Born this Happy Morning

O Come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant
O Come ye, O Come ye, to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels

O Come let us adore him, O come let us adore him
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

Yay, Lord, we greet thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to thee be glory given
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing

O Come let us adore him, O come let us adore him
O Come let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

Dawn breaks on Christmas Day 2004 in Britain. A wintry blanket of white covers many parts already, but here in Feltham we still await that finishing touch, like the icing on the choicest Christmas cake, to adorn the most special day of the year. The sun is rising and unto us a Son is given! Beaming like the indescribable smile on the faces of new parents, today's sunshine pierces the gloom of our winter lives as the best news ever published is once again proclaimed from the churchtops if not the redtops.
Bells tell the ancient story, the good news, the gospel. The message of joy is preached wherever the name of Christ is known and once again men and women are reminded that despite our legion of faults and failures, God who made us still loves us!

Yet to many today, the event that gave this most special of all birthdays its name, means little. I don't self-righteously condemn their ignorance of Jesus Christ, his life and teaching- but I do feel passionate sorrow that they have not received yet the most precious gift anyone can ever receive: the most wonderful news that true life is eternal, undying, and full of joy because Jesus came into our world and grew to give his whole self for us. Greater love has no man than this.
Life has meaning. However humble, however wretched it may seem, or however famous or prosperous it may be, it is precious to the God who made islands and highlands, amoeba and asteroid, blue whales and slimy snails, mountain peaks and oceans deeps cosy firelight and lover's moonlight.
I've strived in these past four months to apply something of my own passion at working with language to express something of who I am and how I see the world, and hope that you have found some pleasure and maybe fellow feeling in reading my efforts. I didn't start out intending to make this an evangelical forum nor a virtual pulpit, but as I say in my profile, if you want to see the real me, then you have to read of my Lord more often than not too.
Yet somehow, any words I write seem strangely inadequate for a day like today. Repeated though it is every 365 days, or 366 in the case of this year, no human attempt at communication can fully convey the majesty and the glory of Christmas Day. It can never lose its unique place in mine and countless other human hearts, believers or not. The celebration of Christ's nativity may have started as a counter to the pagan feasts of Saturnalia, Yule and such like, with their promise of the return of the sun after months of darkness, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. There is a longing, a yearning in the human heart for brighter hopes and better tomorrows which has about it a universal quality understood by all. We have all experienced walking in darkness, and it is a very worrying experience.
But Jesus is God's way of showing us that the future is bright, and it has nothing to do with strangely-coloured mobile telephones but everything to do with telling it on the mountains, over the hills and everywhere- that Jesus Christ is born. Hymn-writers and homily preachers have tried to express it for centuries; some succeed with profundity, such as Charles Wesley- who managed the not easy task of transforming a very popular inn song to one of the most moving of all Christmas hymns:

Mild, he lays his glory by
Born that Man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark the Herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born king!

The most complete account in the Bible narratives of Jesus' birth is found in the familiar but never failing account given by the Jewish doctor Luke. I guess if he were here today he might be the Robert Winston of his day, marvelling at new life and doing everything to help expectant mothers. If you are unfamiliar with the account of Jesus' birth, follow this link:

http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/luke21.htm
Or use your Christmas book token to buy a bible!

However, as I said earlier, words are so often inadequate to convey the simple yet profound truth at the heart of the Christmas story. Philosophers, psychologists, theologians, thinkers, doers, movers and shakers may all have their try and even this would-be professional communicator tried his best with the privilege of leading Christmas Day worship at a local Methodist church four years ago. But I realised then that the most insightful words about Christmas were written twenty centuries ago, many believe by the man closest to the heart and mind of Jesus, his best friend if you like. I can add nothing to the words of St John, except to wish you once again a peaceful, joyful Christmas- and the delight of surprised discovery, even of the Word of God!

Chapter 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God. 1:3 All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it. 1:6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 1:7 The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him. 1:8 He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light. 1:9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.

1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him. 1:11 He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. 1:12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name: 1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 1:14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.