1st Lesson : Micah 5.2-5a
2nd Lesson : Hebrews 10.5-10
Gospel : Luke 1.39-45
Elizabeth’s joyful expression of faith in God’s word, and her confident hope for its fulfilment leaps from the page this morning. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of that which was spoken to her by the Lord.
Mary and Elizabeth were living in troubled times. Their little nation could look back to a glorious past, but Judea, Samaria and Galilee were now rather unimportant outposts of the Roman empire, ruled by the ageing Herod the Great, under the supervision of a Roman governor. One of Herod’s vanity projects – and there were many – was the grandiose rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, which bought him favour with nationalist and religious groups, though the latter were scandalised by the Roman eagle which he placed over the entrance. There is no independent evidence for the poll tax which Luke records, nor for the massacre of the innocents, but Herod will have had to raise money for his building programme, and it is generally acknowledged that he suffered throughout his life from depression and paranoia. He is known to have arranged the assassination of various family members, so that a cruel and violent response to the rumour of a royal birth in Bethlehem is not improbable.
The times were out of joint, as Hamlet might have observed. Some fifty or sixty years later, life under the pax Romana was safe enough to allow a Roman citizen like Paul to travel pretty freely around the eastern Mediterranean. But the times still felt out of joint to Paul, who wrote in his letter to the Philippians: You live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern (Phil. 2.15).
Doesn’t that sense of despair feel strangely familiar? The voices of populist nationalism are getting ever louder. Austerity policies at home are bearing down hardest on those least able to cope, the hostile environment towards foreigners is still being entrenched in policy and law, and we are witnessing the continuing erosion of the international institutions on which the peace and prosperity of the last seventy years was built. The debates at Westminster over the past few weeks would beggar belief if they were suggested as the story line for a soap opera. There is plenty of reason to despair about the future.
Returning to our Advent theme, has it ever occurred to you to wonder what the shepherds were talking about before the angel brought them the news of Jesus’ birth? Were they grumbling about the poll tax that had brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem? Were they shaking their heads in disbelief, or even despair, at the goings on of people in power, who seemed to be more interested in their own future than in what might best serve the national interest?
Why did the angel come to that little group of shepherds with the good news? We shall never know of course, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even if some of the shepherds were moaning about the state of their political and economic situation, much as we are tempted to do, perhaps there was at least one who might have said quietly to the others. Yes, yes, I know. The time is out of joint, just as you say. And yet I can’t help calling to mind the promises scattered through our Scriptures, promises of one who would come to rescue and redeem his people, one who would restore our nation, ushering in an era of justice and righteousness and peace. Why, the prophet Micah even thought our own little Bethlehem might be the place from which such a saviour would come. You can laugh at me if you like. I may be wrong. But that’s my hope, and in God’s good time I believe it will come to pass.
Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. Elizabeth believed. Mary believed. Perhaps the shepherds believed. Perhaps that was why each in turn was able to receive the message of good news that the angel brought to them. Perhaps that is how we should prepare to receive the message of the angels this Christmas.
The clouds on our political horizon are undeniably dark, but it was into just such a rotten mess of a world that Jesus was born, to bring light to people who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death (Is 9.1-2). For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given … Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9.6). Unlike Elizabeth, or Mary, or the shepherds, we have seen the fulfilment of these promises, or at least the dawn of their fulfilment in the life of Jesus, and in the pouring out of his life-giving spirit on all who put their trust in him. Now it is for us to hang onto those promises, knowing that the light has shone in the darkness, and the darkness has never quenched it (John 1.5).
When Hamlet perceives that the time is out of joint, he laments: O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right (last lines of Act I, Sc v). The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to carry the burden of responsibility that nearly crushed Hamlet. We are not asked to act alone in seeking to set right a world that is out of joint. As our reading from Hebrews explained, drawing inspiration from Psalm 40, Jesus who came to do his Father’s will, gave his life for us and by doing so abolished the need for any further sacrifices. Accordingly when Paul acknowledges to the Philippians that they live in an age that is twisted out of its true pattern, he can go on to assure them, in the words of the Knox translation, that living in such an age, ‘you shine out, beacons to the world, upholding the message of life’ (Phil 2.15).
As we welcome Flynn by baptism into the family of the church, inviting him to shine as a light in the world, may God grant us all the grace, with Mary and Elizabeth, with Joseph and the shepherds, so to see beyond the darkness that threatens to close around us, that we too may shine as beacons of light in the world, upholding the message of life.
In that spirit we can after all prepare to wish one another a merry Christmas and a happy new year.