Getting lost and losing children at holiday time

William Holman Hunt, ‘The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple’ (1854-1860), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 30 December 2018,

The First Sunday of Christmas.

11 a.m.: United Group Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)

Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert), Co Kerry.

Readings: I Samuel 2: 18-20, 26; Psalm 148; Colossians 3: 12-17; Luke 2: 41-52.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

I wonder whether you were expecting this morning’s Gospel story (Luke 2: 41-52) as our Gospel reading on this, the First Sunday of Christmas?

Perhaps you were expecting another traditional Christmas story, such as:

● the visit of the Shepherds and the naming of Jesus (Luke 2: 15-21)

● the Presentation in the Temple and the encounter with Simeon and Anna (Luke 2: 22-40)

● the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2: 1-12), which we are going to hear next Sunday (6 January 2019)

● or, perhaps the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2: 13-23).

You may even be wondering: Why are we jumping from the story of Jesus’ birth in a stable in Bethlehem on Christmas Day to the story of the teenage Christ who is lost in the Temple on this first Sunday after Christmas?

What happened to the intervening years between the story of the stable and Jesus at the age of 12?

But this story completes the early identification of who Jesus is in Saint Luke’s Gospel. The Angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that her child will be ‘holy’ and will be called the ‘Son of God’ (Luke 1: 35). At the presentation, he is identified as ‘holy’ (Luke 2: 23). Now, in this story, he identifies himself as God’s Son.

In the Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading, parents living in provincial towns go to the Temple to worship and there they find their young sons ministering in the Temple.

But this morning we might ask ourselves where do we find Christ?

Where do we seek him?

Where is God’s Temple, the place where we are found to be truly in communion with God?

And who got lost … the child or the parents?

I still remember with dread how we once lost sight of one of our children on an evening out in Crete over 25 years ago. He was about three or four at the time and was missing only for a few moments. It may have been for only three or four minutes, but the fear and panic that struck us made it feel not like three or four minutes as we searched and shouted out his name, but like an eternity.

Temporary fears seemed to have everlasting consequences that we could not even bear to contemplate in our furtive search. I still remember the horror of that moment, it was so vivid and so real. When we found him, he knew where he was all the time, and could not grasp the enormity of our fears.

What was he doing that he lost sight of us?

What were we doing that we lost sight of him?

Who did we blame?

Did we ever thank those who helped our search?

Did that experience inhibit us in his later years when we should have let our sons have the freedom to grow and to mature?

Christ is no longer a child in this reading. But Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary do not yet see him as an adult. I can fully identify with them in their panic and in their fear in this reading.

It was our pattern to go on holiday in Greece each summer, and we had felt safe, perhaps naively safe, wherever we were. Perhaps, because they went to Jerusalem for the Passover each year, Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary felt comfortable and relaxed as they moved through the courts and the arcades of the Temple, and through the side streets and the market stalls of Jerusalem.

On the way home, if Jesus was regarded still as a child, he might have travelled with the women in the caravan; if he was now seen as a man, he might have been expected to travel with the men in the caravan. Any family travelling through a modern airport on holidays today, with the father taking some children through and the mother taking others, understands completely what may have happened at that Passover.

If it is an experience you have forgotten, gone without or have yet to go through, you can catch some of the flavour of the setting for this story by watching one of the all-time favourite Christmas movies, Home Alone (1990).

In the opening chapters of his Gospel, Saint Luke portrays Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary as a devout and righteous couple. They observe the religious rites and practices of Judaism, they have Jesus circumcised (Luke 2: 21), and they are then said to have acted ‘according to the law’ three times (verses 22, 24, 39).

In this reading, we are told that they go to the Passover festival in Jerusalem ‘every year’ and they observe the ‘custom of the feast’ (see KJV, NIV).

With this emphasis on the family’s religious devotion, Saint Luke is saying the Jewish boy Jesus grew up in a thoroughly Jewish world. It is a story that challenges anti-Semitism whenever and wherever it finds its ugly expressions today.

The setting for this story is the festival of the Passover, celebrating the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Every year, Joseph, Mary and Jesus go to Jerusalem for this festival (verse 41), and they are still doing this in the year he is a 12-year-old (verse 42).

When the eight-day festival ends, the people they have travelled with begin the long journey back home to Nazareth. The entourage in this caravan includes both ‘relatives and friends’ (verse 42), which makes it a safe group but also a large crowd. They have gone a full day when Joseph and Mary realise Jesus is missing. Perhaps they were about to have a meal together, perhaps they had the tents up or had arrived at a hostel or inn to stay the night.

They search for him there first of all before returning to Jerusalem. After three days, they find Jesus in the Temple, ‘sitting among the teachers’ (verse 46), the experts in Jewish law or rabbis. He not only listens and asks questions, but he also answers their questions.

This was the rabbinical style of teaching at the time.

When Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary find him, they are distraught as Mary asks, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety’ (verse 48).

In their eyes, Jesus is still a child.

But the words in verse 49 mark a turning point in this Gospel. These are the first words Christ speaks in the Gospels. And Jesus speaks of his bounden duty to do the work of God, the work of God the Father.

The Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph do not understand what Jesus says to them (verse 50). Now they have found Jesus, they probably have to travel back north to Nazareth by themselves, which was much more dangerous than traveling with the caravan they had had to leave. This danger is understood by everyone who first heard the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). Perhaps this too is a literary hint at the later dangers in the journey that Jesus makes to Jerusalem.

When the family returns to Nazareth, Jesus is obedient to his parents in everyday life. In spite of not understanding what has happened and what has been said, Mary ‘treasured all these things in her heart’ (verse 51) – just as she ‘treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart’ after she heard the shepherds’ report of what the angels proclaimed (Luke 2: 19).

Saint Luke says that after this story, Jesus spent his years in Nazareth growing ‘in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour’ (verse 52). But, in the meantime, something has changed. Jesus is now on the way, on the path.

Did you notice how Joseph and Mary search for Jesus for three days?

When early Christians heard this story in the context of the Passover (verses 41-42) and the phrase ‘after three days’ (verse 46), they would have thought immediately of the Passover when Christ was raised from the dead after three days. So, we should also read this story in the light of the Resurrection.

In the Resurrection, the new family of God supersedes our earthly family, the Temple becomes the place where Christ is at the centre. He is in dialogue with the tradition, yet with a new understanding.

There can be no true meaning in Christmas unless it looks forward to Easter.

When we next meet Jesus in this Gospel, he is at the Jordan, about to be baptised by Saint John the Baptist, which is the Gospel reading (Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22) for Sunday week, the First Sunday after the Epiphany (13 January 2019).

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Rod Borghese, ‘Jesus and Doctors’ … a challenging reworking of Albrecht Dürer’s ‘Jesus among the Doctors’ with its ant-Semitic stereotyping

Luke 2: 41-52 (NRSVA):

41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ 49 He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

James Tissot, ‘Jesus Found in the Temple,’ Brooklyn Museum

Liturgical colour: White or Gold.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who wonderfully created us in your own image
and yet more wonderfully restored us
through your Son Jesus Christ:
Grant that, as he came to share in our humanity,
so we may share the life of his divinity;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
you have refreshed us with this heavenly sacrament.
As your Son came to live among us,
grant us grace to live our lives,
united in love and obedience,
as those who long to live with him in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

Hymns:

166, Joy to the world, the Lord is come! (CD 10)
162, Infant holy, infant lowly (CD 9)
152, Come and join the celebration (CD 9)

James Tissot, ‘Jesus Among the Doctors’

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God’

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … the Christmas crib in the Baptistry in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas Day, Tuesday 25 December:

11 a.m.: Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1: 1-4; John 1: 1-18.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘In the beginning was the Word’

I find this is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And I believe the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to Saint John, is one of the great works of literature, as well as my favourite book in the Bible.

‘To begin at the beginning’ – these are the opening lines of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954).

Or I might begin with words from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. In Chapter 12, the White Rabbit puts on his spectacles.

‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asks.

‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

TS Eliot’s ‘East Coker,’ the second of his Four Quartets, is set at this time of the year and opens:

In my beginning is my end.

And he goes on to say:

In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon …

The opening words at the beginning of a play, a novel or a poem – or for that matter, a sermon – are important for holding the reader’s or the listener’s attention and telling me what to expect. Begin as you mean to go on.

That is why I am surprised that Charles Dickens waits until the second sentence in David Copperfield to say: ‘To begin my life with the beginning of my life …’

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point. He begins the Fourth Gospel at the beginning, at the very beginning: ‘In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1: 1).

The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

This opening section of Saint John’s Gospel, the Prologue, is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Word, the Logos, is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh,’ sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …,’ first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

In this reading, Saint John introduces us to a number of key concepts he uses in the rest of his Gospel: ‘life,’ ‘light’ (verse 5), ‘believe’ (verse 7), ‘world’ (verse 9), ‘children of God’ (verse 12), and ‘flesh’ and ‘truth’ (verse 14). And the Logos, the incarnate Word of God, is decidedly at the centre of all that is being said.

When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose.

In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among us people as one of us, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.

He firmly connects the Logos, the Incarnate Word of God, with God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); the disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17).

Finally, verse 18 re-emphasises the intimacy of the relationship of the Incarnate Word with the Father.

This reading is a challenge for us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation, the Christmas story, and to apply this concept in all its fullness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?

I miss Canon Giles Fraser’s weekly column in the Guardian, which came to an end last year as that newspaper moved to a new format. But, some years ago [6 December 2014], he tried in that column to summarise Christmas values: ‘ “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” is how Jesus expresses his mission in Saint John’s Gospel. “The glory of God is a human being fully alive,” wrote Irenaeus in the second century. In other words, the point of Christianity is to generate a deeper form of humanism.’

TS Eliot writes,

In my beginning is my end ...
In my end is my beginning.

Christ comes among us on this day, and in his birth, life, agony, death and resurrection he is reconciling the whole world, each of us with one another and with God. He is coming with a vision and a promise of a world where all of the barriers that separate us – poor and rich, North and South, male and female, Jew and Gentile, nation and nation, home-happy and homeless – will be no more.

His coming is just the beginning of the Good News and the beginning of hope. The Gospel reading on Sunday morning was a challenge to us to prepare the way of the Lord: he casts down the mighty and raises up the lowly, he lets justice and righteousness go before him, peace is the pathway for his feet, we must do justice and make peace.

Christmas Day is not the climax or the end of the Christmas story. It is just the beginning.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … pages from Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete handwritten and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in a recent exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 1:1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And 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.

‘In my beginning is my end ... In my end is my beginning’ … tangled bicycles in the snow in Temple Bar in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collect:

Almighty God
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
May the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

The first Christmas depicted on Antoni Gaudí’s Nativity Façade of the Basilica of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

The Advent Wreath:

On the Advent Wreath on Christmas Day, the last of the candles, the central white candle, is lit, symbolising the Christ Child arriving as the Light of the World. The other candles in a circle surrounding it were lit during the Sundays of Advent and represent the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Purple), the Prophets (Purple), Saint John the Baptist (Pink) and the Virgin Mary (Purple).

As we light our Advent candles, USPG is inviting churches and parishes to join in praying for the world church as it responds to the needs of the people and communities it serves.

USPG suggests this prayer when lighting the last candle:

Christmas Day (White Candle), Jesus Christ

Holy God, your only son was born
with no home and laid in a manger;
fill us with compassion
for all in need today.
Bless all who work for dignity,
healing and peace
and give us generous hearts
to respond to your most generous gift,
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Christmas scene in a window in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

177, Once in royal David’s city (CD 11)
184, Unto us is born a Son (CD 11)
172, O come, all ye faithful (CD 10)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Today is not the end of Christmas, today is just the beginning

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … pages from Saint John’s Gospel, the first complete handwritten and illuminated Bible since the Renaissance, in a recent exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas Day, Tuesday 25 December 2018:

9.30 a.m.: Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

11 a.m.: Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick

Readings: Isaiah 52: 7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1: 1-4; John 1: 1-18.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘In the beginning was the Word’

I find this is one of the most dramatic opening lines in any great work of literature. And I believe the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to Saint John, is one of the great works of literature, as well as my favourite book in the Bible.

‘To begin at the beginning’ – these are the opening lines of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas (1954).

Or I might begin with words from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. In Chapter 12, the White Rabbit puts on his spectacles.

‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asks.

‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

TS Eliot’s ‘East Coker,’ the second of his Four Quartets, is set at this time of the year and opens:

In my beginning is my end.

And he goes on to say:

In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon …

The opening words at the beginning of a play, a novel or a poem – or for that matter, a sermon – are important for holding the reader’s or the listener’s attention and telling me what to expect. Begin as you mean to go on.

That is why I am surprised that Charles Dickens waits until the second sentence in David Copperfield to say: ‘To begin my life with the beginning of my life …’

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point. He begins the Fourth Gospel at the beginning, at the very beginning: ‘In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1: 1).

The narrative translations with which we are so familiar often miss the poetic and dramatic presentations of this Gospel. But the Prologue is first and foremost poetry. It is a hymn – a poetic summary – of the whole theology of this Gospel, as well as an introduction to it.

This opening section of Saint John’s Gospel, the Prologue, is an introduction to the Gospel as a whole. It tells us that the Word, the Logos, is God and acts as the mouthpiece (Word) of God ‘made flesh,’ sent to the world in order to be able to intercede for humanity and to forgive human sins.

The Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional Gospel readings for Christmas Day. It is of central significance to the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Prologue can be compared with Genesis 1, where the same phrase, ‘In the beginning …,’ first occurs along with the emphasis on the difference between the darkness and the light.

In this reading, Saint John introduces us to a number of key concepts he uses in the rest of his Gospel: ‘life,’ ‘light’ (verse 5), ‘believe’ (verse 7), ‘world’ (verse 9), ‘children of God’ (verse 12), and ‘flesh’ and ‘truth’ (verse 14). And the Logos, the incarnate Word of God, is decidedly at the centre of all that is being said.

When Saint John speaks later of life in the sense of ‘eternal’ life, the Prologue has already established that from the beginning in Christ the eternal God and source of life is present and is among men and women for that purpose.

In Christ, God enters into all the ambiguities, difficulties, and trials of human life. He comes to live among us people as one of us, revealing God at first hand, and offering new life as the source of life from the beginning.

He firmly connects the Logos, the Incarnate Word of God, with God (verses 1, 2); creation (verses 3-5); the world and its response (verses 6-9); his own people (verses 10, 11); his children (verses 12-13); the disciples and witnesses (verse 14); and to a particular historical person, Jesus Christ (verse 17).

Finally, verse 18 re-emphasises the intimacy of the relationship of the Incarnate Word with the Father.

This reading is a challenge for us to think carefully and deeply about the implications of the Incarnation, the Christmas story, and to apply this concept in all its fullness to our life and our world. For all its broad, cosmic scope, the Prologue presents a direct and personal question to readers of all times: will the one who reads believe and share in the fullness of grace given by the One who has come from the Father to dwell among us?

I miss Canon Giles Fraser’s weekly column in the Guardian, which came to an end last year as that newspaper moved to a new format. But, some years ago [6 December 2014], he tried in that column to summarise Christmas values: ‘ “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” is how Jesus expresses his mission in Saint John’s Gospel. “The glory of God is a human being fully alive,” wrote Irenaeus in the second century. In other words, the point of Christianity is to generate a deeper form of humanism.’

TS Eliot writes,

In my beginning is my end …
In my end is my beginning.

Christ comes among us on this day, and in his birth, life, agony, death and resurrection he is reconciling the whole world, each of us with one another and with God. He is coming with a vision and a promise of a world where all of the barriers that separate us – poor and rich, North and South, male and female, Jew and Gentile, nation and nation, home-happy and homeless – will be no more.

His coming is just the beginning of the Good News and the beginning of hope. The Gospel reading on Sunday morning was a challenge to us to prepare the way of the Lord: he casts down the mighty and raises up the lowly, he lets justice and righteousness go before him, peace is the pathway for his feet, we must do justice and make peace.

Christmas Day is not the climax or the end of the Christmas story. It is just the beginning.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1: 1) … the Christmas crib in the Baptistry in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

John 1:1-14 (NRSVA):

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And 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.

‘In my beginning is my end … In my end is my beginning’ … tangled bicycles in the snow in Temple Bar in Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Collect:

Almighty God
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
May the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

The first Christmas depicted on Antoni Gaudí’s Nativity Façade of the Basilica of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

The Advent Wreath:

On the Advent Wreath on Christmas Day, the last of the candles, the central white candle, is lit, symbolising the Christ Child arriving as the Light of the World. The other candles in a circle surrounding it were lit during the Sundays of Advent and represent the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Purple), the Prophets (Purple), Saint John the Baptist (Pink) and the Virgin Mary (Purple).

As we light our Advent candles, USPG is inviting churches and parishes to join in praying for the world church as it responds to the needs of the people and communities it serves.

USPG suggests this prayer when lighting the last candle:

Christmas Day (White Candle), Jesus Christ

Holy God, your only son was born
with no home and laid in a manger;
fill us with compassion
for all in need today.
Bless all who work for dignity,
healing and peace
and give us generous hearts
to respond to your most generous gift,
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Christmas scene in a window in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

177, Once in royal David’s city (CD 11)
184, Unto us is born a Son (CD 11)
172, O come, all ye faithful (CD 10)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Christmas carols that silence the sounds of war

The Christmas Crib behind the Altar in Castletown Church, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018; click on images for full-screen views)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas Eve, Monday 24 December:

10 p.m., The Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Castletown Church, Co Limerick.

Readings: Isaiah 9: 2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14.

The First Christmas in a panel on the Oberammergau altarpiece in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Instead of a Christmas sermon tonight, I have decided to read the editorial in The Irish Times earlier this morning:

Christmas:
The sound
of peace

At carol services in cathedrals and churches across these islands, the celebration of Christmas Eve truly begins with the well-loved carol Once in Royal David’s City, often with a boy chorister singing the opening stanza as an unaccompanied solo.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth in Dublin of the author of this hymn, Cecil Frances Alexander, who first published this all-time Christmas favourite in 1848 in her collection, Hymns for Little Children.

The author of more than 400 hymns, she was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, in 1818. Her early work was strongly influenced by John Keble and the Oxford Movement, as was her husband, William Alexander, who later became Bishop of Derry and then Archbishop of Armagh.

This year, it is also 100 years since the ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, began with this opening hymn as a Christmas Eve service in 1918.

This Christmas Eve service was introduced just weeks after the end of World War I by Eric Milner-White, a highly decorated former army chaplain, as a response to the still-echoing clamours of war.

A story of rejection and poverty

This carol and this service have been broadcast by the BBC almost with fail since 1928, and this carol was the first recording made by the King’s College Choir 70 years ago in 1948. Today, it remains the opening message of Christmas Eve when it is broadcast live from Cambridge by the BBC Radio 4 and from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, by RTÉ.

Despite the glitz and the glamour, the shopping and the over-spending, this carol is a reminder that the first Christmas is a story of rejection and poverty, the story of a family forcibly made homeless by officialdom, the story of a child who is born in poverty and humility in a ‘lowly cattle shed,’ and who grows up to live ‘with the poor, and mean and lowly.’

It is the story of a family forced into exile and to cross borders in the eastern Mediterranean because of cruel and capricious political leaders.

The Christ of this carol, who is ‘weak and helpless,’ even when he becomes an adult, is a counter-cultural challenge to leaders who assert they are ‘strong and stable.’

The Christ who is at one with those in ‘sadness’ has more in common with migrants and refugees than those who build walls and barriers to exclude them.

For many, this carol remains a reminder that love and goodness are rare and wonderful gifts, and for many to hear this message on RTÉ or BBC Radio 4 this afternoon still marks the true beginning of Christmas.

This year also marks the bicentenary of another favourite carol that retains its affection among people with nostalgic longings for an old-style Christmas. Silent Night (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) was written 200 years ago by a young Austrian priest, Joseph Mohr, and set to music by a local schoolteacher and organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, for the Christmas Eve Mass in 1818 in their village near Salzburg.

When the guns fell silent

The lyrics of Stille Nacht were becoming popular globally in their German original when they were translated into the best-known English version in 1859 by John Freeman Young, later Bishop of Florida.

A second translation that never gained the same level of popularity, Still the night, holy night, was written by an Irish-born Anglican priest, Stopford Augustus Brooke, a poet and graduate of Trinity College Dublin who was born near Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

It would be simplistic to dismiss the lyrics of this carol and its authors as pious and sentimental. But Mohr was born in poverty and died penniless, having given away any money he had earned to care for the elderly and to help the education of poor children. Young expended his energies combatting racism and prejudice in Florida in the aftermath of the American Civil War. And Brooke, a cousin of the nationalist historian Alice Stopford-Green, used his position in English society to promote the values of Irish literature.

This carol became so popular in both English and German that when the guns fell silent in the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914, the German troops sang out Father Mohr’s Stille Nacht, and the British and Irish troops responded with Bishop Young’s Silent Night.

The story has been moved to the following year by Cormac MacConnell in his song A Silent Night Christmas 1915. Today, the ‘glories’ that ‘stream from heaven afar’ on that first Christmas night proclaim a peace that is radically different to the aggressive bellicose tweets that emanate from the White House night after night.

This song, and the carol it is based on, are reminders that the message of peace at Christmas can still the sounds of guns and silence the calls to war:

Sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.

Amen.

The Christmas stories told in a Christmas Card produced by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge

Luke 2:1-20 (NRSVA):

2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Collect:

Almighty God,
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
May the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

The Advent Wreath:

On the Advent Wreath on Christmas Day, the last of the candles, the central white candle, is lit, symbolising the Christ Child arriving as the Light of the World. The other candles in a circle surrounding it were lit during the Sundays of Advent and represent the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Purple), the Prophets (Purple), Saint John the Baptist (Pink) and the Virgin Mary (Purple).

As we light our Advent candles, USPG is inviting churches and parishes to join in praying for the world church as it responds to the needs of the people and communities it serves.

USPG suggests this prayer when lighting the last candle:

Christmas Day (White Candle), Jesus Christ

Holy God, your only son was born
with no home and laid in a manger;
fill us with compassion
for all in need today.
Bless all who work for dignity,
healing and peace
and give us generous hearts
to respond to your most generous gift,
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hymns:

174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11)
160, Hark! the herald angels sing (CD 9)
182, Silent night, holy night (CD 11)

The Holy Family by Giovanni Battista Pittoni, the Altar Piece in the Chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Songs on Christmas night that proclaim a peace that is radical

The Christmas stories told in a Christmas Card produced by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge (click on images for full-screen views)

Patrick Comerford

Christmas Eve, Monday 24 December:

8 p.m., The Christmas Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert), Co Kerry.

Readings: Isaiah 9: 2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Instead of a Christmas sermon tonight, I have decided to read the editorial in The Irish Times earlier this morning:

Christmas:
The sound
of peace

At carol services in cathedrals and churches across these islands, the celebration of Christmas Eve truly begins with the well-loved carol Once in Royal David’s City, often with a boy chorister singing the opening stanza as an unaccompanied solo.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth in Dublin of the author of this hymn, Cecil Frances Alexander, who first published this all-time Christmas favourite in 1848 in her collection, Hymns for Little Children.

The author of more than 400 hymns, she was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, in 1818. Her early work was strongly influenced by John Keble and the Oxford Movement, as was her husband, William Alexander, who later became Bishop of Derry and then Archbishop of Armagh.

This year, it is also 100 years since the ‘Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, began with this opening hymn as a Christmas Eve service in 1918.

This Christmas Eve service was introduced just weeks after the end of World War I by Eric Milner-White, a highly decorated former army chaplain, as a response to the still-echoing clamours of war.

A story of rejection and poverty

This carol and this service have been broadcast by the BBC almost with fail since 1928, and this carol was the first recording made by the King’s College Choir 70 years ago in 1948. Today, it remains the opening message of Christmas Eve when it is broadcast live from Cambridge by the BBC Radio 4 and from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, by RTÉ.

Despite the glitz and the glamour, the shopping and the over-spending, this carol is a reminder that the first Christmas is a story of rejection and poverty, the story of a family forcibly made homeless by officialdom, the story of a child who is born in poverty and humility in a ‘lowly cattle shed,’ and who grows up to live ‘with the poor, and mean and lowly.’

It is the story of a family forced into exile and to cross borders in the eastern Mediterranean because of cruel and capricious political leaders.

The Christ of this carol, who is ‘weak and helpless,’ even when he becomes an adult, is a counter-cultural challenge to leaders who assert they are ‘strong and stable.’

The Christ who is at one with those in ‘sadness’ has more in common with migrants and refugees than those who build walls and barriers to exclude them.

For many, this carol remains a reminder that love and goodness are rare and wonderful gifts, and for many to hear this message on RTÉ or BBC Radio 4 this afternoon still marks the true beginning of Christmas.

This year also marks the bicentenary of another favourite carol that retains its affection among people with nostalgic longings for an old-style Christmas. Silent Night (Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht) was written 200 years ago by a young Austrian priest, Joseph Mohr, and set to music by a local schoolteacher and organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, for the Christmas Eve Mass in 1818 in their village near Salzburg.

When the guns fell silent

The lyrics of Stille Nacht were becoming popular globally in their German original when they were translated into the best-known English version in 1859 by John Freeman Young, later Bishop of Florida.

A second translation that never gained the same level of popularity, Still the night, holy night, was written by an Irish-born Anglican priest, Stopford Augustus Brooke, a poet and graduate of Trinity College Dublin who was born near Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

It would be simplistic to dismiss the lyrics of this carol and its authors as pious and sentimental. But Mohr was born in poverty and died penniless, having given away any money he had earned to care for the elderly and to help the education of poor children. Young expended his energies combatting racism and prejudice in Florida in the aftermath of the American Civil War. And Brooke, a cousin of the nationalist historian Alice Stopford-Green, used his position in English society to promote the values of Irish literature.

This carol became so popular in both English and German that when the guns fell silent in the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914, the German troops sang out Father Mohr’s Stille Nacht, and the British and Irish troops responded with Bishop Young’s Silent Night.

The story has been moved to the following year by Cormac MacConnell in his song A Silent Night Christmas 1915. Today, the ‘glories’ that ‘stream from heaven afar’ on that first Christmas night proclaim a peace that is radically different to the aggressive bellicose tweets that emanate from the White House night after night.

This song, and the carol it is based on, are reminders that the message of peace at Christmas can still the sounds of guns and silence the calls to war:

Sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.

Amen.

The First Christmas in a panel on the Oberammergau altarpiece in the Lady Chapel, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 2:1-20 (NRSVA):

2 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Collect:

Almighty God,
you have given us your only-begotten Son
to take our nature upon him
and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:
Grant that we, who have been born again
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Word has come among us
in the Holy Child of Bethlehem:
May the light of faith illumine our hearts
and shine in our words and deeds;
through him who is Christ the Lord.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God, mighty God,
you are the creator of the world.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary,
you are the Prince of Peace.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
by your power the Word was made flesh
and came to dwell among us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and his name shall be called the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Preface:

You have given Jesus Christ your only Son
to be born of the Virgin Mary,
and through him you have given us power
to become the children of God:

Blessing:

Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one
all things earthly and heavenly,
fill you with his joy and peace:

The Advent Wreath:

On the Advent Wreath on Christmas Day, the last of the candles, the central white candle, is lit, symbolising the Christ Child arriving as the Light of the World. The other candles in a circle surrounding it were lit during the Sundays of Advent and represent the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Purple), the Prophets (Purple), Saint John the Baptist (Pink) and the Virgin Mary (Purple).

As we light our Advent candles, USPG is inviting churches and parishes to join in praying for the world church as it responds to the needs of the people and communities it serves.

USPG suggests this prayer when lighting the last candle:

Christmas Day (White Candle), Jesus Christ

Holy God, your only son was born
with no home and laid in a manger;
fill us with compassion
for all in need today.
Bless all who work for dignity,
healing and peace
and give us generous hearts
to respond to your most generous gift,
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hymns:

174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11)
160, Hark! the herald angels sing (CD 9)
182, Silent night, holy night (CD 11)

The Holy Family by Giovanni Battista Pittoni, the Altar Piece in the Chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘He has brought down the powerful … and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things’

The Visitation … a panel in the 19th century altarpiece from Oberammergau in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 23 December 2018

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

11 a.m., United Group Service, the Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2), Castletown Church, Kilcornan (Pallaskenry), Co Limerick.

Readings: Micah 5: 2-5a; the Canticle Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55; Hymn 712, CD 40); Hebrews 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit

This has been a very short Advent. There are four Sundays in Advent, but this year had Advent had just three weeks.

So, I got caught again – I was so late in sending Christmas cards that many are probably not going to arrive until well into the New Year.

I kept on ignoring all the advertising from An Post claiming Christmas begins when the first card is sent. But that sounds as ridiculous as saying Easter begins with the first crème egg.

Once again, too, we have all got caught in preparing for Christmas, so much so that many of us forgot about Advent as a time of waiting, a time of preparation, a time of anticipation.

We have been busy preparing ourselves in December, busy with the cards and the carols, the songs and the shops, Santa and the decorations. But Advent is important in itself too.

The Advent Wreath and the four candles in a ring around the white candle– three purple and one pink candle –remind us, week-after-week, of those who prepared us in the past for the Coming of the Christ Child: first the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, including Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob; then the prophets of the Old Testament; then it was Saint John the Baptist.

Then, today, the fourth and final candle reminds us of the Virgin Mary as she anticipated and prepared for Christ. We are reminded of that with the Canticle Magnificat, normally appointed for Evening Prayer, and the Gospel reading, both telling us the story of Mary and her visit to her cousin Saint Elizabeth.

The Virgin Mary stands with the Christ Child, a Christmas scene carved by Mary Grant in the centre of the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)


The great German theologian and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), in an Advent sermon in London 85 years ago in 1933, said the canticle Magnificat ‘is the oldest Advent hymn.’ He spoke of how the Virgin Mary knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming.

When the Virgin Mary visits her cousin Saint Elizabeth, they are both pregnant – one with the Christ Child, the other with Saint John the Baptist.

When she arrives, although he is still in his mother’s womb, Saint John the Baptist is aware of the presence of Christ and the unborn child leaps for joy.

Saint Elizabeth too recognises that Christ is present, and she declares to Mary with a loud cry: ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.’

The Virgin Mary responds immediately with the words we now know as the Magnificat, one of the best loved canticles. We sang it as Hymn 712, ‘Tell out, my soul.’

So we see, side-by-side, two women, one seemingly too old to have a child, but destined to bear the last prophet, linking the Old Testament and the New Testament; and the other, seemingly too young to have a child but about to give birth to a new beginning, a new age that is not going to pass away.

I find it sad that the Virgin Mary can be divisive for those in the Protestant and Catholic traditions, in the wider Church and within Anglicanism.

There are numerous cathedrals and churches in the Church of Ireland and throughout the Anglican Communion dedicated to Saint Mary, including Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, and many Anglican cathedrals have Lady Chapels.

Article 2 of the 39 Articles is a traditional Anglican affirmation of the Virgin Mary’s title as Theotokos, the God-bearer or Mother of God: ‘The … Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man …’ Any other interpretations quickly lead to the heresies of Arianism, Nestorianism or Monophysitism.

The divisions among Anglicans over the place of the Virgin Mary are probably founded on perceptions of Mariology within the Roman Catholic tradition. On the other hand, many of my neighbours who come out with statements that reflect what they have been told since childhood – such as ‘You don’t believe in Mary’ – are surprised when they are told the canticle Magnificat is a traditional part of Anglican Evensong ever since the Reformation.

The Virgin Mary of the canticle Magnificat and of the Visitation is a strong and revolutionary woman, unlike the Virgin Mary of the plaster-cast statues and the Rosary.

The Mary I see as a role model for belief and discipleship is the Mary who sets off in a hurry and a flurry to visit her cousin Elizabeth, the Mary with a gob on her who speaks out of turn when she comes out with those wonderful words we hear when she sings the Canticle Magnificat.

What a contrasting pair these two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, are!

How much they speak to so many of the dilemmas we have in Irish society today!

Elizabeth is the older woman. She has been married for years. Because of social and family pressures, she had started to become embarrassed that after all those years of marriage she has not become pregnant.

In those days – even in many places to this day – this was an embarrassing social stigma. She had no son to inherit her husband’s lands, his family position, the place of Zechariah as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem.

She reminds us too of Sarah, who is so embarrassed at the thought of becoming pregnant in her old age that she laughs in the face of the three visitors, she laughs in the face of the living Triune God.

Today, a woman who became pregnant at her stage of life might not laugh. She might quake with fear. She might ask for amniocentesis or an amniotic fluid test.

And yet Elizabeth takes control of her situation. She turns a predicament into an opportunity, a crisis of a pregnancy so late in life into a blessing for us all.

She is so filled with joy when her cousin Mary arrives that as soon as she hears the knock on the door, as soon as she hears the sound of Mary on her doorstep, her joy is infectious, so infectious that even the child in her womb leaps with joy in her womb.

Elizabeth’s action is radical. Life is tough enough for her. Her husband has been struck dumb. A dumb priest was unlikely to be able to continue to earn a liturgical living in the Temple in Jerusalem. How was she now going to provide for her child when he was born?

But Elizabeth’s action is even more radical than that.

How many women of her age, and her respectable background, would have been so quick to rush out and welcome her much younger, single and pregnant cousin?

How many women would have worried: ‘What if she stays here and has the child here? Could we ever live with the shame?’

How many women might have suggested instead that Mary goes off and finds a home where they can find someone else to take care of her child when he is born?

Instead, Elizabeth welcomes Mary with open arms. Elizabeth’s joyful greeting, ‘Blessed are you among women …,’ echoes the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel (see Luke 1: 28), ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’

It is almost as if Elizabeth is saying: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Which is precisely what God is saying in the Incarnation, in the precious gift of the Christmas: ‘It doesn’t matter what others think of you. It doesn’t matter how other people are going to judge you. I love you.’

Mary for her part is such a wonderful, feisty person. She is, what might be described in the red-top tabloids today as ‘a gymslip Mum.’ But, instead of hiding herself away from her family, from her cousins, from the woman in her family who is married to a priest, she rushes off to her immediately, to share her good news with her.

And she challenges so many of our prejudices, and our values, and our presumptions today. Not just about gymslip mums and unexpected or unplanned pregnancies, but about what the silent and the marginalised have to say about our values in society today.

And Mary declares:

‘He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

It is almost like this is the programme or the agenda we can expect when the Christ Child comes among us on Christmas Day.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

An icon of the Visitation by the Romanian icon writer Mihia Cocu in the Lady Chapel in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55):

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

[46 And Mary said,

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’]

‘The Visitation’, by James B. Janknegt

Liturgical colour: Violet (Purple).

The Collect:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Advent Collect:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Heavenly Father,
you have given us a pledge of eternal redemption.
Grant that we may always eagerly celebrate
the saving mystery of the incarnation of your Son.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Advent Wreath:

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) offers this prayer for lighting the Fourth (Purple) candle on the Advent wreath:

Lord Jesus, your mother Mary
carried you with tender determination
on the dangerous road to Bethlehem.
May the same flame of love
that drove her on, now bring
courage and hope
to all who carry and nurture children today.

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

Hymns:

158, God rest you merry, gentlemen (CD 9)
712, The Canticle Magnificat, Luke 1: 46-55 (CD 40)
174, O little town of Bethlehem (CD 11)
198, The first Nowell the angel did say (CD 12)

The Virgin Mary and the Christ Child in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, in the style of the Italian ceramicist Lucca della Robbia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘Want to keep “Christ” in Christmas?’ Trying to answer the Advent challenge

The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist … a fifth century mosaic in the Neonian Baptistry in Ravenna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 16 December 2018

The Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday

11.30 a.m.: Saint Brendan’s, Kilnaughtin (Tarbert), Co Kerry, the Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2).

Readings: Zephaniah 3: 14-20; Canticle Song of Isaiah (CD 43, No 6), Philippians 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 7-18.

‘God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’ … (Luke 3: 8-9) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

In the four weeks of Advent, we recall the Patriarchs and Matriarchs (Advent I), the Prophets (Advent II), Saint John the Baptist (Advent III) and the Virgin Mary (Advent IV).

This morning, as we think about the message of Saint John the Baptist as the Forerunner of Christ, the readings remind us of the promises proclaimed by the prophets, and Saint Paul’s promise to the Philippians of Christ is coming again.

Zephaniah invites Jerusalem to rejoice because salvation is at hand. Isaiah promises a future in which we ‘will draw water from the waters of salvation.’ Saint Paul promises the Church in Philippi that ‘the Lord is near.’ And Saint John the Baptist proclaims that ‘one who is more powerful than I is coming’ as he proclaims ‘the good news to the people.’

Zephaniah is one of the 12 ‘Minor Prophets’ in the Old Testament. His name means ‘Yahweh has hidden,’ ‘Yahweh has protected,’ or ‘Yahweh hides.’

Zephaniah was the great-great-grandson of Hezekiah, who had been the king of Judah (715-687 BC). In Chapter 3, he speaks of the people of Jerusalem and their crimes. They have failed to listen to God, to accept his advice, to trust in him or to draw near to him. He has destroyed other nations as a warning to Jerusalem, but Jerusalem has ignored this warning.

In spite of this, in this morning’s reading (Zephaniah 3: 14-20), the prophet invites Jerusalem to rejoice because salvation is at hand. God has intervened, and he now dwells with his people and protects them.

God’s promise of coming home to the new Jerusalem means oppressors are vanquished, the lame are saved, the outcast become insiders, shame is turned into praise, misfortunes are reversed, in a promise that is for ‘all the peoples of the earth.’

Our Canticle, ‘The Song of Isaiah’ (Isaiah 12: 2-6), is in a similar vein to our reading from Zephaniah. God will gather the remnant, the remaining faithful, from throughout the world, when the Messiah comes.

In our epistle reading (Philippians 4: 4-7), Saint Paul urges his readers to behave towards one another with gentleness. In a well-known blessing, he promises that God’s peace will protect them. This peace ‘surpasses all understanding,’ it is beyond the grasp of the human mind and brings with it more than we can ever expect: ‘And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’ (verse 7).

In our Gospel reading (Luke 3: 7-18), we hear Saint John the Baptist deliver a message of forgiveness of sins and the advent of a new relationship between the people and God.

He addresses the crowds, telling them they are vipers and accusing them of being baptised without any intention of starting a new, ethical, life.

Saint Luke gives four examples of behaviour that exemplifies a new life:

We should see to it that those who are poor have clothes and those who are hungry have food to eat.

We should not pile on debts on those who cannot pay them.

We should not oppress others.

And if we are comfortable ourselves, then we should be satisfied with our lot.

Perhaps Saint John is also reminding us that we must constantly question our own behaviour and be open to God’s way and God’s will.

At the time, people were expecting the Messiah to come at any moment. Perhaps they hoped that Saint John the Baptist was going to restore Israel’s fortunes and that God’s power would triumph in the here and now.

But Saint John tells them that the baptism he offers is vastly inferior to the Baptism of Jesus, and that even he will be found unworthy when Christ comes.

What do we expect when Christ comes? And how are we going to celebrate this?

The great German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once wrote: ‘Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.’

There is a popular posting on social media for the past two weeks that asks: ‘Want to keep “Christ” in Christmas?’

And the reply is: ‘Feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, love the outcast, forgive the wrongdoer, inspire the hopeless.’

It seems like a good summary of the message of the Prophets and the challenge of Saint John the Baptist. But, as we move into the last week or so of Advent, it seems to me to be a good summary of the message of Christ and the message of Christmas too.

And so, may all we think, say and do, be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

The Baptism of Christ by Saint John the Baptist … a fresco in a church in the mountain village of Maroulas, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 3: 7-18:

7 John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

10 And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ 11 In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ 12 Even tax-collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ 13 He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ 14 Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

‘The Holy City’ … a colourful picture by Thetis Blacker in the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in Limehouse in London’s East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Liturgical colour: Violet (Purple) or Pink.

The liturgical provisions suggest that Gloria is omitted in Advent, and it is traditional in Anglicanism to omit Gloria at the end of canticles and psalms during Advent.

Penitential Kyries:

Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Third Sunday of Advent, 16 December 2018 (Pink Candle):

Saint John the Baptist

Lord Jesus, your cousin John
prepared the way for your coming.
Bless all who speak out against
injustice and wrong:
so may the light of your truth
burn brightly, and the world become
a fairer and just home for all.
(A prayer from USPG)

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.

The Advent Collect:

The Advent Collect is said after the Collect of the Day until Christmas Eve:

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Introduction to the Peace:

In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)

Preface:

Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Father,
we give you thanks for these heavenly gifts.
Kindle us with the fire of your Spirit
that when Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Blessing:

Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:

‘And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4: 7) … a sculpture in Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

281, Rejoice, the Lord is King! (CD 17)
Canticle: Song of Isaiah (CD 43, No 6)
135, O come, O come, Emmanuel (CD 8)
136, On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry (CD 8)

‘On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry’ (Hymn 136) … the Baptism of Christ by Saint the Baptist depicted at the Duomo in Florence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org