“A HOLE IN
THE GROUND”
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A sermon preached Readings: Micah
5:2-5a, Luke 1:26-45 |
'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.' (Romans
12:21)
Thomas
Hardy wrote a trenchant four line poem entitled “Christmas 1924”:
‘Peace upon earth!’ was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We’ve got as far as poison gas.
Christmas
2003 seems very similar-
with the headlines shared not by peace and goodwill,
but by Ian
Huntley and Saddam
Hussein.
This week Mowaffak al-Rubaie,
who had been tortured under Saddam Hussein in 1979
found himself face to face with the captured Saddam.
He asked what Saddam would say on the day of judgement.
How would he account for the lives lost in the Iran-Iraq war,
for the gassing at Halabja, for the mass graves?
"What are you going to tell God?"
Apparently, Saddam's response was defiant and foul-mouthed.
…”After
two thousand years of mass
We’ve
got as far as poison gas.”
How
do we celebrate Christmas with such evil in our midst?
Rev Alan Ashton is the Methodist Superintendent
Minister
of the Newmarket Circuit, has written this week
about Christmas celebrations in Soham:
He says that you’ll see the same things in Soham
as anywhere else this Christmas -
"Shops are full of tempting goods,
coloured lights are up in the streets,
Christmas trees are shining out from the front rooms
of homes.
Carol services have been planned for Church and community alike.
For this community, the coming season
will be in a strange sort of way the same as elsewhere but different.
"Our Christmas is tinged with an
element of sadness
sometimes felt profoundly -
it is balanced against an intention that we need to celebrate.
As Christians we are celebrating God's intervention in our humanity -
with all the frailty and fault that such an action conjures up.
This celebration isn't putting to one side the deaths of Holly and Jessica.
It is not saying that now the trial is over
we all move on and everything is back to normal.”
Rather, he says, it is an attempt to put
the sorrows of Soham
into the context of the deeper universal reality.
He goes on with words we could have
quoted
in our Christingle service this morning:
"Winter is a time of darkness - but Light is the destroyer of darkness.
Advent and Christmas move us to a time of reflecting
that in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world has come.
One small struggling light is enough to defeat darkness.
The powerful, searching Light of Christ
transforms darkness and sets us all into God's marvellous light.
One particular verse from the Bible has been powerful to me
ever since the murders of Holly and Jessica:
'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.' (Romans 12:21)”
We
sing each Christmas “O little town of Bethlehem…”
“…in thy dark street shineth, the everlasting light”
And
it isn’t just the dark street of Bethlehem 2000 years ago,
it is the often dark streets of Bethlehem 2003,
yes and the dark streets of Soham and the dark
streets of Tikrit
into which come not mere fairy lights of good cheer –
but the deep light of God’s love and care.
And
that is for every victim and for every perpetrator of evil.
Saddam
Hussein was found living in a hole in the ground, not in a palace.
And
we recall how when the Wise Men came looking for the King of Kings,
they went naturally to the Palace of the
local dictator – Herod.
But they discovered a strange truth –
that God’s son was not to be born in a palace
protected by henchmen guards to keep the rabble out -
but rather in a stable – most likely a cave -
in Bethlehem, the least among the clans of Judah [Micah 5:2].
And
had Christ come to Iraq,
would God have chosen the great palaces of Baghdad –
or maybe a hole in the ground in a village near Tikrit?
All
of which is simply to say this:
·
There are many today in deep darkness and sorrow –
not least the parents of Holly and Jessica
and the countless victims of Saddam Hussein –
Christ comes to be with every victim in their hour of need.
·
There are also many today who are
the perpetrators and purveyors of deep darkness of sin and evil –
not least I suspect Ian Huntley and Saddam Hussein –
Christ comes to a place where even an evil dictator may find him.
The
cave of Bethlehem was a place where anyone
who would stoop low enough –
be they shepherd, soldier or king -
could find the Christchild, his love and his
forgiveness.
And
here is a challenge for us: -
If
Bethlehem is about love, acceptance and forgiveness,
then following the Christchild means following his
example.
There
hasn’t been a great deal of love and forgiveness
in the press this week -
though to its credit,
the Vatican
did protest at the way that humiliating video footage
of Saddam’s capture was issued by coalition forces.
The
danger of course is that we have two codes of forgiveness –
one for friends and one for enemies
“Remember what happened when US Lieutenant William Calley
was found guilty of massacring over 500 unarmed civilians—
old men, women, children—in My Lai, Vietnam, in 1968.
He only served three years of his life sentence
before President Nixon pardoned him.”
As one commentator put it this week,
”Somehow, I doubt whether …
President Bush will offer the same kind of forgiveness and mercy
to Saddam and his lieutenants”
[Theological Editions, Dec 19 2003]
And then there is Ian Huntley’s mother Lynda
Nixon
quoted in the Sun this week saying she loves her son
but that he should be “strung up” for what he has done –
And you
realize what deep emotional waters
swirl around the call to forgive.
Let
me quote Alan Ashton the Methodist minister again:
He
said that he had considered how best to address
the
question of forgiveness for Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr,
but
had struggled to come up with a suitable answer.
He
said:
"It’s
something I have given some thought about privately
and
at some point we’ll have to talk about it.
It’s
quite a complicated issue.
The
idea of forgiveness is linked with the concept of repentance.
And
it may be that people will need to see some sign of repentance
before
they can start thinking about forgiving."
"The
issue of forgiveness is something we have to think about
and
something the churches will have to address, but not yet.”
And
I am left thinking,
who are we, safe here in Exeter -
We who, by and large, thank God, have not seen our children murdered
nor our families tortured, -
Who
are we to argue about such matters,
beyond saying this:
We
are all sinners
We
all need forgiveness
We
are all in the dark.
All
in some we are all sense cowering in a hole in the ground,
the grave of death and sin.
Thank
God that he came to a stable cave to find us in our need,
and bring us love and acceptance.
Forgiveness
can often be hard, but is always Christlike.
As we have been forgiven and
loved,
let us also seek to love and forgive.