Welcome to St James

"Christmas"

At the outset I pass on to you my most sincere prayers and wishes for all of you that you and your family will enjoy a Christmas filled with all the blessings that this season of the year brings with it - and an important part of that is safe travel wherever you or your loved ones may be going over this time.

So I want to ask you all to think about why you’ve decided to come to St James’ as part of your celebration of Christmas.

Of course I know that we have a beautiful and historic Church in which Christmas has been celebrated since 1864 and that our music is second to none, but surely these facts are positives but not the real reason why we come.

It does bear thinking about – that for many people here, this evening/morning is perhaps one of the few occasions in the year when you come and worship the Christian God, who has been revealed to humankind as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So why is that? I wonder. Only you know but I can also guess about it.

Firstly, there is a wonderful charm about the Christmas story. The images that it brings to mind are so wonderful and glorious that they say with the Christian person for all of their life. Images such as the Angel Gabriel appearing to the young girl Mary; the long journey by road to Bethlehem on a donkey (which incidentally is not in the bible.) the baby Jesus in the manger; the angels singing to the shepherds in the fields; and the camel train of wise men coming from the East to see and worship the child.

These images are printed on our hearts and minds because they are all so amazing and although they are said to have occurred in this world there is a strong hint and flavour of the supernatural about them – and I am sure that fascinates us from when we are children until the time in our lives when as the song goes “we are too old to dream”.

But surely the reason why we come has to be more than that. So let’s take another tack. The question that is more relevant today is “what difference does Christmas make to us?” How are our lives impacted by the remembrance of Jesus’ birth? Because if there is no impact then we are all wasting our time and we know that in this part of history at least, time is very valuable indeed.

Recently I have been reminded of the power of visitation. When I have gone into the homes of the aged and the sick, it’s been a great joy to see their reactions to the fact that they know for certain that someone from the Church cares enough about them to put aside all the other activities that one could be doing, to be with them. My reaction is to assure them of God’s love for them and that it never grows cold, it never weakens or tails off – which sadly, in the depths of their loneliness and sometimes their illness, they come to doubt.

And, of course, on an immeasurably grander scale, this is what God’s sending of Jesus to us also does. We are assured that God’s love for us burns with such a passion that he simply must come and be among us. But Jesus’ presence is not only a comforting presence which gives us the warm and fuzzies, but it is a saving presence. And this is certainly the big impact that you and I surely must feel.

God comes among us, not just to spend time but to implement a plan for the salvation of humankind. We really only get this part of the story if we look at the rest of Jesus’ life, what he did, what he taught; the way he was rejected by the authorities and put to death and then, most amazingly how he was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Jesus not only shares in our human life but in his short life of about 33 years he will go on to singlehandedly repair what has gone wrong with the way we relate to each other and to God. And through him we can access that solution and that victory that he wins for us.

This means a great deal for us. It means, for example, that we have to get to know Jesus. We have to meet him through the gospels either, through worship or reading the Bible or preferably both. If we can get to know him better and better over the years then we cannot help but change the way we live and relate to others and to God.

This is because we see there a person who is forgiving; who truly turns the other cheek; who gives hope to everyone who listens to him; who brings the reality of God’s love into every situation; who sees the good in people whom others think are bad.

As we regularly meet Jesus in our prayers and worship and Bible reading, we become more like him – we cannot help it. His love, wisdom, gentleness and his acceptance of others soak into our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit and we are changed from the inside.

This little baby boy who’s birth we greet today/tonight – who faced such danger and turmoil at his birth – who is born into poverty and vulnerability – but survived all this – would go on to give his life on the cross to save us from our slavery, our powerlessness to sin – that’s provided we receive what he does for us with faith.

This means that we don’t just learn that Jesus taught us to change our ways but we, in fact, do it. With God’s help we take the hatred and revenge and even the quarrelling out of our lives and we put in instead the love of God and neighbour – and when we do that our lives are changed incredibly. I want you to think about your lives and how just doing this would change your life.

I’m not saying for a moment that this is an easy thing to do. In most cases it isn’t – it takes time and I have to say that in my own life there are issues that I’m working on in this respect. People that I’m working on forgiving for instance – I might take quite a time to come to the point of forgiveness but I am working on it rather than trying to make things worse. And I’m doing it because Jesus came.

This is the how Christmas impacts on us – in changes that we make to how we live. And the question that each of us needs to think hard about and be prepared to put our faith into action, is how we need to change.

Do you need to be more not less generous with your money in relation to worthy causes? because we are told that many in our community have stopped being generous following the Global financial crisis. The result is that thousands at home and millions of needy people around the world will suffer from this decline in giving to charity. What advice would Jesus give on this do you think?

Are there relationships within your family or with close friends that are in need of repair right now as we meet? Then take a small step make a call or send a letter or speak a word of kindness to that person (I would personally avoid emails which are fraught with danger) and see if an improvement can begin.

If you are stuck in some kind of sinful situation – you know it’s wrong and you can’t get out, get help; maybe just speak with someone you can trust about it as a first step to turning away from that sin that is holding you hostage. And you will feel your life begin to change from that moment.

I say these things because God wants us to have a life full of hope, peace, love and joy not weighed down by sin, hate and the thirst for revenge which only hurt and destroy. Jesus came not to be cute, but to change lives and to win for us eternal life. And he succeeded.

Friends, all this began at the first Christmas. When a little boy came into the world to embody and to reveal God’s healing and saving love for his people. The angels sang for joy, promising peace on earth for those whom God favours.

It’s my prayer for each of you this evening/today that you will be ready and willing to receive this promise and so come to know and experience the real blessings of Christmas.

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