Readings: Isaiah 9: 2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2: 11-14
Luke 2: 1-20
May I speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
In the words of Noddy Holder its christmas! Did that surprise you?
Christmas can have lots of surprises. For some of us some of the joy comes from planning surprises we hope people we love will like, or from trying to work out how they may surprise us.
Has anyone else spent the last few days feeling the parcels under the tree trying to work out what might be under the bright wrapping paper or is that just me?
But that first Christmas the only ones who might have been expecting something surprising to happen would probably have been Mary and Joseph, certainly not the shepherd's, they would have just been trying to keep warm and keep their sheep safe, out on the hillside. Maybe they could see the lights of Bethlehem and would have been dreaming of being inside, in the warmth with a nice hot drink.
Then suddenly, Wham, bam, the sky's lit up by the angelic host, what a surprise.
We like to think of surprises as nice things, but I think this one might have been slightly terrifying as well. Indeed, Luke tells us that the shepherds were terrified, but they still accept the message of the angels and act on it. Something about the angels must have convinced them to accept and believe what the angels said, and not just assume that there had been some dodgy mushrooms in the stew.
So the shepherds leave their sheep, or most of them, in most depictions of the nativity there always seems to be a few sheep that have come with the shepherds.
They go down into Bethlehem, a town that was stuffed full of families there for the census and in all the chaos and the crowded streets, surprisingly they find the one child, the one family they are looking for.
Mary, who probably just wanted to get some rest in peace and quiet, was probably equally surprised by a bunch of shepherds turning up.
We don’t know what happened to the shepherds after that first surprising Christmas night, but I hope they kept something of the connection they found with God that night with them for the rest of their lives.
God can still act in surprising ways now, in some ways I’m surprised to find myself standing here in the pulpit on Christmas day.
The world into which Jesus was born was, much like the world today, a place of uncertainty and violence. The Jewish people were looking for a leader to come and set them free from Roman oppression.
They looked to the writings of prophets like Isaiah to give them hope that a great leader would come, such a leader is surely going to be born into wealth and power. Someone who can grow learning how to lead and govern wisely. Great leaders aren’t born to a carpenters family from a back water town like Nazareth.
Surprise, says God, that’s exactly whats going to happen, oh and by the way, he wont be that great military leader you are expecting.
But He will change the world.
Isaiah 9 was written at a time when the Israelite people were suffering the consequences of war and occupation. They were feeling like a people living in darkness with no hope.
However the vision Isaiah offers is one of hope, not just that this war will end but that all wars will end, swords will be beaten into ploughshares, to grow food and give life rather than kill.
No matter how deep the darkness, even when we may feel overwhelmed, there will be glimmers of light and hope.
God uses surprises to help us see that anything is possible.
At the end of 2024 peace, especially in the place where the Christ child was born seems more impossible than ever. Yet because of the surprising events that took place there around 2000 years ago we can have hope that not only is peace possible but it will come, and probably in a way that will surprise us.
Surprises even from God don’t always have to be big and involve angels or miracles.
God can and does speak in the stillness and the calm too, in the smaller things of life.
The other week I had had a stressful day at work. As I left work and was walking to the bus stop feeling tired and stressed I looked up and saw a beautiful sunset, and looking at that beauty I felt some of the tiredness and stress fade away and be replaced with a sense of God’s presence with me even in stresses and strains of daily life.
God can surprise you even in the dark streets of Coventry.
In the midst of the tinsel and the wrapping paper, the food and the drink, as we celebrate Christmas, you may find yourself suddenly seeing or hearing something that surprises you and connects you to God.
Pope Francis once said God enters history and does so in his original style- surprise.
The God of surprises always surprises us. The Christmas story is a story of a big surprise, the word becomes flesh, God becomes man, the curtain between heaven and earth is opened.
However, God also surprises us in the small things, a bird singing, a beautiful sunset, the perfect gift.
How will you find the God of surprises surprising you this Christmas?
Amen
