Christmas sermon

Scripture passage: Luke 2:8-14

The past two times I have come here, I have spoken from the beatitudes. These are the blessings that Jesus gives at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. First we looked at Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and last time, in October, we looked at Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

I want to look at the third beatitude today: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. But since it’s Christmas in a few days I also want to tie this into our passage from the Gospel of Luke where the angels announce the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Fortunately, I think the two passages work well together.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Meek is a word that I don’t like very much because it has come to mean something different from what Jesus meant. I usually think that meek means weak, spineless – a meek person being one who is easily pushed around.  

But Jesus means something different. In the Greek, the word is praus. This can be translated as gentle, which is quite different than weak. Also, in those days war horses were described with the word praus. War horses were strong, but their strength was controlled, harnessed, bridled so that they would obey their masters’ every commands.

A pastor once defined meekness for me with the image of a very strong man gently holding a baby in his arms. It would be foolish to ask which one would win in a fight – but the strong man is controlling his strength, holding it back because he does not want to harm the baby. The strong man here is being meek.

Thus, meekness is the combination of strength and gentleness. It is harnessed strength. The meek are those who use their strength, their power, for God’s purposes and in obedience to God.

I think of Jesus’ words to his disciples when they were arguing over which one of them was greatest: ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves’ (Luke 22:25-26).

This brings us to our passage from the Gospel of Luke because the angels announce the news of Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, who help us understand meekness.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ (Luke 2:8-14)

Miriam and I live in Cumbria, where there are many sheep – and a few shepherds and farmers as well. Farmers need to be strong. They work seven days a week, getting up early every morning and following a strict regimen, maintaining their equipment, buildings and livestock. They also need to be strong with their animals, holding down the sheep when they are shearing them or clipping their nails. But they must also be gentle. If a sheep is giving birth, it needs to be able to trust the farmer. If the farmer has been harsh, the sheep will try to run away. Farmers thus illustrate meekness, as they combine strength with gentleness.

But it’s not only the shepherds who are meek. Through the birth of Jesus, we understand the meekness of God.

God is beyond all that we can know and comprehend; he is a mystery. His ways are above our ways, and his thoughts are beyond our thoughts.

But on Christmas we celebrate something that, to our knowledge, never happened before: God became a man. The same God who created time and space, our world and humanity, entered into time and space and was born of the Virgin Mary. He limited himself and became one of us.

As it says in the Gospel of John, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Not only did God become a man. He came into the world in the form of a baby – a vulnerable human, dependent on others – and was not born in a palace or even a hospital, but in a place where the animals lived, lying in a feeding trough.

Strength with gentleness. Power with humility. Divinity fused with humanity.

One church father, St Athanasius, put it this way: ‘God became what we are that we might become what he is.’ God became a human so that humans could become like God.

This is what we mean by holiness: God transforming our very nature so that we become like Christ, who is God.

Why did God do such an amazing thing?

God did this in order to save us. As the angel says, Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you.

We know that Jesus saves us through his death and resurrection. Jesus, because he was God, lived a righteous life and when he died on the cross, he offered to God the perfect, final sacrifice on behalf of our sins. Because he was also man, his offering was on behalf of the human race. Thus his death saves us from sin.

When he rose again, he trampled upon death, conquering it, and thus his resurrection saves us from death. We believe that all who die in Christ will be raised with him.

But we often forget how Jesus’ birth saves us. It saves us because by becoming a human, God united humanity with divinity. He has opened the door for humans to be united with God in a way never possible before. He was never far from us, but now, in Christ, he has become one of us, knowing us more closely than we know ourselves.

St Athanasius says that God’s becoming a human is like when a king takes up residence in a village. Or imagine if the Queen moved into Heysham. No enemy would dare attack the village because the king/queen would be protected – and thus so would the village.

In the same way, now that God has become one of us – moved into the neighbourhood, so to speak – the enemy, the devil and his demons, are scattered. Throughout Jesus’ life we see him casting out demons, and the demons shrieking in terror because they realise he is the Son of God.

Jesus is our Saviour because he is God. If he were merely a human being, even a righteous human being, he would not have the power to save us by uniting us with God. Only God can save us, and in Christ, he has.

There are three things we can take away from this.

First, remember what the angel told the shepherds: ‘This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Just as baby Jesus was wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger, so too he wants to be wrapped in us. We are to be the mangers in which he lives.

Joseph was a carpenter, so I imagine he knew just what was needed to prepare the manger and the room where Jesus was born. I imagine he and Mary took great care to make sure Jesus was warm and comfortable, finding the right cloths to cover him with.

Miriam and I are in the process of moving house. As you will know, there is much work one must do before one can live in a house. Decorations, sorting out the utilities, cleaning, repairs. And the work doesn’t end when you move in. You have to maintain the house, constantly cleaning it and looking after it.

In the same way, we must prepare our hearts for Christ. God gives us his Son and his Spirit as a gift, but we must do our part in making sure he can make a home in us. As the Apostle Paul writes, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

How can we be fit mangers and temples to carry Christ within? What must we clear away from our lives and relationships that are contrary to Christ? What can we ‘furnish’ our hearts with so that Christ lives in us more fully?

Even if we have been Christians for many years, our hearts can become cluttered with habits and behaviours that oppose Christ, so we need to be vigilant in our maintenance so that we belong wholly to Christ.

Second, God’s becoming a human in Christ means that he is with us. We face challenges, struggles, pain, and illness – but we do not face them alone. God has taken on flesh, and so he understands our weakness, and has triumphed over it. Christ lives in us, and works with us to overcome our trials. The battle is not ours alone; Christ is fighting with us, and in him we are victorious. He is transforming us into the image of his Son, who is complete and perfect.

Third, let us be meek like the shepherds. Not many of us are shepherds or farmers by trade, but you might be in a similar role as parents, grandparents, teachers, caregivers. You might shepherd people through your leadership, guidance or care.

How can you use your power to serve them, to build them up for God’s glory, to show them the gentle strength of God?

It is to the meek that God came: to the shepherds, to obedient Joseph, to righteous Mary; to the wise men who, though they were kings, humbled themselves in worship to Christ.

So too it is to the meek that Christ comes today. It is the meek – those who use their strength in service to God – that will inherit Christ and his kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.

When Jesus was born, the world saw the beginning of that union of earth and heaven. Through us, through his Church, he desires to continue being born into the world, transforming and saving it so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. This is because of his great love for us and for the world.

For this amazing salvation that has come and is still coming to us in Christ, let us praise God, along with the angels: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people on whom his favour rests!