Midnight Mass of the Nativity

Readings:  Isaiah 52:7-10, Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1: 1-14

So as Adam said in the garden, “It’s Christmas, Eve.”  Welcome to the celebration which transforms our lives, the Birth of Jesus Christ. When I was reflecting on what had transformed my life in 2021, one was the NHS without which I would only have one arm, and secondly this community which constantly both challenges and energises me. The pandemic has forced us to ask of ourselves, what is really valuable for you and for me? What is our treasure?    For myself, I came back to the same answer- the love of family friends and community, which I have resolved never to take for granted - oh, and of course, Netflix and home cooked food. 2021 has been a deeply challenging year, but at the end of it, this transforming celebration gives me the two aspects of Christmas I'd like to speak about at this Midnight Mass, and both relate to peace – the Pax Romana and the Pax Christi.

The Pax Romana. The Christmas stories that we read about in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and the prologue to John’s Gospel are specific contradictions to the idea of the Pax Romana. They assert boldly and clearly that it is not Caesar Augustus’ who is Prince of Peace and Lord of All but rather Jesus the Christ. Not peace through stockpiling vaccines but rather peace through freedom, equality and justice, through respect for the dignity and value of every human being. There are of course some very real parallels with our own time. We too live under a kind of Pax Romana. The market led approaches to peace we have seen over the last few generations no longer provide us with quite the peace we need. This market-shaped peace has had a particular way of understanding what it is to be human. First that we are individuals complete in ourselves – we do not need anybody else, just the ability to spend and consume.  Second that we are simply and inherently competitive, and that we will as a matter of instinct always pursue our own interests. Me first. Further, the endless pursuit of self-interest will lead by some miracle to the common good. There is no room here to acknowledge that we are also naturally cooperative and can be sublimely selfless. On the one hand this makes us consumers seeking more and more ‘things’ to make us happy and on the other we become commodities ourselves, useful only in so far as we are able to consume. Of course markets and prosperity are important but God knows that we need an alternative to save us from what can only be described as a wasteland. What then in our own time does Christian faith have to offer? What is our alternative story?

Here we come to the Pax Christi- the Peace of Christ. What is this? The Pax Christi starts from here - this birth changes everything, which is one of the main reasons why in Orthodox iconography the birth of Christ takes place not in a stable but in a cave – as the cave symbolises the human heart. We become, through this birth, a new humanity. Some of the recent series on Netflix about Artificial Intelligence have helped me realise this – they pose the question which many say will be the only question for the 21st century – what makes the human person?  What makes you and me human?  The answer lies in what we celebrate today – God unites himself to humanity, so that humanity may continue its journey towards God – as T S Eliot wrote, “In my end is my beginning.” In a year which has seen the continuing effects of the global pandemic, I take a simple example from this rapidly growing church.  People feel lost in the secular desert in which we now live, where we see leadership failure at the highest level – especially in The Church of England and in Government. In this scenario, people feel lost and bewildered, so it is no surprise that people need hope to sustain and energise.  We have seen the rapid growth of this church in the last year. Why? For me, the reason for this is obvious. In the climate of fear during the pandemic, our message has been absolutely clear which we repeat again and again “ Do not be afraid.”  And so we have kept the church open every day in the last year, never closing once.  As people need food from shops and supermarkets, so people equally need spiritual food from their open Parish Church even more. Of course, there has been the poor substitute of online worship, but you cannot eat and be sustained online. And as the Desert fathers and mothers always pointed out, “ Your life and your death is with your neighbour.” And who our neighbours are is  also absolutely clear for us – we now have four linguistic communities worshipping here, in addition to English language. For the Church, there is no us and them. And the example of the Filipino community here over the last week has been spiritually energising – for the last nine days, the Filipino community has held a well attended nightly Mass at 8.00pm followed by food.  This is an example of pure faithfulness, and of living in hope without fear. And over the past decade we have seen a fourfold increase in the numbers of people regularly attending this church.  Here is the Pax Christi - we are a part of God, because God becomes part of us.

This is the Pax Christi and answers the question “What makes us human?”  The second century church Father Irenaeus wrote this “The Glory of God is a human being – fully alive.” What we celebrate tonight makes us fully alive – in fact buzzing with life, as through we had had several Red Bulls for breakfast. And we can and will do our part in making 2022 a real year of hope, where we work at demonstrating a more hopeful, and therefore Godlier, world order. With the rise of individualistic secularism, the Church offers a new and different way. And we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pope Francis, who responded to the European Commission’s proposal to drop all references to Christmas by trashing it.  The proposal was dropped.  This the new and life-giving way which we will continue to offer in this Church. Here, we build the new humanity.  Over the last year, we have continued to work here with the Probation Service, and I see new hope emerging all the time out of lives seemingly wrecked. When I visited someone in prison, he said to me, “I’m at rock bottom now, and life can only get better.”  That’s the job of all of us, the new humanity, the Pax Christi. In 2022, this will be our message.  No closure. No surrender to market forces.  No acceptance of bleak secular individualism but building the new humanity- together.

This Midnight Mass is often a poignant time of year for individuals.  We all bring our own stories to this celebration, and for most people these stories are mixed- some good, some bad, some achievements, some failures, some foolishnesses, some regrets, loss and bereavement.    So, whether this last year has been one you want to forget or whether it’s been a good year, may you know that you yourself are the glory of God, as a human being, fully alive.  The birth of Jesus Christ changes everything, as we live it year by year, and as Christ is born in the cave of my heart, so I am changed.  We are changed. We are transformed.  We are born again. May this continue to be true for all of us, and may 2022 be for our whole world a year of grace and wonders through the birth of Jesus who brings the Pax Christi – the Peace of Christ.