For the twelve days of Christmas I'll continue to blog (yes, my more Catholic friends, I know Christmas continues until Candlemas) but I'll try and do something a bit different each day.
This is my sermon from this morning's all age service, it started life as a very short homily for a carol service, revamped and extended for today.
What’s your favourite Christmas film? Is it an old black and white classic like “It’s a wonderful Life?” Or maybe a timeless classic we all know, retold again and again, like “A Christmas Carol” (I like the Muppets version the best) or is it a more modern feel-good family comedy like “Elf”?
We all have our favourite- maybe even a few- and we might even have traditions that go with watching them- there’s an advert isn’t there with a mum and daughter watching A Sound of Music together over the years? I couldn’t tell you what it’s advertising, but I did get a lump in my throat as the little girl grows up and watches the film with her own daughter.
Maybe your special film is a full family event, snuggled up in onesies with hot chocolate or mulled wine for the grown-ups; there might be bits where you interact with the film, singing along or quoting parts of the film together out loud. Whichever film is our favourite – and we might have several – Christmas films undoubtedly have one thing in common: their stories or plots are almost always redemption stories, of one sort or another:
In “It’s a Wonderful Life" George Bailey, feeling he’s let everyone down and seriously thinking about ending his life on Christmas Eve, gets to see, thanks to Clarence the angel, how much worse off people would have been without him. He goes back to his family a changed man, ready to face the troubles ahead, and is rewarded with unthinkable kindness…and of course Clarence gets his wings.
As any of our younger church members studying it for GCSE will know, “A Christmas Carol” shows Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from lonely, unloved miser to the beating heart of his community. He’s shown his past, how it’s made him the man he is and what the direct consequences of his actions mean in the present day and in the future. His redemption leads to a very different future filled with love, hope and life, benefitting everyone around him.
Now who loves “Elf”? In this film we see how Buddy the Elf’s dad, Walter, a modern-day Scrooge, has his heart transformed through his relationship with Buddy. He begins to embrace Christmas and is able to have a loving relationship with both his sons.
These are definitely the type of story we want from a good Christmas film – the feel-good factor. These stories of redemption and hope reflect what’s at the heart of the Christmas story itself, although rather than being the story of one person’s redemption, Christmas is the the story of everyone’s redemption and it happens through love- at Christmas God so loved the world that he sent his only son- we all know those words, in our films it’s love of family, friends or community- something provokes and stirs the hearts of our characters.
George, Ebenezer and Walter, don’t redeem themselves; each of them needs a catalyst or a spark, usually driven by an experience of love, to help them realise the error of their ways and put them on the right path to redemption.
There’s a less well-known Christmas Carol, although I’m sure many of us will know it, the words go this this:
Love came down at Christmas
Love, a lovely love divine
Love was born at Christmas
Stars and angels gave the sign
Love will be our token
Love be yours, and love be mine
Love from God to all of us
Love for plea and gift a sign
It’s love that provokes the change in our film characters, love which is central to the message of Christmas, and love that caused the divine, God himself, to enter our earthly lives as a tiny helpless baby, the catalyst or spark that can cause that outpouring of love in each of us.
The baby in the manger reminds us there are infinite possibilities available to us, and we celebrate that in this whole season of good cheer, gift-giving, and community. For us here this is all about our life as a community, a bunch of people coming together to worship God and to share his love with the world. Christmas gives us the chance to connect with the wider community in Flixton, to raise that spark of something within them, as it did with me when I first walked through those doors for the Nine Lessons and Carols service 16 years ago.
Just the fact that on that evening I was hiding in a side pew, and now I’m stood here is proof that with God’s love anything really is possible!
The magic of Christmas and of course the Christmas films we love, is a taste of what’s possible if we humans could sort ourselves out and really love each other. Jesus as a helpless vulnerable baby symbolizes new life and the potential we all have to be dedicated to a love of “the other” – the things and people so dramatically different from ourselves and our experiences that we don’t always understand them.
As so much of our Christmas celebrations here at St Michaels and how we connect with people at Christmas is to do with singing, like our Christingle services or carolling in the Church Inn, I was reminded of something in Elf which I think reflects the love at the heart of Christmas: The Elf Code, which goes as follows:
1.Treat Every Day Like Christmas. Every day is a day of endless possibilities, a chance to spread love, to give hope and show that really, we humans aren’t so bad. If we can remember each day the gift God has given us, hopefully it’ll inspire us to open our hearts fully each day.
2.There's Room for Everyone on the Nice List. No-one is beyond redemption, this is the whole reason why God came to us to live amongst us. The whole reason for our Christmas celebrations. Everyone has the potential to have their hearts touched by God’s love.
3.The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear.
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