MIDNIGHT MASS 24TH
December 2015
A colleague of mine in another part
of Kent said that in his parish the Midnight Service had tended to be for the
drunks who either had lost their way from the pub on Christmas Eve or who had
suddenly been overcome either with an attack of nostalgia or an escapist desire
to blot out the real world. ‘But’, he went on, ‘we now get a much more
sophisticated clientele.’
Well,
forgive me if you are a member of the latter group because my message tonight,
though profound and potentially life-changing, is simple rather than
sophisticated. On the other hand, if by some navigational misfortune you are a
member of the former, don’t panic: rest assured we will get you home somehow or
other after the service.
But neither
nostalgia for childhood memories, nor escapism from real world, nor the
comfortable carapace of sophistication will save us if we actually take the
Christian message of Christmas seriously and examine the facts and the evidence
with an open and unprejudiced mind. Because the question before each one of us
here tonight, the challenge offered to us by our carols and our readings, is, ‘Is
it true?’ Is it true that there is a God who created the world, and that he
interrupted the Laws of Nature to come into the world he had created to be
born, miraculously – because that is what interrupting the Laws of Nature is -
as a human. Christianity has never claimed that the birth of Jesus was not
miraculous.
Now such an
examination is actually quite difficult these days. Our minds are filled -
whether we realise it or not – with so many unproven and often blindingly illogical
facts about our world and about ourselves that it is difficult to clear our
minds for such an important exercise. We have tended to swallow and take for granted
as truth the secular or scientific ‘gospel’ - so many theories and assertions
about our world and ourselves that are –
if you actually bother to study them – nonsense.
And nowhere
are these theories and assertions about why the world exists and why we exist more
called into question and shown to be false – on the basis of sound historical evidence
- than at Christmas.
The
incarnation of God, his choosing in one of his forms of being God to enter the
world he created, as a human being, challenges the naturalistic view of the
universe – a view proposed most famously perhaps by Stephen Hawking and Richard
Dawkins – the view that there is no God and that eventually we will be able to
explain everything about the universe, including its origin, purpose, and
destiny, from the inside because the cosmos is all that exists and everything
can be explained in terms of mass and energy.
But this
belief in naturalism – not to be confused – be warned! - with naturism – is
just as much a position of faith as my belief in God and in his coming to us
that first Christmas: if Jesus was whom he claimed to be, it makes best sense
of the evidence, it explains it. I don’t understand how God could be born as a
human being, but on the basis of the evidence, together with trust in who it is
we are actually dealing with here, it is perfectly reasonable and rational to
believe that he could. And in his coming I also find the answers to life’s most
profound questions, the one’s science by its very nature cannot answer.
In some key areas Science only has best
guesses: it’s surprising how much Science cannot explain. Scientists admit that
they don’t actually know what consciousness is, what energy is, what gravity
is, even what light is. But they believe in these things because they have
explanatory power; that is to say, they explain, for instance, why we can see
and why things fall.
And so it is
with God. God has given us sufficient evidence on which to believe in him, to
trust him. If God designed the universe, why could he not enter it? Why can he
not break the laws of nature? After all, those laws are only humanity’s
understanding of how a rational universe works.
Christianity
not only claims to have a basis in reality – in hard facts and evidence, it
goes on to claim ultimately to determine what reality is. The incarnation of
God challenges the naturalistic view of the universe and says that the universe
did not create itself out of nothing, or from a set of laws, was not a matter
of chance, but was created by God, the personal agent who caused its creation and
who can intervene in it. The view held by naturalists - that it all can be
explained without the need for God - is as much a position of faith – though
they often won’t admit it - as my faith in the existence of God and his entry
that first Christmas into the world he created in order to save us.
Don’t get me
wrong; I am not saying that God and science are at odds, that they are
incompatible: I am simply saying that science can only answer the questions science
is equipped to answer; and that to rule out the idea of a personal Creator
without considering the evidence is, frankly, unscientific.
But is it true? Well, why not examine the
evidence? Why not put your doubts and preconceptions aside for a moment and
consider the evidence of the Gospel record, the archaeological record, the
changed lives of those who have come to faith? But also, examine the evidence
and the arguments of those who dogmatically exclude God from the equation.
The claims
made by Christians about the meaning of that first Christmas are the most
profound set of claims ever made in history. If they are false then we should
have nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity: but if they are true, then it
is the most important matter in the world. Some people will say that they are
perfectly content living without God and according to their own moral code.
Well, yes, moral codes are important; but they cannot either forgive us or
empower us to live as we know we ought. Only Jesus can forgive us – because he
died for us; only Jesus can empower us to live as we know we ought – because he
rose again for us and offered himself and his power to all who would humbly
receive him. This offer of eternal life came at great cost and, he said, we
refuse it at our peril.
The
Christian faith, the Incarnation, the virginal conception, the miracle of Jesus
and the miracles of Jesus and his resurrection make the best sense of the
evidence, of the facts, if Jesus was indeed whom he claimed to be.
Christianity
is an evidence-based belief; it is not a leap into the dark but a step into the
light, the light not just of understanding the truth about the world and about
ourselves, but also that the Creator of our world loves us so much that he
entered our world with a specific purpose: that purpose was to save us, to save
us, again he himself said, from the sins that separate us from him. This he
chose to do through a person’s faith in Jesus. Through faith in him and through
him alone, God our creator calls us to enjoy a relationship with him that can
begin now and last forever. This is the Christmas story; this is the wonder of
it; this is the truth of it that our carols and our readings speak of and
challenge each one of us either to accept or to reject.
For those
who are seeking him, and humble enough to admit their need of him, I pray that
the words of the carol might become true for you: ‘O Holy child of Bethlehem
descend to us we pray, cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.’
For those
who are still not sure but would like to learn a more, do ask me afterwards;
take a booklet from the font as you leave, or give me a call. May God bless you
all this Christmas; but above all I pray that you will come to know him or to
know him more deeply, his truth and his love for you, his saving grace in your
life.
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