John 1v1-14
As we journeyed through Advent we remembered
the
pregnant waiting of Christmas and the hope
still to come of Peace on
Earth but we are still waiting, still full
of hope.
We wait with the poor, with the homeless,
the refugees in Africa
and Syria and we know that Christ often
comes to us in the face of
the poor.
So we remember the poor and all
who wait are waiting for peace, for food, for shelter, for justice, for healing-for
God's coming-for Adventus.
We have listened to the struggle of the
blind to identify with the revelation that God is a God of darkness and of
light just as he is the God of black and white, male and female, Muslim and Christian, and of
the poor.
We have heard again the cry of John the
Baptist, and the call to
justice which cost him his life as it does
others throughout the world
today, whether the Greenpeace 30 in Russia or those in prison for simply showing compassion or speaking out.
And we have reflected on the choice of God
to use a young woman as the
vehicle for the divine plan and Mary's
response as she realised the
implication of the prophetic mandate
realized in her womb.
And so today we remember through the symbol
of presents, the gift of
Christ to the world.
And the focus of this journey centres on a
baby and as so often they
do, that baby becomes a vehicle of hope.
So the story of Christmas is that hope is
brought into being, a hope
which grounds itself in love. The word of God, the ruach, is made flesh, tabernacled among us. This is not just a soppy ideology it inspires us to action as it inspired Luther King and Mandela and countless people since Christ's birth, to enact the good news. So that the
child who is desperately unhappy
is comforted, and the old lady who thinks
that life is not
worth living, experiences love and finds a
reason for living.
And so Christ is not born today for us in a stable, but as a light in
us, a light which gives us hope and gives
hope to the hopeless and
love to the unloved, a light that will never
go out because it has an
eternal fuel.
And a rumour of angels
Light looked down and saw darkness
I will go there said light
Peace looked down and saw war
I will go there said Peace
Love looked down and saw hatred
I will go there said love
So he the lord of light, the prince of
peace, the king of love came down and crept in beside us.
