Robes and what really matters

This Christmas was also a first for me because the midnight service was the first time I’ve worn a cassock and surplice – standard dress for those with licensed ministries at Christ Church, but not until now for as yet unlicensed me.  But as we’ve moved from robing being an occasional event even for the vicar to being the norm it’s felt increasingly uncomfortable being the only person “at the front” in mufti.   So I was very brave and ventured into Wippells a few months ago only to realise that buying a cassock was far more complicated than I’d realised, starting with the question “clergy or lay reader?” to which the answer was “neither at present” and moving rapidly on into double or single breastedness and weight of cloth.  At this point common sense and regard for the church budget kicked in and I decided I was more like a lay reader for this purpose, which had the advantage that there is less fabric in a reader surplice, slightly reducing the frilly Christmas pudding effect.  Although not by much, as the photo shows!

I was very apprehensive and self conscious about my first appearance in these strange garments and was grateful that as the three of us – vicar, curate and me – robed in the vestry at 11.15 on Christmas Eve they behaved as if it was entirely normal (which it is for them), apart from checking discreetly that I was respectable and not hitched up at the back….. 

The service was, as always, a highlight of the year and as the three of us carried lighted candles into the church to “Let all mortal flesh keep silent” the robes seemed to make sense……  We always try to speak at this service to those people in the congregation for whom this is their annual appearance in church, to invite them to consider what it is that has brought them here and to provide a space for what it might be like to believe in something so wonderful every day of the year.  So N preached on the shepherds, whose lives were changed forever by the baby, concluding:

Everyone who meets God is changed. To see Jesus for who he is, is to begin to grasp the ungraspable. We can be told about God, we can read about Jesus’ life but it is when we come and see for ourselves that we know it’s all true. Then we can return, we can go back to our field and we can live our life be it rough or smooth, easy or difficult. Because God is with us.

And I picked up seamlessly to lead the reflection and response:

God is with us……

Can we believe it?  Can we believe this story we’ve just heard?  A story so familiar it can slip down into our consciousness like a warm drink, comforting but unnoticed.

God is with us.

For some of us the question may be, what would it mean if we did believe it?  For others it’s what does it mean that we say we do believe it?

The message for all of us tonight is this: 

Come and see.  God is with us, whether we believe it or not.

The shepherds’ lives were changed for ever by their meeting with the baby who was  Saviour and God….  They returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

We all have things in our lives we would like to change, to have changed.  Burdens we would like to lay down or hand over:  deep desires and hopes for the future, for ourselves, our friends, our families:  relationships that need healing.  We can offer them, whatever they are, to the God whose birth we celebrate tonight, because he chose to be born here, as one of us, and so he knows how it feels to be us, to be human, to long for a better life, a better world. 

We’re going to have a short time of silent reflection and prayer, responding to what we have heard, to the wonder and mystery of the baby, Jesus, who is also God and who can change lives, and preparing to meet him again in the bread and wine at the communion table.  During this time you might want to come and light a candle, as a symbol of the hopes and fears you want to lay before the Christ child tonight:  a symbol of whatever is heaviest in your heart, a symbol of worship.  The lighting of candles is one of the oldest customs known to man - a powerful affirmation of hope and trust in darkness.  If it feels right to you to follow it tonight, please do come forward during the silence, while we sing Silent Night, or during the prayers that will follow it:

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light,
Love is smiling from thy face,
Strikes for us now the hour of grace,
Saviour since thou art born,
Saviour since thou art born.

And the robes…? I forgot all about them!

Comments

[Jackie]

hee hee - I'm putting my money on incense featuring next year ;)

It sounds a lovely service, and a good way to start what must have been quite an odd Christmas for you - much love to you as you move into the promise and unknown-ness that 2006 must hold.

[Kathryn]

Ah hah...I wonder, now, what about copes....!!
I'm still wearing my Reader gear as it had only had 10 years of wear, so has most of its working life still ahead..and this saves the angst re number of buttons etc too!
I'd be willing to bet that there were more than a handful of takers for the candles...amazing how powerful and popular they are!

[Mary]

Copes: no I don't think so, or incense either, as Jackie knows very well! But my 6 week placement after Christmas is at a church with a strong catholic tradition (from both its constituent congregations)and I will need to wear an alb and do some deaconing and more serious processing, as well as an assessed sermon... so we'll see what I bring back from that. Our chaste lack of ritual is under threat from the Caribbean as well, as one of our Readers is spending a year in Grenada where she is having to learn about incense, bells and other foreign concepts....

[Kathryn]

Ah hah...well, it was the Afro Caribbean influence at St John the Divine, Kennington, that really made sense of the ritual for me. My childhood church was "high" but it seemed pretty unhelpful and meaningless to me then... SJDK joined the dots between liturgy and reality in a way that was hugely significant.
It's also where I met Nigel, - as I've probably told you.
Where are you doing your placement? It sounds fun ;-)

[Mary]

It's at St George's, Perry Hill, (http://www.southwark.anglican.org/parishes/200bk1.htm), a new building on the site of the old church, which opened on Christmas Eve last year prepared for a big congregation of 50 or so at the Crib Service and found itself with 350.... so spent the rest of the evening preparing for a similar influx at Midnight. I haven't been inside yet but apparently it has a font with flowing water and an aumbry with blue lights around it.... it should, indeed be interesting and fun too once I've lost some self consciousness about ritual..... I went to see the incumbent before Chritams for an hour and we were still talking after three, which augurs well.

[Kathryn]

EXCELLENT
and the font sounds utterly wonderful. Please take notes (and pictures, if you solve that issue)...we've a long way to go.

[Jackie]

Ah, I used to live near SGPH, though never went to a service. I do remember the old church in a desperate state of trying not to collapse though.

[Mary]

Yes - it was on my school run route with Alan, so we watched it right through the phoenix process (that's not quite right - it's one of the few S London church rebuilds NOT to have been necessitated by fire!)

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