What do you really want for Christmas?
Story of the three ambassadors …
I think deep within many of us there is a sense that we are empty, and we long to be filled.
Maybe we cry out for love, for a friend, for a particular person who we have lost and their going has left us empty; maybe we cry out for a world we have lost, for our home country; maybe we cry out for meaning, for significance, to know that we matter; maybe we cry for freedom – freedom from fear, from pain; maybe we cry out for another world, a world that we hear rumours of – that seems so close, especially at Christmas, but that is still beyond reach. Maybe we cry out because we long that there is someone out there who knows us, will hear us and listen to us and who will fill us.
When Mary was told by the angel that she was going to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, she breaks out in a song of praise
She declares the greatness of God who does great things for those who fear him, put their trust in his word.
She speaks of how he will cast down the proud who, ‘in the imagination of their hearts’ think that they are seated on high – and of how he will lift up the lowly who trust in him.
She speaks of how he will empty those who are full, but fill with good things those who know that they are empty.
“He will fill the hungry with good things, but the rich he will send empty away”.
The amazing story of Christmas is that God voluntarily chooses to become empty so that we might be filled.
Paul – one of the very first Christian missionaries and ministers - reflecting on the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus wrote, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich”. 2 Corinthians 8:9
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, emptied himself of power, of wealth, of glory – and he became a human baby: in complete powerlessness and dependence on his parents and other people.
He was in a great neighbourhood, the best, sharing the radiance of ‘the beauty of holiness’, in intimacy with his Father in heaven, but he emptied himself and chose to move into a rebel world that was lost and floundering in the darkness of sin and evil.
He was beyond all passion, in a state of what we can only describe as eternal joy and peace and fullness, and he chose to empty himself and to come and live in a world where he would suffer: where he would experience tiredness, sickness, disappointment, hunger and thirst, grief and immense pain, probably more pain than any of us here have ever or – thank God – will ever experience.
He was beyond time but chose to be born in time and become subject to time, to change, to decay and ultimately to death.
Three reasons
1. Jesus, the eternal son of God, in his love for us, emptied himself for us in order to identify himself with us.
And so he comes to us not only as our creator and as our Lord and ruler, but as one of us, as our friend. He shares our humanity, our temptations and our struggles.
We have just sung:
“He was little, weak and helpless;
Tears and smiles like us he knew”
He shared our birth; he lived our life and, on the cross, he died our death.
There is a Ugandan Christmas prayer:
“Blessed are you, O Christ child, that your cradle was so low
That shepherds poorest and simplest of earthly people
Could yet kneel beside you and look, level-eyed
Into the face of God”
He empties himself in order to identify himself with us. There is one who does know and who does understand.
2. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, in his love empties himself and comes to us in order to invite us to turn to God
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and ate the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed and tried to hide from God.
And ever since then we’ve been trying to hide from God, or – more to the point – we’re like a two year old, shutting our eyes, and thinking that because we can’t see God, he can’t see us. We pretend that he does not exist.
We’ve become like ostriches
God in his love and mercy has come to us and invited us to open our eyes and turn back to him.
But we continue to bury our head in the sands and pretend that God did not exist.
So God – you can imagine the council up in heaven. God is saying, “I’ve done everything. I’ve sent my messengers: Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jonah, John the Baptist. I’ve given them my promises and my word. I’ve blessed them when they have begun to turn to me. I’ve punished them when they’ve run from me. I’ve shared my broken heart for them. But they still will not turn to me.
There is only one thing I can do. I will send my only beloved Son, who shares my heart and will, who speaks for me, acts for me, and he will become like one of them and live with them and speak to them – not through the written words of the bible or the spoken words of the prophets and preachers – but personally, face to face. Maybe they will listen to him".
And so Jesus, Immanuel – which means God with us - came.
He does not ask us at the beginning to put our trust in the god of the philosophers, in an unseen God. He does not ask us to put our trust in the institution of the Church, let alone the Church of England. All that he asks is that we simply listen to Jesus, and then put our trust in him: to believe that he is who he claims to be, God with us, and to come to him.
And as we turn to him, we discover that we have come to God.
“But to all who received him (Jesus), who put their trust in his name, he gave power to become children of God”. (John 1:12)
3. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, in his love for us, empties himself in order that he might fill the empty with good things.
We have just heard read those words from the bible: “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)
And later Jesus says, ‘I am the water of life. If you are thirsty, come to me and I will satisfy you’
‘I am the bread of life. If you are hungry – hungry for love, for forgiveness, for authenticity, for meaning, for fulfilment, for a new world – come to me and I will fill you’
It is as if he is the jug and we are the glasses. We are empty until he fills us.
I am not saying that if you become a follower of Jesus, you will never again know emptiness, loneliness, or pain.
Indeed, Jesus himself says that those who follow him will need to follow him on the road to the cross.
He may empty us of our possessions. I think of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. Jesus told him to sell everything that he had and give to the poor and come and follow him. Often it is the trust that we put in our possessions or money that prevent us from seeing that he is the only one who can be truly trusted.
And there will be times when the people we love and trust will be taken away from us – in time – and it is then, in the darkness, that we can begin to learn to put our trust in him, and begin to see those we love in a very different light: in the light of the eternal love of God. They were never really ours; they were His precious gift of love to us; they remain in his love and we pray that one day we will be united with them – but then it will be very different because everything will be centred on him.
He may empty us of our health – possibly the most difficult of all because it is hard to think straight when you are in pain. That can shake everything, certainly the way we take life for granted. But as someone said: when you have to lie on your back you are forced to look up.
He may empty us of our dreams – maybe of success and fame and wealth and influence – in order to give us a new dream: of another world, of his kingdom, of holiness, heaven and communion with God.
Last year I had the privilege of serving as the Prior of the Community of St Anselm, a community set up by Archbishop Justin and based at Lambeth Palace. I know that he has not had the best press in the last few weeks, but this has been one of his most outstanding achievements. The Community was formed of a group of young people from all over the world who came together to live with a rule of life for just one year. The final rule is the welcoming of the way of descents. It is based on the monastic idea that we first need to welcome the ways that God empties us of the things of this world, if we really wish to discover what it is to be filled by God with the things of God.
So what do we really want for Christmas?
The Christmas message is that
1. The eternal Son of God emptied himself and came to us, and for a while lived as one of us. He identified himself with us.
There really is someone out there who knows, who cares and who is listening to us.
2. The story of the birth at Bethlehem tells us that because he emptied himself, we can come to Jesus and be filled.
He is the one who can finally and fully satisfy all our deepest longings.
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