The Bishop of Lichfield has used his Christmas Day sermon to describe God on a rescue mission. Speaking to a packed congregation at Lichfield Cathedral, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill recounted an experience of meeting a rescued dog whilst walking with his wife, Jane, on Cannock Chase.
He said: “Suddenly the dog stopped and quivered and bared its teeth at us. The owner came puffing up and said: ‘Don’t worry; he’s a rescue dog; he’s not quite sure yet how people will react.’ She spoke to him and patted him and he stopped quivering. ‘He’s a rescue dog,’ she said again, ‘he should calm down and be fine now he’s in a good family’”.
He added: “The Christmas Good News is that the Lord has organized his own rescue mission to save us all from the mess we’ve made of his world. Strangely he came to earth as a helpless baby to rescue you and me. One of the lovely privileges of my job is to meet so many people who say that life has changed for them since they’ve been found by God.
“Of course when you’re a rescue dog, you don’t always believe your good fortune, that you’re chosen and loved. And people who are rescued don’t always believe either. We revert to the old ways. And, let’s be frank, it takes a lot to believe always that God won’t let us down. Even Jesus found himself saying, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
“The truth is, there’s a rescue dog in all of us—however secure we are outwardly. The best of families have their difficult moments. So do the best of churches and the best of small towns. That’s why Christmas is so important. It reminds us that however good, bad or indifferent our own family has been there is a special rescue family for us, a spiritual family which releases love into the community.
“What do we have to do to join this family? In one sense, Nothing. God has mounted the rescue. All we have to do is to allow ourselves to be rescued, to trust in God’s character, and to let him start to change us. Or as it says in the Gospel reading, to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.“
He added: “That’s the secret that the carols speak about. That we all dream about: a love that will not let us down. But of course it’s not one of those presents that’s just for Christmas and we forget about it until next November. It’s more like another present I got this Christmas: Microsoft Vista for Dummies. I have to read a bit more and discover a bit more each day and each week.
“It’s like that Labrador going for a walk with its new owner and her other dog in Cannock Chase each week, learning to trust each other, growing into the idea that in the end it’s not hate that rules the world but God.”
ENDS
The full text of the Bishop of Lichfield’s Christmas Sermon
John 1: 1-14
A very happy Christmas. Thanks for all your greetings and for your encouragements over the past year. In spite of all the ups and downs of life, Lichfield is a happy and friendly place to be.
This year I haven’t received any of those crazy gadgets you see in the catalogues: bedroom slippers with a light in the toes that light up automatically when you put them on – that kind of thing.
Which makes me all the more appreciative of the really big presents that we receive at Christmas, like the one that gives us power to become children of God, born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. When children are small they play at being princes and princesses. When we are adult what would it be like to be part of the royal family of heaven?
A few weeks ago Jane and I were walking on Cannock Chase just as the last trees were all orange and yellow. A golden Labrador came bounding along the path, and Jane said, “That’s what you’d really like for Christmas,” and suddenly the dog stopped and quivered and bared its teeth at us. The owner came puffing up and said, “Don’t worry; he’s a rescue dog; he’s not quite sure yet how people will react.” She spoke to him and patted him and he stopped quivering. “He’s a rescue dog,” she said again, “he should calm down and be fine now he’s in a good family.
I looked at the dog, that was still not sure if we were a threat or not, and all at once into my mind came a hundred faces: the aggressive man in the pub: “Who do you think yer lookin at?”; the girl who thinks men are not to be trusted. There’s that uncertainty in their gaze that the universe is a friendly place. When you see an AIDS orphan who looks out of the poster at you, and the hundreds of starving children in Zimbabwe you to long to mount a rescue mission, to pour out love unlimited and bring them back to your family.
Of course in practice it’s pretty demanding just trying to love one’s own family. If the average father only has time to spend five minutes talking to each of his own offspring each day where is the energy for those others who need friendship?
The Christmas Good News is that the Lord has organized his own rescue mission to save us all from the mess we’ve made of his world. Strangely he came to earth as a helpless baby to rescue you and me. One of the lovely privileges of my job is to meet so many people who say that life has changed for them since they’ve been found by God.
Of course when you’re a rescue dog, you don’t always believe your good fortune, that you’re chosen and loved. And people who are rescued don’t always believe either. We revert to the old ways. And, let’s be frank, it takes a lot to believe always that God won’t let us down. Even Jesus found himself saying, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? The truth is, there’s a rescue dog in all of us—however secure we are outwardly. The best of families have their moments. More and more people seem to be watching that programme Outnumbered, with the horrible children doing terrible things to their parents; apparently it’s not fully scripted; the children do it quite naturally!
The best of families have their difficult moments. So do the best of churches and the best of small towns. That’s why Christmas is so important. It reminds us that however good, bad or indifferent our own family has been there is a special rescue family for us, a spiritual family which releases love into the community.
What do we have to do to join this family? In one sense, Nothing. God has mounted the rescue. All we have to do is to allow ourselves to be rescued, to trust in God’s character, and to let him start to change us. Or as it says in the Gospel reading, to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.
Of course in one sense we are all God’s children, because he created us all and we all bear the mark of his handiwork on us, however we’ve spoilt our lives. But there’s all the difference in the world, and in eternity, between someone who receives the offer of love in the Christ child and someone who doesn’t. It’s not exactly that we can stop God loving us, whoever we are. We can’t. But we’re like a dog in its old life, not knowing that there’s a rescue family coming to offer a new more trustworthy life.
Did you hear that interview in the Today programme with those two grumpy old scientists talking about a new discovery that one of them had arrived at from his research: that the human brain is hard-wired to believe in God! The trouble was, the two scientists were atheists and their discovery made them really grumpy! Or did you see that quip from another scientist, who said that he had come to believe because he couldn’t believe something as wonderful and complex as Richard Dawkins could have arisen without an intelligent Designer!
It’s long been known that even the most abused child, someone who has never known stable affection, is still hard-wired to dream about love that won’t let you down, to believe in it, against all the odds. This is the kind of love that St John writes about in his first letter, in almost identical words to the Gospel we’ve just heard. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. This is God’s great Fatherly gift, wrapped up in the baby Jesus, that we can be counted his brothers and sisters, adopted into a heavenly family.
That’s the secret that the carols speak about. That we all dream about: a love that will not let us down. But of course it’s not one of those presents that’s just for Christmas and we forget about it until next November. It’s more like another present I got this Christmas: Microsoft Vista for Dummies. I have to read a bit more and discover a bit more each day and each week. It’s like that Labrador going for a walk with its new owner and her other dog in Cannock Chase each week, learning to trust each other, growing into the idea that in the end it’s not hate that rules the world but God.
The things that made you who you were in John’s world were, first, class, tribe, nation, your blood line. The second was the desires of the flesh of parents who may have had a one night stand without commitment to a child. The third was the will of those who bred you for slavery or to inherit a destiny.
Our own times are not so very different. There are plenty of children who grow up wanted and loved but there are those who realise that they were used rather than wanted. But those who follow the Christ child experience a new birth, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God, wanted and loved for our own sakes.
May this be our special Christmas gift this Christmas: To know, deep inside ourselves that we are loved and wanted by the Son of God to join his family, that to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.