8^th January 2013

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Christmas Eve 2012

Lessons - Isaiah 49:5,6; Colossians 1:15-20; John 1:1-18

The slick marketing of carols is enough to make Christians weary and grumpy at the way the birth of Jesus is cheapened and trivialised at Christmas. Tonight, it is a delight to sing and meditate on a less well known carol from the 4th Century that expresses the profundity of the Incarnation. (Australian Hymn Book 418.)

It matches the opening verses of John's Gospel where John invites us to see a new start for humanity (like the creation of the world) in the incarnation of God's 'grace and truth'. He wants us to see that, at a decisive time in history, the creative power which has always worked invisibly behind the universe became embodied (1:14).

The unequalled magnificence of this event is, as the hymn says, to be greeted in 'silence' marked by 'fear and trembling' [holy awe] (v1). At times of impending crises in Israel the prophets Habbakuk (2:20, about 600
BC) and Zechariah (2:10ff, about 500 BC) instructed the people to be silent and listen for a word from the Lord. People were often speechless at what Jesus said and did. Mark ends with the terrified women fleeing the empty tomb and saying nothing to anyone (16:8).

Silence is the proper reaction to God's presence - not that we should reject the noisy world and become 'so spiritually-minded that we are no earthly good'. To 'ponder nothing earthly-minded' (v1) is, like Mary (Luke 2:16), to think about the magnificence of the singular event in which 'Christ our God (no less) comes to earth'. Who would have thought that the transcendent God would come into the midst of our strife-torn world to restore us to life?

The hymn expresses what the Nicene Creed affirms: that Jesus Christ is of one Being with the Father, true God of true God, Light from Light (v3).
And, while it affirms the deity of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, it also affirms his humanity. Christ is a 'flesh and blood person'
who was 'born of Mary' and 'stood on earth' 'in human vesture' (v2). It is a splendid summing up of the paradox of the Incarnation!

The magnificence of the Incarnation reaches the climax in verses 3 & 4.
The 'six-winged seraph' and the 'wide-eyed cherubim' join the 'rank on rank of the heavenly host' who form the advance party (vanguard) of the choir glorifying the eternal God for entering time in Christ to 'clear away clouds of darkness' and 'make the powers of hell disappear'(v3).

Using imaginative, pictorial language drawn from Israel's faith, the hymn affirms the cosmic scope of Jesus' incarnation through some unusual
characters:

* Six-winged seraphs appear only in the vision to Isaiah (6:2,3) where they cover their faces with two wings and their feet with another two to protect them from directly seeing the awesome majesty of God ('Lord of
Hosts') who fills the whole earth with his glory. One of the seraphs is the agent of forgiveness, saying 'your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out' (v7).

* Cherubs play a more prominent part in Israel's life. After the fall they are placed at the east end of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). When the Ark of the Covenant is built to remind the people of God's presence, gold cherubims are forged to guard 'the mercy seat' or the 'place of atonement' from which God will instruct them (Exodus 25:17-22; Hebrews 9:5). In Ezekiel they communicate the radiance of God (9:3;10:3).

* The 'host of heaven' are angelic figures who accompany God's judgement on evil (Daniel 7:10), announce the glory of God on earth (Luke 2:14), or foreshadow the glorious future that God will bring about in Christ (Revelation 5:11).

These angelic metaphors are used in Scripture and the hymn to remind us 'mortals' that the glory of God transcends our small-minded ideas about God. Although God's glory is too bright for us to see directly, there is no part of God's creation - neither heaven nor earth - where his mercy and goodness are absent.

The sense of 'all mortal flesh' (v1) being united with the 'host of heaven' is expressed in the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving in the Uniting Church order of service for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. After giving thanks to 'the creator Lord, holy Father, true and living God' for bringing the universe into being and being bound to humanity through the covenant with Israel as embodied in Christ, we say, 'We praise you with the faithful of every time and place, joining with choirs of angels and the whole creation in the eternal hymn: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.'

This sacramental aspect of the Incarnation is evident in the hymn.
Christ's self-giving love on the cross is intimated in references to 'the body and the blood' and in 'giving himself as heavenly food' to 'all the faithful'.

Disputes about the sacrament between Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant thinkers must await another day. But two things can be said:

First, in Jesus' sacrificing death on the cross, the One born of Mary shows God's self-emptying love for sinners. In his Son, God, the 'Lord most high' (v4), not only experienced 'the powers of hell' and the 'darkness' of evil (v3) but, in the risen and ascended 'Lord of Lords'
(v4), conquered them 'for our sake'.

Second, the sacrificial love of 'Christ our God' (v1) is remembered (past) as disciples participate in the Holy Communion of his body and blood (present). In the Communion they have a foretaste of the heavenly banquet when the whole creation - heaven and earth - shall know that the 'powers of hell and darkness' have been fully and finally defeated and God will be glorified by all (future). In the sacrament 'Christ gives himself for heavenly food'. (v2) Thus Christians share in the benefits of the victorious-costly life, death and resurrection of the Lord who, having descended into our midst, is now ascended as the 'Lord of lords'.

The magnificence of what God has revealed - and embodied - in Jesus calls for extravagant praise and joyful, whole-hearted commitment ('full homage'
v1). He comes with 'blessing in His hand' (v1) to 'give to all the faithful' (v2). This is good reason for 'all mortal flesh' to be in awe of what God has done and is doing in Christ. It is good reason too for the 'host of heaven' to join their exuberant and unceasing alleluias to those of the Psalmist's (e.g. 146-150) and the Revelation of John (19:1,3,4,6) in glorifying the 'Lord most high' for his saving mercy and redeeming power.

This splendid hymn, with its cosmic scope - heaven and earth, angels and mortals - pictures the coming of Christ in a majestic manner and in a much larger context than his birth. It saves us from trivialising his nativity.
It opens us to the wonderful mystery of God's incarnate, atoning love. It summons us to worship and serve him.

It makes the essential point, as John does, that the Word which became flesh in Christ in a particular time-and-place does not contradict God's Lordship over all places-and-times. In the body and blood of Jesus, God has made room for himself in the midst of our lives so that human may see and know God's saving grace.

When good theology and fine music combine, imagination, joy and resolve are stirred. Then our thoughts may soar to new heights and our faith be deepened. It is most fitting therefore that we should sing this ancient hymn in our Christmas celebration of the Lord's Supper, thus ensuring that the marketing of Christmas carols will not dull our senses to the awesome majesty of the Incarnation.

---------------

Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.