Midnight Mass 2009

The battle to save the world is one between expanders and restrainers.

The Copenhagen climate summit set those wanting economic expansion with rising consumption against those who want to restrain growth to save the planet.

George Monbiot, an avowed restrainer, sees this conflict as a battle to redefine humanity. Some want us to become more greedy. Others want us to become more philanthropic.

The expanders want our western economies to grow much as in the past with a trickle down to the needy. The restrainers want us to change so we can live mindful of the human race as a whole.

It’s hard for a species used to ever-expanding frontiers to accept that our survival depends on our living within limits.

This is a good illustration of what Christmas is all about.

We’re finding through a rather long and painful way round what God has been trying to tell us since the coming of Jesus we celebrate tonight.

God is into restraint as the basis for right expansion.

Isn’t the coming of God to earth the biggest illustration ever upon the earth of restraint?

His coming to Bethlehem restrains him, as clearly as the child Jesus was restrained in swaddling bands.

Jesus is restrained so the world can expand into new freedom.

Just as Jesus was bound to set us free we must be bound, the human race, the world, must be bound to enter the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The clue to following up the Copenhagen summit is accommodation between restrainers and expanders. Accommodation is also what tonight is all about, what Christianity is all about.

In Christ God can accommodate to human circumstances and we can accommodate to God.

This is a wonderful night because it shows extravagant love to be at the heart of reality. Extravagant love that bears restraint, because true love does just that for the one it loves.

My love for someone, my children for example, is demonstrated more by the pain I suffer on their behalf than by the gifts I shower on them. So it is with the Lord our God.

The nations of the world will serve the human race not by expanding unbridled self interest but by adopting costly restraint. So it is with the Lord our God.

In coming to live as one of us God did not express unbridled self interest but costly restraint.

By coming to live in a stable with the poorest of the poor he says to us, ‘I’ll accommodate to you. I’ll change for you. I’ll serve you and help your life expand - though it costs me’.

Jesus came and died for us. God accommodated to our nature and brought it into his. When we ponder all the restraints Our Lord endured we know God expects nothing of us he’s not prepared to go through himself and we recognise the invitation he gives us to share his divinity.

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining; it is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

Jesus died in our place to live in our place and show us our worth.

He accepted the ultimate restraint of death so we could expand into the divine nature. That’s the Christian good news.

As we heard in the Christmas gospel from Saint John: The Word became flesh and lived among us…to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God

Or as we read in St Paul’s letter to the Philippians Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.

Christmas is a grand commemoration of the love that accepts restraint and teaches us to do likewise in the service of one another.

It’s costly to adjust your life to others. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel some cost in becoming your servant and parish priest. All those endless expectations to be served, yet balanced by much loving support and appreciation, not least the many Christmas cards for which our thanks.

A last thought. Some people see Christianity as a sort of straitjacket.

They mock our commitment to forgiveness, faithful marriage, giving to God’s work and so on.

They think we’re bound and want to free us to be happy pagans!

But we have freedom. Don’t we? To know you’re loved as extravagantly as we’re loved by Jesus is something tremendously freeing. Human beings are most free and alive in loving relationships.

We become ourselves in love - but loving relationships always involve restraint and a loss of independence.

‘Is it easy to love God?’ ‘It is easy to those who do it.’ From the outside it looks like a strait jacket but from the inside it feels like heaven.

Think of a world class singer and the hours she puts in training for her performance. How she adjusts her use of time to the cause she loves! Is she in a strait jacket?

When we gain a heart for the great cause that will outlast us all – the cause of hallowing God’s name, building his kingdom and accomplishing his will - we lose lesser concerns. Christmas and New Year is a time for taking up training, like the vocalist, to improve our Christian performance.

God help us and the world to restrain ourselves and keep close to Jesus giving him our devotion, so his kingdom advances in Horsted Keynes as more of us see our lives expanding into the glorious liberty of the children of God!