Minster

ACNS 3724 | ENGLAND | 29 DECEMBER 2003

Archbishop of York’s 2003 Christmas Day sermon, York Minster

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John: 1.5)

And it’s the Gospel of St John that declares the real meaning of Christmas – without anywhere giving us an account of the birth of Jesus.

Yes, we are familiar with the angels and the shepherds and the birth of the baby in the outhouse of an inn in Bethlehem, and subsequently with the visit of the wise men – the details of which are to be found in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. Indeed what would Christmas be without them – the cards and the carols and the nativity plays?

In sharp contrast, rather than beginning with the birth of Jesus Christ, John takes us right back to the very beginning – to the birth of creation. The opening words of his Gospel … “In the beginning …” reflect the opening words of the whole Bible – “In the beginning … God”. And in so doing, he signals at once that whilst here in the birth of Jesus Christ is a birth as with every other human birth – the waiting and the anxiety, the expectancy and the exhilaration – here is a birth like no other birth, a birth whose origins are in the beginning and from the beginning of all things – the birth of God with us and among us – Emmanuel.

The God who said right at the very beginning – “let there be light; and there was light” – the brightness of His very being and life flooding that primordial chaotic black darkness, to bring colour and life to a new created world, now himself comes forth and shines forth in Jesus Christ: the one who brings sight to the blind, who opens the ears of the deaf, who heals the sick, who brings the dead to life, who announces that in him God’s kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”.

That image of light shining in the darkness is surely very apposite for our own times. The darkness of war and terrorism stalks our world in many places; where the promise of peace still seems so elusive, even impossible. The road map to peace in the Middle East has so far led nowhere; the armed intervention in Iraq, though resulting in the capture of Saddam Hussein, seems only to have led to more casualties in the peace than in the war; and the recent elections in Northern Ireland appear to have left the Good Friday Agreement even more fragile than at any time in its albeit brief existence.

And if we were to turn our attention to the Church the picture is not much different either, given the past few months of debate over the subject of human sexuality, and where the exchanges have at times been shrill and unrelenting. Many quite outside and beyond the Church have looked on in disbelief, wondering quite what all the fuss is about; and asking whether in so focussing on this one issue (almost to the exclusion of all others) we have not lost sight of more pressing and vital priorities for our world and its peoples. Others within have sought to use their best efforts to promote a more informed and dignified debate on what clearly is a controverted and disputed issue. But a more fundamental question emerges too about our ability to live together, with and in difference, and the extent to how far that is possible given such passionately felt views on this – and for that matter on any other deeply disputed question.

“The light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”.

Today, Christmas Day, is God’s word both of love and of hope – a word of love and hope given to us in the birth of Jesus Christ.

The fact is that we have not been abandoned to the darkness of chaos and disorder. The birth we celebrate this day is ours also. As one Anglican divine put it so well – “Christmas Day is the greatest birthday of the year … it is the birthday of the best hopes of mankind … the birthday of true human dignity … it is the second birthday of the human family”.

We may feel overwhelmed by the dark side, both of world and church, but the clear message of St John is that from the very beginning and until the very end of all things the light of God’s healing hope and love, given us in Jesus Christ, continues to shine. It has not and will not and cannot be overcome by the darkness.

It shines on surely in those who, despite all the setbacks, continue the delicate and precarious business of peacemaking, often at considerable cost to themselves and their lives; in those individuals and groups in both Church and world who amidst differing political and religious ideologies seek to hold the ring – working patiently for a greater understanding and tolerance, respecting (as the Chief Rabbi puts it) the dignity of difference, for the altogether larger goal – namely the effecting and realising of the message of the angels as they announce the birth of the Saviour – “peace on earth and good will among the peoples of the world”.

And constantly, given all the column inches about sex and the Church over these last months, I rather wish there had been as many column inches about the way in which, often in concert with other denominations and other faiths, the Church of England continues faithfully and unswervingly in its worship, witness and service in a variety of places and through very many people – in town and country, in hospitals and hospices, in schools and colleges and universities, in prisons and parishes – and many other settings too.

Just in this last month I have had the privilege and the pleasure of opening two new schools in the Diocese – Church of England Voluntary Aided Schools – one primary the other secondary. Already they are making a difference – for good – beacons of light and hope for so many of our young people.

Similarly I have also opened two new centres contributing significantly to neighbourhood and community renewal in two of our most deprived urban areas, and where it has been the Church which has been at the centre of each of these initiatives – initiatives which are clearly already bringing fresh hope and new life both to the neighbourhoods themselves and more importantly to people young and old.

And then there are the rural communities too – many feeling threatened by a Government which they say simply fails to understand the country way of life and where often the Church is the last remaining “centre” for the whole village and where again I have been invited to celebrate with them the restoration, the renewal, the reordering of their village church, of which quite rightly they are immensely proud.

Here are the many good news stories which through the Church continue to reflect the light and life of Jesus Christ for all – the fulfilment of the Saviour’s own words – “I came that all may have life, life in all its fullness”.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”.

Perhaps, though, the most vivid expression of light shining in darkness came to me when I was in Romania, just six or so weeks ago now, and in the course of visiting a hospice or home for young children with HIV/AIDS and other terminal diseases – a place funded and supported by a charity here in the UK.

There before me in one bed was a little girl about fourteen months old, born with no eyes and with other severe complications. She had been abandoned by her mother who simply could not cope. She will almost certainly die. She may already be dead. But there she was warm, cared for, nourished, held – above all loved – the light and compassion and care of that love which came down at Christmas, and which is God’s eternal and everlasting love given us for ever and always in Jesus Christ whose birth this day we celebrate.

We may often be tempted to despair about the world and the Church – even ourselves; yet this day gives us every reason why we should not – indeed there are signs all around us of individuals, groups, organisations which are not prepared simply to yield to oppression, to poverty, to disease; who are prepared to persevere in the most unlikely and unyielding of situations and circumstances – the dark places of strife and conflict, of war and wounding – thus keeping alive both the hope and the possibility of reconciliation, restoration, of healing and of peace.

Today through God’s grace, given us in both Word and Sacrament here in this Eucharist, we are invigorated afresh and anew both to be and to live out in word and in deed the good news of His kingdom – a kingdom of justice and truth, of uprightness and integrity, of love and of peace – a kingdom which daily we pray may come among us and be among us here on earth as it is in heaven.

May the peace and joy of God’s kingdom be with you and yours this Christmastide. A very happy Christmas to you all.

(c) Dr David Hope

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