Edible Words

I wonder how you feel at this stage on Christmas morning. Some of you may be thinking about the turkey that is on timer, and wondering how you'll ever get all the trimmings ready at the same time. Others of you may be excited at the thought of the day ahead. Others of you may be feeling slightly left out, not having made many plans for Christmas this year. And others of you may dread today, because it's been a difficult year and everyone is going to expect you to be happy.

What that passage from Luke's gospel tells us how is how heaven felt on the first Christmas day.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests."

The curtain of heaven is opened, and we get to see and hear what is going on. What we see is a great portion of the heavenly army praising God. Whether or not Christmas feels like good news to us, Christmas is good news. The day Jesus was born, heaven sang.

If we want to know what it was that got heaven singing, verse 14 points us in two directions. Heaven sings because God gets glory and because we can have peace. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.

Firstly, heaven sings because God gets glory. Glory to God in the highest. If you or I were to list what it is that makes Christmas worth celebrating, that might not even be on our list. But it is top of heaven's list. It comes in at number 1. The birth of Jesus brings God glory; it gives credit to him, and it shows up his greatness. That is the primary reason why heaven bursts into song. And if the things that delight God delight us too, then we will see that the first Christmas brought God glory, and nothing will delight us more than that.

That's one reason why heaven sings.

Secondly, heaven sings because we can have peace. In the highest, where God lives, Christmas means glory to God. On earth, where we live, Christmas means peace to those on whom his favour rests. The big problem with our world is that it lacks peace. Instead of having relationships characterised by peace and harmony, we have discord and division.

We are not at peace with each other, which is why there are wars. We are not at peace with our environment, so catastrophes happen. But fundamentally we are not at peace with God. The way we live ruptures the relationship between us and God, so that instead of being at peace with him, we are at odds. Indeed, the lack of peace in other areas of life stems from the lack of peace we have with God.

And Jesus' birth means peace to those on whom God's favour rests. Jesus was born so that he could die on the cross and bring us peace with God. And if lack of peace in every other area stems from lack of peace with God, then God's gift of peace with him will bring with it peace in other areas. Not that all is peace and harmony; we need to wait for Jesus' return to experience that.

Glory to God. Peace to men on whom his favour rests. Not peace for everyone. Peace for everyone to whom God is pleased to give it. The angel told the shepherds this is great joy for all the people. So this peace is available for anyone, and given to everyone who receives it.

God gets glory. We can have peace. And so heaven bursts into song because Christmas is good news. Anything that gets God glory is worth celebrating. Anything that brings us peace is worth celebrating. The birth of Jesus brings God glory. The birth of Jesus makes peace with God possible. And so the birth of Jesus is worth celebrating. And so heaven itself erupts with songs of praise on the day Jesus was born.

Some of us here won't be planning much today by way of celebration. Maybe for painful reasons. Maybe because you're tired of the commercialisation and want a year off. But regardless of what you do with your time on this one, rather unusual, day of the year, the birth of Jesus is an event that got heaven to sing out in colourful praise. Let's join that heavenly army by rejoicing in our hearts at what God did that day.

But many of us will have quite a celebration lined up ahead of us. And celebrating is a good thing to do. If there is one day of the year to celebrate, then today is it. It is a good thing to give and receive presents. It is a good thing to eat some really good food. Enjoy it!

The challenge is to see if our celebrations, this year, can be a continuation of the party there was in heaven on that night. As I look back on Christmases past, it is easy for time at church to be the "thanking God" bit, and the rest of the day to be the "celebration" bit. But for this heavenly army, "thanking God" and "celebrating" were just two sides of the same coin.

So coming to church on Christmas morning shouldn't just feel like saying a rather cerebral "thank you"; it should feel like a wonderful celebration of one of the two or three most wonderful days in the whole of history. Which is why we are about to eat the party food of bread and wine that Jesus instructs us to eat together, in anticipation of the day when we can join this heavenly celebration in person.

Equally, the rest of the day shouldn't feel like a party, now that the "thank you to God" bit is out of the way. Rather, it should feel like a fantastic celebration as we join these angels in glorifying God for what he accomplished on that day.

If you like, see one long continuum from the angelic party the shepherds witnessed, through to the bread and wine we eat here, through to the other courses of our Christmas dinner that we eat at home, through to the heavenly banquet when we sit down to eat there.

Whether or not you feel like celebrating this morning, and however the rest of the day pans out, we have the chance today to join the heavenly army in praising God for glorifying himself, and for the peace he has opened up on earth. And we have the chance to find God's favour, to receive the offer of peace, so that we can look forward to celebrating with these angels, with nothing to spoil the party whatsoever.