FROM THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON DECEMBER 30^th, 2007

John 1:18 "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father;

He has made him known."

On this Sunday after Christmas the Gospel reading is the great prologue of Saint John's Gospel. We are taken from Bethlehem, from the baby Jesus and the adoring shepherds, to an explanation of what it all means: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us".

But it is more than this, as exciting as that statement is. John goes on to say: "The only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known". This is not myth, or symbolism, or a secret mystery - this is the cosmic dimension. Whilst the rest of the world thinks that Christmas is now over for another year, we celebrate the amazing fact, that the reality, the persona, the energy, the presence of God, the power behind all creation, the co-eternal has taken flesh, become man, and is one with us.

So we do well to acknowledge this by genuflecting at those words during the Gospel today, as we do Sunday by Sunday in the Creed at the words: “And was incarnate…..”. It is awesome, it is immense, it is amazing - and it is for us!

As we ponder this Word made flesh - the only begotten Son of the Father, come to us from his bosom as Saint John says - we inevitably turn to another bosom. To the one whose own word makes it possible for the Word to be made flesh – Mary, rightly called the Portal of Salvation.

Confronted by a Word from God, her words at first speak of puzzlement and perplexity. In the story of the Incarnation the shepherds were not the only ones to have troubled minds. But like them, words from an angel have their effect upon Mary. She is challenged by an invitation surrounded by earthly terror - yet filled with heavenly promise. She is rightly the Virgin Mother of God, because she gives flesh and form to this cosmic mystery.

When the Word is made flesh, it is the Blessed Virgin Mary's flesh. Mary's words: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord" are more than just an acceptance of a unique vocation. In saying that, Mary acts out a commandment that she would later give to the Church: "Do whatever he tells you". She will follow Christ from the cradle to Calvary, doing whatever he tells her. At the beginning and at the end she holds him in her arms, and cradles him in her bosom. This, the one who comes from the bosom of the Father.

Thus by any standard, Mary is both the icon of the Church and the Mother of every disciple. As Mother and Icon she bids us to have, like her, nothing less than a heart of love for Jesus.

The noted Anglican writer Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a marvelous series of radio plays for the BBC after the war called "The man born to be king". In this series of plays Mary says the following: "I, Mary, am the fact; God is the truth; but Jesus is fact and truth - he is reality.You cannot see the immortal truth till it is born in the flesh of the fact".

The Virgin birth is an essential part of the Incarnation. Mary is not just a young women who shall conceive and bear a Son. The Church calls her Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin - for how can the eternal Word have brothers and sisters. For then he would be something else. Jesus is not a special man with ordinary parents and adopted by God. The reality is that he is the wedding of heaven and earth, of God and Man.

A Christ not fully God cannot help us. A Christ not fully Man cannot represent us.

In the Word made flesh something particular conveys the eternal, and what is eternal is rooted in what is particular. Theologians thus call the Incarnation “the scandal of particularity” - for how can the eternal creator dwell in what is earthly and particular.

Yet, this is a principal of God's working with us

+ in creation

+ in society

+ in the Church

+ in the Sacraments.

Unfortunately, the scandal of particularity is often obscured by the scandal of sin.

It is both deep theology and the basis for simple faith, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Church, the Sacraments, and the final glory of God's kingdom - these all express the same particularity of God's working with us.

And it was all first expressed in the stable at Bethlehem - a more particular place you could not hope to find!

A Christmas hymn from England attempts to explore this great mystery in verse:

O wonder of wonders, which none can unfold;

The Ancient of Days is an hour or two old;

The Maker of all things is made of the earth,

Man is worshipped by angels, and God comes to birth!"