesus Christ. For when he was preaching, we read that a “great throng heard him gladly.” Why was that? There are many reasons. But the greatest reason is in three words – it was Jesus being “God – with – us”.
And that is…
THE HEART OF THE CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
800 years before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah had said,
Truly Christ taught us to love one another; His law is love and his gospel is peace.
”Romans
Yet the reality, as we all sang and as we all know this Christmas (from events in Paris and Syria and many other places) is that “the world has suffered long … the woes of sin and strife”. And so …”… beneath the angel-strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong: and man, at war with man, hears not the love-song which they bring.”
That is why the one who “in the beginning was … with God, and … was God, … became flesh and dwelt among us … [and was] the light [that] shines in the darkness”, as John says. But also he was given the name “Jesus”, as Matthew says, “because he will save his people from their sins”. And that is the world’s primary need today – salvation from Godlessness and sin, which means God’s forgiveness for sin, God’s strength to turn from sin and the hope of Heaven.
Two days before Christmas 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov died aged 94. In 1947 he designed for the Russian army the most prolific killing machine ever invented – his AK47; thousands, if not millions, since, have been killed by this weapon. Like most of his generation Kalashnikov grew up without any faith. But in his old age he was converted to Christ and joined the Russian Orthodox church. During his long life he had no regrets about his deadly invention. But just before he died, he wrote as follows:
My spiritual pain is unbearable. I keep asking the same insoluble question. If my rifle deprived people of life then can it be that I … a Christian and an orthodox believer, was to blame for their deaths?Mikhail Kalashnikov”]faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.[/blockquote]
Who at this service can identify with Kalashnikov? You too have an “unbearable spiritual pain” for what you may have done. Maybe it is some wrong at home or at work or elsewhere. But who doesn’t feel any pain whatsoever? If so, remember that in God’s eyes there are not only sins of commission, the bad things you do, but also sins of omission, the good things you fail to do. The Bible says,
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.Romans 3:23″]If he was truly God the Son, it is much more startling that he should die than that he should rise again.[/blockquote]
But the good news of Christmas is this. There is mercy and forgiveness for all who receive Christ, who came that first Christmas to die – in our place – for our sins (however bad). And risen and now reigning, by his Holy Spirit he is Immanuel (God – with – us), to comfort us, to help us obey his law of love, and to prepare us for heaven. So in response, as we sing our next carol, may we make verse four a personal prayer:
O holy child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray.
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today!P Brooks (1835-93)
Music H. Walford Davies (1869-1941)”]Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [which means, God with us].[/blockquote]