Bishop's Peter F Barrett's Christmas Sermon

‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us'

John 1:14

There is plenty of the ‘flesh' around these days. From horrible pictures of brutal murder in broad daylight on the streets of Baghdad , to the excesses of all that pertains to the pre-Christmas rush, not to mention bank robbery. From family distress caused by the exposure of the personal lives of politicians and those associated with them, to the tightening of the political noose in advance of due and on-going process. From the coarsening of civic life and discourse by crude behaviour, the absence of courtesies and the frequent, public usage of foul language, to the failure of the Churches to proclaim together in word and deed, ‘The wonderful deeds of him who has called (us) out of darkness into his glorious light' (1 st Peter 2:9).

Equally, we have not yet regularised the long-standing residency requests of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees, many of whom have Irish Citizen children (in the wake of the High Court decision of last year). While at the same time, affirming that our future economic growth, stability and we should add, our future pension provision, shall need thousands of immigrant workers in the foreseeable future, probably for some fairly menial tasks.

Perhaps most worrying of all is the fact that our government's commitment to members of the family of the late Detective Garda Gerry McCabe is being undermined, along with the democratic fibre of the State, by the insistent demands of Sinn Fein and the IRA for the release of his murderers. Further, we debate the morality of such an action apparently unaware of how it is perceived and received ‘Up North', not least by widows and family members of innocent victims from both sides of the community of the so-called ‘Troubles'. In particular, members of the RUC who like Detective Garda McCabe, were going about their daily duties, but were murdered by some who purport to know what pertains to a peace process.

Yes, there is a great deal of the ‘flesh' about; much of it is ‘broken flesh'.

In the New Testament, to speak of ‘ the flesh' , is to speak about all that pertains to self-centredness, selfishness and destruction, in contrast with the life of the Holy Spirit; the living of the Christ-like life through the mystery of His life abiding in us. It finds its classical description in the letter the blessed apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia , where he contrast sharply the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians Chapter 5:16 -26). Their ‘desires' are quite distinct and are opposed. In short, he urges obedience to Christ's prompting and not to self : ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit' (v.25).

So when the Church proclaims in the beautiful, timeless prose of the opening of the gospel according to Saint John that ‘The Word became flesh' , something revolutionary, shocking, indeed virtually blasphemous, is being affirmed. Namely, that God was not only being born but was in some sense, dirtying Himself; soiling himself by taking unto Himself, into Himself, our humanity. No wonder the thought of a crucified Jesus, a dying Lord, was a ‘stumbling block' (1 st Corinthians 1:23 ) to our Lord's community family, His Jewish brothers and sisters, who could never conceive of the Messiah in such terms. No wonder that later, for a devout Muslim, a fleshly God is at the very least, a contradiction in terms.

But my friends, this is a part of the meaning of the incarnation which we easily overlook. But thankfully not the most important part, for ‘glory abides to abound'.

For God not only, as it were, ‘came down from heaven', but also he experienced our existence from the ‘inside out', with the fundamental exception of that which taints our humanity: sin, understood primarily as selfishness and self-centredness. Sin can not redeem sin; only love and not human love, but God's forgiving love. Well can we borrow from the Lady Julian of Norwich at this and every Christmas eucharist and affirm that ‘Love is His meaning'.

All love has the potential to set free, but only God's love in Christ can save us from our selves, to live through Him for others. Indeed, to become our best selves in fulfilment of our baptismal calling. Christ's love not only extracts the sting of sin; it also releases the light of the Spirit deep within. The incarnation is about such glory and our becoming whole through the grace of the Lord of the wood of manger and cross: His humility and sacrifice are inseparably ‘ingrained' in the pattern of His lovely life.

This is mystery. That in becoming ‘flesh of our flesh and heart-beat of our heart-beat', God shows us his true nature. He stoops to conquer; he humbles Himself to be humiliated; He dies to love us; He rises to restore us. Restore us to our true stature as men, women and children made in His likeness, embraced by an eternal destiny, empowered with a twofold task: to be remade by His Spirit; and to remake our homes, our community, our nation into the diverse yet harmonious patterns and shapes of his kaleidoscopic Kingdom.

The Word, the Lord Jesus, became flesh. His Holy Spirit can ‘enflesh us' and make us holy people. Changed people; Christ-like people, who make a difference for others in God's name in the places they live and work; struggle and rest.

In Christ, not only can we surprise others who have written us off; we can indeed, surprise ourselves with our rediscovered potential for loving, forgiving and creating new possibilities for living in peace, one with another. Herein lies real peace:: not in demanding, but in laying aside self, so that by grace, we might all be raised up by the gentle, transforming power of the Holy Spirit and rediscover our true stature as men, women and children bound for glory in Christ, now and always: ‘And we, the glory seeing, forget our selfish being, for joy of beauty not our own'.

‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us'