Human Face of God

THE HUMAN FACE OF GOD

(Preached Christmas 1996)

I prepared this sermon this morning whilst sitting at the bedside of my wife at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

As some of you already know, Mary is currently receiving palliative treatment for terminal cancer, and this afternoon underwent an emergency operation.

As I sat and looked at Mary asleep, with a saline drip and a dimorphine pump attached to her arm, I found it extremely hard to recall that less than four weeks ago, I had been pushing her around the Holy Land in a wheelchair.

During the eight day pilgrimage we visited all the traditional sites associated with the life and teaching of Jesus, including the Crusader Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem.

It seemed particularly appropriate that we were obliged to bend our heads upon entering, if not in humility, at least to avoid a very low lintel over the narrow doorway, designed in a former age to prevent Muslim raiders from riding into the church upon horseback.

For me it was doubly difficult, insofar as I had to lift the wheelchair over a very high step at the same time.

Regrettably, Mary was unable to descend the steps into the crypt to see the alleged spot where another Mary gave birth so many years earlier.

All this seemed a long time ago this morning as I asked myself, what is the connection between what happened in a stable at Bethlehem some 2000 years ago with what was happening to my wife at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London today.

Does the message of Christmas have anything to say to all those, who like Mary are caught up in the web of suffering?

In that web, I include refugees who, like those of Rwanda whom we have seen on our television screens recently, wander from country to country in order to avoid national conflict and find a new home.

I include those whom we see sleeping rough in shop doorways whenever we walk down the Strand in London at night. Some there by choice, some there through personal misfortune and some there as a result of government policy.

I include the young children who so often find themselves unloved and unwanted in the midst of family feuds and marital breakdowns.

I include those whose bodies are eaten up with pain, or whose mobility is limited by a wheelchair or who are left feeling impotent as the result of a stroke.

And I also include in that web the suffering of relatives and friends. Those who sit patiently by watching their loved ones slip peacefully in and out of consciousness; those who try and convey their feelings to a confused mind unable to fully comprehend, and those who care for Alzheimers sufferers where "the light is still on in the house but there is nobody at home" as Bishop Montefiore has described his personal experience of caring for his wife.

What does the Christmas story say to them and to us as we sing our carols, roast our chestnuts and pull our crackers. Has it any relevance to us today, or is it just a fairy story?

Let us tonight forget about the questions of historicity concerning the shepherds, the Wise men, the virginal conception, the precise date of the birth and its location. To me, this is all part of the Christmas wrapping paper of myth, symbolism and poetry which the New Testament writers use to convey a very simple message, namely that in this particular birth, (whenever, wherever, and however it occurred) God entered into the life of this planet through the person of Jesus, of whose existence there has never been any doubt.

As Jesus says: "He who has seen me has seen the Father". As St. Paul says: "Jesus is the image of the invisible God". And as the late Bishop John Robinson once said: "Jesus is a window into God".

Now part of this very human picture which we have of God, as expressed through Jesus, is a picture of a God who has known and experienced personal suffering.

I am not for one minute suggesting that he had personal experience of all the rich variety of suffering which exists today. Nevertheless, human suffering did contribute to his experience of life upon this planet.

After all, he knew physical tiredness and exhaustion after a busy day; he knew frustration when the disciples frequently failed to grasp his message; he knew the disloyalty of a friend and the grief which accompanied the death of another; he knew the dryness of thirst, and the pain of flesh being torn apart, as he hung helplessly upon a cross. Above all, he knew the hurt of character assassination which led ultimately to his untimely and innocent death.

Yes, God in Christ knew and experienced mental and physical suffering, both as an observer and as a recipient.

It is this very "human face of God" to use the title of a book by John Robinson, which the birth of Jesus initiates.

Now I recognise that this "human face of God" does not explain why my Mary, and others like her at this Christmas are permitted to suffer by an all loving and all powerful God.

Nevertheless, it does assure me that, when I turn to him in my anger and frustration and ask "why?" or when in my desperation I passionately plead "help me", I am addressing a very human God who more than understands what it is like to be a human being, because he has been one before me.

The God to whom I turn when tears well up in my eyes, is not some cold, distant and aloof tyrant who is indifferent and unmoved by my suffering, (let alone by Mary's suffering and that of all the others who are suffering) but one who is warm and tender, and one who understands and sympathises with our human predicament.

I am therefore not afraid, metaphorically, to throw my arms around him; bury my head in his bosom, and feel the warmth of his embrace which in turn gives me the courage and strength to persevere when the going gets tough.

Through the birth of Jesus, who reveals God in human form, and his subsequent experience of suffering as a human being, God is able to help you and me along our journey of faith today because, to quote the comedienne Hilda Baker "he knows you know", or perhaps I should say "she knows you know", depending upon your image of God!

May you all have a happy and blessed Christmas as you recall the human face of God in your joys and in your sorrows this Christmas time. Amen