“A Man For Others - A Christmas Day Sermon”

Karen Sloan

Readings - Luke 2:1-11, Matthew 2:1-12

Wow what a year it has been.  A year like no other really, with borders opening and closing, restrictions, deaths and incredible acts of heroism and commitment.

We have seen throughout the year the best and worse of humanity. Even for us in Wembley Downs, we have been closed, then opened, and now after 2 years in the church for the Christmas service we are back down here amongst the gum trees.  But we are together and that is the main thing.  For this community helps us get through the sorrows of life, just as it allows us to share our joys.

We are meant for community, and without it life seems smaller and diminished. 

So what do I want to say on this Christmas day, after such a crazy year.

Well the other day, I was listening to a radio national program on cults.  Don’t laugh, it’s a segway into the Christmas story, I promise. It was talking about the definition of cults and how they develop, think Jones town and particularly  the most recent terrible one called Nxium , where the leader has just been jailed for 120 years, for what went on behind closed doors.

But I was intrigued to hear one of the guests, an historian and sociologist, suggest that there are things called audience cults, based on the so called human potential movement.  There are people who go around the world, well not quite the world at the moment, selling the way to achieve “optimisation of the self”, in terms of career, wealth, beauty, physical prowess or mind, using a very hyped up, marketed road show.  It’s part of what the guest termed secular spirituality, describing it as the primary spiritual quest of the affluent western consumerist 21st century person.  Ouch.  That seemed pretty harsh since we all want to be fit, mentally healthy and have a reasonable amount of money to live.

But it made me think about Jesus, because after all, that’s why we are here today.  And made me realise how different his call is to this audience cult idea, both for those who followed him 2000 years ago, and those who follow him today.  A call that has lasted the test of time, because his call really does give fullness of life.  Not a life for the self but a life lived with and for others. A life filled with love, and peace, hope, compassion and kindness. A life of deep meaning and purpose.

But how, you may ask,  is this message reflected through the Christmas story? Good question! Let me explain.

While Christmas is a story of a baby that changed the world,  let’s remember the story of Jesus’s birth is not history, and never has been.   It is myth, poetry, and truth all rolled into one, to bring a message of love and hope for the world and for each one of us. It is only found in 2 of the 4 gospels, and is different in each, so in fact there are 2 stories, and often we hear an amalgamation.   We heard a bit from both today.  They were written a long time after Jesus’ death and are really about the man Jesus, rather than a baby.  A man who lived and died in 1st century Judea, but more than anyone since has shown us a new way to live with one another.

But it wasn’t easy!

Jesus entered the world in a dark time in human history.  Into an ancient and ongoing struggle.  On one side stood the kings and their elite company, which included the priests and the Pharisees while on the other were found the prophets, the oppressed poor and the excluded.  He was born at a time when Rome was at its most powerful.  Caesar Augustus, after bringing peace to Rome was hailed the Son of God and saviour. Law and order was sustained by ruthless suppression of people’s rights and many just disappeared.

Two so called religions guided how people would function in the world.  One was a religion of empire, of wealth, rules and rituals, where the rich got richer and the poor poorer. Power ruled over everything.  Then there was the religion of Jesus, a religion that united all God’s people together in bonds of love, compassion and deep joy irrespective of race, class, gender or age.  As Wes Howard Brook suggests, a religion of creation.  This religion was not a set of rules but a way of life, a new way of living together.

So we understand the birth stories today by seeing they actually reflect Jesus’s life and teachings, in miniature. They challenge the Roman Empire, just as Jesus did.

If we look at the stories again, Jesus is seen as a defenceless baby, the poor shepherds are the ones who hear the message of his birth, rather than kings or rulers, there are lots of animals, and there is a woman, Mary, and the Magi, who are foreigners of varying age, and who come bearing gifts.  In fact Jesus and Mary themselves are refugees escaping persecution.  And we have angels singing about peace on earth and goodwill hovering over the whole scene, representing the God of all creation, of Jesus, and the hope that this represents for all of us.

Beautiful, evocative and actually very subversive stories when you think about it. They gives rise to a different type of Jesus than the world expects.

And this different type of Jesus is a man for others, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call him.

So if I leave you with anything today, before you head off to lunches and family gatherings, it’s this. Our Christmas stories reveal a Jesus, who actively worked for others, so that their lives would be better.  He taught and demonstrated that to find meaning in life one must learn to live for others.  And his teaching was and is universal and grounded in the indwelling spirit of God that guided his life. A God for all people, everywhere.

When we hear this Jesus portrayed he is not just bringing light to us, but to our neighbour and to the world. 

This is a great deal more than reaching our own personal potential, which much of our world and even some of our religious traditions seem to focus on,  but reaching our potential by loving and caring for others, so they can reach theirs.

And Jesus sacrifices his life to show us this way. Because challenging an empire of  power, violence, injustice and exclusion is always dangerous.

So the question today, for all of us, is what to do with it?  Are we to let the story of Jesus become a self-help exercise, where the only reason we follow him, is about what it offers us. Or are we going to allow these stories and Jesus himself to speak to us, challenge us and jolt us into action?

The spirit of goodwill at Christmas time infects even the cynical to believe in the possibility of something different and better.  Peace on earth, goodwill to all people and the possibility of hope and transformation for our world.  We are called today to translate Jesus love and God’s presence into something concrete, into a different way of living, for all of us. Even the most egocentric.

So the work of Christmas lies before us, because its more than just one day of the year. It’s the beginning of a new year.

A Christmas poem by Howard Thurman, a great social justice advocate for African Americans in the US, I think says it all. It’s called The Work of Christmas –

 When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.  

 All I can say is Amen to that.