January 4 - Reconciliation

Can I still quote carols in January? In Hark the herald angels sing, Charles Wesley uses the phrase “peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”

As we enter 2024, maybe reconciliation should be on our agenda. That God closed the gap between himself and humanity through incarnation is the miracle of Christmas. Our response to it should be to work for peace, rub along together and work hard to be respectful and celebrate where we can do things together even where we think differently. 

The trouble is we live in a world where we don’t want to put things right or work at closer relationships. We easily blame or ignore those who don’t think like us or we think where is a breakdown in relationships it wasn’t anything to do with us. In a church long ago I had two married couples who used to fall out spectacularly. I’d regularly preach about the need for reconciliation. One couple over coffee would say to me “well done, they needed to hear that!” then ten minutes later the other couple would say to me “well done, they needed to hear that!” 

We speak at Christmas about togetherness and cosiness then we do our best to be as far apart from others as possible and we cause hurt and misunderstanding so easily. We need to lament about our lack of commitment to live in harmony. It doesn’t mean always agreeing. It means living with respect. I’m glad that Ripon later in the month is doing the week of prayer for Christian Unity. The week will end with a joint service where the former Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard will preach in our Methodist Church. We are getting closer as churches because actually co-operation and fellowship is far more important than matters of ecclesiology and doctrine. Maybe! I will one day break bread behind the altar of a c of e church!!! Or maybe I won’t! 

Today I find this commentary I read earlier powerful, going back to the carol words:

 I began to think of how the message of Christmas has become so awfully distorted. Christ came to spread some good cheer among humankind. He came for the purpose of making everyone’s Christmas a bit brighter. He came to do some very nice things for some very nice people. He came to add a spiritual dimension to our Christmas celebrations. He came to put his imprimatur on what we already do to celebrate Christmas, so we can feel good about what we already do to celebrate Christmas. He came to make us feel better about ourselves.

And we sing Christmas carols. We sing Wesley’s “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” And we come to that line, “God and sinners reconciled,” and it doesn’t even faze us. After all, we don’t actually need reconciliation. “Me and God, we get along just fine.” It doesn’t even register that the reason for Christmas was not that God might take our already pretty good lives and add a bit of religion to them, the way a cook adds a dash of salt or a bit of spice to an already pretty good dish to give it just a bit more flavor. And even when we talk about putting “Christ back into Christmas,” we are thinking of a Christmas that is already pretty good, and making it just a bit better.

But that is not what Christmas is about. Rather:

Christ came to a rebellious people, to rescue them from their rebellious ways.

He came to a people who weren’t any smarter than the dumb animals in our live nativity scenes in order to make them wise.

He came to an unclean and unholy people, to purify them and make them holy.

He came to an idolatrous people, to get them to smash and throw away their idols.

He came to a people who were his enemies, so that he might make them his friends.

He came to a people who had rejected him, so that he might open their minds and hearts to submit to him and worship him, gladly and freely.

He came to a sinful people, so that he might die for them, and pronounce them forgiven.

He came to a people who were dead in their trespasses and sins, so that he might resurrect them, and they would live again.

He came to an already convicted and condemned people, so that he might not only grant them a stay of execution, but indeed, a full pardon.

In short, he did not come to do something nice for very some very nice people. He came to do something radical for some very bad people. He came so that we who were estranged from God, might be reconciled to God. “God and sinners reconciled!” That is the reason for Christ coming. That is the reason for the incarnation. That is the reason for Christmas.

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.