Christmas Midnight Mass 2009
December 2009
‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.’
Only for my trust in God, I am afraid that I would feel gloomy about the continued future of the human race. Generally speaking we are still ‘walking in darkness’ and dwelling in ‘the land of gloom.’
The fiasco in Copenhagen and the recent global recession clearly highlight the problem.
This walking in darkness, this land of gloom is my continuing preoccupation with self-interest and self-fulfilment. In one word, greed. Greed for power, greed for control, greed for property.
So you may well say ‘thanks for the doom and gloom’ what about a bit of ‘light’ for Christmas.
And light there is. It is because of the condition of fallen human nature that we have Christmas. Christmas is God, our Creator, saying, here I am, I am with you. I am here to work with you in your struggle against your greed and selfishness. I am here working with you to bring justice and peace to this fallen world and at the appointed time to usher in the new heaven and the new earth.
This is ‘Immanuel’; God with us.
God, my Creator and Father is not surprised by anything I do. God is not caught on the wrong foot by anything that we human beings get up to.
What more could our God do to show how embroiled he is in our affairs, how involved He is in our joys and troubles, than to become a human being as we do, live as we do and then suffer public beatings, insults and murder in a horrendous act of injustice.
‘Immanuel’ is not a recent thing. God has always been with us.
Christmas is the great symbol, the great validation of Immanuel.
Christmas means that our God is right up to his neck in the thick of it, with the rest of us.
Facing difficulty and danger on my own is one thing, with a friend at my side it is quite a different matter.
Christmas (or Immanuel) means that God my friend is always at my side. So let me take heart and face life with confidence.