Archbishop of Canterbury's 2010 Christmas Sermon

From Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>
Date Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:10:06 -0800

Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Sermon

Posted On : December 25, 2010 12:41 PM | Posted By : Webmaster
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/12/25/ACNS4761

Related Categories: Lambeth

In his traditional Christmas sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr
Rowan Williams, focuses on how the birth of Jesus is but one stage of
the fulfilment of God's unchanging promise of support in the struggle
for human redemption, how 'the story of Jesus is the story of a God 
who
keeps promises'.

So Christmas is a time of coming to terms with God's all embracing and
redemptive love for us, despite the cost and the tragedy involved, the
human failures and betrayals. God, he asserts, despite our limitations
and the humiliation our weaknesses lay on him, realises " we cannot 
live
without him; and he accepts everything for the sake of our well-being"

In this Christmas context, Dr Williams urges us to first of all
contemplate our mutual dependence on our fellow human beings - our 
need
for a spirit of fellowship and loyalty to each other in sharing the
burdens of adversity in difficult economic times:

"Faced with the hardship that quite clearly lies ahead for so many in
the wake of financial crisis and public spending cuts, how far are we
able to sustain a living sense of loyalty to each other, a real
willingness to bear the load together? How eager are we to find some
spot where we feel safe from the pressures that are crippling and
terrifying others? As has more than once been said, we can and will 
as a
society bear hardship if we are confident that it is being fairly
shared; and we shall have that confidence only if there are signs that
everyone is committed to their neighbour, that no-one is just 
forgotten,
that no interest group or pressure group is able to opt out."

And he points to the need for us to work positively together in order 
to
rebuild trust:

"That confidence isn't in huge supply at the moment, given the massive
crises of trust that have shaken us all in the last couple of years 
and
the lasting sense that the most prosperous have yet to shoulder their
load. If we are ready, if we are all ready, to meet the challenge
represented by the language of the 'big society', we may yet restore
some mutual trust. It's no use being cynical about this; whatever we
call the enterprise, the challenge is the same - creating confidence 
by
sharing the burden of constructive work together."

In the same way, the Archbishop also urges us to embrace the meaning 
of
the forthcoming royal wedding, to recognise the significance of the
Christian bond of marriage as a symbol of hope for humanity:

"Next year, we shall be joining in the celebration of what we hope 
will
be a profoundly joyful event in the royal wedding. It is certainly 
cause
for celebration that any couple, let alone this particular couple,
should want to embark on the adventure of Christian marriage, because
any and every Christian marriage is a sign of hope, since it is a sign
and sacrament of God's own committed love. And it would be good to 
think
that I this coming year, we, as a society, might want to think 
through,
carefully and imaginatively, why lifelong faithfulness and the mutual
surrender of selfishness are such great gifts."

And in comparing Christian marriage with our covenantal relationship
with God, the Archbishop reflects on - not only the trials of 
marriage -
but also the inspirational examples of some marriages which he has 
seen:

"There will be times when we may feel stupid or helpless; when we 
don't
feel we have the energy or resource to forgive and rebuild after a
crisis or a quarrel; when we don't want our freedom limited by the
commitments we've made to someone else. Yet many of us will know
marriages where something extraordinary has happened because of the
persistence of one of the parties, or where faithfulness has survived
the tests of severe illness or disability or trauma. I admit, find
myself deeply moved at times when I speak with the families of
servicemen and women, where this sense of solidarity is often so 
deeply
marked, so generous and costly. As the prince and his fiance get ready
for their new step into solidarity together, they will have plenty of
inspiration around, more than you might sometimes guess from the 
chatter
of our culture.

And finally Dr Williams asks us to remember during this time of
Christian celebration our brothers and sisters in many lands who 
suffer
repression and persecution for their Christian faith:

"I remind you of our Zimbabwean friends, still suffering harassment,
beatings and arrests, legal pressures and lockouts from their 
churches;
of the dwindling Christian population in Iraq, facing more and more
extreme violence from fanatics - and it is a great grace that both
Christians and Muslims in this country have joined in expressing their
solidarity with this beleaguered minority. Our prayers continue for 
Asia
Bib in Pakistan and others from minority groups who suffer from the
abuse of the law by certain groups there. We may feel powerless to 
help;
yet we should also know that people in such circumstances are
strengthened simply by knowing they have not been forgotten. And if we
find we have time to spare for joining in letter-writing campaigns for
all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International and Christian
Solidarity worldwide will have plenty of opportunities for us to make
use of."

The full Christmas sermon text is below:

'This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet'.
Phrases like this echo like a refrain through the nativity stories in
the Gospels - and indeed the stories of Jesus' trial and death as 
well.
The stories of Jesus' birth and death were, from the very first, 
stories
about how God had kept his promise. The earliest Christians looked at
the records and memories of what had happened in and around the life 
of
Jesus and felt a sense of déjà vu: doesn't this remind you of...? 
Surely
this is the same as...?

Bit by bit, they connected up the details of the stories with a rich
pattern of events and images and ideas in Hebrew Scripture. Utterly
unexpected pregnancies - like Abraham's wife Sarah, or Hannah, mother 
of
the prophet Samuel. A birth in Bethlehem, where Jacob's wife died in
bringing to birth the last of the ancestors of Israel, where an
impoverished young widow from an enemy country was welcomed and made 
at
home, to become the grandmother of the great hero King David. 
Shepherds
in the fields of Bethlehem where young David had looked after his
father's flock before being called to be shepherd of the whole 
kingdom.
A star like the one foreseen by the ancient prophet Balaam as a sign 
of
Israel's victory; foreigners bringing gifts of gold and incense, as 
the
psalm describes foreign potentates bringing tribute to King Solomon . 
A
murderous attack on the children of God's people by a Godless tyrant, 
a
desperate flight and an exile in Egypt. The plain event at the centre 
of
it all, the birth of a child in a jobbing handyman's family, is
surrounded with so many echoes and allusions that it seems like the
climax of an immense series of great happenings; like the final
statement in a musical work of some theme that has been coming through
again and again, more and more strongly, in the earlier bars. The last
triumphant movement in God's symphony.

The story of Jesus is the story of a God who keeps promises. As St 
Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, 'however many the promises God made, the Yes
to them all is in him'. God shows himself to be the same God he always
was. He brings hope out of hopelessness - out of the barrenness of
unhappy childless women like Sarah and Hannah. He takes strangers and
makes them at home; he brings his greatest gifts out of those moments
when the barriers are down between insiders and outsiders. He draws
people from the ends of the earth to wonder - not this time at the 
glory
of Solomon but at the miracle of his presence among the humble and
outcast. He identifies with those, especially children, who are the
innocent and helpless victims of insane pride and fear. He walks into
exile with those he loves and leads them home again.

This is the God he has shown himself to be; and he has promised that 
he
will go on being the same God. 'I am who I am' he tells us; and 'I, 
the
Lord, do not change', and 'I will not fail you or forsake you.' When 
we
are faithless, he is faithful; when we seek to escape or even to 
betray,
he does not change. In what is perhaps the most unforgettable image in
the whole of Hebrew Scripture, God says that he has 'branded' or
'engraved' us on the palms of his hands (Is.49.16). He has determined
that he will not be who he is without us. And in this moment of climax
and fulfillment, in this last movement of the symphony, he shows in 
the
most decisive way possible that he will not be without us; he binds 
his
divine life to human nature. Never again can he be spoken of except in
connection with this human life that begins in the stable at 
Bethlehem.

From one point of view, then, a story of triumphant persistence. 
Nothing
has shaken God's decision to be with those he has loved and called, 
and
now nothing ever will. Nothing, as St Paul again says, can separate us
from what is laid bare in the life and death and resurrection of 
Jesus.
And yet from another point of view, it is a story of unimaginable cost
and apparent tragedy. For if God has chosen to be with us in this way,
he is associated with our weaknesses, humiliated by our betrayals,
exposed and vulnerable to our casual decisions to take our custom
elsewhere. In the book of the prophet Hosea, we see this depicted in
harrowing terms as the marriage of a faithful man to an unfaithful
woman, a marriage which the man refuses to accept is over. I suspect
that a good many of us have seen cases of a faithful woman sticking
obstinately to an unfaithful man. In human terms, such faithfulness is
likely to look naïve, foolish or just pointless self-punishing. But 
God,
it seems, knows that whatever limitation and humiliation our human
freedom lays on him, we cannot live without him; and he accepts
everything for the sake of our well-being.

Christmas is about the unshakeable solidarity of God's love with us, 
not
only in our suffering but in our rebellion and betrayal as well. One
mediaeval Greek theologian, deliberately out to shock, described as
God's 'manic passion', God's 'obsession'; manike eros. And so it is a
time to do some stocktaking about our own solidarity and fidelity, our
own promise-keeping.

There are at least three things we might ponder in that respect, 
seeking
to understand ourselves better in the light of the Christmas story. 
The
first is our solidarity with one another, in our society and our 
world,
our solidarity with and loyalty to our fellow-citizens and 
fellow-human
beings. Faced with the hardship that quite clearly lies ahead for so
many in the wake of financial crisis and public spending cuts, how far
are we able to sustain a living sense of loyalty to each other, a real
willingness to bear the load together? How eager are we to find some
spot where we feel safe from the pressures that are crippling and
terrifying others? As has more than once been said, we can and will 
as a
society bear hardship if we are confident that it is being fairly
shared; and we shall have that confidence only if there are signs that
everyone is committed to their neighbour, that no-one is just 
forgotten,
that no interest group or pressure group is able to opt out. That
confidence isn't in huge supply at the moment, given the massive 
crises
of trust that have shaken us all in the last couple of years and the
lasting sense that the most prosperous have yet to shoulder their 
load.
If we are ready, if we are all ready, to meet the challenge 
represented
by the language of the 'big society', we may yet restore some mutual
trust. It's no use being cynical about this; whatever we call the
enterprise, the challenge is the same - creating confidence by sharing
the burden of constructive work together.

The second is something quite different, but no less challenging. Next
year, we shall be joining in the celebration of what we hope will be a
profoundly joyful event in the royal wedding. It is certainly cause 
for
celebration that any couple, let alone this particular couple, should
want to embark on the adventure of Christian marriage, because any and
every Christian marriage is a sign of hope, since it is a sign and
sacrament of God's own committed love. And it would be good to think
that I this coming year, we, as a society, might want to think 
through,
carefully and imaginatively, why lifelong faithfulness and the mutual
surrender of selfishness are such great gifts. If we approach this in
the light of what we have just been reflecting on in terms of the
Christmas story of a promise-keeping God, we shall have no illusions
about how easy it is to sustain such long-term fidelity and 
solidarity.
There will be times when we may feel stupid or helpless; when we don't
feel we have the energy or resource to forgive and rebuild after a
crisis or a quarrel; when we don't want our freedom limited by the
commitments we've made to someone else. Yet many of us will know
marriages where something extraordinary has happened because of the
persistence of one of the parties, or where faithfulness has survived
the tests of severe illness or disability or trauma. I admit, find
myself deeply moved at times when I speak with the families of
servicemen and women, where this sense of solidarity is often so 
deeply
marked, so generous and costly. As the prince and his fiancée get 
ready
for their new step into solidarity together, they will have plenty of
inspiration around, more than you might sometimes guess from the 
chatter
of our culture. And we can all share the recognition that, without the
inspiration of this kind of commitment in marriage, our humanity would
be a lot duller and more shallow - and, for the believer, a lot less
transparent to the nature of the God who keeps his covenant.

And lastly, a point that we rightly return to on every great Christian
festival, there is our solidarity with those of our brothers and 
sisters
elsewhere in the world who are suffering for their Christian faith or
their witness to justice or both. Yet again, I remind you of our
Zimbabwean friends, still suffering harassment, beatings and arrests,
legal pressures and lockouts from their churches; of the dwindling
Christian population in Iraq, facing more and more extreme violence 
from
fanatics - and it is a great grace that both Christians and Muslims in
this country have joined in expressing their solidarity with this
beleaguered minority. Our prayers continue for Asia Bibi in Pakistan 
and
others from minority groups who suffer from the abuse of the law by
certain groups there. We may feel powerless to help; yet we should 
also
know that people in such circumstances are strengthened simply by
knowing they have not been forgotten. And if we find we have time to
spare for joining in letter-writing campaigns for all prisoners of
conscience, Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity worldwide
will have plenty of opportunities for us to make use of.

Economic justice and Christian marriage and solidarity with the
persecuted - very diverse causes, you might think. But in each case, 
the
key point is about keeping faith, sharing risks, recognising that our
lives belong together. And all this is rooted for us in that event in
which all God's purposes, all God's actions, what we might call all
God's 'habits of behaviour' with us come into the clearest focus. 
'This
was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken'; this was the 'Yes' to all 
the
promises. And what God showed himself to be in Hebrew Scripture, what 
he
showed himself to be in the life and death of the Lord Jesus, this is
what he ahs promised to be today and tomorrow and for ever. He cannot
betray his own nature, and so he cannot betray us. And by the gift of
the Spirit, we are given strength, in all these contexts we have
considered and many more, to let his faithful love flow through us, 
for
the fulfillment of more and more human lives according to his eternal
purpose and unshakeable love.

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