The Gift of Dignity at Christmas. A carol service talk 2005
In Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi’s Adoration of the Magi, a rather chubby baby Jesus sits on Mary’s lap and blesses the wise man who kneels at his feet.
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| Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1440/1460 |
I don’t think it was like that.
Not because the wise men were not blessed by coming to Jesus, nor because it requires a rather unimaginable precociousness for the baby to raise his hand (but then we speak of a virgin birth, so anything could happen!), but because at the heart of the Christmas story, God really does become one of us and makes himself vulnerable.
The newborn Jesus was just like any other newborn baby: unable even to hold up his own head. He was totally dependent on Mary and Joseph.
That is astonishing. God, who is all those omni-words: omni-present, omni-potent, omni-scient, who lacks nothing and needs nothing, chooses to become a helpless baby.
George Macdonald wrote:
“They all were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high.
He came a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.”
And in choosing to become a human baby God shows his extraordinary love for us, and gives to us a huge dignity
1. He gives us dignity because, in his love for us, he became one of us.
Because the Son of God becomes a human baby, he gives dignity to all babies.
Because he becomes a human being, he gives dignity to all people.
Each person is precious - not just because we have been created by God, and he is our ultimate source - but because God became part of his creation as a person.
Gregory of Nazianzus (C4th), ‘He takes on what is ours, that he may give us what is his’.
In 1262 Ladislaus, who became Ladislaus IV of Hungary, was the son of King Stephen V of Hungary and a Cuman princess. The Cumans were despised - treated as uncivilised, unreliable, half-pagan outsiders. But as Ladislaus grew older, he deliberately identified with the Cumans. He lived among them, dressed in their clothes, wore his hair in their style, and chose Cuman companions and advisers. He did not merely protect them, he because recognisably Cuman.
And for a time, his identification with them raised their status. He gave them dignity.
Hungarian chroniclers have judged him harshly as a weak king, unorthodox Christian and politically naive. He was assassinated at the age of 28, ironically by his Cuman retainers. He was no Christ figure, but he was someone who gave dignity to a people by becoming one of them.
2. God gives us dignity because, by making himself little, he makes himself dependent on our response.
St Ephrem the Syrian, a Christian poet of the C4th, wrote some of the first know Christmas carols (well, they were hymns). One verse goes,
He came to us in humility,
so that we might come to him in love.
He did not frighten us by his majesty,
nor overwhelm us by his glory;
instead, he came gently,
that we might draw near without fear.
That is what we see at Christmas. God became a baby who could be ignored, rejected as a threat to people’s autonomy (as he was by King Herod) or welcomed and loved (as he was by Mary and Joseph).
As Jesus grew up, he brought God to people in his teaching and action and presence, but he could still be ignored, rejected or loved. “He does not come to frighten us into obedience, but to awaken us to trust.” (Thielicke)
As he walked to the cross, beaten and shamed, people could ignore him - one more innocent or guilty victim of a dodgy judicial system (who knows or who cares?), reject him - they could join in the accusation and mockery, or love him.
Even today, we can still encounter him in the bible, in his people (with all our inconsistencies and flaws), in moments when heaven is opened to us - and we can still ignore him, reject him or seek to love him.
As our reading from John says, ‘But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’.
Not because the wise men were not blessed by coming to Jesus, nor because it requires a rather unimaginable precociousness for the baby to raise his hand (but then we speak of a virgin birth, so anything could happen!), but because at the heart of the Christmas story, God really does become one of us and makes himself vulnerable.
The newborn Jesus was just like any other newborn baby: unable even to hold up his own head. He was totally dependent on Mary and Joseph.
That is astonishing. God, who is all those omni-words: omni-present, omni-potent, omni-scient, who lacks nothing and needs nothing, chooses to become a helpless baby.
George Macdonald wrote:
“They all were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high.
He came a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.”
And in choosing to become a human baby God shows his extraordinary love for us, and gives to us a huge dignity
1. He gives us dignity because, in his love for us, he became one of us.
Because the Son of God becomes a human baby, he gives dignity to all babies.
Because he becomes a human being, he gives dignity to all people.
Each person is precious - not just because we have been created by God, and he is our ultimate source - but because God became part of his creation as a person.
Gregory of Nazianzus (C4th), ‘He takes on what is ours, that he may give us what is his’.
In 1262 Ladislaus, who became Ladislaus IV of Hungary, was the son of King Stephen V of Hungary and a Cuman princess. The Cumans were despised - treated as uncivilised, unreliable, half-pagan outsiders. But as Ladislaus grew older, he deliberately identified with the Cumans. He lived among them, dressed in their clothes, wore his hair in their style, and chose Cuman companions and advisers. He did not merely protect them, he because recognisably Cuman.
And for a time, his identification with them raised their status. He gave them dignity.
Hungarian chroniclers have judged him harshly as a weak king, unorthodox Christian and politically naive. He was assassinated at the age of 28, ironically by his Cuman retainers. He was no Christ figure, but he was someone who gave dignity to a people by becoming one of them.
2. God gives us dignity because, by making himself little, he makes himself dependent on our response.
St Ephrem the Syrian, a Christian poet of the C4th, wrote some of the first know Christmas carols (well, they were hymns). One verse goes,
He came to us in humility,
so that we might come to him in love.
He did not frighten us by his majesty,
nor overwhelm us by his glory;
instead, he came gently,
that we might draw near without fear.
That is what we see at Christmas. God became a baby who could be ignored, rejected as a threat to people’s autonomy (as he was by King Herod) or welcomed and loved (as he was by Mary and Joseph).
As Jesus grew up, he brought God to people in his teaching and action and presence, but he could still be ignored, rejected or loved. “He does not come to frighten us into obedience, but to awaken us to trust.” (Thielicke)
As he walked to the cross, beaten and shamed, people could ignore him - one more innocent or guilty victim of a dodgy judicial system (who knows or who cares?), reject him - they could join in the accusation and mockery, or love him.
Even today, we can still encounter him in the bible, in his people (with all our inconsistencies and flaws), in moments when heaven is opened to us - and we can still ignore him, reject him or seek to love him.
As our reading from John says, ‘But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God’.
We are told that there is joy in heaven when one sinner repents and turns back to God. But that means that there is an overwhelming sadness in heaven when we walk away from God, turn our back to him, and go our own way.
God, in his love for us, does not do what many people ask him to do: to show that he exists with an undeniable show of his glory and power. Instead he empties himself and comes as a human baby, laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths. He does not need to, but in love he opens himself to us and makes himself vulnerable to us.
And in giving us that choice, God gives us dignity
My prayer is that this Christmas you will know the love of God which gives us dignity, and that by choosing to open yourself to receive his love and to love him, and to become vulnerable before him and others, you will know his peace and his blessing.
And my prayer is that as we turn to him, as we receive him, we will be filled with joy on earth and that we will bring great joy in heaven.
God, in his love for us, does not do what many people ask him to do: to show that he exists with an undeniable show of his glory and power. Instead he empties himself and comes as a human baby, laid in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths. He does not need to, but in love he opens himself to us and makes himself vulnerable to us.
And in giving us that choice, God gives us dignity
My prayer is that this Christmas you will know the love of God which gives us dignity, and that by choosing to open yourself to receive his love and to love him, and to become vulnerable before him and others, you will know his peace and his blessing.
And my prayer is that as we turn to him, as we receive him, we will be filled with joy on earth and that we will bring great joy in heaven.
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