A Weary World Rejoices

 Luke 2:1-20

So here we are, the big day has arrived. Is the turkey ready to go in the oven? Or perhaps you don’t have turkey in your house? Maybe it’s goose, or swan or ostrich? Or maybe it’s nut roast this year in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly?

Whatever your Christmas traditions, it’s probably fair to say that each person and each household have their own way of ‘doing’ Christmas. I wonder what yours is?

Perhaps you prefer a nice comfy, quiet Christmas with the TV on and an enormous bucket of Quality Street on your lap?

Maybe you always go to church on Christmas Eve and then have a few drinks down the pub to wet the baby’s head?

It could be that you always spend time with family each year, and last year (and perhaps even this) there have had to be a few changes?

Each of us has had to adapt our plans in one way or another over these past two Christmases and perhaps that’s been a good thing for you,, or perhaps it hasn’t?

Now, I promised Mrs Hodder that I wouldn’t make this joyful Christmas morning all about Covid, because we’re all a bit fed up with it aren’t we, although we can’t totally ignore it. But…..I thought I’d share some Hodder family Christmas traditions from our house to yours, so you get the idea of what it’s like here.

Of course, Christmas looks a little different for us now, compared to what it used to a few years ago. Both Mrs Hodder and I used to work in primary schools so the Christmas break was spent usually snottily recovering from the festive sharing of young children whilst we watched Christmas movies and ate far too much chocolate.

Some things have changed now I’m a priest, although a decent sized amount of chocolate still gets consumed. We always have a Cadbury’s chocolate selection box for Christmas day morning (and some of it even lasts until Boxing Day). I always light a red candle in our window on Christmas eve; a nod to my Irish grandmother who did the same for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. And we all love Christmas music. Most evenings you could have joined the 5 of us in a dance around the kitchen, grooving to ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’ or ‘Step into Christmas’.

One of the things I was most determined about when I entered ministry was to not become one of those grumpy vicars who seems to hate Christmas; the sheer weight of carol services, mince pies and Christingles weighing them down to the point of exhaustion. I will not become one of those vicars I promised myself. I love Christmas. I love the carols and the food. The cheesy films and the food. The special church services and, of course, the food.

But, there is one exception to my festive merriment.

There is one thing I don’t like about Christmas and it’s something which lots of others absolutely love.

I really don’t like the song ‘Oh Holy Night’! Controversial I know!

I’m not sure what it is exactly about it that I dislike so much. Perhaps it’s because it doesn’t feel like the kind of song we can all join in with, but rather a performance to demonstrate how good (or sometimes not so good) the singer is.

In order to try and stamp out this one piece of Yuletide sneer I thought I’d give it a listen; to see if I had misjudged it. And I can tell you now friends that I haven’t! I still don’t like it but, that doesn’t mean it’s all bad or that you shouldn’t hold it dear if it’s your favourite Christmas song.

There is one line in it however which did strike me; which raised a moment of thought, a little prompt from the Holy Spirit perhaps? It goes like this….

“A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;”

If you were to ask me to think of one line from a song that could sum up this Christmas time for many people I think you wouldn’t go far wrong in using that one…..

“A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;”

The world feels weary at the moment, doesn’t it. Covid, general tiredness, grief for loved ones lost, plans constantly changing, school plays watched virtually instead of in person. Socially distanced carol services in a cold car park without mulled wine!

We are weary!

And yet there is a thrill of hope in this new and glorious morn. The thrill of hope that is God with us. Jesus our Emmanuel. God knows what a broken world looks like. It was the same one that crucified his son. Jesus knew what it was to be weary, to be asleep in the boat because he’d been helping people all day, or to get up early in order to have a few minutes by himself with God, before the chaos started once more.

The incredible story of Christmas each year is that there’s nothing we have to go through that God hasn’t been through too. Jesus is with us. He always has been and always will be.

We’d be pretty foolish to start making sweeping promises about what life might look like in 3, 6 or even 12 months time. Who knows, perhaps next year we’ll all be meeting in person or perhaps we Zooming through the Christmas services like we are this year.

But irrespective of that weariness and uncertainty, we can rejoice in our thrill of hope that is God with us on this new and glorious morn.

Our weariness can never wear away that shining promise.

However you are feeling, may you know the love, the joy, the peace and the hope of Jesus Christ this Christmas. Amen.