I haven’t opened all my Christmas presents yet but I know there’s at least one gift card. That will give me a choice of what book to buy for my Kindle.
Christmas Day is about choice, about the choices of God no less.
Choosing a gift card for someone may seem unimaginative but it is also affirming. It's a choice leaving them with choice and avoids choices that end under the bed with those unwanted Christmas presents!
Which brings me to the choices of God flowing from the birth of his Son.
Here’s a one line summary of Christmas: The Son of God became Son of Man so children of men can be made children of God.
Let’s say that : The Son of God became Son of Man so children of men can be made children of God.
Let’s try some actions: The Son of God (hands pointing to heaven) became Son of Man (hands pointing to the ground) so children of men (hands on heart) can be made children of God (hands point up diagonally)
Once again!
The choice of God to come close to us can bring us close to God and do so for ever.
His choice today is not just of Mary and Joseph and Bethlehem but of eighty generations of faithful Christians dedicated to God’s praise and service among whom we might wish to be counted. As we heard in the Gospel: ‘to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’ (John 1:12).
To receive Christ and believe in him gives you entry into what St. Paul describes as ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Romans 8:21). The gift of Christmas Communion renews that freedom, liberating our ensnared humanity into glorious freedom as we enter again and again through the Blessed Sacrament into what God has chosen for us despite our dull sight of this.
The choices of God are a mystery.
That you and I should be at Christ’s Mass this morning is a mystery. Most of Haywards Heath is not attending to Christmas in the full sense that we are.
Do you ever reflect on the mystery of the choices of God, that you and I seem chosen to be worshipping Christians from an unbelieving circle?
That this is linked to God’s choice reassures us we are no better from those in our acquaintance who do not worship. Like yeast in the loaf or catalysts in a chemical process you and I are used by God to effect a wider purpose. Just as Israel was chosen by God to be a blessing to all nations, we are chosen on behalf of others to bring the needs of our circle, our town and our world in prayer to God.
When I was a baby they called me ‘the dreamer’. I had an apparent capacity to day dream. In later life this sometimes brought unfavourable attention from my teachers. I see that capacity to look heavenwards in retrospect as indicating God’s choice of me. One repeated dream I had as a teenager was of gathering others to look up with me in worship, to concelebrate, if you like, the wonders of the Lord. So here I am, a priest, though that high calling, of which I am unworthy with my sins and failings, is less to bless me than bring others into blessing.
I would encourage each one of us in Church this morning to look back and see the evidence for the choice of God upon your life. That evidence of God’s choice and leading of you always outweighs the evidence of your unworthiness.
The Son of God became Son of Man today so you in your unworthiness could be made God’s child and part of God’s family. Jesus came to Bethlehem and died in Jerusalem, as St. John writes later in his Gospel ‘to gather together the scattered children of God’ (John 11:52). That gathering continues and Presentation Church is part of it. We are gathered this morning by the choices of God to build unity he desires in this sinful, fragmented world.
We reflect on Christmas Day upon the humility of God shown in his Son Jesus Christ. The child wrapped in swaddling bands for us was later constrained by suffering when he said, ‘Not my will, but thy will be done… I don’t want things to be about me - I want them to be about you, Father, your plans and purposes for my life. I want your will to be done’.
The Son of God became Son of Man so children of men could enter his obedience as children of God. We rejoice at this today and its implications for each one of us who own God as our Father, that, whatever our circumstances, we live in that dignity.
As St. Peter invites: ‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time’ (1 Peter 5:6). Lord, that is what we seek to do today, to humble ourselves and be completely open to hearing from you. We want to do what pleases you. Make your will known. Help us to see that clearly and to act upon it so we can continue to marvel at the choices of God which exceed our imagining!
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