Christmas Day 2020
Set III readings: Isaiah
52:7-10 and John 1:1-14
The
theme chosen by the Church of England for Christmas this year has been Comfort
and Joy. It has been the message we have held out, to one another and to
our neighbours, because comfort and joy have been so very necessary this year,
for so many reasons, and because they are something that the Church, of all
people, can offer. And if you were listening attentively, you will have heard
both words appear in our reading from Isaiah:
‘Listen!
Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy…
Break
forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted
his people…’
Because
we have experienced God’s comfort, we can sing for joy.
And
of course, we have not been able to sing for almost the whole of the year now;
or, at least, not to sing together, not to lift our voices with others. I know
that many of you have really missed singing; and that this has been especially
hard at this time of year, when, ordinarily, we would have held our carol
service and sung familiar carols whenever we came together. But we are allowed
to sing outside. To fasten our coats against the wind and the rain, and sing.
Is that what it might sound like, for the ruins of Jerusalem to break out into
singing? Not the splendour of days past, but the welling-up of faith, of hope, of
love, in response to the glory we have seen in the face of Jesus, whose birth
we celebrate this day, the One who was and is full of grace and truth?
And
so,
we shall end our service today by going outside and singing together; and
then, we shall go back to our homes and, perhaps, our families; and no,
it will not be all that we might have hoped for; and yet, we shall know that
there is a light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it.
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