Disappointed By Angel Voices
Luke 2:1-14 Exodus 14:14
I was given a ticket to one of the Ashes tests this year. The first day up at Headingley, and I can’t tell you how excited I was about it!
On the day walking to the ground through the backstreets of Leeds amidst a great throng of England supporters, each of us believing our team were world beaters. Getting to the ground and feeding on the atmosphere. The cameras, the colour, the buzz. The giant screens from which stars of stage and screen, including Lily Allen, pledged their support for the home team.
Then the stirring rendition of Jerusalem, a standing ovation for the England opening batsmen making their way out between jubilant dancing girls and firecrackers. Strauss and Cooke practicing their strokes as if every ball bowled was going to be sent fizzing to the boundary.
By lunchtime, it had all collapsed. England had reached 72 – 7 – we sat slumped in disbelieving silence. It was only the first session of a five day test – but there would be no great victory this time, defeat was already staring our boys in the face.
This Holy night promises so much and you only have to look up into the sky to see it coming. An angel appears from nowhere and the glory of the Lord shines around unsuspecting shepherds. Then for as far as you can see, a multitude of the heavenly host all raising the cry “Peace on the earth and Goodwill towards men”
The shepherds will have jumped out of their skins at all this glory, but there was no mistaking the message – this was the night of a new start, of an end to the hostility and suspicion that was dogging everyone’s life, the threat of war and the rumour of war, dangerous authorities at work in palace and temple alike– this angel song promised an end to it – right there and then.
The bible says that after all that the shepherd’s “made haste” to Bethlehem. I bet they didn’t. I bet they ran as fast as their little legs would carry them – because of this promise of peace and goodwill, for which they and every decent person yearned.
But it didn’t deliver – did it? That angel song. Not then and not now – not really – when you think about it!
Herod kills all the firstborn in the land out of Jealousy towards this rumoured king. The forerunner of the peace message is beheaded.
Throughout his ministry they’re hounding down Jesus and are not happy until they have successfully nailed him to the tree – and you can trace your political, economic, or church history on from that point and quite easily conclude that the angel’s song that night did not amount to much.
“Peace on the earth and goodwill towards men”, and in our day, the absence of that peace touches the life of St Matthew’s big time. We want to see something happen in Afghanistan that will bring some peace from the turmoil we have felt so closely through James.
We look to Zimbabwe where members of our church have many personal links and we read how dire things are in the churches and for any institution which dares to speak out. The impact of climate change and the world we may be creating for our Grandchildren, concerns taking second place to the money we can make now.
That carol “It came upon a midnight clear” captures the tension of Christmas. It describes in glowing terms the heralding of this new birth. Angels are plucking harps, unfurling their wings, swooping over the world and bending low. Here they come again with their irresistible song whose lyrics are the answers to our prayers.
But that carol describes the world in which we struggle. Over desolate plains and people crushed beneath the load of their lives, singing it again to the backdrop of two thousand years of wrong.
The reason this peace is not taking hold in the world is because, as yet we have failed to receive it. It is a peace which comes from God into the hearts of all those who will honestly and fully turn to him.
The angel song is not bestowed direct to the battlefield nor does it seep under the doors of palaces and temples – it comes to lowly, humble hearts –like those of shepherds – and they receive that peace when they go to the stable and gaze upon the infant king.
There was a lady whose job it was to put up the stable in the church, and she would take ages and ages positioning the figures, because every shepherd, every wise man and every animal, had to be making eye contact with the baby Jesus, and if you moved a figure, just an inch, then, Vicar or not, you were for it big time. But she was right – this peace which is so elusive comes only if you are prepared to be still before Jesus.(Oh but that’s so very twee vicar!)
The people of Israel are at the Red Sea – Pharaoh’s troops are bearing down upon them – the sea is whipped up into a frenzy ahead of them – Moses is being rubbished as the worst leader ever known – and in that turmoil what does God say – do you know what he says – he says – you have only to be still…and we just will not do that in the face of adversity, we will not go to the stable and do as we’re told. We just become more frantic and driven.
There’s another problem I have with stables in churches and that is – everyone stands in their little groups. The kings line up together and the shepherds are over the other side – animals pushed to the back. Don’t you think if there’s to be any chance of peace, they all need a bit of mixing up?
The most well to do king needs to be kneeling next to the smelliest shepherd. For peace comes when you are still before God and at ease in one another’s company- that’s why a church community really could be the place where the angel song starts coming true – where people meet for stillness alongside one another and before Christ.
Our sharing of the peace is where we start putting the impact of word and sacrament into action- we’re praying that the angel song might come true in each of us. It’s an urgent, vital moment of liturgy and of life.
As long as we don’t take it seriously, the angel song will continue to sound like wishful thinking.
Can the peace of the world really emerge from such simple actions, and from such an innocent approach? Can it be true that our response to Christmas has more far reaching consequences than we ever imagined, and that from tonight onwards we judge each and every word and each and every action from what we find in the stillness shared with Jesus and the unconditional loving of those alongside whom we kneel
Peace on earth and goodwill towards men. Here comes that angel song – let’s grab it and hold onto it this year.
RH 24.12.09