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| Pranas Domšaitis – Nativity Scene |
A sermon given during the Sung Eucharist at St George’s Bloomsbury on Saturday 25th December 2021 (Christmas Day) based on readings from Isaiah 52.7-10, Psalm 98, John 1.1-14 (Year 3, Set III).
There’s something infectious about singing. No, not the latest government
mandate about the latest Covid variant - singing infects us with joy!
The
prophet Isaiah assures his exiled people that God reigns and that he will be
victorious; that God is Saviour and Comforter. This Good News sets off a chain
reaction of melody. The sentinels keeping watch lift up their voices - then the
ruins of Jerusalem burst into joyous song.
The
psalmist explains that the whole earth joins this fantastic flashmob, creating
a brand new song with voice and harp, trumpets and horn. A domino-effect of
divine praise. The sea thunders, the rivers clap their hands and the hills ring
out together all praising the Lord, the King.
There
are times when joy is best expressed in song. We just can’t help it. How
fortunate we are this Christmas Day to be able to sing together indoors. Our voices here joining
with our brothers and sisters at home and across all the nations of the world
and with the angels and all the citizens of heaven above to sing praise and
glory to the newborn King.
An
organist friend of mine maintains that Christmas has only truly arrived once he
plays O Come All Ye Faithful. Specifically, when he reaches the chord in the
David Willcocks arrangement of the carol at the start the last line of the
final verse: “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing”. It’s an unexpectedly
jazzy chord; beautiful, but slightly dissonant - a yearning sound - something
that you know is going to lead somewhere; rooted in the familiar but filled
with the promise of change and transformation.
Some
musicologists have argued that this chord - which also appears in several other
popular Christmas songs - has some sort of special significance. Christmas
itself compressed into a single harmony. Others think they’ve had too much
sherry trifle!
The
pandemic separated us from familiar routines and patterns of activity and in
the process for some, this opened up new ways of seeing the world. My first
experience of Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere struck a similar chord.
In
the shops, multinational advertising campaigns meant shimmering plastic trees
and foam snowdrifts were displayed in sweltering forty degree heat to the
strains of "in the bleak midwinter".
The
joy of carol singing was just as infectious - but the comedy value of the
mismatched imagery helped to distinguish the “trappings” associated
with Christmas in the northern hemisphere from the reason all nations are
joining in song today.
As
Christmas Day drew closer the highways became full of taxis and trailers
containing writhing masses of limbs of passengers precariously clinging on -
people who must have scrimped and saved all year to pay for such long-distance
transport. People could be seen walking in the streets carrying their
belongings on their heads as they returned home to celebrate; going to
extraordinary lengths to be with one another.
Far
away from home without many of the familiar trappings of Christmas, the words
of John’s Gospel seemed even more startlingly alive; “And the Word became flesh
and lived among us”.
This
is the essence - the radical message of Christmas - the reason for our songs of
praise today.
When
the cosmic scale of God’s unending and eternal love became comprehensible.
Taking on a form not distant and remote; but knowable; taking our nature upon
him; being born as a baby. One who is, as the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us,
“the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very
being.”
One
who came not to laud power over the earth; but to empower all those who hear
his song, to become children of God by adoption and grace.
This
is not just the essence of the story of the life of Jesus, but the essence of
the whole of creation – the essence of my story and yours, past, present and
future. Emmanuel. God is with us.
What
better reason to “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous
things!”
But
what if you think you can’t? Things are too bleak or too dark? Or perhaps you
think you can’t hold a tune?
A friend of mine joining us for Christmas Lunch works at the English National
Opera and has just finished recording a television programme that will be
broadcast on Sky in the new year. Six candidates were selected from over five
hundred applicants, each of whom from different backgrounds but all of whom
were told at some point that they couldn’t sing - so they stopped trying. The
programme reveals the transformative effect of song as they grow in skill and
confidence supported by the ENO’s vocal and performance coaches to show that
“Anyone Can Sing.”
Christmas
is God’s love compressed into a single harmony - rooted in the familiar but
with the promise of change and transformation. Good News that set off a chain
reaction of melody around the world that first Christmas night. A song of love
we discover in the face of each other and in the beauty of creation and one
which we are all invited to sing afresh, together, each day.
Yea,
Lord, we greet thee,
born
this happy morning;
Jesus,
to thee be glory giv’n;
Word
of the Father,
now
in flesh appearing.
O
come, let us adore him;
Christ
the Lord!
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