Celebrating the Millennium

CELEBRATING THE MILLENNIUM

(Preached Christmas 1999)

Over the past two weeks, I have been struggling to write my annual Christmas sermon.

As anyone who has walked into my study will know, my desk has been littered with abortive drafts and my waste paper basket overflowing with abandoned scripts.

I even resorted to the filing cabinet at one time, to see if there was an old one which I could resurrect by dipping it in prayer, but alas, without success.

Mindful that time was rapidly running out, I got up at 5.30am today determined to put pen to paper.

I asked myself, why am I finding it so hard to prepare this sermon? After all, I am not usually short of something to say! Or to put it another way, what is God trying to say to me in this "sermon block" experience?

After a few moments, it suddenly dawned upon me that my thoughts about Christmas, were focused upon a Dome at Greenwich and not upon the stable at Bethlehem.

In short, I was allowing the Dome to push Christ out of Christmas.

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I must admit that over the past few weeks, I have allowed my mind to become saturated with all the hype concerning that Dome.

I think I have read every article that has appeared in my daily newspaper, and also those which have appeared in the weekend supplements - no wonder I was late in sending out my Christmas Cards!

Over the past three weeks I have watched the three programmes on BBC2 which have sought to take the viewers behind the scenes of its construction.

I have heard the project variously described as an "exhibition", "an experience" and as a "theme park".

I have also listened carefully to the discussions between architects and designers, with those responsible for the project. as they have tried to interpret their respective briefs in relationship to each zone.

In particular, I have tried to follow the discussions and thinking in respect of the Christian content.

First there was the debate as to whether or not the Archbishop of Canterbury should say prayers at the opening. The late Cardinal Hume was very insistent upon it. Once agreed, there was the debate as regards the timing. Fortunately, the Archbishop refused to be put on as a 'warm up' act, and it will now occur shortly before midnight.

Secondly, there was the great discussion as regards the name of the zone. Originally, it was called the "Spirit Zone", This pleased the agnostic or atheist, Eva Jiricha, the architect behind it since she believed that "Religion often cuts people's wings. And people, or at least their spirits, want to fly".

However, the Lambeth Group of advisers, which consisted of all Christian traditions and religions, considered this to be New Age stuff. And so it was renamed "The Faith Zone".

And only a few weeks ago, Jennie Page, the Chief Executive of the New Millennium Experience Company, has deemed that the definite article should be dropped, and it be called just "Faith Zone". The original title was

considered to be "too Christian" and risked offending other religions, which represent about 6% of the population!

The word "the" was thought to imply that there was one faith, Christianity, which is more important than the others.

Professor Frayling, who is responsible for overseeing this section of the Dome replied: "The whole experience has been walking on eggshells, but this is very over-sensitive. One wants to be inclusive and not offend anybody, of course, but how far do you go?"

And so Christianity has been relegated to being just another faith on offer in the religious supermarket of the Dome.

But as far as I am concerned, there would be no millennium to celebrate if it was not for the birth of Jesus Christ, which we are celebrating this evening, since it is the means of marking the passage of time.

Ever since this birth, each year in Christendom has been recorded as "Anno Domini" - the year of our Lord, and those before as BC - before Christ.

Traditionally, Western Christendom has observed this on the 25th December, whereas Eastern Christendom has observed this on the 6th January. The earliest record of the observance of his birth is in fact the 20th May.

Scholars nowadays are more or less agreed that Jesus was born about 4BC. If this is so, then the

start of the third millennium has been and gone, and we have missed the party!

Although we may be uncertain as to the precise date and year of the birth of Jesus, we can still say that his birth is the yardstick for measuring the passage of time.

Even the National Secular Society recognise this, even if the New Millennium Experience Company does not. They have declared January 1st as a National Day of Lamentation to mark "the millennia of oppression from Christianity".

They have suggested that 2000 years of Christianity "is no cause for celebration" and have listed the Crusades and "wars of religion" as evidence of the "evil perpetrated in the name of Christians".

Now, I would be the first to acknowledge that some awful things have been done in the name of Christianity throughout the centuries, for which we should be truly sorry. But the church is made up of ordinary human beings, like you and me, who do not always live up to the high ideals of Him whom we have chosen to follow.

However, I would humbly suggest that the good things, far outweigh the bad things, and that civilisation would be poorer without the contribution of Christianity.

The trouble is that we are not too good at blowing our own trumpets and therefore tend to take the Christian influence very much for granted.

May I invite you to ponder some words of Philip Brooks, which I quoted this time last year and repeated in the December edition of the magazine, concerning the founder of Christianity.

"I am within the mark when I say, that all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not influenced the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that one salutory life".

And as far as I am concerned, this is what the millennium should be celebrating - namely the life and influence of that 'one salutory life' upon this earth for 2000 years. and whose birth we recall this evening/morning,

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Whenever I see pictures of the outside of the Dome, with those massive steel structures protruding out of the roof, I am reminded of the crown of thorns placed upon the head of Jesus.

The political and religious leaders of his day tried to push Jesus our of their lives by crucifying him because he disturbed their way of life.

Whilst I am not suggesting that our political and religious leaders are deliberately trying to push Jesus out of their lives, I would suggest that apathy and indifference on the one hand, and the desire to please everyone including the sponsors and those of other faiths or none on the other hand, are in danger of' pushing out the significance of Christ and Christianity from the forthcoming millennium celebrations.

I fear I can hear coming from the Dome of Greenwich "Glory to man in the highest" whereas, I hear coming from the stable at Bethlehem "Glory to God in the highest".

May Christ be the focus of your hearts and minds this Christmas-tide, and as you celebrate the dawn of His Third Millennium.