God quite likes us!

Reading for Sunday 22nd  December 2013: Advent 4 (also known as O king of the nations-O Rex Gentium) Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

I like young kids

It is perhaps a politically incorrect thing to say.

I am now the oldest male in my generation of my family

So when we gather at Christmas and other times

that I have become a patriarch!

Each of these last few days has a special title

or antiphon which is sung.

The one we know best is ...O Emmanuel! God with us

But today is called O King of the Nations (O Rex Gentium)

It sings of how Jesus has his foundation and roots

deep within the human family.

It does not just hope that there will be local peace

but that there will be world, peace.

This is my hope too!

Peace in Syria, in Outback Australia, in Afghanistan…you name it

I want peace between Moslem and Christian and Jew
Between Hindu, Buddhist and communist

But let me go back to O Emmanuel-God with us

A few years ago I had a wonderful encounter with a class

of 5-7 year olds from St Peter's School, Blackwood

as we sat in the church

and talked about what we could see.

Chief amongst these things was a bird which had flown into the church.

We had a most alive conversation about what you do when a bird flies into your house!

One little girl told me "I can speak to birds"

and after they had left she offered to stay and tell the bird to leave.

There is something alive and fresh about these naive conversations

So it is not surprsing to encounter at the heart of the discourses

about God's salvation of the world

That the prophet Isaiah should remind us that the surest sign

that God is with us -Emmanuel-

(this is the word of Christmas)

and the sign is: that a woman will bear a child.

Not the most spectacular of signs

not a volcano, a burning bush, or an ark or a transfiguration

But perhaps the most alive sign

a human being has

is the birth of a child

The Christmas Bowl reminds us that

the aid that we give to communities overseas

will secure the future of children

pure water, economic security

is about the world we need to establish for children

We are challenged by Anglicare

and our own local Beacon

to offer small offerings of food

and gifts

for people right in our midst

who are at risk.

God's work...the Emmanuel work..

of Christmas,

will be about the realities of our life.

These realities are most sharply focussed

through the lens of our children.

The surest sign that God is with us

is that a young woman will give birth.

How does this speak to your life?

What have you made of Christmas so far....

do you hear the voice of the child speaking to you?

What is he saying?

What does she tell you

about the birdsong that she can utter?

About the dreams that they hold

about what we need to do

to nurture them

and create a world fit for children.

Latin:

O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,

lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:

veni, et salva hominem,

quem de limo formasti.

English:

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

Isaiah had prophesied:

• "For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

• "He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Isaiah 2:4