Midnight Mass 2007 St Andrew’s Cobham

The BBC recently reported the following:

Members of a London ambulance crew on their way to a town on the outskirts of London ended up in Manchester after blindly following their GPS navigation system. The London Ambulance employees were transferring a patient from a hospital in Ilford, northeast of London, to Brentwood, 12 miles away.Instead, the crew ended up driving all the way to Manchester, a distance of about 200 miles. A spokesman for London Ambulance said that the navigation database led them off course, and that they did not realise their mistake until reaching the outskirts of Manchester.The patient being transferred was unharmed!

Just one of the many stories we hear about people blindly following their sat navs and seemingly leaving their commonsense at home with their road atlases. Why do we do it? The answer I suspect is because it is easy. We punch in the destination and then we don’t have to worry about how we will get there – we just listen to an American woman telling us to ‘take the third exit at the rotary’ and assume we will arrive at the right place.

The opening words of John’s gospel tell us that Jesus came to his own people and yet they did not accept him. In a way the Jewish people were living their lives by a sort of moral sat nav. Their code for living was set out in the Jewish scriptures and many stuck rigidly to the complex laws for living and for establishing hierarchy. And often held to them regardless of any consequential injustices or suffering. By the time Jesus came some were as far from God’s loving purposes as the ambulance crew who ended up in Manchester were from Brentwood.

Jesus was rejected by his people, ending his earthly life on a cross. But there were enough who believed in him, who witnessed his resurrection and handed down their faith, such that we are here tonight.

John the evangelist proclaims Jesus the light of the world – the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. Our being here this evening is witness to the ever burning flame of faith in Jesus Christ as the light of the world. We gather here conscious that millions of people in Britain and around the world are, like 21st century shepherds, joining us in celebrating the birth of the Messiah. And as long as we continue to gather, the darkness will never overcome the light of Christ.

And yet, despite the mission of churches and faithful Christians down the ages, we live in a world that for much of the time seems to prefer darkness to light. Notwithstanding all the evidence, the invitation to believe and to receive the power to become children of God is rejected by many people.

One of the reasons for this is that for those who do believe, living lives in the light of Christ is not always the safe and easy option we hope it will be. Because making a commitment to faith, a commitment to Jesus Christ, means that we choose to lead our lives in the light of his teaching. We cannot take as our guide what society, or our friends or our culture are telling us are the right things to do. Because we have to continually ask ourselves the question – is the route I am taking one that fits in with Jesus’ teaching. Al Gore, whose campaigning on global warming has had a huge impact on the perspective of many Americans, summed it up in an interview when he said, ‘I think the purpose of life is to glorify God. I turn to my faith as the bedrock of my approach to any important questions in my life.’

This does not mean that we replace a set of secular values with a prescriptive set of Christian rules. We remain individuals free to make our own decisions. We are guided not by a set of rules, but simply by an overriding rule of love – love of God, and love for neighbour. You may not agree with Al Gore’s perspective on global warming. But as Christians, whatever our views on political issues or personal priorities, we are united by the principle of using our faith as a barometer, the guide to the important questions in our lives.

Being a Christian is sometimes presented or considered to be a lifestyle choice. People consider we have, as it were, ‘chosen faith’. But that is at odds with the story of the birth of Christ. In accepting Christ, we are simply recognising who we are. Jesus we are told ‘came to what was his own’. Jesus came to humanity, to God’s own people. He came as a baby, in weakness and poverty. He shared our experience of happiness and pain. Through his life, God has shown us our own potential to be as God intended. Just beyond tonight’s reading, John writes ‘No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who has made him known’. This is the gift of Christmas.

Accepting this gift, accepting Jesus, which so many of his own people did not do, means that we are drawn into his way of living. Throughout our lives we are making decisions, wondering which direction to take. If we take our faith in Jesus as our guide, then we will move closer to God’s way. We will be more loving, more generous and more forgiving. Sometimes we will get it wrong. And sometimes others will not agree with us. But we will discover inner peace and direction. St Benedict wrote ‘as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.’

As we share in communion this holy night, we are drawn, just as the shepherds and the kings were before us, to kneel in awe and worship at the manger. In that manger God comes to meet us and share our humanity, to make us all children of God. It is not we who have chosen to walk with Him. God in Jesus has chosen to walk with us.

© Robert Jenkins December 2007