CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
20 - Dec 2009
A sermon delivered by Rev. Gordon How
"Tidings of Comfort and Joy"
It is Christmas Sunday and all the three previous Sundays
of Advent have been special services, as is this one!
I think we celebrated them very well, "doing up
proud" the season of Advent, with Carols and Lessons
and candles and quilts, prayers and anthems, hand bells
and organs and readings. On Thursday evening, Christmas
Eve, there will be three more special services of worship
and all will be so right and so beautiful. This season
deserves our best, and it is wonderful involving so
many helpful people in striving for excellence in our
praise.
But of all the special services we celebrate this
month, this one, today, Christmas Sunday, is my favourite
because we gather as a congregational church family
today. Most of those who leave the city for Christmas
have gone and those who only come to church on Christmas
Eve are not here yet! It is just us, the core of the
congregation, who have gathered in this holy place to
worship God and share in the good news of the birth
of Jesus Christ; this is the time when we feel most
like a church family.
I have a few thoughts to share with you today about
the meaning of Christmas. Four of them, actually. Interspersed,
we'll sing (staying seated) a couple of the verses of
a well known carol, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"
also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy".
The words of the verses are printed in the Order of
Service. So be ready to jump-in… This is the Christmas
Carol referred to in The Vancouver Sun yesterday as
a "lusty, carousing, tavern song". So, I expect
your most lusty, "tavernous" display in singing
it this morning. (Tavernous, by the way, is a word I
made up. It has to do with being in a tavern too long.)
In A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens writes this about
Scrooge- at his most Scrooge behaviour: "Foggier
yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. (One
young lad) gnawed and mumbled at the hungry cold as
bones are gnawed by dogs, and he stooped down at Scrooge's
keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at
the first sound of: "God rest ye merry, gentleman!
May nothing you dismay!" Scrooge seized a ruler
with such energy of action, that the singer fled in
terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more
congenial frost."
The carol, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"
was written in the 15th century and was the most popular
of the early English Christmas Carols. It was first
published 175 years ago. As we sing the verses this
morning, be thinking about all the people down through
the centuries whose chorus we are joining!
The first lesson has to do with who Jesus was …
why a little baby in the Bethlehem manger? You see,
God had a problem! God had tried so many times to tell
the people of Israel that THE way to live is God's way.
That we are to care about each other by putting others
ahead of ourselves. In so many ways, God had tried to
show people how to be loving and just - but it didn't
seem to be getting through to them. God's people continually
did what they wanted to do, in spite of the messages
which God sent to them through Moses and through the
prophets like Jeremiah and Amos and Isaiah. They just
were not listening!
So God had a different idea. God tried a different approach.
Instead of sending another message, God wrapped the
idea up in a person. Not in a box, not in a book, not
in a letter, not in a bolt of lightning, nor a cataclysmic
event … but in a person. And what better person
for God to pick, than God's self. So along came Jesus
(God, really) or as we say, the Son of God… but
really and truly, God. Along came Jesus, born to common
folk, in a very simple setting and in a mysterious way.
The first lesson is this: the best way to send an
idea is to wrap it up in a person. Think about it, when
you want to show someone that they are loved, that they
matter, deliver that gift of love in a person! And what
better person than yourself?
God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
In Bethlehem, in Israel,
This blessed Babe was born
And laid within a manger
Upon this blessed morn
The which His Mother Mary
Did nothing take in scorn
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
The next lesson not only helps us understand Christmas
better, but it also challenges us to live more as God
would have us be. I remember when I got my first digital
watch. It was so different from a watch with a round
face to it. And my digital watch could also be used
as a stop-watch; and an alarm, too! My dad gave it to
me and he said "I think every preacher should have
a watch with an alarm in it!"
Now, when I was setting the watch for the first time,
I had to find another clock with the exactly correct
time to set it by. This remanded me of a story I heard
once. A telephone operator, in a small town, found that
she was getting a call every morning from the same caller,
asking for the correct time. After this went on for
days, she finally said to the caller: "Would you
mind telling me why you call everyday for the correct
time?" "Sure", said the caller, "I
want to get the exact time because I'm the man that
blows the whistle every day at exactly 12 noon."
"Well, that's funny", said the operator, "because
everyday at 12 noon I set our clock by your whistle!"
Surely, this is a parable, of one of life's failings.
So many people, youth, adults, children, the rich and
famous and everyday people, decide on what they are
going to do only on the basis of what others are doing.
Too many people simply follow the lead of others in
their moral and spiritual behavior. Too often this means
those who make mistakes, are leading others to make
mistakes. There's little hope in that for us.
We need a higher frame of reference for our decision
making. Indeed, we need the highest frame of reference.
Here, again, Christmas can help us with this need because
God came to us in Christ. God broke into our world,
wrapped up God's ideas about the true purposes of life
in this child of Bethlehem. We need not grope around
in the darkness, or simply do what others are doing;
rather, we can look to the star of Bethlehem to see
the truth of our existence.
From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
"Fear not then," said the Angel,
"Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan's power and might."
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
But Christmas also carries another message for each
of us. There's a tender story about a little girl in
an orphanage. She was odd, she was unattractive, and
she had some very annoying manners. Neither the children
nor the caregivers wanted to be around her. Even the
matron in charge wanted to get her out of her orphanage.
One day people realized that she was writing all the
time to someone outside of the orphanage. She wrote
these notes and hid them near the wall of the grounds
apparently to be picked up by some mysterious friend.
The matron followed her one day and saw her slide the
note into a particular hiding place. The matron stayed
out of sight until the little girl left and then picked
up the note and read it. It said: "To whoever find
this - I love you."
Deep in the heart of everyone is the desire to be
loved, to be wanted, to count for something, to be found.
Nothing could be more terrible for us than to feel we
are alone in this life. How threatening it would be
to feel that the power which generates our very existence
is not in the least concerned about us. Well, Christmas
puts an end to that threat.
In a deep and meaningful sense, God has twinned each
one of us to the One who is always beside us. God has
answered our need for love and significance by coming
in Christ, so that no woman, man nor child need feel
alone in this world. No one need ever feel unwanted
or unloved, because God has shown in Christ a great
love for all the children of creation. God is with us.
Thanks be to God.
The shepherds at those tidings
Rejoiced much in mind,
And left their flocks a-feeding
In tempest, storm and wind:
And went to Bethlehem straightway
The Son of God to find.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
And when they came to Bethlehem
Where our dear Saviour lay,
They found Him in a manger,
Where oxen feed on hay;
His Mother Mary kneeling down,
Unto the Lord did pray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
Charlie Brown and Lucy are leaning against a tree
and Lucy asks: "What do you think security is,
Charlie Brown?"
"Security", says Charlie Brown, "is sleeping
in the back seat of the car when you're a little kid
and you've been somewhere with your mom and dad, and
its night. You don't have to worry about anything. It's
all taken care of."
"That's real neat." responds Lucy.
But a serious look comes over Charlie Brown's face,
and he says, "But it doesn't last. Suddenly you've
grown up. And it can never be that way again. Never!"
Lucy gets a sad and scarred look on her face and she
says, "Never?"
"No, never." says Charlie.
Then Lucy, aware of the real world, reaches out to
Charlie Brown and says, "Hold my hand, Charlie!
Hold my hand."
The good tidings of "comfort and joy", the
gospel, the carols of Christmas tell us that God is
holding our hand in the midst of whatever life throws
at us, for Jesus Christ has come to be one with us.
We can sing with joy and be at Peace on this precious
Christmas Sunday.
Now to the Lord sing praises,
All you within this place,
And with true love and brotherhood
Each other now embrace;
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doth deface.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
1550
West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
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Tel:
604-261-6377
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