A sermon preached at Christ Church, New Malden at Christmas 2010
Well just a few days now to go before Christmas Day and its starting to get really busy – all that food to get, all those decorations to put up and all those last minute presents to buy. And when we combine these tasks with going to school nativity plays, carol services and concerts, tearing around in the freezing cold trying to get it all done can become pretty stressful.
But hopefully what you are also getting this Christmas is the odd chance, here and there, to reflect on why we do this annual jamboree.That truth, at the centre of Christmas, that God loved us so much that he came in that tiny baby Jesus to bring his light into this world. And if we have got eyes to see it, there are actually plenty of messages around us at this time of year of how that truth can touch our lives. Last week I went to four nativity plays – three at Christ Church Infant’s School done by Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and one at Christ Church Junior School done by Year 3. And packaged within all of those plays, along with the humour, fun and exuberance, were quite strong messages of the way in which the coming of Jesus can transform individual lives. So on Thursday there was ‘Humph the Grumpy Camel’ who couldn’t say anything other than ‘humph’ until he encountered the baby Jesus and was changed as a result.The day before there was ‘The Star who couldn’t Shine’ until, that is, the point where Jesus came and she suddenly found that she was able to. Simple but actually quite moving messages, that children can very readily pick up and therefore convey, of the way in which God’s light coming into the world in Jesus can touch individual lives and bring the grace that can enable us to become changed people.
But if that’s so, then why have we got a talk this morning on ‘The Politics of Christmas’? Surely the real meaning of Christmas behind all the tinsel and the presents is spiritual and to do with ‘religious truth’, rather than anything else? And surely my task as vicar is to get people to think about that at Christmas time rather than anything to do with the rather grubby world of politics? So what’s going on this morning as we consider this title: ‘The Politics of Christmas’?
What is going on is an acknowledgment of the truth that, not just one of the Christmas accounts in the New Testament but both of them – the one we get in Matthew and the one we get in Luke – are massively political. What they show us is that as well as coming to bring his light into individual lives, one of the most important truths of Christmas is that God came in Jesus to take on and ultimately defeat cruel and oppressive political power.
The crucial figure to engage with here is Herod, the king who was on the throne of Judaea when Jesus was born. Thanks to ancient historians we actually know quite a lot about Herod. Put in power by the Romans, Herod wasn’t even properly Jewish but from a nearby place called Idumea. But if anything that increased Herod’s desire to make every effort he could to build up his status and power as the true king of Israel. So he built huge fortresses, like that of Masada near the Dead Sea and massively enlarged the Templein Jerusalem to try and show that he was the special king that God had promised to send to Israel. He was also utterly ruthless in eliminating anyone at all whom he considered a threat. That included two of his sons whom he had murdered and also the wife that he dearly loved called Mariamne. Herod later bitterly regretted killing Mariamne but the truth was that he was a megalomaniac ready to do anything that would safeguard or enhance his political power.
And this is the context in which to read that really familiar story of those wise men from the east coming to Jerusalem. That whole story in Matthew’s gospel is simply packed with things that show the huge threat that the birth of this new king made to this cruel and oppressive tyrant. ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?’ That’s what the wise men asked, a phrase with a more than a hint of comparison with Herod who wasn’t even born a Jew, let alone a king. It’s reinforced by the earlier reference to Joseph being a descendant of David and the priests and teachers telling Herod that the Christ or Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. All of which showed that Jesus, and therefore not Herod, was that special king that God had always promised to send his people.
And the reaction of Herod? We’re told that he and all Jerusalem were ‘disturbed’ – in other words totally shaken up. And in response to this Herod did what he had done before and what all tyrants do when threatened – he started killing people – first of all plotting to kill Jesus by visiting him after the Wise Men came back and once he realised that they had outwitted him, still trying to kill Jesus by ordering the execution of all the boys in Bethlehemand its surrounding area under the age of two. But it didn’t work. It didn’t work because twice in the story God revealed through dreams what, firstly the wise men and then Joseph, needed to do to ensure Jesus’ safety. And at the end of the story we see Joseph receiving another message saying that he, Mary and Jesus could return to Israel because it was Herod, rather than Jesus, who had met with death.
That’s the story and what it is therefore saying is something deeply political which is this: the coming of Jesus is a massive threat to oppressive political systems because it says, firstly, that Jesus rather than them is in ultimate charge of this world and, secondly, that those systems can do their very worst to stamp out this truth and they still won’t succeed because, in the end, it is them rather than Jesus that will be the ones to die. It’s not just in Matthew’s gospel that we get this message. In Luke’s account – the one with the angels and the shepherds – the story is, if anything more political, with mention of Herod’s boss, the man who saw himself as ruling the whole world – the Emperor Augustus. Augustus is mentioned ordering the census, before Luke then takes the very deliberate step of taking of the very titles that Augustus claimed for himself – Saviour and Lord – and describes the angels giving those titles to Jesus. The message he intends us to take from this? That Jesus, rather than anyone else is Saviour and Lord of this world and the one to whom everyone therefore, including emperors, owe obedience.
And the relevance of all this for us this morning lies in the challenge to recognise that the truth of Christmas is far more than just comforting stuff for our children. Perhaps it is right that we usually take Herod out of Nativity Plays because he is frightening and there is still enough left in the Christmas story for children to realise God’s love in sending Jesus for them. But unless we put both Herod and Augustus back in, certainly for us adults, we’re left with a story that can seem just a bit twee and rather distant from the tough and painful world in which we live. And if that is how we are tempted to view the Christmas stories then I hope this morning has shown that that’s not what they are like at all. These are stories that are deeply challenging in regard to the status quo and deeply political in what they say about how God is going to respond to those who firstly, claim a power that isn’t theirs and then misuse it. Jesus, these stories proclaim, came into this world to turn it upside down and that particularly goes for all political cruelty and injustice. Jesus came to take that power on and to start the process by which it will one day be totally destroyed.
And the challenge that goes with this, this morning, is to therefore make sure that we are on the side of Jesus rather than those cruel and oppressive regimes that he came to replace. We live in a world where banks and multi-national corporations do, pretty much, claim lordship over the world. And loads of people suffer directly as a result. But if we’re followers of Jesus then we’ll believe that all of those powers are under his authority and are therefore accountable to him. If we really believe that, it will affect so many of the decisions that we take, such how we use and invest our money, how we use and invest our influence, including our vote and particularly the sort of things that we work to bring about in this world. That’s one of the reasons why the Night Shelter which many of you have been involved in over the last few weeks here at Christ Church is so important. It’s just one way of showing that we don’t accept the injustice that power has created in this world because we are following another king called Jesus. These situations won’t fully change until Jesus returns one day to completely restore this world. But in the meantime we show that we belong to the true king by doing things that show our belief is that he, rather than anyone else, is lord over this world. We could, of course, do a lot more and hopefully we will in the coming years of this church as we grasp more of the political implications of following Jesus.
So this Christmas, as we watch our children loving every bit of it let’s be moved by their response to the message that Jesus came to transform people’s lives. But let’s avoid at the same time making Christmas into something soft and fuzzy. The figures of Herod and Augustus won’t let us do that. Let’s remember just how subversive a figure we follow in Jesus Christ, someone who came into this world to take on cruelty and injustice and ultimately get rid of it. And let’s be resolved to make our lives and the things that we work be, part of our acknowledgment that he is our king.
Stephen Kuhrt is Vicar of Christ Church, New Malden.