大象传媒

大象传媒 Radio 4. It's just after 9 o'clock. The Christmas Service comes from Ripon: the Cathedral for North Yorkshire, where worship is led by the Dean, the Very Rev'd John Dobson and starts with what鈥檚 often known as 鈥楾he Yorkshire Carol鈥�: Christians Awake!

MUSIC (CHOIR & CONGREGATION + ORGAN):
Christians, Awake! (Yorkshire)

THE DEAN:
Good morning and a very happy Christmas!听 For over thirteen hundred years, people have gathered on this holy ground to celebrate Christmas and the joy of the angels鈥� message. We鈥檙e set in the heart of North Yorkshire, the gateway to the upland pastures of the stunningly beautiful Yorkshire Dales, this is a place where talk of shepherds and sheep connects the content of the ancient Christian gospel with the reality of contemporary life to which that gospel still brings a message of peace and hope. We trust that message will resonate not only in our rural areas, but also in our industrial ones听 - especially in this county, where with the closure of the steel works in Redcar and now Kellingley Colliery, families and communities are facing an uncertain future.听 Let鈥檚 demonstrate that message of hope and love through our support 鈥� both prayerful and practical -.听 We Yorkshire people have a reputation for being practical 鈥� as well as a gift for communicating in down-to-earth ways the deep wisdom that is not always immediately obvious to others.听 Perhaps this helps us to reflect on the plain speaking of God as the Word became flesh. In a very down-to-earth way, the child lying in a manger speaks of the eternal God of heaven stooping down听 to show us plainly that God is Emmanuel; he faithfully remains with every one of his children in every circumstance of life.

Let us pray in the peace of this Christmas celebration that our joy in the birth of Christ will last for ever.

Almighty God, you have given us your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin:听 grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
ALL:听 Amen
THE DEAN:
Full of joy, let鈥檚 now join in praise with millions of faithful people around the world; let us in heart and mind gather together with shepherds and angels in Bethlehem to see the one who is born the King of angels; the very Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.
听
MUSIC (CHOIR & CONGREGATION + BRASS & ORGAN):
O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste fideles)
THE DEAN:
Ripon Cathedral is visited by thousands of people every week: many of them light candles and ask for prayers: in some cases this comes out of a need to thank God for something that is welcome and positive; on other occasions there is a need to ask for God鈥檚 support and strength to face a difficult situation.

In this region, and even more so over the county border in Cumbria and Lancashire, many people are still suffering the consequences of recent floods. Life can sometimes seem cruel.听 And many of us sharing in this service and in Christmas celebrations with friends and family today will have cause to pause for a moment and reflect on some personal disappointment and pain.

This all helps us to remember why we do celebrate today.听 The birth of Jesus Christ speaks plainly into every circumstance of life.听 God is faithful and God is with us 鈥� always.听 The child who was born at Bethlehem never promised an escape from the reality of life, his own life was to make that clear.听 Today we celebrate the birth of the one who would be raised from death and who has the power to transform life.听
Our next piece of music, sung by the Cathedral鈥檚听 Girl Choristers and Lay Clerks, suggests that with the birth of our heavenly King, with his sunshine and showers, the patient ground is turned to flowers.

MUSIC (CHOIR ONLY):
What Sweeter Music听 (Rutter)

READING 鈥� Isaiah 52:7-10
LINDSAY TANNER:
A reading from the Book of Isaiah
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, 鈥淵our God reigns.鈥澨� Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.听 Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.听 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
This is the word of the Lord
ALL:听 Thanks be to God

CHOIR & ORGAN (CONGREGATION RESPOND):

READING - John 1. 1-14
PRECENTOR:听听 Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.
ALL:听 Glory to you, O Lord.

PRECENTOR:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.听 He was in the beginning with God.听 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.听 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.听 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.听 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.听 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.听 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.听 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.听 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.听 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.听 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father鈥檚 only son, full of grace and truth.
This is the Gospel of our Lord
ALL:听Praise to you, O Christ.

THE DEAN:
The reflected glory from the Light of the World certainly shone on His first visitors: and it must have scared them half to death!听 Sleeping rough out on the Holy Land鈥檚 equivalent of the North Yorkshire Moors as they protected their vulnerable sheep against thieves and wild animals, the shepherds said 鈥榶es鈥� to the terrifying supernatural vision of angels.听 Although they鈥檇 probably have felt very much at home in a stable, as rough, dirty, shabby types, they were probably very 鈥榩lain-speaking鈥� and might not really have expected to be popular in a respectable administrative centre like Bethlehem: the Royal City of David.听 This is why the honour of being first to see the Son of God granted to these simple men 鈥� outsiders 鈥� is suggestive to us of听 what sort of a King this Jesus was going to be; and who in turn he expects us to be to the 鈥榦utsiders鈥� in our society.

MUSIC (CHOIR & CONGREGATION + BRASS & ORGAN)
While Shepherds Watched (Winchester New)

THE DEAN:
Our Bishop, Nicholas Baines, will be preaching this morning鈥檚 sermon, whilst some of the younger members of our choir take part in an old Christmas Day tradition.听 They鈥檒l be distributing apples 鈥� something we think goes back to the middle ages and is unique to Ripon Cathedral鈥�

SERMON
BISHOP NICHOLAS:
It was only very recently that I heard about the tradition at Ripon Cathedral of giving out apples at the Christmas service. I bet the kids can't wait for Easter when they'll get chocolate instead.

I'm now wondering what hidden traditions the other two cathedrals in this diocese have stored up for today. But, given all the traditions that accompany Christmas, at least Ripon still has the power to surprise. Apples on Christmas Day. Really.

Yet, this is what Christmas is supposed to do to us: surprise us ... with the presence of God - what John in our gospel reading calls "his glory" - where we least expect it. After all, the people we read about in the original nativity stories had been longing for this - to know that they had not been abandoned, and that God would be among them again. Decades of military occupation by the Roman imperial forces had driven deep the stain of humiliation - the Creator of the Universe apparently defeated by the pagan gods of power and caprice. Where was God to be found when all the evidence of experience and our eyes tells us that he is not here ... where we are?

Well, there is a theme running through the biblical story, and it isn't particularly comfortable. For people who think that God is only present where everything is sorted, every problem resolved, every indicator positive, Christmas becomes the epitome of embarrassment. For here, in the birth of the baby in Bethlehem, we are dared to look differently ... and see God among us while everything in life remains a mess. The Romans are still here, still fleecing the people, still crucifying the protestors. Life is cheap. And pagan victory is rubbed in the faces of the poor, deluded people who keep hope alive in the face of 'reality'.

But, the people among whom God comes in Jesus of Nazareth are invited to re-think reality - not to be optimists, just hoping everything will somehow get better for them, but hopers who see through the transience of today's powers to the haunting shadow of God's smile: I am for you - Emmanuel, I am with you. Not to make everything nice and tidy. Not to take you out of the world's mess. But, to come to you and stay with you - right where you are, whatever happens, however long history takes.

And this is what goes to the heart of Christmas. God appears not to invade the present in a display of power and glory, but to be born as each of us has been born, and to slip into a tired, complicated, threatening and unsuspecting world at a particular time and in a particular place. No God of generalities or airy-fairy spirituality here - just one who gets stuck in, is down to earth, and who opts in to all that real world is and does not exempt himself from it.听 For those whose world has changed at Kellingley Colliery last week and the Redcar steel industry in recent months, this is particularly relevant 鈥� where practical hope has to be encouraged and nurtured in the months and years ahead

Let's just pause for a moment and think back to who it was who got invited to the first viewing of the scrap of humanity lying in the feeding trough in that obscure town in that obscure part of the ancient empire. Shepherds are workers, doing their stuff out on the hills, minding their own business, expecting nothing. Yet, they, the religious outsiders, are first to get a Christmas surprise. Later, it鈥檚 pagan astrologers who come in from the cold in search of something they probably expected to find somewhere more interesting or significant. Again, outsiders to the religious establishment of the time.

It's as if we are being surprised by a God who somehow climbs around the secure walls of our expectations and slips through our prejudices - especially the prejudices about God favouring either our pet religious projects or our self-condemning hesitations about our own worthiness. No, here we hear God whispering about a new way, meeting us where we are, but opening our eyes to a glimpse of living in a new world right in the heart of this world - opening our ears to the haunting echo of a different melody, a rhythm that invites a different dance.

That's what was happening in Bethlehem that night. And that is what we are celebrating this morning. Not just the warm familiarity of a myth that makes us feel better, or the reminder of a fantasy that temporarily anaesthetises us from the horrors and uncertainties of our complicated lives. But, the invasion in the present - as it is - of a new and surprisingly realistic hope.

In fact, the invitation of Christmas might be summed up as this: we need no longer be driven by fear, but can be drawn by hope.

Why? Well, simply because the hope we will glimpse in Jesus as he grows from the baby of Bethlehem to the man of Calvary is one that is shaped not by some formula for self-improvement, nor some political or military project for sorting out the "wrong sorts of people"; rather, it is rooted in the person of God whose face we will see in Jesus and in whose person we will be dared to trust.

Drawn by hope, not driven by fear.听 In this world, but not of it.听 Down to earth, but not bound by earth. Invited not to escape from the real world, but, trusting in the faithfulness of God, to plunge ourselves into the depths of the real world as it is now.

So, today we should be tempted - not by apples, perhaps; that one didn't end so well, after all, did it? - to be surprised by the smile of God in the midst of experience. To see in this baby the seed of an inconceivable fruitfulness - that even in and through us, where we are, how we are, as we are, God might give birth to a tiny glimpse of that light that no darkness can extinguish.

A happy Christmas, indeed.

MUSIC (CHOIR ONLY):
Adam Lay Ybounden听 (Boris Ord)
PRAYERS
RUTH HIND:
Father, today your Son our Saviour was born in human flesh.听 Renew your Church as the Body of Christ.
Holy God
ALL:听hear our prayer.

RUTH HIND:
Today the angels sang, 鈥楶eace to God鈥檚 people on earth.鈥櫶� Strengthen those who work for peace and justice in all the world.听 We pray for Paris and Syria; for the Middle East.
Holy God
ALL:听hear our prayer.

RUTH HIND:
Today your Christ came as a light shining in the darkness.听 Bring comfort to all who suffer and struggle in the sadness of our world.听听 We pray for homeless people and all migrants and refugees; for lives and livelihoods affected by the recent floods; and for all facing unemployment and uncertainty 鈥� especially those at the steelworks in Redcar and also at Kellingley Colliery.
Holy God
ALL:听hear our prayer.

RUTH HIND:
Today heaven is come to earth, and earth is raised to heaven.听 Hold in your hand all those who have passed through death in the hope of your coming kingdom.
Holy God
ALL:听 听hear our prayer.

RUTH HIND:
Today Christians the world over celebrate Christ鈥檚 birth.听 Open our hearts that he may be born in us today.听
Holy God
ALL:听hear our prayer.

RUTH HIND:
Father, today angels and shepherds worshipped at the manger throne.听 Receive the worship we offer in fellowship with Mary, Joseph and the saints, through him who is your Word made flesh, our Saviour Jesus Christ.
ALL:听Amen.

THE DEAN:

鈥�Rejoicing in the presence of God here among us, let us pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
ALL:听Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;听
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

THE DEAN:
Although we鈥檙e still very much in the countryside with 鈥榯he running of the deer in the green wood鈥�, The Holly and the Ivy is more than just another carol using imagery of the natural world worshipping at the birth of 鈥榮weet baby Jesus鈥�:听 the Christmas story is bitter-sweet, not saccharine 鈥� the carol looks ahead to the end of His life on earth鈥�to the sharpness of the Crown of Thorns, and bitterness of vinegar and gall at His crucifixion.听 The trees mentioned are evergreen: symbols of the eternal life won for us by a birth, life and death to save the bad apples and the lost sheep, as well as the fruitful and the faithful鈥�

MUSIC (CHOIR ONLY):
The Holly And The Ivy听 (June Nixon)

BLESSING
BISHOP:听
May the Father, who has loved the eternal Son from before the foundation of the world,听 shed that love upon you his children.
ALL:听Amen.

BISHOP:
May Christ, who by his incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with joy and peace.
ALL:听Amen.

BISHOP:
May the Holy Spirit, by whose overshadowing Mary became the God-bearer,
give you grace to carry the good news of Christ.
ALL:听Amen.

BISHOP:
And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.
ALL:听Amen.

BISHOP: 听
Go in peace.听 Proclaim the Word made flesh.
ALL:听Glory, thanks and praise to God.

MUSIC (CHOIR & CONGREGATION + BRASS & ORGAN)
Hark The Herald (Mendelssohn)

ORGAN VOLUNTARY (+ BRASS):听 interlude on 鈥楪od Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen鈥� by William Lloyd Webber.