DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE AT MIDNIGHT MASS

CHRISTMAS 2007

Isaiah 9:2 "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light."

This time last week I was flying to Virginia Beach to preach at the Silver Jubilee of the Ordination of Fr. Stephen Powers; a friend of this parish. The trip was via Chicago, so of course my flight was delayed here in San Diego by 90 minutes! To my relief, when I got to Chicago my connecting flight was also delayed by 90 minutes. As I was waiting to board my delayed flight, next to me was a long line of people who had missed their flights and were waiting to be booked on the next flight.

This is probably the worst week for flight cancellations and delays. Predictably an angry passenger pushed his way to the head of the queue, slapped his ticket on the counter and said, "I have to be on this flight - and it must be first class". The agent calmly said, "I'm sorry sir I'd be happy to help you - but I've got to help these people first. Then I'm sure we can work something out". The passenger was not impressed, saying in a loud voice: "Do you know who I am?" Without hesitating, the agent smiled, grabbed her public address system microphone and announced: "May I have your attention please? Your attention please! We have a passenger at gate 14 who does not know who he is. If anyone can tell him his identity would they please come to gate 14 immediately".

Do you know who I am? It is a pompous question from someone who thinks they are more important than everyone else. Such people wrap themselves in vain self-importance. Beneath that wrapping there is still a real person - but the wrapping cheapens their value and hides them.

Just think of all the presents we wrap at this time of the year. We spend time wrapping them in brightly colored paper and elaborate bows; and when we hand over the gift we hope that the present inside will be valued by the recipient to the same extent as we have decorated and wrapped it. It is of course a risk we take - because on the outside it looks all bright and colorful, but who knows if inside is a present that they want? Sometimes we don't know what the person wants, and so we take a risk, don't we?

Like that pompous passenger, we can wrap ourselves in things that are destined to make an impression - but actually hide our true value. Christmas reminds us of the folly of doing this - because in the end all the wrapping must be thrown away, and what is inside must be revealed, and hopefully accepted. Though there is always the risk.

Jesus Christ is God's gift to the world - but in his birth the gift is quite the opposite to the way we give gifts. The wrappings of God's gift are humble and ordinary, and no bright ribbons. In wrapping our Savior's birth in this way, God is also taking a risk - but it is a deliberate risk. God wants to take that risk because he does not want us to be distracted by the wrappings. He wants us to see the gift and take it as it is.

But we have been distracted by the wrappings of Jesus' birth, haven't we? We sing songs about the star, the shepherds, the wise men, the manger, the night and even snow. As important as these things are to the story, they are merely wrappings on the side. For the whole story, including its wrappings, is ordinary - even humble - the ordinary wrappings of a great gift. Nothing less than God himself, with all his love revealed in such ordinary circumstance.

It had taken centuries to get to this day, when God's love would be revealed in such a way. God had loved the world right from the beginning - and right from the start we mucked it up. We who are the image of God, and called in Scripture his children have always mucked his gift up. In actual fact, the question "Do you know who I am?” is God's question to us at Christmas.

Right from the beginning the human race that God created has forgotten who He is! Isaiah described us as "the people who walked in darkness". Finally God decided to answer his own question himself. The only way he would get the human race to respond to the question: "Do you know who I am" was to show them - and show us he did. Though not in wonderful wrappings and ribbons - but meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And the gift is nothing else but himself in human form.

It is the shepherds who are the first to unwrap this Christmas gift. Their status in society fits in with the wrapping; ordinary, humble, down-trodden - whereas King Herod, in all his finery, was unable to comprehend this birth of a king.

The shepherds hastened with joy and received the gift of God in a drab stable. Those shepherds who had to look up from the bottom of society saw in one at their own level; the fullness of God's love, now dawning upon the earth.

God puts the question "Do you know who I am?" - and in finding the answer the shepherds suddenly knew who they were. God's beloved children and inheritors of his kingdom. For in answering God's question "Do you know who I am" we understand who we are. Because they knew the value of the gift they also knew that they were valued and loved. That is not only the message of Christmas - it is its secret which needs to be discovered again and again.

On this night, all our cries of "Do you know who I am?" are answered because God says "Do you know who I am?"

And we answer: "Yes Lord, you have the words of eternal life".