Sunday, 3^rd January 2010 John 1: 10-18.

We are all part of one big snowball!

The sight of snow makes my mind goes back to the excitement my friends and I greeted snow with when I was a child. We could sledge, have snow ball fights, see who could make the biggest snowball. We would start at the top of the hill, now who could weave their way down the hill picking up the most snow. We were always amazed by the way the snow would stick together, how all those small particles could become one. For without the inner flakes there would be no snowball, but neither would there be without all the subsequent, each was needed to create the whole. Somehow it seemed like a miracle the way they all stuck together.

If we had read verse two of this first chapter of John we would have heard the words ‘He was with God in the beginning’. Jesus may have been born on earth that first Christmas but of course he was at the creation because he is God.

A few years ago I heard a lecturer say we must not look at the birth narratives as a line going back through the Old Testament to Creation, but as a snow ball. For if it were a line - different events would only be connected to those next to them - but if we see it as a snowball everything that has gone before is a part of the whole, and indeed everything which happened since, which is still to happen, for everything is connected, we are one. Like with my snow flakes each thing is necessary for us to have the whole. And what is more we are all part of the narrative, are all part of the snow ball. We are not just thinking of an event which took place two thousand years ago, we are a part of it, because we are part of the whole.

The Gospel reading we have just heard reveals one thing - the person of Jesus Christ, for as we heard –‘the Word which became flesh’, and surely these must be the most important words ever written, for on these words hangs our faith, our belief.

And it is these words which sets Christianity apart from all other world religions. Our God has not remained remote and unapproachable, he has come to us in person. He didn’t just write us a book, just send us a representative, speak his laws from a mountain. He came down to live among us, to show by example in a way we could understand. The Infinite, Eternal God

was born an infant, grew through childhood, into an adult, a teacher, he became our saviour.

And he came not to show power over us, but to show mercy, to show love, to show compassion. He claimed no privileges, he came not as God, but took on the status of a shepherd, a servant, became human, in a truly humble way. Instead of seeking power and privilege he, through choice, lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - a cruel, humiliating death - he was crucified

This Gospel reading gives us the message that it is impossible to overemphasize how important God’s arrival on earth was.

Because of that birth, the world, and life itself, is different, we are different. God choosing to come among us is the most important thing that has ever happened.

Through this action God revealed his true self to us, his appearance in human form speaks volumes about his love for us. God loved, still loves all his children so much that he took on the mantle of great suffering to save us from ourselves, he wants us to change the way we live, and indeed to encourage others to change their lives, to turn to Christ.

Ten years ago I remember people talking of a new beginning, a new millennium, talking with hope. But if I am honest I don’t think humanity and I include myself in that has much to be proud of when we look back at what has happened. Of course there are examples of selfless giving, of caring, but look at what human beings have done to other human beings in these last ten years, the suffering we have inflicted on each other. I have to admit I had forgotten about the Beslan school massacre until I saw a documentary last week in which the young survivors, they were all young school children, were telling how their lives had been changed. The talked of their suffering, but they also showed wisdom far beyond their years, a greater understanding of human nature than most adults have. I know we can’t remember everything but are we too ready to forget to overlook what suffering people are still going through, even though they are out of the media attention. Does television run the risk of blurring in our minds what is fact and what is fiction?

But why this particular, perhaps, rather sombre, message at Christmas, shouldn’t we just be celebrating, having fun, don’t we spoil it, am I spoiling it all when I talk of suffering, when we remember how the world condemned Christ, how the world still condemns him. Would the cynics say we are guilty of spoiling everything, bringing religion into everything, even Christmas! Can’t we just talk about the baby, about giving presents?

But if we think of our faith as being like a snowball, we can see that creation, the prophets, the birth, the life, the crucifixion are all part of the one, we can’t separate them, nor can we separate them from our lives here in Redhill today.

In the beginning of the chapter we have the words ‘in him was life, and that life was the light of men’. We cannot grow without light, no growing thing can survive without light, nor can we see the path ahead without light. Living in an urban area like Redhill it is easy to forget how we need a light to see in the dark. I think I have recalled before how when I attended an evening service at Buckland Church, having arrived in twilight, I got quite lost trying to find my car in the pitch dark. No street lights there. Of course the locals had gone prepared with torches. So if I found it hard to find my car, say a hundred yards away, without a light how much more impossible am I going to find it trying to make my way through the maze of modern life without a light – without following Christ, the light of the world? Like the locals in Buckland I need to be prepared, to make sure I have the light to follow, the light of Christ.

God loves us more than we can imagine and came to live among us as Jesus so that we might have that light to guide us. He didn’t come to earth as some kind of spoilsport, to take the fun out of life, but to make life enjoyable in ways that we could never imagine. He could have left us to our own devices, let us destroy ourselves, deny us the chance of salvation. But God is our loving Father, and like any loving father he wants to save us from ourselves.

But what he did do was to make us aware, by coming among us he was showing us we are all part of the whole, and he made a bargain with us. We are promised salvation providing we do our bit. He does want us to listen to how he thinks we should live our lives, care for each other, protect his creation, to show his love to each other.

With my snowball, my arms weren’t always big enough to keep it close, to not leave go. But our heavenly Father’s arms are big enough, strong enough to hold onto the snowball of creation, of life, of love. He never leaves go, he is always there for us, his outstretched arms are waiting for us. waiting for when our time comes to join him in heaven Amen.