‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’ Luke 2:11
Brothers and sisters, growing up MY family had dogs, Cocker Spaniels to be precise. We had the first when I was tiny, a black and white dog, called William, and when he died, at the age of 11 we had a Blue Roan called Jed. All in all, we had a spaniel for my entire childhood, and as a result, I know dogs pretty well. In fact it has been said, that I get on best with dogs and toddlers…same mentality I reckon! One of the funny things about dogs is the way they look at your finger when you point. They don’t look at what you’re pointing at, they’re entirely distracted by your finger. They will watch it, smell it and lick it, and never look at where you’re pointing; they’re completely focused on the sign, instead of what the sign is pointing to! At Christmas we can be a lot like a Cocker Spaniel. We can easily get distracted by the signs and not look to where the sign is pointing. After all it is easy to get distracted at Christmas. There is shopping, and wrapping, and cooking, and visiting, and, of course, the obligatory nativity play. Now as a priest I go to a lot of nativity plays, and I love them; and if there is one thing you can almost guarantee at a nativity play, is that the lime light will be stolen by one of the lesser characters! At some point the donkey gets lost, or the wiseman starts dancing, or the inn keeper insists on shouting his one line. Nativity plays are hilarious, I love them, but we almost certainly miss the point every single time.
Now, if you were to visit Britain from another planet and looked at what we celebrate throughout the year and how we celebrate it I’m pretty certain that the alien would come to the conclusion that Christmas was the most important event of the year; and I think they would assume that Jesus’ birth was the most important part of the Christian story. So it might come as some surprise—I guess—when we open up the stories of Jesus’ life and see what coverage the writers of the Gospels give to the story. In Luke’s Gospel—the story we’re looking at this evening—his book is made up of roughly a thousand paragraphs of which Luke devotes exactly one to the nativity story, and that one is just seven verses. There is no donkey, no other animals, just Mary and Joseph and the new baby. For nativity fans it’s a bit of an anti-climax. However, the stripped back version—which Luke gives us—at least means we’re not distracted by the signs, no unnecessary characters just the birth of the baby. Imagine tomorrow morning for a second, imagine you go down downstairs, and under the tree is a massive present with your name on it. The family are dead excited as they pull it out for you to unwrap, they’ve been planning this for ages! You unwrap it with glee, but once you’ve got the wrapping off you start playing with the wrapping paper and running around screaming and shouting made up, that you’ve got some wrapping paper! Sometimes—maybe most of the time—that’s what we all do with Christmas; we focus on the signs—the inn keeper shouting his line, the wrapping paper and the Christmas turkey—and forget that they are meant to be pointing us to something, or rather someone, they’re meant to be pointing us to Jesus! As we begin to celebrate Christmas 2022 can I urge you not to be a Cocker Spaniel, not to get distracted by the sign, but to look instead at who the whole Christmas story is pointing to; look instead at Jesus.
Now, the Christmas holidays are often a time for films, and one of my favourites is ‘Batman Begins’. Towards the end, Batman is driving in his very impressive Batmobile, and the police think they have him cornered on the roof of a multi-storey car park. But that’s no problem for Bruce Wayne, and as he jumps the bat mobile off the roof on to the building opposite one of his pursuers cries out ‘Who is this guy?!’ Maybe you are wondering something similar as we talk about this baby. Why do we keep talking about His birth? Why replay it every year. Babies are born all the time, why not pick a different birth story, if we have to talk about babies at all. ‘Who is this guy?’ Well that is the focus of the next paragraph, and for Luke, this paragraph must be at least as important as the birth story because he gives it seven verses too! In these verses we also have some of the famous nativity characters. The shepherds are there in their tea towels, and most importantly there are angels. Now, when you read about angels don’t think about cute little girls looking all… well angelic! In the bible every angel has a masculine name and every time they show up they have to keep saying ‘Do not be afraid’. The angels, who—despite their words—clearly have put the fear of God in to the shepherds, give us the answer to our question: Who is this guy? v11: ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’ Well, now we’re starting to get somewhere! In this tiny baby, we have someone more powerful and more significant even than Batman; and more to the important one who actually existed. He is called Saviour and Messiah, so He has come to save people. This baby has come—and we find out in John’s Gospel, that He decided to come—to rescue you and me. Rescue us from everything we’ve done wrong; rescue us from war and famine; rescue us from cost of living crises and pandemics. This baby has come to save—not just the people of one City—but the people of the whole world, not just back then, but forever. ‘Well’ you say ‘it doesn’t seem to be going so well, does it?!’ And this is where the Cocker Spaniels come back in; it isn’t going very well because we’ve been focusing on the sign and not who the sign points to. We’ve been watching the finger instead of looking where the finger points, to Jesus. Jesus has come to save us but we’ve been distracted by the wrapping paper. Jesus has come to guide us but we’ve been too busy eating turkey and watching Batman films. Jesus is the Saviour of the world, and He wants everyone to realise this for themselves and choose to follow Him; and so He is waiting in hope that through the witness of His Church many more might unwrap the gift this year and not focus on the wrapping. Only when enough people are following Him, will Jesus finally return and do away with war, famine, and pandemics… He is waiting, because when He does return that will be the end of the story and it will be too late to choose His side. Jesus has come for you and longs for you to choose Him. Choosing Him begins with a simple heartfelt prayer, asking Jesus to come into your life and continues in the greatest adventure you will ever undertake. This year as we celebrate Christmas let’s do it right, and not like cocker spaniels. Let’s resist getting distracted , and focus on who the signs are pointing to, not the donkey, the wisemen, or even the shepherds, this year it’s time to focus on Jesus. Amen. (from Fr Mike).
All Saints Church Chorley 