Christmas

Press play above to watch and listen and/or you can read the script below.

Hello, I’m Bishop Joe and welcome to my home in Burnley, for the second of this four part series, looking at the Apostles’ Creed – that great song of praise to God, which recounts to us his beautiful works in creation and salvation.

We’re looking at the Creed in four videos – Creation, Christmas, Cross, and Comforter. Today, we’re looking at the beginning of the Second Article of the Creed. Here it is:

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary.

So what we learn is this one person, Jesus, is ‘Lord’ – that is to say, he is divine. The later Nicene Creed puts it like this: as God, Jesus is “eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father”.

And the Creed also teaches us that that Jesus was conceived and born, the son of Mary – in other words, he is human, like us in all things except sin. As a human being, he grew hungry and thirsty, he wept, he suffered and died, and was buried.

One person, with two natures – divine and human. And we celebrate this each year, traditionally, on 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation, when we remember the conception of Jesus; and, with much more festivity, nine months later: 25th December or Christmas Day, when we remember the birth of Jesus.  

Christmas, then. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, tinsel, trees. And that’s great. But the important thing about Christmas (the most important thing) is the story. Because in this story we see ‘the image of the invisible God’, and we hear the story which God has made his own.

And this story begins in the dark. Perhaps that’s why the Church decided to celebrate Christmas at the darkest time of the year.

The Christmas story begins in what was a very harsh reality, and in the dark. Here is what St Luke tells us: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

An occupying army then – and a census, causing mayhem. Everyone forced to go back to their original place, in order to help with tax collection. Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary not in a winter wonderland, but in this this dark, desperate setting.

Bing Crosby dreaming of a white Christmas is lovely. But it’s just a dream.

The real Christmas story is that Jesus ‘came down from heaven’ and was born at a time and a place where people were in misery. And there is, in that truth, a promise on which we can rely – the promise that no matter how dark it gets in our lives, God will come for us if we invite him in.

But there’s something else going on here too. Luke takes up the story again: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

Shepherds on the hillside, in the dark. But then the lights arrive. Angels in the Bible are warriors – fierce, robed in light. Soon a whole choir of angels arrives – a light that blinds, a song that deafens.

This is how it is when God comes in his glory. At Mount Sinai, with fire and the sound of thunder. At Pentecost, with fire and the sound of a hurricane. At Christmas, too, when the choir of angels filled the sky. For the glory of God is always too much, too great, too glorious for us to grasp. We cannot take hold of it, but it can take hold of us.

The biblical story of Christmas begins with darkness and clamour and it ends in blinding, deafening glory – and that’s because in Jesus God himself comes to be our saviour. Isn’t that what the angels say? ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord’. And a saviour is someone who joins us when we are in danger and saves us from that danger.

The real Christmas story tells us that God came to save us in Jesus – and that that offer of salvation holds fast at those moments in our lives when we are gripped by fear, blinded by sorrow, deafened by the voices that accuse, threatened by death. If we ask God to come to us at those times, if we put our trust in in our Lord, Jesus Christ, he will come to be our saviour.

Bring to Jesus your pain and your loss, your guilt and your fear. And you will see for yourself the darkness lit up by his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. And then you will find that the song of the angels catches you up and takes hold of your heart. That’s what Christmas is about.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary.