Christmas Day: Surprises!

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Isaiah 62:6-end; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:8-20

Christmas is about surprises. You’ve got to be careful here. Being whisked away on a romantic trip to Paris as a Christmas surprise. That’s a lot of brownie points. Though of course not this year. Camber Sands is a little less romantic but the English seaside is bracing at this time of year. “Bracing” is a particularly English word, which means “unpleasant but theoretically good for you in some unapparent and inexplicable way” I surprised my wife this week with a curry delivered to our house. She is vegetarian and she normally orders a chilli paneer curry. I thought I’d surprise her with a paneer masala with baby spinach.  It turned out to be a lumpy spinach slush with hidden cheese. She was surprised. Christmas is also often a time for proposals – and this may well be a good year for it with so many couples spending the holiday isolating or ruing failed travel plans. You can only watch Love Actually so many times.

The first Christmas was so surprising almost no one noticed it. You may have noticed how St Luke is keen to tell us who all the rulers of the day were. So we have Emperor Augustus, the great colonial emperor who took the Roman empire further in North Africa and Europe, but failing to keep hold of Germany, never managed to get those 5 extra armies for holding Europe. Then we have Quirinius – the name most stumbled over in carol services. He was very unpopular, not least for taking the census of Judea. Censuses tend to be followed by tax increases.

Luke gives us these details for historical context. But also as a comparison. The rulers of the day rarely thought the rules applied to them. But it’s here, in the manger, Luke is saying, that surprisingly, is the real king. born to peasants, his first guests shepherds, the poorest of the poor, Which reminds me a little of 3 years ago when Oberon was born, a week after we moved to Putney and on the day Rhiannon came home from hospital the churchwardens arrived to pay homage, but disappointingly did not bring gold, frankincense and myrrh.

All this is all a far shot from the palaces and Eton colleges of emperors and governors. There’s no royal fanfare, no cub lifting on pride rock; The surprise for Luke’s Gospel is that this great king, the most important person in history – whether you believe the hymn sheet or not – Is born in the most ordinary circumstances. And with no Christmas Card or photos in Hello.

There is much you could say about this. But now is not the time. But the so-called Pax Romana and the taxes and legislation are all ways of trying to organise and order people from the top down. The birth of Jesus starts something which is bottom up. A child, just as a creature to be loved, is something that turns a few people’s lives upside down. It’s deeply personal. Especially with some parents’ children. But Jesus will work this way, calling women and men, person by person to a different way of living. 

And while politicians try to have their way, telling us what to do, and sometimes even doing it themselves. This little boy shifted the course of the world by surprising us and showing us that it’s better to love than to rule. We still have the august Caesars and the grand Quiriniuses We still have the census and taxes. But we also have a king who operates not by power, but by love. And in the birth of a helpless child, we are surprised that God has come among us not wearing a suit at a work meeting, but naked in love.

So this Christmas render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But render to God what is God’s. Amen.