Christmas Address: No Doom No Vroom!

(Hebrews 4.1-4)

I wonder what we think of when we consider the phrase ‘Christmas Spirit’ – I guess many of us think of closeness, of giving tokens of love and friendship, of happiness and all being right on the domestic front, a break from work, a chance to go to Church again, or for a change. That’s the way I’ve tended to think – now though I’ve changed a bit, this year’s had a strange affect on me. Now when I think of Christmas spirit I tend to think of apocalypse and hope – and I think that way because its exactly what we need – it is only by thinking apocalyptic and hopeful thoughts that we can get a move on, and we certainly need that. Let me explain.

Here comes the end of the year and with it our many perspectives on what kind of year it was. What kind of year was it for you? Did it fulfil all your wildest hopes and dreams, and some? Was it average, or just plain horrible? I guess there’ll have been a bit of everything for each of us; some wonderful stuff, some horribleness and some things which were just plain average.

And if we had someone here to prophesy into our next years, to tell us of the term that lies ahead of the end of this one, I guess again then such a prophet could tell us of the hopes and dreams we didn’t realize it was worth having. The same prophet could warn us of the horriblenesses that do lie ahead for us and speak of the average and mundane as well.

Fortunately, though, we don’t usually get subjected to either a blow by blow analysis of the events past or future for ourselves – we do, though, get it about world out there according to the news media. Dominant on the screen over the next few weeks will be the worst, the biggest, the bleakest events of the year for us to contemplate once again. And analysts will sit down to make their predictions for the future of the world markets, of politics, of the weather and global warming, of war and rumours of wars.

Some of what we hear will be quite negative and laden with a sense that everything is doomed – that there’s no way out and that all that is good is coming to the end. The list of doom is quite long these days

Global warming, the ozone hole, overpopulation, starvation and malnutrition, war, unemployment, the destruction of species and the rain forests, pollution of water and air, pesticide and herbicide poisoning, errors in genetic engineering, erosion of topsoil, overfishing, anarchy and crime, the possibility of a nuclear mishap, chemical warfare or all-out nuclear war: together, or in some cases singly, these dangers threaten to "catch us unexpectedly, like a trap."

… when you hear this list how does it feel?

Apocalypse Now, that’s what I feel,

Apocalypse Now – the lyrics from the Doors opened the film of the same name – they sang:

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand
In a...desperate land
Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

I feel this gloom at the close of the year. The harbingers of doom have spoken.

Now you are probably all starting to wish you hadn’t come to this blessed carol service, with a gloomy Jeremiah of a Chaplain filling your Christmas cheer with a few lead weights.

Here’s the good news though -- Having a sense of the apocalyptic is exactly what we need, especially because its Christmas. We need it because it is only when the prophets of doom begin to speak that we start to think about what we are going to do. It is only when someone says ‘it can’t go on like this’ that we can decide what course of action we want to take.

So the writer of the letter to the Hebrews explains

(Hebrew 4 verse 1) ‘Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,’

The Doors aren’t the first prophets of doom, there’s been plenty before – why declare doom – God did it, the prophets did it, the pundits do it to give us all a choice – and the choice is plain, we have one of two options – we get stuck or we do something about it.

Walter Wink a political theologian from the US speaks of apocalyptic negativity and apocalyptic positivity – we can listen to the doom merchants and became frozen in terror that’s the negativity, or we can hear, change course, even slightly and then perhaps alleviate the doom that is being declared. It’s a bit like no pain, no gain: I’d say ‘no doom no vroom’.

But there’s more – it doesn’t end with doom –

Rather than God leaving us to get ourselves sorted out by listening to the doom merchants he gives us something else, someone else who doesn’t just bring us doom, but brings us hope. God brings something greater than a messenger – God brings himself to us.

The passage goes on (Hebrew 4 verse 2) ‘but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds’.

Rather than keeping on giving us news of the end of the world, God at Christmas in the birth of Jesus gives to the world ‘the heir of all things’ that is the one who has ownership, has responsibility for us all. Jesus is the the very opposite of destruction – Jesus represents the all that is and all that was and all that will ever be – Jesus is the beginning of all things, Jesus is the force that continues all things and completes them too.

It was doom that brought Jesus to us – it is because there is always impending apocalypse that Jesus comes – so that when we stir from action, we can stir not just driven by the fear of destruction. Jesus comes so that we can shift from looking into the face of disaster and turn to look into the face of hope.

Too often our world gives us apocalyptic sentiment which freezes us, even if it is meant to inspire us into action. And even if we get hold of apocalyptic positivity – the desire to change the direction of things only slightly to save us from disaster, then still God says ‘that isn’t enough’ no God gives us more than that.

As Hebrews 4 verses 3 and 4 puts it: ‘He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains* all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

It is the greatness and this power for hope, hope for the now, hope for all that will be that God has gifted us with this Christmas. The hope of sins forgiven, the hope of power greater than millions of angels, power greater than all things; that’s the message of Christmas – hope to transform our fear, hope to move us beyond the deathliness of apocalypse, hope to lead us farther up and farther in. That’s the spirit, that’s the Christmas spirit, that’s the message, that’s what we’re all waiting for.

And if we dare to believe it, and receive the love God shows in Jesus, we can let go of the fear of the death of things, and embrace the hope of the beginning of all that will be with Jesus, from here to eternity. Then, we can pray in true Christmas Spirit because we will share our Christmasses with the source of Christmas hope – Jesus the Christ. Then we will be able to pray with him: ‘for all that has been; thanks, for all that will be, yes’.

Amen.