By Revd George Mwaura

Isaiah 9: 2–7 & Luke 2: 1–14

Wonderful Saviour, thank you for incarnating on earth to save the world. Through your redemptive earthly life that began on Christmas Eve and finished on the cross, you have made it possible for all humanity to connect with God for eternity. Thanks be to God for his word made flesh, Jesus our Emmanuel.

Amen

This night, is of course a special night for obvious reasons. Tonight, God came down and became one of us in the child born in Bethlehem. But this Christmas is even more special in light of the events of the last eighteen months. I think it is true to say that, for each one of us, there are some things and not just one that really define Christmas. For example, if I asked you to complete this sentence for me, what would you say? ‘Christmas would not be Christmas without     .’ What? ‘Without watching Home Alone and playing a game of Scrabble’? As you can see, there are many and varied things that help to round up the Christmas experience. Into this mix, throw in a pandemic, a nationwide shortage of food, HGV drivers and health care workers and our traditional Christmas is terribly watered down. Last year Christmas was definitely odd … Fewer people at the dinner tables and more Facetime online encounters … .

Here at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, we closed the doors for the first time in many years and had to do with online Christmas services. But, it was not the same. I missed the hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers, the cheesy Christmas tunes belting from the shops, the fellowship singing, the mulled wine and the mince pies that I am not even supposed to eat, but I usually eat anyway.

The thing is, so many of our Christian festivities involve gathering and, when we face restrictions, our world is turned upside down. So, even though we did meet and wished each other a merry Christmas on Zoom, it was not the same and certainly, the Zoom coffee after the service did not have the same aroma as the one in the Guildhall.

This year, thanks be to God, with millions of jabs, double jabs and booster jabs in people’s arms, we can meet face to face, albeit with precaution. We gather cautiously, conscious that there are far too many of our sisters and brothers who still do not enjoy this freedom because of underlying health reasons. Some are still isolating eighteen months down the line and I want us to remember them and pray for them for it cannot be easy being stuck in the house for almost two years!

The beginning of the church was a result of people gathering on the day of Pentecost and the first Christmas was all about gathering too. Thankfully, no pandemic interrupted the heavenly event of the birth of Jesus even though Herold tried to make life miserable for everyone. Imagine trekking eighty miles to register for census while riding a donkey and being nine months pregnant? Ouch!

If the birth of Jesus happened last year or this year, Joseph and Mary would have found plenty of suitable accommodation at any motel, due to the thousands of cancellations in the hospitality industry. Shepherds with sanitised hands would enter through a one-way system to see the baby and sanitise again on their way out. The wise men would definitely not make it! Why? Because they would be travelling from a red- list country and would need to quarantine for ten days. They would send an apologetic WhatsApp message to Mary and Joseph for bringing only myrrh and frankincense as gold was not available due to supply problems in China. A g4 security guard might even over hear them complaining that they were running out of money as they had to fork out £2385 for a quarantine hotel as well as buying day 2 and day 8 PCR test kits… Yeah, it would be a different Christmas even for Jesus!

But thankfully for you and me, God did not remain socially distanced then or even now…so even with the restrictions, Christmas is still Christmas. It does not take carols, gifts, Scrabble games, Christmas movies, tree lighting or food to make Christmas. Christmas is Christmas because God chose to come down and be with humanity at its darkest moment. That same God is still with us now in our struggles with the pandemic, climate change, disappointments, shortages and a host of other problems we want to forget right now. So, whether you are with your loved ones this Christmas or alone dreaming of those days gone by when you could hold a Christmas party for forty people in a one-bedroomed house, have a merry Christmas and remember Christ is not socially distancing. He is there with you whatever your circumstances.

Merry Christmas!