I wonder - do you use your sky plus to fast forward through all the adverst on TV. If so you may have missed some very crafted commercial takes on the Christmas message.
I wonder for example if you have seen the Mulberry Christmas advert
A young couple are in rural cottage with a blazing fire. Jo takes out an enormous box and passes it to his girlfriend / wife / fiance “I know we said we weren’t doing presents but”
As she opens the box to reveal a bright red Mulberry hand bag - heavenly music starts
“oh my God its the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen”
Suddenly a random shepherd opens the door
“I heard you had a new bag … Lordy Lordy isn’t it a picture”
another shepherd comes in with a sheep “can I touch it”
Three men in party hats - you know, the crowns you get in Christmas crackers come in. “we come bearing gifts” they say, proffering bottles of wine.
“thank you whoever you are?” says the confused Jo. But they go straight past him to gaze adoringly at the red hand bag - various comments about it’s colour, it’s design. Then some adoring silence
Then Jo says “Guys it’s just a bag” - nervous laughter and his girl pats him patronisingly on the head.
because of course the thing that Christmas is all about, the thing the saves the world … is a Mulberry handbag.
Except I am guessing that you don’t believe that or in the middle of the night you wouldn’t have left your glasses and mulled wine to come and gaze at something very different - the manger scene - with the baby Jesus - God born as one of us.
The russian writer Solzhenitsyn has a wonderful phrase “the line between good and evil goes through the human heart”
Perhaps, you may not even have thought about this way, but perhaps that has something to do with why you have left your mince pies and come to Midnight Mass.
Stories of redemption - stories in which people are turned around - are very powerful stories.
Take the new Star Wars story - which begins with a storm trooper, trained from childhood to commit atrocities, who deserts his post, abandons the evil First Order, and joins the good guys. Stories like that draw us in - they give us hope.
Earlier in the Star Wars saga - we have Annakin tempted away by the dark side who becomes Darth Vader, yet his son finally on his death bed wins him back for the light.
if you are not a star wars fan - there are plenty of other stories with the same theme
The lion the witch and the wardrobe - where my namesake Edmund is tempted by the turkish delight of the Snow Queen and betrays his siblings and Mr Tumnus, but then is won back to the side of good through the forgiveness given by the lion Aslan.
Or Spiderman - where Peter Parker where Peter Parker his new powers simply to make money as a pro-wrestler and fails to use his newly acquired super powers to stop a robber in a shop, because he is angry with the shop keeper - but then the robber runs away and in his getaway shoots Peter’s Uncle Ben. Stricken by remorse, and feeling it is his fault his uncle died, Peter realises he can’t use his powers selfishly but has to use them to save others “with great power comes great responsibility”
Or maybe you are a les Mis fan - where Jean Val Jean is turned from a life of selfish crime through the forgiveness and generosity of the bishop - and after that is life is completely turned around
Or perhaps you think of real life cases - like the ruthless business man Bill Gates - who ground his competitors into the ground, and then suddenly quits to give away half his fortune to trying to cure malaria and end poverty.
Stories in which people are turned around - are very powerful stories.Stories like that draw us in - they give us hope. Perhaps - and this may not be true for you - but perhaps because we recognise the battle within our own soul - “the dividing line between good and evil that goes through the human heart”.
The preacher J John has an illustration in which he asks you to imagine that there is video of your whole life, every thing you have done, everything you have said, and everything you have thought - and you have to watch it through. And if you imagine that - watching that video of your whole life, then perhaps like me there will be bits when you squirm and go - “did I really behave that badly?”.”did I really say that?” “did I really do that?”
Now says J John - How would you would feel if that video was shown to everyone else here - everything you have ever done, everything you have ever said, everything you have ever thought - how would you feel at that thought?
And this might not be the case, but perhaps like me you would recoil in horror because there are things we have said done and thought that we don’t want other people knowing about - the dividing line between good and evil goes through the human heart.
Perhaps that is what the Shepherds thought? Felt? … when suddenly an angel appeared before them. This blazing supernatural being - what was it going to do to them? Was there stuff in their lives that meant this angel was going to pour judgement upon them.
“a mighty dread had filled their troubled minds”.
By the time of Jesus shepherds were not the idyllic profession they had once been in the time of King David. They were despised - they were outcast - everyone else told them how sinful they were.
Imagine today if the angel had appeared not to the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury but to bunch of tattooed bouncers or to a bunch of sun journalists or to a group girls who dance in one of those so called gentlemen’s clubs.
Shepherds were seen as being spiritually unclean, as well as being physically smelly - and when fiery angel appears - is their number up, but instead he says “do not be afraid” - and tells of a story of redemption, of second chances and of a new beginning - beginning with a baby born in a manger.
The first ever vocal radio was broadcast on December 24, 1906
It Consisted of a reading from Luke chapter two.
A Canadian engineer and inventor, Reginald Fessenden did it
On Christmas Eve, 1906, from his workshop in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, Fessenden sent the Morse message "CQ....CQ", alerting all ships at sea to expect an important transmission. When the telegraphers had assembled in their shipboard radio shacks, they heard the unimaginable: The sound of the human voice! . Fessenden, at this moment spoke for the first ever a vocal radio broadcast. He read from Lk. 2 including, "Glory to God in the highest -and on earth peace to men of good will," then played the song O Holy Night on the violin.
Those who were listening that night were no less stunned than if a tree had talked to them. Earphones that had only ever carried Morse code were communicating the full range of sound
{illustration by Jo Andrus on this site}
I wonder, I wonder if the Shepherds felt anything like that when suddenly the heavens communicated with them when that angel apparated on that hill side.
Communication is such a powerful thing.
I began with the Mulberry Christmas advert- stealing the nativity story to claim that what christmas is really about is a bright red handbag.
I wonder if you saw a different advert, one I am happier about, the John Lewis advert.
A little girl sees the man in the moon through her telescope. She wants to communicate to him. She tries waving - but of course he can’t see her. She tries attaching a note to an arrow and firing it into the sky, but still it won’t get to him. Eventually she comes up with a plan, and on Christmas morning sends him a telescope tied to helium balloons that float up until they reach the moon, so he can see her and they can wave at each other. They can communicate.
Communication is such a powerful thing, isn’t it?
Some of you may have see a Christian parody of the john lewis advert that is on Youtube - it’s worth looking at if you haven’t see it.
Instead of watching for man on the moon - the little girl looking up through her telescope trying to find God - she sees beautiful stars and nebulae - but is still looking for God. She writes “God are you there” tries firing a message with a bow and arrow, but like in the original it falls back to the ground. She makes the message into paper darts and throws them out of the attic window - but they fall to the ground. We see the same despondent look as in the original John Lewis advert.
Then on christmas morning- rather than her telescope rising with balloons towards the moon, we see something descending from the sky carried by identical balloons
It is a manger, containing the baby Jesus - attached to it a label “the best present I could give” - Because at Christmas God communicates with us by being born as the baby Jesus.
As the shepherds stood on that mountain - they faced not exposure of everything they had done wrong, but a baby born to put things right.
And so begins a tale of fresh starts, forgiveness and redemption, a tale more powerful than that of Finn the stormtrooper or Darth Vader. a tale more powerful than that of Peter Parker or Bill Gates or les Mis. A tale of a baby born to put things right.
a tale of God taking the first move and communicating with us by being by being born as a baby in Bethlehem.
I wonder
I wonder how you will respond
