Real People - Real Voices - Carols by Candle light

For our Nativity this morning we used Bab Hartman's Christmas Poem, the new booklet produced by the Bible Society and in this evening's service of Carols by Candle light we welcomed once again the Peace Light from Bethlehem with its message of peace - Peace in me - Peace with you.

Christmas is a time when hopes and fears can be mixed up together, when sadness overwhelms and yet can turn into gladness.  Today we’ll be telling the Christmas story and seeing how it’s the story of real people living real lives in an often troubled world.  Maybe the Christmas story can touch us once again and bring something of the light of love into what can at times feel like a pretty dark and troubled world.  Over the years at Highbury we have supported young people on mission projects and taking a gap year.  This January we look forward to welcoming Faith who will spend part of an internship year of mission work with us.  It was through just such an internship experience fifteen years ago that we got to know Hanta, a young woman from Madagascar.  She had come over here to do a gap year: we have kept in touch with her ever since she returned to the children’s home where she had grown up.  She trained as a Social Worker and has recently been appointed Director of Akeny Avoko, a children’s home in Madagascar that itself has been through troubled times.  That’s who we are supporting through our Christmas collection.  You can gift aid your contributions by using a yellow envelope and marking it clearly Christmas Collection.

Real people, real voices

Real feelings, real thoughts

How do you feel when everything goes really well?

How do you feel when everything goes horribly wrong?

I’m Richard Cleaves.  I’m Minister of the Church here in Highbury.

I grew up in Leicester, and have always followed Leicester City

I’ve lived in Cheltenham for a long time and follow the Robins.

It's a great feeling having Leicester City top of the Premiership and Cheltenham Town top of the National League for Christmas!!!

How do you feel when everything goes really well?  Brilliant.

But then something happens – people you’re close to fall out

Someone’s ill – things don’t work as you want them to

How do you feel when everything goes horribly wrong?  Pretty bad

At one moment you’re filled with all sorts of hopes

And then the next there are all sorts of fears.

For the next little while I want to think of the people in the Christmas story.

I want to think of them as

Real people with real voices

With real feelings, with real thoughts

And maybe, just maybe, we can catch their hopes, their fears and something very special for this Christmas too.

We’re going to begin by singing the first of our carols – as we start to sing we are going to put the lights out … and as we sing we are going to bring in a lantern that has become very special to us over the years here at Highbury.  The flame has been kept alight for a week or so now … it was lit from a lantern that was lit from a lantern that was lit from a lantern that had been lit from the everlasting flame that burns in the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.   It’s the Peace Light from Bethlehem brought from Bethlehem by Scouts and Guide and welcomed to Highbury by our Scouts and Guides in our Christingle Service last week.  Notice the words … notice the words we sing …

1          O little town of Bethlehem,
            how still we see you lie!
            above your deep and dreamless sleep
            the silent stars go by.
            Yet, in your dark streets shining
            the everlasting light;
            the hopes and fears of all the years
            are met in you to-night.

2          For Christ is born of Mary;
            and, gathered all above,
            while mortals sleep, the angels keep
            their watch of wondering love.
            O morning stars, together
            proclaim the holy birth
            and praises sing to God the King,
            and peace to all on earth.

3          How silently, how silently,
            the wondrous gift is given!
            so God imparts to human hearts
            the blessings of his heaven.
            No ear may hear his coming;
            but in this world of sin,
            where meek souls will receive him, still
            the dear Christ enters in.

4          O holy child of Bethlehem,
            descend to us, we pray;
            cast out our sin, and enter in,
            be born in us today.
            We hear the Christmas angels
            the great glad tidings tell:
            O come to us, abide with us,
            our Lord Emmanuel.

Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

But of course Bethlehem is not the quiet still place of Phillips Brooks imagining in that hymn … let’s sing two more verses someone from Highbury was inspired to write when he first visited Bethlehem.  As we sing these verses I think of the scout and guide group we have built up a partnership with in Bethlehem since we visited and I remember the people of Bethlehem are real people with real voices, real feelings, real thoughts.

               O troubled town of Bethlehem,
            with conflict still you lie.
            Above your deep but restless sleep
            indifferent stars go by;
            yet in your dark streets may you find
            resilient, endless light:
            for hopes and fears of all the years
            were borne in you one night.

              O daring child of Bethlehem,
            empower us all, we pray,
            to work for peace that wars may cease
            and love be born today.
            With all the nations' angels
            proclaiming we shall tell:
            'Heal Bethlehem, join "us" with "them"'-
            Amen, Immanuel!

                Graham Adams (born 1975)

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts

They were outsiders.

People didn’t often have time for them.

The Shepherds' Story

It was cold that night.

Breathe out and you could see your breath.

Looking up at that starry sky

there was something about that night that was frightening.

And yet there was something that took those fears away.

The voice seemed so real

“Don’t be afraid!

Something is happening that’s meant for everybody,

for everybody all over the world.

A baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.

Glory to God in the highest!

And on earth peace.

They ran as fast as they could;

They saw for themselves

And they believed.

While shepherds watched

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts.

Real people real voices

Real feelings, real thoughts

What was it those shepherds saw?

What was it that made them believe?

See amid the winter’s snow

Real people, real voices

Real feelings, real thoughts

What was it like for Mary

alone and yet not alone?

Mary's Story

It was hard

when Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire.

There was nothing else for it.

They had to go.

They had to travel to Joseph’s home town,

to the city of David,

to Bethlehem.

And then came the moment,

the moment she had been waiting for,

the moment for her to give birth.

She gave birth to a son,

her firstborn.

She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger.

The days went by and the visitors came.

They came and went.

And so often she was on her own.

That was her favourite time.

All alone with him.

The doors shut.

Just the two of them.

Silent night, holy night

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts

So many thoughts, so many feelings

And they all tumbled around in her mind.

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts.

The holly and the ivy

One more set of people had a long journey to make

and on that journey something very strange happened.

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts

And a real journey to make

 The Wise Men's Story 

They were a band of scholars, wise men from the East.

They were on a pilgrimage to worship the one born to be King.

Yet they did not know where they were going.

They looked for guidance.  They looked for answers.

And something drew them on.

It was something they saw.

It was as if it beckoned them on.

On their journey they walked by the light of that star.

They drew near to the presence of God.

But not everyone recognised it.

There was already a King in Jerusalem.

They thought he would want to know.

They thought they could trust him.

But he felt threatened.

He wanted to kill this threat to his kingdom.

Their journey led them on.

They could hardly contain themselves.

They were in the right place!

They had arrived at the right time!

They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary his mother.

Overcome, they kneeled and worshipped him.

They presented their gifts

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

We three kings

Real people, real voices,

Real feelings, real thoughts.

Wise men with the courage

To set off on a journey with faith.

Real people, real voices

Real feelings, real thoughts

With something very real to share with us for this Christmas.

Something very real when things are going brilliantly and everything is great

Something very real when things go horribly wrong.

1          Who would think that what was needed
            to transform and save the earth
            might not be a plan or army,
            proud in purpose proved in worth?
            Who would think despite derision,
            that a child might lead the way?
            God surprises earth with heaven,
            coming here on Christmas Day.

2          Shepherds watch and wise men wonder,
            monarchs scorn and angels sing;
            such a place as none would reckon
            hosts a holy, helpless thing;
            stable beasts and by-passed strangers
            watch a baby laid in hay:
            God surprises earth with heaven,
            coming here on Christmas Day.

3          Centuries of skill and science
            span the past from which we move,
            yet experience questions whether,
            with such progress we improve.
            While the human lot we ponder,
            lest our hopes and humour fray,
            God surprises earth with heaven,
            coming here on Christmas Day.

John L Bell (born 1949) and Graham Maule (born 1958)
Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 3540

Over the years we have welcomed young people taking a gap year here at Highbury and supported our young people to do voluntary service through our world church partnerships – in the New Year we are going to welcome Faith Taylor who will be spending part of an internship year in mission with us.  It was on such a mission work camp fifteen years ago that Graham Adams went on that we made a link for a while with a church in Penrhys, high above the Rhondda Valley in South Wales.  Through our world mission partnership CWM we got to know a young woman from Madagascar who was over here for a gap year.  Hanta went back to the children’s home in Madagascar, Akeny Avoko, where she had grown up, she trained as a Social Worker, and through Guiding and Scouting links has kept in touch first with our own Olga Slack and also with Felicity.  After a very troubled time for Akeny Avoko she has been appointed Director … and our Christmas collection this year is supporting the work of Akeny Avoko and the care it gives to some of the neediest children in Madagascar.    If you want to make a contribution there’s a container on each table for you to leave a contribution if you would like to … and  Gift Aid envelopes you can fill in if you are able to.

We are now going to share in prayers for Christmas – as each candle is lit bring to mind your own prayers, maybe for people you know personally, maybe for yourself, maybe for the wider world and its many concerns.

We are going to light our candles and as we do think of the real world around us and think of that light that can come into the darkest corners of our world.

As we light the first of our candles

Let’s think of people we know,

People who are not well, people who are sad in bereavement,

People who will find this Christmas particularly difficult

People who face problems at home, at work

As we light the second of our candles

Let’s think of the troubles there are in our world

People whose homes and whose families have been destroyed by war

People who are fleeing the devastation of war

People whose homes and whose families have been destroyed as a result of climate change

People who have been flooded out of their homes

As we light the third of our candles

Let’s think of Hanta and her family and all the work she is doing at Akeny Avoko

Let’s think of the children in their care as they are growing up

Let’s think of the people of Madagascar.

As we light the fourth of our candles

Let’s think of ourselves and the needs we each of us have

May the light of God’s presence, shining in the love of Jesus

Shine in the dark corners of our lives

To bring peace, to bring healing and wholeness, to bring a sense of that love that will never let us go.

Let’s all join together in saying the words of our Lord’s prayer.

Hark the herald angels sing!

May our lives and our voices

Our thoughts and our feelings

Be like lights shining in dark places.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace

In our hearts, in our homes and in our world.  Amen.