Sermon: Christmas 1 – Sunday 29th December 2024 – St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe (Eucharist)
Luke 2.41-52
Happy Christmas to you….!
I can say that in the full knowledge that it’s definitely Christmas now….
Not just “that bit between Christmas and New Year, when no-one knows what day it is….”
That lament often of working folk, wondering when they can return to normal life….!
Perhaps, like me, you endeavour to offer people a Christmas greeting, like I just did… and perhaps, like me, you are unsurprised by the response: “That was all so last week”!
Everyone wants to move on…. From being desperate to recreate a traditional Christ-massy moment, an Instagram-ready snapshot, a recollection, a point in time… or maybe something new… a special time for loved ones….
To moving on into whatever comes next…. New Year, and the possibilities or challenges of 2025….!
For many people, Christmas has many ‘moving parts’, a very long lead-time (what we call Advent) but a disappointingly brief shelf-life. The expectations are about memory, fun, tradition… and the making of more memorable fun traditions – for a shot while!
And without getting into ‘Christmas Traditions’ too deeply: doesn’t there seem to be a UK tradition of a suitably, seasonal animated film to ‘warm the cockles of your heart’!
Think, “The Snowman”, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse”…
Wallace and Gromit – various episodes – especially the new one, I wonder if you saw it?
Yet, on this First Sunday of Christmas, my sisters and brothers, I will commend to you an animation that made its debut last year – yes, I am of course talking about “Mog’s Christmas” – based on the children’s book by Judith Kerr, who also wrote “The Tiger Who Came to Tea” (not included in this sermon!).
In short, Mog (a cat), beloved by his human family, finds Christmas to be a bit over-stimulating and no longer feels welcome at home. I encourage you to read the book or watch the short film – on catchup….
The accompanying song, sung by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, has the refrain:
“I’ll never stray too far
My home is where you are
Nothing can go wrong as long as I belong, belong, belong
As long as I belong.”
I wonder, did you “belong” this Christmas? Do you know people that couldn’t, or wouldn’t, belong where they were? Christmas isn’t wonderful for everyone. The concept of “family” can become a tradition in and of itself. For many, it is quite the opposite of of joy.
Family can be stylised, romanticised, and generally over-cooked, in the images we see on the telly or in film etc.
We know life isn’t like that for most people – yet we just want it to be “right” – just for a little while….
Well behaved, contented children… well behaved contented relatives… Peace and harmony…. Or maybe peace and quiet, on your own….
Perhaps our ideas of Christmas are inline with how we might want Jesus to remain as a baby…. manageable and picturesque! And for our children to remain so, and not grow-up…. Relationships to prevail even when they don’t flourish.
Perhaps returning to work or your regular day-time schedules is where you feel a sense of belonging.
Stay still and all will be well, won’t it?
What does it take to “belong”?
In a moment, in a family, at the table….within your own story….?
Our sense of belonging is entirely built on emotions, and values, memories, circumstances and other people.
That is our humanity, revealed….
What happens when we dont belong? Are we willing to change?
The Jesus story invites us to make progress…
In the space of a few short days, our Gospel journey has moved from prophecy and the Messiah foretold, to the stable at Bethlehem, and then….
Saint Stephen, the First Martyr…
Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist…
The Holy Innocents – Joseph and his little family are rescued by a dream, but Herod slaughters all the babies….. always a grim passage to read….
And now, here we are with Luke’s Gospel, and a twelve year old Jesus is seemingly evading His family to be in the Temple. Did you see that coming?
Would your immediate response be one of concern for the whereabouts of a boy in your care?
In that society, Jesus would have been regarded as a young man. Care of the young was often shared by those outside the family. This isn’t a story of apparent parental neglect and subsequent shame.
And Jesus implies that He is surprised that they didn’t anticipate this!There is a sense that the writer of Luke’s Gospel wants us to move beyond the infant Jesus, who we cannot continually hold on to, no matter how comforting or relatable that may be. Our relationship with the Incarnation of God is mostly a bit more grown-up than the Christmas story reveals. Do you know what I mean??
So, are we always where we should be? Where we belong?
I don’t just mean the right place at the right time….I mean, when we are unsure where Jesus is, in our lives…. Do we go looking for Him?
God is always where God should be….
Jesus always places Himself where The Word is needed to be heard….
The Incarnation reveals to us that humanity is a place for God to dwell within, amongst, as one of us….
The Creator of all that has ever been, all there is now and will come to pass – finds a home in us…. A belonging… in you and in me – and everyone that we meet!
From this impossible, yet joyous hope, we can and we must ensure that all of humanity knows of this…. Not just from our scripture and traditions… and the things we take for granted – but from how we live our lives and reveal that hope to everyone we meet…. In the Light of Christ that we bear….
As Disciples of Jesus we live with the unexpected.
God in Christ cannot and will not be put in a box, categorised and summarised with presumption….!
This makes me think of how CS Lewis describes Aslan, in the Narnia stories – never safe, always a Lion, yet eternally hopeful and approachable.
We look for Jesus in familiar places – in church, scripture, hymns, tradition – YES!
And yet we might have to look for Jesus with more rigour, more effort, more imagination… beyond the familiar, outside of comfort.
Jesus will always be ‘about His Father’s work’…. We should know this! And that will always be where He belongs… but that might not look like something we recognise, or want to make our own place of belonging.
Yet in our searching, we will find our lives changing, in prayer, in action and stillness, by Gods grace, as we are transformed….
Back to Mog….
I want to say that is takes understanding and effort, from all quarters, to make it all right… however the story is about a cat… all things are possible!
I will reveal no spoilers except to say it all comes good in the end!
What about us? Perhaps this time of year prompts certain ideas or memories, something that inspires or cautions; maybe our response is to seek change or to stay right where we are.
How might our lives change dynamically in the Holy Spirit?
Will we seek the place where we belong?
This time next week, it will be a new year….
What will that mean for you – for all of us, in this world often darkened by disaster and war?
Where will you belong, in the days to come?
Perhaps you will return to work, or continue the daily caring for someone.
Maybe you know you belong wherever or whenever you are alone, or with others.
Perhaps your long journey to belonging is not complete.
Maybe you have had to restart such a journey of belonging many times over…. I know I have.
Think about where you belong in this life…
How others might struggle to be happy where they are…
And how the Christ, born in a stable, is dynamic in the outpouring of God’s grace, in showing us the way to go and in being and belonging wherever love must be….
Our present and future commands us to keep looking for where Christ is active – calling us to be present there, with Him – to learn and take our part…
Think about all of that, this week…
God will never stray far…
For God’s home is where we are….
All will be well, for with God, I belong, I belong… we belong.
Amen.
Image: Promo pic for “Mog’s Christmas” (2023) Channel 4
Song: As Long As I Belong (Arnold, D. 2023) from “Mog’s Christmas” OST sung by Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Are we where we’re meant to be? (La-la-la-la-la-la)
Holding hands around a Christmas tree (la-la-la-la-la-la)
We should be together in everything we do
Knowing you are there for me, and I am there for you
I can’t change the way I’m made (la-la-la-la-la-la)
I won’t be everybody’s cup of tea (la-la-la-la-la-la)
They don’t need to worry, I am doing fine
There’s happy people all around
And all of them are friends of mine
I’ll never stray too far
My home is where you are
Nothing can go wrong as long as I belong, belong, belong
As long as I belong
I’ll come back down one day soon (la-la-la-la-la-la)
But first, I’ll try and touch the moon (la-la-la-la-la-la)
No one’s being busy up here where I can hide
But I won’t stay away too long, they all like me to stay inside
I’ll never stray too far
My home is where you are
Nothing can go wrong as long as I belong, belong, belong
As long as I belong
I’ll never stray too far
My home is where you are
Nothing can go wrong as long as I belong, belong, belong
As long as I belong, belong, belong
As long as I belong.
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