Christmas Eve Midnight Mass

Date:24th December 2008

Preacher: Revd Hilary Barber

The maker of the stars and sea became on earth a child for me!

And is it true? And is it true,

this most tremendous tale of all,

seen in a stained glass window hue,

a baby in an ox’s stall?

The maker of the stars and sea

become on earth a child for me?

John Betjamin writing in his poem The Bells of Advent waiting ring. This building, this jewel here in Calderdale, in the heart of Halifax has heard the Christmas story told for over 900 years: in song, through poetry, drama, carol and dance. We know this story because it has been handed down from generation to generation. Yet, we also know that if the story is to survive the present day and into the future, we have to keep on telling the old old story, as the Sankey Moody hymn reminds us, and seek its meaning a fresh year after year.

Christmas is a celebration by the Christian community of the birth of God’s Son Jesus, whom we are told in the Bible, which is the book containing holy texts for the Christian faith, that he was born to a Virgin Mother in a stable, and that all this took place somewhere in the Middle East in Israel, over two thousand years ago.

The significance for Christians, is that they believe that God became human in the person of Jesus, and that God through Jesus, not only created the world and everything in it, but that he fully understands how it feels and what it means to be human. For Jesus, this meant that he was both human and divine.

We are gathered here today, because throughout the history of the world, the story of Jesus, his birth, his life and ministry, his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, have had a profound impact on the lives of individual men, women and children, and have provided moral codes for peoples and nations across the globe. Here our own land is still regarded as being a Christian country, that has at its heart of government, and a presence in every community across the land, Christian principals, which govern the way we make decisions, ethical or otherwise.

Today, we live in Multicultural Britain, which means, more than ever before, we share our inheritance with people of other faith traditions, and that is represented here in Halifax and Calderdale, the largest group coming from Pakistan and of Islamic faith. Whilst the faith communities have their own routes to God, you will soon find they share much in common when it comes to an understanding of the needs of the world and of humanity.

But what does any of this mean for society today?

God became human in the person of Jesus and entered our world, and he continues to meet us daily through Word and Sacrament, and in acts of generosity and kindness performed by human beings towards one another. For us to have any further understanding or depth of the things that God might be concerned with, we have to begin by opening our eyes and ears, and understand what is going on in God’s world, and to reflect upon it.

It is so easy sometimes to talk about the poor, who live on the other side of the world because they don’t impact on our daily life, yet far more challenging to recognise the relative poor that live in our own communities. The gap between the rich and poor grows ever wider, those who have and those who have not.

All this is coming home to roost, as we here in Halifax brace ourselves for the impact of the World Credit crunch, and the buy out of HBOS by the Lloyds bank. Many people will be made redundant in the next year, and these will not be poor people without skills, they will be well educated, highly skilled and motivated, with mortgages to pay and families to look after. Times ahead are going to be tough for many people.

This Christmas gives us the opportunity to think about what we mean when we think about wealth? What is wealth for, and what does it produce?

It seems to me that most people want sustainable wealth in monetary terms, long term stability, jobs for life, the ability to invest for the future. It has also got to have something to do with well being, the health of people and nations, not just obesity but things like equality, human rights, social cohesion, corporate reasonability for the needs of the poor, both at home and abroad. Wealth and poverty are inextricably linked.

The present crises has partially come about because of a lack of accountability: by the financial services, banks in particular; by inter national government de regulation; and by all of us who have bought into the temptation of something for nothing attitude, quick money that grows on trees like fairy gold, obtaining another credit card to pay off the debt on the last one.

We are being encouraged to spend our way out of recession, and many initiatives are being put in place to give us more money in our pockets in order to spend. Yet there is the danger, that this could be seen as the addict returning to the drug they crave for and which got them into this mess in the first place.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, much is written on the subject of repentance. This was because the people of Israel had turned their back on God and were worshipping false Gods, and Jesus was sent to renew the covenant between God and his people. Although there was the beating the breast stuff in there, fundamentally, repentance was meant to be about a new way of thinking things through, a new approach to values and decision making. Economists today are being asked to think about economic impact on the environment and society at large. There is the accusation that we have been worshipping the God’s of materialism and consumerism at the expense of our concerns for the poor and vulnerable of society. Even the Trafford Centre in Manchester has the nick name the Temple of the North West, never a truer word said in jest.

This week 38,000 people who have worked for Woolworths PLC will have had redundancy notices served on them. These people will loose their income, their identity, their daily routines, through no fault of their own. Because of lack of income, some will have their houses repossessed. Yet we know that share holders and board members have enjoyed rich returns for many years, with disregard for the sustainable future of the work force. The productivity of wealth has been taken by a few, and not shared equally or ploughed back into the company. Unemployment is a terrible disease, and its hard to hold on to notions of hope and future, when men and women cannot go out to work, and become powerless in controlling their own lives and destination, relying on the state to hand out in order to survive. The question has to be asked about how wealth is distributed – to the owners of production or some fairer means of shared wealth by the community that created it through the means of production?

Jesus came to challenge the society of his day, which encouraged personal wealth, power and control, to the detriment of people’s and nations. Look at Zimbabwe today, Robert Mugabe has much personal wealth and power, whilst his people die of Cholera. Look at the birth place of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem, and see how the wealth of the Palestinian community has been systematically stripped out of the West Bank and Gaza over many years. People are homeless, without food, running water, education, and health. Yet the State of Israel retains a nuclear defence, the money of which could go towards creating a shared wealth of peace and of the earth’s resources in terms of land and the rebuilding of communities through schools, hospitals, and employment.

This Christmas its time to reflect on what God, through Jesus Christ was, and is still calling the world to be: a place where all people know how it feels to be loved and forgiven, and in return can love and forgive others; a place where people feel included and valued; a place where all can contribute towards the greater good of society – removing barriers of participation and creating a world where all people have equal access to health, education and employment.

What God wants, is for all of us to have a spiritual wealth which is not about material or monetary wealth, but that kind of wealth that comes through faith in him. There has to be a point when even if we believe that we have lost everything in terms of personal wealth, we still retain that sense of joy and happiness in serving God, through Jesus. How do the people of Zimbabwe and the Palestinian community keep going? In just the same way as Christians in Russia, throughout the cold war kept their faith alive, by placing their trust in God, and focusing on spiritual values rather than worldly concepts.

Maybe this credit crunch will provide all of us the opportunity to think again about what is really important about our lives, our communities, and how we spend our wealth - our money, our time, our good health, for the benefit for others, before the greed of ourselves. Can we continue to be bystanders, whilst others in the next street have relatively so little, and whilst our neighbours in Zimbabwe and Palestine continue to suffer? This is a Kiros moment, a window of opportunity for us to have a change of heart, in the way we spend the time that is left to us here on earth, and a chance for true repentance in the way we approach the decisions that govern our lives.

God cannot do everything on his own, he needs partnership with humanity, and it is only together, that people of faith can truly bring about the values and the justice that the Kingdom of God is crying out for, making an experience of heaven part of the present, and not just the future.

I finish with ancient words of St Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

No hands but yours, no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which must look out

Christ’s compassion on the world.

Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless humanity now.

Amen.