Midnight 2016 - Being Evergreen

Lord, take my lips and speak through them;
Take our minds and think through them;
Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for Yourself,  Amen.

What a year this has been! A year full of the unexpected. 

A Brexit vote from the British people; Trump as America’s president elect, and Bake Off moving to channel 4 -but without Mary Berry, Mel, and Sue. Who on earth would have seen that lot coming. 

And people....

we have lost so very many people. 

David Bowie, Prince, Alan Rickman, Caroline Aherne, Victoria Wood, and many many more, the litany of names dropping like autumn leaves falling in the water. And that’s not even to mention the litany of sorrow greeting us almost every time we switch on the news. I don’t know about you but sometimes I really long for the dying to end. For someone to come to earth, to stretch out their hands and say ENOUGH. 

But what if...

what if there was a way to put a stop to this litany of death and sorrow once and for all, and people falling to the earth like autumn leaves. And more than that. What if there was a way to undo the deaths that had already happened and bring back those we have loved and lost.   What if, what if, there was a way to be evergreen? 

And that, in a nutshell is what Christmas is about. Jesus Christ was that someone. The one who came to earth not just to preach a few sermons and disappear, but to conquer the biggest problem the human race has on their hands; the problem of death itself. How?  By putting death itself to death on the cross and by coming back to life to change death itself into something different, something temporary;  heaven giving our dying earth the kiss of life. 

This is the real magic of Christmas and why we take the trouble to bring such a massive Christmas tree into the middle of the cathedral. You should have seen the difficulty our works department had getting a tree that size through the door. Feel free to turn and look at it, standing proud and green in the middle of the surrounding winter; bathed in light. The evergreen tree which has no fallen leaves. The symbol of Jesus who is ever green, ever alive, ever faithful, ever loving and most of all 

ever-with-us. 

Emmanuel: As well as being a carol it is one of his names. It means the immanent El; the one who is God but also one of us. 

So much one of us that he did not appear on earth as an adult. He was born as a baby. He had to learn to walk, to smile, to play and to talk. And why on earth was that? Why did The Word stay so quiet for almost 30 years?

Well he wasn’t doing nothing. He ate with us human beings, drank with us, grazed his knee, sneezed in a dusty room and just spent time being with people and learning to understand what it is like to live on this wounded planet that people sometimes call the valley of tears . And then, and only then, after thirty years, did he speak! And his words rang out through the centuries because they made sense. And they made sense because he'd spent so much time listening to the people around him. He spoke with same accent they did and told stories and jokes about the things that they found funny. "Have you heard the one about the camel that tried to fit through the eye of a needle?"

God grew skin, and skin bruises. God looked through human eyes, and eyes weep. God grew muscles, and muscles shiver when its cold. God gained hands, and hands miss the touch of someone they love when they die. Yet he has promised that the time will come, that those same hands who wriggled in the cradle, and were wounded on the cross will reach out and pull you into a world where you too can be evergreen and ever alive. If you want to come. 

And so the tree is not just a symbol of Jesus. It is a symbol of us too, and what we can be. it is a symbol of the glorious future that is ours for the taking. So this Christ-mass I invite you to gather around God’s table, and meet the one who longs to give us the most amazing gift, the gift of being evergreen. Amen. 

The Unusual Story of the 3 Kings

The old monk opened a big dusty storybook as the schoolboys sat around him on the cathedral floor. He was going to tell them a story of Christmas. 

“Once, a very long time ago, there were three travelers from the East who went to see the Christ-Child. Balthazar, Mechior...and Doris!”

“Doris?” the biggest novice said. “Wasn’t the third king called Caspar?”

“Ah well, thereby hangs a tale,” the old monk said, and then he began to tell it....

Mrs Caspar opened the flap of the tent and had a good look at her husband who was complaining he had a headache. She peered at his face and sure enough there were big red spots all over it. “You’ve got measles” she said “you can’t possibly go on a journey looking like that”. 

“But I’ve got to go” he said “Three of us have been gazing at the sky for ages and ages. We knew that something really important was going to happen and then we saw a sign in the night sky. An enormous star. It was a sign that a new king is going to be born. A really special king.  We have to bring him gifts. It is really important that we pay him homage, that is kneel before him, and bring him gifts. 

“Well, I’ll just have to go instead of you” she said. “I can borrow your head-dress, your crown and your camel and no-one else will notice the difference. Now what you need is some hot soup and a nice long rest and I’ll get your present wrapped.”

“What have you bought him anyway? You have to be very careful with presents for babies. 

Did you get him a nice soft cuddly toy? Or a rattle (they’re good) or some nappies. You can never have too many nappies.”

“I got him frankincence,” Caspar said. 

“What? Frankincense. You bought him air freshener?! Air freshener! Are you trying to tell his mum he is smelly or something. Do you want to get yourself executed? Why don’t you get him something sensible like a nice little blanket to put in his crib.”

“But,” said Casper, “This is a special baby. He needs a special present.”

And then, in between mouthfuls of hot chicken soup, Casper explained why he had to bring the baby frankincense. 

“Frankincense isn’t just air freshener. The priests use it in the temple. They light it and the smoke goes up into the sky, symbolizing our prayers going up to God. I need to bring him frankincense because he is going to be a bit like a priest too. He is going to teach us how to pray and get close to God. We have gone very far from God’s way of love and we’re not good at praying and he will help us become holy again.” 

“I see” said Doris. “Well I suppose it will also come in handy next to the nappy bucket”

I’d better go and see what the other kings have brought. I hope they haven’t brought silly presents.

She went off to see Balthazar. “I’m coming with you to see the baby” She said. “Caspar is ill and I have his present. What have you brought as a gift for him?”

“I’ve brought him myrrh” Balthazar said. “Myrrh?” She sighed “You kings are useless at buying presents. You got him antiseptic. I suppose you brought him a syringe as well. Why didn’t you get him a nice toy?”

Balthazar tried to explain. “But this is a special baby king. He needs special symbolic presents. Caspar brought him frankinsence because he is going to be like a priest, helping us to pray. An I brought him myrrh because he is going to be like a prophet, a healer, who will make us better when we are ill, just like the antiseptic myrrh does when we fall over and graze our knees. Also it reminds us of the spices they put in tombs because he will  heal us from death too. 

“He will heal us from death. That’s amazing. Ok you can bring him myrrh.” Said Doris. Then she went to see Melchior.

Melchior had brought the baby gold. “Ah. That’s better” said Doris. “Now mum and dad can get him anything they like.” But, said Melchior. “Gold is a symbolic present too. Casper got the baby frankincense because he will teach us to pray. Balthazar got him myrrh because he will be a healer, and I got him gold because he will be a king and kings always need lots of gold for building roads and that sort of thing. 

“ I see” said Doris. “Frankincense for a priest, myrrh for a healer-prophet, and gold for a king.” So he is going to be a super-baby who does all these things. 

“Yes he will be a super-baby. You just wait and see when he grows up.”

And so they travelled a very long way, and met the new-born king. And Mary and Joseph loved the presents even more because they were unusual ones, because Jesus was a very special baby indeed.