I’m sure that during the run up to Christmas, some of you at least will have come across the controversy and argument about the revised lyrics to the Christmas carol, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. For those who didn’t come across this story, a new version of the carol has been written by an American minister which retains only the first two lines of the original and replaces the rest of the words with what have been described as ‘woke’ lyrics. And this has caused controversy and argument in this country because an Anglican parish  church in Leicestershire, used the new version of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen at a Christmas Carol service this year.

The new version of the carol omits any reference to Christ as Saviour, it contains no direct reference to his birth at Christmas but instead speaks about Christ bringing ‘love’s light’ at Christmas. It contains no reference to Christ saving us from Satan’s power and replaces the traditional words about the angels and shepherds, Bethlehem, Mary and the manger with lyrics about the oppression of women by men, and lyrics about LBGT people. The controversy and argument has been caused because many people in the Church are angry that a Christmas Carol has been used to push the woke agenda of a few people in the Church, at the expense of and to the exclusion of the Christmas story.

But can anyone really be so surprised that something like this has happened? We don’t have to look too hard to see that the story of our Lord, as revealed in Scripture, has been and is always being distorted and changed by those with their own agenda to push.

For example, I remember very well once hearing a world-famous American Evangelist preaching that Jesus believed in the ‘American Way’. He said that Jesus was a Capitalist, that he believed in free enterprise and private property. I don’t recall ever reading any such thing in Scripture, but I have read that we should love others as much as we love ourselves. I’ve read that we should give freely to those in need, without hope, expectation or even desire to be repaid. I’ve also read that Jesus’ own disciples, those who were with him during his ministry and who knew him best interpreted Jesus’ teaching very differently than this modern day American. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that they, and their early coverts to the new Christian faith,

‘…were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.’

But then, an American ordinand whom I studied with at Mirfield did once say that we should be very wary of what American theologians say because, on the whole, they don’t preach Christianity. They preach American values and pass them off as Christianity. 

And speaking of Mirfield reminds me of another instance of people corrupting the Christian faith in order to push their own agenda. On one occasion, another student there asked my opinion on a subject he’d been asked to write an essay on, which was, whether Jesus, a male Messiah, could be a Saviour for women. Because apparently, some feminist theologians were arguing that he couldn’t, and that only a female Messiah, could be a Saviour for women.

It would perhaps be very easy to respond to things like this by asking where these people are coming from but unfortunately, I think I know exactly where these people are coming from. I think people who do and say things like this are people who do have an understanding of the Christian faith and of Jesus’ teachings, probably a good understanding of these things, and because of that they know that Jesus didn’t say what they wished he had said. That might be because they want to live in a way that Jesus said they shouldn’t, or simply that Jesus said nothing at all about a  particular subject that’s close to their hearts. And so they try to change Jesus’ teaching. They put words into Jesus’ mouth by distorting the things he said so that they can be interpreted in the way they want them to be interpreted. Or, and what’s even worse, they simply disregard Jesus completely and invent their own teachings because they can’t make Jesus say what they want him to say or make Jesus himself what they want him to be.

But when people do things like this what is it they’re really doing? They claim to be Christians, but they distort the teachings of the Christian faith. They claim to be Christians, but they invent teachings which Christ himself never taught. They claim to be Christians, but they say that Christ doesn’t speak for them. But to be a Christian means to be a follower of Christ. To be a Christian means to amend your life so that it conforms to Christ’s teaching and example. So, when people distort Christ’s teaching, when they put their own teaching into Christ’s mouth, and when they say that Christ doesn’t speak for them, far from being the Christians they claim to be, what they really are, are followers of their own religion. They’re followers of a religion they’ve invented themselves who then try to claim that their own, personal religion is a valid expression of the Christian faith.

And so, even though they don’t agree with all Christ’s teachings and won’t follow those of his teachings they disagree with, and perhaps don’t even believe that Christ is their Saviour, they still claim to be Christians.

Today, although the readings are the same in both lectionaries, we celebrate two different aspects of the story of our salvation. According to the Roman Catholic calendar, today is the Feast Day of Mary, Mother of God whilst according to the Church of England, today is the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. And as we think about these two aspects of the story, they should remind us that no one is excluded from God’s plan for our salvation. God’s plan for our salvation includes women, just like Mary. Mary was chosen by God to play her part in the story, and so is every other woman chosen to play their own part in the ongoing story of salvation. All sort of women were chosen, poor women, wealthy women, sick women, widows, prostitutes, Jewish women, Gentile women. Read the Gospel, you’ll find them all there. All sorts of men were chosen to play their part in the story of salvation, and still are being chosen. Ordinary working men like Joseph, rough characters like the shepherds, tax-collectors too, the kind of men who wouldn’t be welcomed in polite society. Rich men and poor men were chosen, wise men and fools, rulers and slaves were chosen, the crippled, the blind, the mentally ill, drunkards, Jewish men and Gentile men. Again, read the Gospel, you’ll find them all there. And children too. The evidence of Scripture is that no one is excluded from God’s plan, so how can people say that they are excluded? The world may exclude people from many things, but God doesn’t. How can he? He loves us so much he sent his Son to us to save us and grant us eternal life.

God’s plan is to bring salvation to the world, to all people through the Incarnation, ministry, teaching and example, and death and Resurrection of his Son. So how can people say that they’re not included in this plan? To say that is to say that God’s plan is flawed and incomplete. To change God’s plan by distorting Christ’s teaching or adding our own amendments to his teaching is to say that we know better than God. It must be because if we change or add to Christ’s words to suit our own agenda what are we saying other than God’s plan would be better if he’d have done things this way, our way?

And God’s plan has a name, the most Holy Name of Jesus. But God’s plan requires that we put the name of Jesus above all other names. It requires that we live, not as we might want to live or as we think or wish that Jesus should have taught us to live, but as he did teach us to live and as he himself did live.

In his Letter to the Philippians, St Paul puts it this way;

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place,

and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

St Paul speaks against selfish ambition and vain conceit, but how much selfish ambition and vain conceit is there in those who distort the Gospel for their own ends, who put their own words in Christ’s mouth to push their own agenda? St Paul urges Christians to follow Christ’s own example and show humility, but what lack of humility is shown by those who would, to all intents and purposes, usurp Christ’s Lordship over the Church by claiming to speak in his name whilst, in reality, speaking for themselves? St Paul exhorts us to kneel before Christ and acknowledge him as our Lord, but what dishonesty and disloyalty is shown by those who call Jesus, Lord, whilst they refuse to bend their knee to him in obedience to his words? And St Pauls says we should do all this to the glory of God the Father. But what glory do people really think they’re giving to the Father when they act in ways which show that they think they know better than him?

Amen.

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Propers for Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, Mary Mother of God/The Holy Name of Jesus can be viewed here.

For many of us, notwithstanding our celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the highlights of this, and every Christmas will be the giving and exchanging of gifts. And that is, quite rightly, a highlight of our Christmas celebrations. It’s always nice to receive a gift and it’s even nicer to give a gift to those we know and love because we know that it’s something that makes them happy. And of course, as Christians, the giving and receiving of gifts is something we do as a reminder of the Christmas story. We do it as a reminder of the gifts the Magi brought to Jesus, and perhaps most especially, we do it as a reminder of that greatest of all gifts of Christmas, God’s giving to us his Son to lead us into the fulness of life; earthly life lived according to God’s own truth, and eternal life lived with God in his heavenly kingdom.

But having said how nice it is to receive gifts, I’m sure that, at times, we’ve all received a gift, or gifts, that have made us think, or perhaps even say,

“Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.”

Because we do, at times receive gifts that we don’t particularly need, or perhaps really want, or gifts that we’re not even sure are really for, don’t we? That’s not to say we’re ungrateful for these gifts, we probably are grateful to receive them, it’s just that we’re not really sure what use we can put them to.

I have met people over the years who are ungrateful in situations like this. I’ve met people who have opened presents and actually said something along the lines of,

“What am I supposed to do with this? I’ve got no use for it; I might as well give it back to you or put it in the bin.”

That kind of response to receiving a gift obviously says much more about the person who received it than the one who gave it, doesn’t it? It doesn’t so much speak about their ingratitude and insensitivity towards others, as shouts it from the rooftops. But isn’t it a fact that most people treat the greatest Christmas gift of all, God’s gift to us of his Son, in just these ways?

In our readings this, and every Christmas, we hear the song of the angels,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

We know from the Gospels that for God to be pleased with us, for his favour to rest on us, as other translations say, we must believe in the one whom he sent, his Son, Jesus Christ.

In other words, to enjoy the benefits of the great gift God has given us, we have to accept his gift with thankfulness and joy. We have to accept God’s gift as something we really need and want. And we have to accept it as something we can put to use in our lives. But how many people don’t accept God’s gift in this way? How many people won’t accept God’s gift at all and say, if not in words then certainly in deeds,

“What use is this to me? I don’t need it, I don’t want it; for all the good it is to me, you might as well not have bothered.”

And how many people, whilst they don’t reject God’s gift out of hand, only receive it in a half-hearted way, people who perhaps aren’t really sure that they either want or need it in their lives, but who’ll accept it any way, just in case it does come in for something, sometime? People who, to all intents and purposes, say of God’s gift,

“Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.”

But when we think about this great gift that God has given us, we have to remember whose thought it is that we’re talking about. It’s God who thought that we needed this great gift, and as Scripture tells us, God knows us better than we know ourselves. So if we think we don’t need God’s gift, it’s not God’s thinking that’s at fault but our understanding of what’s needful that’s wrong. If we don’t want God’s gift, it’s not God’s thinking that’s at fault but rather, it’s us who want the wrong things. And if people refuse to accept God’s gift, it’s not God who’s at fault for giving it, the fault lies in the ingratitude of those who refuse it.

And all this is true because, if we think about the gift God has given us, we can’t doubt that it is the greatest gift that any of us have ever received. The gift is God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and he was given to us to lead us to God. But it seems that many people don’t want to be led to God, they’d much rather be left alone to make their own way through life, wherever that may lead them in the end. Jesus was given to us to show us how to live so that we can enjoy the benefits of God’s great gift. But it seems that many people don’t want to be shown how to live, they’d much rather adopt an ‘It’s my life and I’ll live it as I choose’ attitude and approach to life, regardless of the harm that may do to them and to others. And Jesus was given to us to teach us God’s own truth. But it seems that many people don’t want to listen to any truth but their own, regardless of the consequences of that for themselves, their neighbours and the world.

And there are consequences, dire consequences for us, our neighbours and the world if we won’t accept God’s gift or don’t use it. We only have to look at the world around us, and what does go on, and is going on in the world to see that.

God’s gave his Son to us on that first Christmas Day to show us a better way. God’s gift was to give us the means to live in peace, both with him and with one another through following the teaching and example of his Son, his Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. And he gave us this gift, not as people often give gifts, so that they’ll receive a gift in return, but simply to make us happy, simply because he loves us. And that, in essence is what God’s gift of his Son at Christmas is; the gift of his love.

God’s gift to us at Christmas is the gift of his love for us, made visible in human flesh. It’s a gift that shows us the nature of God’s love for us, a self-giving, self-sacrificing love that thinks and asks nothing for itself, but thinks only of love’s recipient. It’s a gift that shows the depth of God’s love for us, the love of a God who is the creator and ruler of all things and yet who would stoop to come to us in the humblest of ways; to live as one of us and to die for us and, in the process, to show us what it really means to love and to show and give love.

As we look at the world around us, whether the world thinks it or not, what could be more needful to the world than this gift of love? Whether the world realises it or not, what is more wanted by the people of the world than this gift of love? And whether the world wants to accept it or not, what gift could be more acceptable than this gift of knowing what love is and understanding how to show love ourselves; how to give love to others and how to receive it from others? How much better and happier a place might the world be if only more people would accept and use this great gift that God has given us?

Our Advent preparations for Christmas have been, and always are, about self-examination in the light of Christ’s teaching and example. Advent has been a time to look at ourselves in the light of Christ to see how we might need to amend our lives so that we can be more like him. We could say then that our Advent preparations have been about looking at ourselves to see the extent to which we’ve welcomed and received God’s great gift of his Son. They’ve been about looking at ourselves to see to what extent we’ve understood our need of this gift and have wanted it in our lives.

They’ve been about looking at ourselves to see to what extent and how well we’ve used God’s great gift in our lives. We could say that our Advent preparations for Christmas have been about looking at ourselves to see just how loving we are.

Now that Christmas is here once again our preparations are over so let’s take time out to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and to give thanks to God for this great gift of love that he’s given us. But let’s not forget what we may have learned through our Advent preparations and let’s try to show our gratitude to God for his gift by accepting it, not in a half-hearted,

“Oh well, It’s the thought that counts.”

kind of way, but fully, thankfully and joyfully as something we both know our need of and truly want. And let’s show that by trying to give in our lives just a little more of the love towards one another that God gave to us in the gift of his Son at Christmas.

Amen.

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The Propers for The Nativity of the Lord, 24th and 25th December can be viewed here.

In my sermon on the first Sunday of Advent, I spoke about three people whom I called ‘the great figures of Advent’, the prophet Isaiah, the Blessed Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. I said then that, during Advent, we’d hear from and about all three of these people as we’re called to prepare for the coming of Christmas, the celebration of our Lord’s Incarnation, and as we look forward to his return in glory. And so we have. But today we heard about another person who’s central to the story of our Lord’s Incarnation, but one who’s often somewhat overshadowed by the others and can be overlooked because of that. And that person is Joseph.

We might not read so much about Joseph in the Scriptures as we do about the other three, but I don’t think there can be much doubt that he was chosen by God to fulfil the role he played in the story of our Lord’s Incarnation just as were Isaiah, Mary and John chosen to fulfil their roles in the story. Because what if Joseph had been a different sort of man, a man who’d acted differently than he actually did?

Our Gospel reading this morning tells us that Joseph was unwilling to make a public example of Mary, but what if he’d been so upset, so angry when he found out that Mary was pregnant with a child that wasn’t his, that he’d decided to make a fuss, to go public and divorce her? Mary could have been stoned to death and that would have been the end of the story almost before it had begun wouldn’t it? Even if Mary hadn’t been put to death for adultery, she probably wouldn’t have gone to Bethlehem to give birth, why would she? It was Joseph who was of David’s line, he was the one who had to go to Bethlehem for the census. We’re not told that of Mary herself, and how then would the Scriptures have been fulfilled that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem?

But we’re told that Joseph was a righteous man, in other words, he was a man who did what was right in God’s eyes. As such he was a man who would have feared the Lord, a man of wisdom who knew the right thing to do and wasn’t afraid to do it, regardless of what others thought. And so, Joseph considered what the right thing to do in this case was, and as he did, an angel appeared to him bringing a message from God telling him to take Mary as his wife because her child was of the Hoy Spirit. And Joseph, being a righteous man who feared the Lord, did what God wanted him to do, just as Mary had done when the angel visited her with a message from God.

We can see in this story, the story of a woman and a man doing what God asked them to do, the story of Adam and Eve brought full circle.

When we speak about the story of Adam and Eve, we often speak about it as the Fall of Man, or Adam’s Fall don’t we? We say that it was through Adam that sin entered the world. That’s fine so long as we remember that Adam means man in a general way rather than thinking of Adam as an individual person. But if we think about this story as the story of two individual people, the first human beings, who actually committed the first sin? It wasn’t the man, Adam, but the woman, Eve. It’s Eve who commits the first deliberate act of disobedience towards God, the first sin. Eve eats the forbidden fruit, and then offers some to Adam who also eats, and sin and death enter the world.

The Church often speaks of Mary as the second Eve, by which we mean that through her obedience to God, Eve’s disobedience was undone. But Joseph played his part in undoing that disobedience too because his obedience to God, his willingness to join Mary in her obedience, is crucial to the story of our Lord’s Incarnation. We could say that, as Mary’s obedience counteracted Eve’s disobedience, Joseph’s obedience counteracted Adam’s disobedience. In both cases, the woman acted first and the man followed. And so, just as through the joint disobedience of Eve and Adam, sin and death entered the world, through the joint obedience of Mary and Joseph, the forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life, was allowed to enter the world.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hearing from and about these great figures of Advent and what we’ve been hearing all falls under the central theme of Advent which is to Wake up! To get ready and be ready to meet and greet the Lord when he returns. To stay awake, so that we’re always ready for the Lord because we don’t know when he will return, and it could be at any time. This is what we see in Isaiah, Mary, Joseph and John. None of them knew that the Lord would enter their lives when he did, nor in the way he did, but because they were righteous people, people who feared the Lord and who looked to do his will in their lives, they were ready when they did meet him and so they were able to do what he asked them to do.

We could say that the great message, and the great challenge for us during Advent, is to make sure that we’re like these people. Or perhaps that we’re less like Adam and Eve, and more like Mary and Joseph. If we remember the story in Genesis, Adam and Eve weren’t ready to meet the Lord when he came looking for them in the garden, and so they hid themselves from him.

Mary and Joseph, on the other hand, were ready to meet the Lord when he entered their lives. They didn’t try to hide or run away, no matter how unexpected or frightening that was when it happened, and no matter how troubling and dangerous the message they were given was. And so they were able to do what God asked of them.

So as we look at ourselves and our lives, to whom do we most compare, Adam and Eve, or Mary and Joseph? The truth is that we’re all a mixture of the two, but who are we most like? Sadly, I think we can be a lot more like Adam and Eve than we might want to think or admit. None of us are truly obedient to God in our lives. We all sin, and encourage others to sin, to be disobedient towards God; we do that merely by being sinful ourselves. And we’re all too easily swayed to be disobedient towards God by others.

One of the things I’ve spoken several times about during Advent is church attendance and the need for people who say they’re Christians to show that by coming to church regularly. And yet one of the most common ways we show ourselves to be like Adam and Eve is through our attendance at church, or rather the lack of it.

It’s Christ’s own example to worship God on the Sabbath and so it should be our practice too. In the Eucharistic Prayer which we pray at every Eucharist, we speak about our worship of God as  ‘our duty and service’ to God, as our ‘spiritual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving’ to God for all he does and has done for us. And yet, when it come to actually performing that duty and offering something back to God for all he does and has done for us, how many people prefer to do something else instead, or think something else is more important? Just think of the reasons people often give for not coming to church. The service is too early (or too late). It’s too cold, it’s too dark; I’ve got to walk the dog, feed the neighbour’s cat, water the neighbour’s plants (and yes, I have been told that on more than one occasion as a reason why someone couldn’t come to church). And then there’s the very common one around this time of year, I can’t come because I have to wait in for a delivery.

Or we hear things like, I’ve got into this story on Eastenders, or Coronation Street, or Emmerdale, or whichever soap it might be, and I don’t want to miss how it ends. I can’t come because United (or City) are playing and it’s on the tele. I won’t have time because I’m going out later and I need to get ready (and yes, I’ve heard that one more than once too). 

And we can so easily encourage other people, to do these things, and be so easily swayed into doing them ourselves. For example, on a pre-ordination visit to the parish where I was going to serve my first curacy, I overheard a conversation between a couple of ladies. They were talking about whether to go to my ordination service at Blackburn Cathedral the following Saturday morning and the conversation went like this.

“Are you going to that service at the cathedral next Saturday?”

“I don’t know. Are you?”

“No, I’m not going. I’m going to a band concert on Saturday night. I’m not going to a service at the cathedral on Saturday morning as well.”

“Oh. Well I was going to go with you.”

“Well I’m not going.”

“Oh well, if you’re not going, I’m not going either.”

We might not think these things matter because, after all, if we don’t go to church it’s only 1 or 2 people not going. But they do matter. They matter because if people see Christians not going to church for these reasons, why should they think that going to church is in any way important. If Christians won’t go to church if it’s early or late or cold or dark, why should anyone else? If the dog, the neighbour’s cat and plants, waiting in for a delivery, what’s on the television, or getting ready to go out partying are all more important than worshipping God to Christians, why should anyone else think it’s important to worship God?

These things matter because they can have a very, very detrimental effect on the Church. Many people will remember, I’m sure, when Evensong was sung in every parish church, every Sunday. These days, it’s hardly ever sung in any parish church and the blame for the demise of Sunday Evensong has been laid squarely at the feet of a television programme, The Forsythe Saga. That programme was first shown on Saturday evenings in 1967, but when it was repeated on Sunday evenings in 1968-9, congregations at Evensong were decimated because people stayed in to watch The Forsythe Saga rather than going to church. And, in the vast majority of parishes, those congregations never recovered and neither has the tradition of Sunday Evensong in the Church of England.

But this is just one of the ways we can be more like Adam and Eve than like Mary and Joseph. If we think about our lives honestly, I’m sure we can all think of many ways in which we disobey God because it’s easier than being obedient to him.

I’m sure we can all think of ways in which we’re unfaithful to God because being faithful means putting him first and our own pleasure second. And I’m sure we can all think of ways in which we’ve encouraged others to be disobedient and unfaithful by excusing disobedience and unfaithfulness in ourselves in their presence.

The Advent message and challenge is to Wake up! To be ready to meet the Lord when he comes, whenever that might be. What would we do if the Lord were to suddenly come into our lives? Would we, like Isaiah, say “Here am I, send me.” Or would we say,” Sorry, I’ve got something else to do, can’t someone else do it?” Would we, like Mary, say, “Let it be to me according to your word.” Or would we say, “That sounds a difficult and dangerous, can’t you make it a bit easier? I’ll do it then.” Would we, like Joseph, do the right thing regardless of the consequences for us, or would we do what was easiest and most convenient for us, regardless of the consequences for others? Would we, like John, born into a priestly family, give up a life of comfort to be about God’s business, or would we only be prepared to do God’s will so long as we could do it when and where we want to, and so long as it doesn’t interfere with our everyday lives?

Amen.     

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The Propers for Advent 4 can be viewed here.