Bratton Clovelly, Germansweek, Christmas Eve, 24/12/2012
One thing I like about Christmas is the re-runs of those classic comedies which never fail to raise a laugh because the comedians were just so good with words. Groucho Marx is a great example, he's so quick:
- "I never forget a face," he said, "but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception."
- "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know." [1]
Some people have a way with words. We're not all like that. I wonder if you ever get lost for words? I know I do, sometimes. Yes, even preachers and pastors who ought to have a word to say to anyone in any given situation, can struggle to find the right word for the moment.
When someone we know has just been bereaved, or made redundant, or had some other piece of bad news, it’s hard to find the right thing to say to them when we see them. That's normal. Or when something wonderful happens, which breaks through the mundane ordinariness of everyday life, like a marriage proposal or a birth, then too we might lose our tongue. The news is so wonderful we can't express our feelings about it very well. Perhaps that's why when we first meet a new tiny baby suddenly all we can say is 'aaaah' and 'ga-ga' and 'coochie-coo’.
But we know that we should try to find the right words.
If I love you, how do you know that, unless I tell you?
If I love you, how do I know that, unless I tell you?
Though gestures and postures and body language do tell us a lot, it is when we speak out what is inside us that that thing becomes true.
Only then do our feelings, our thoughts, our instincts, come alive. In that moment our words become flesh. When we speak out what is inside us, lights come on in our head and our heart. Because we've found the right word to describe ourselves, we understand ourselves more fully, and those we're speaking to know us more fully too.
And so it is with God. Think back to the story of creation, to before God was known. To create a beginning God had to find a Word to speak out. So God said, 'let there be light'. And then - and only then - was there light.
When I say 'I love you', then love exists, where before there was only an ambiguous silence. And when God said 'Let there be light', there was light, where before there was only a brooding darkness.
Since the very beginning, God has struggled to find the right Word to describe Himself to us. God tried describing Himself in Creation - sun, moon, stars, all of that beauty and wonder - and that is still enough for many people, but God had more to say about Himself than creation could tell, so when that wasn’t enough he tried flesh and blood. He tried saying it in Noah, in Abraham, in Moses, in David, in John the Baptist, but each of them had their flaws and quirks and just didn’t say it well enough in the end. [2]
It was another John, the gospel writer, who finally announced it: 'The Word became flesh', John said. ‘And lived among us’. And on the cusp of Christmas morning, we know what flesh he means. In the flesh and bones and blood and brains of a man in history God finally managed to express who God fully is and what being fully human is all about. And here we are tonight, aware that that word is Jesus - God's most perfect and most precious Word. Jesus - the Word become flesh.
Notice that Jesus didn’t come knowing exactly the right things to say. He came as ‘a small crying child, beginning a life of risk and suffering’. [3] Now, we can relate to that because we all live lives of risk and suffering; and the Christmas message is that we can invite that Word to be with us in our risk and suffering, to help us to embrace what it is to be more fully human. Rowan Williams says that ‘God shows us how, by his grace and in his Spirit, we can respond to the tormenting riddles of the world.’
Our world is full of words - too many words to take in, in the domain of Twitter, Facebook, advertising and 24-hour rolling media channels. So many words that in a sense, none of them mean very much to us at all.
Many of us are waiting for a substantial word to come to us - one that lasts more than a nanosecond, one that has more depth than a flicker on a screen, we are waiting for a word of love or healing, a word which will switch on lights in our head and our heart, a word which can save us and show us the way towards being fully human.
And so here we are, on a special night, in a service of Holy Communion, soaking in and sharing and singing the words which speak of that one Word which, we sense, might just answer the questions and cries of our hearts. In your coming for communion tonight you draw yourself near to the Word. I pray that the Word will come alive in your life afresh this Christmas.
Now, you might be glad to know that I’ve reached the end of my sermon. Because preachers do tend to use a lot of words where maybe a few would do. And if you are an accomplished Twitter user then you’ll know that you can say a lot in just a few words: as tweets have to be under 140 characters long. The Archbishops and other church leaders are encouraging preachers to post our sermons to Twitter tonight, so that the world can read them. And so, to close, here’s my tweet version of the sermon I’ve just preached, which I hope will stay with you as you celebrate this special season:
Just one word describes God fully: that word is Jesus, who fleshed out for all to see who God truly is. [4]
Notes
This sermon is an adaptation of John 1 - Finding the right Word, preached at The Church of the Good Shepherd, Liverpool, Christmas Eve 2005.
[1] Groucho quotes from www.comedy-zone.net
[2] See ‘Word’ in Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, a Seeker’s ABC, p.120
[3] Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Message to the Anglican Communion 2005
[4] Tweeted to #ChristmasStartsWithChrist
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