A Sermon for Christmas.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIV, Issue 6, 1 December 1923, Page 327

A Sermon for Christmas.

WHAT SHALL I DO WITH. JESUS?

(By the Rev. G. D, Rosenthal, M?.A.)

"What shall I do, then, with Jesus that. is called Christ?"— St. Matthew xxvii. 22. It was Pontius Pilate who asked this question, and we' know how, to his undying shame, he answered it. "Pilate, when he had Scourged Jesus, delivered Him to be crucified." But it is not of Pilate that I ask you to think this morning': it is of ourselves. If he had to face and answer this question, so have we. It is an intensely personal question, which concerns every. man and woman and child m this church, and which concerns us separately and individually. We are saved corporately, it is true, as members of a great Society which is called the Catholic Church, but that does not alter the fact that God deals .with , us as separate individuals. He has called each one of us into a personal relationship to Himself, and it follows that we are compelled each 'one" of us to face and to answer the ques- . tion of the text, "What shall I ■■ do with Jesus that is called Christ'"/ And if it is a personal question, it is also a very practical one. It is no mere matter of theological inquiry, or historical investigation,- or philosophical speculation. All these things may enter into it, but they do not dispose of it. A man's belief about Christ may be so orthodox that he would pass for a first-class diploma iii theology, and yet his answer to this question may be profoundly unsatisfactory. For the question is- not, What do I think about Jesus, or what do I feel about Him, or what do I say about Him; but what shall I do with Him: and therefore it finds its answer not m our thoughts or words or emotions, but m the actions of Our daily lives. We are answering it,.indeed, every day we live : m our homes, m our companionships, m our work,' m our amusements. It is so "extra- 1 . ordinarily persistent; there js ,jio P.QSsibfe >yay.6f getting- rid of iii [Wte~

may try to forget it m pleasure, we may hide it away beneath ledgers and cash-books, we may think we can avoid answering it by a mere formal profession of Christianity, we may put it away from us altogether and say, What have I to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? But this is a question which will not be silenced, which refuses to be shaken off, which comes again and again to meet us to press for an answer. We hear it sounding from out the life of every good man we meet, it rings m our ears at every Eucharist, it meets us m every call to self-sacrifice, it demands a decision m every moment of temptation. Living or dying, we can by no means escape from this personal, practical, persistent question: "What shall I do with Jesus that is called Christ?" Once more, this is surely pre-emin-ently a. question for Christmas Day. We are inevitably brought face to face with it as we meet together to celebrate the Birthday of Jesus Christ. Faith linked to imagination carries us away to Bethlehem this morning, and to the eye of each believing soul the Avails of this church are transformed into the rough timbers of a stable, and the altar is changed into a manger stall. When m a few moments the Words of Consecration are spoken, the Infant Saviour, wrapped m the swaddlingclothes of the Sacramental Species, will stretch forth His tiny hands to us, demanding our worship, claiming our discipleship, pleading for our love. Let us think for a few moments of these Christian claims of Christ, that we may be ready each one of us to give a right answer to the question of the text, What shall I do with Jesus ? I. First, then, from His Manger Throne, Christ Jesus claims our worship. It is no mere saint, or teacher, or martyr, or benefactor of the human race, whose birth we celebrate to-day. Christmas Day is the birthday of God made man; the little baby wrapped m swaddling-clothes and laid m a. manger is none other than God over all, blessed for ever more. We need always to remember that Christ gave us a revelation of God not only by His words but by His actions, not merely or mainly by what He said, but by what He was and did. He not only told us about God: He was God m human form. The Word, says St. John, was made Flesh. What word? Why, the greatest word m human language, the word God. I can understand something of the meaning of that grealt word now ; Bethlehem and Galilee, Calvary and Olivet, have made it wonderfully plain. As Tennyson says: — . -md; so the Word had breath, and wrought

With human hands the Creed of Creeds, In loveliness of perfect deeds, More than all poetic thought. That is the great glory of the Incarnation. It shows us God; it expresses His character m the terms of a human life.. When we wonder what God would do, we have only to inquire what Jesus did. When we puzzle our brains with abstruse metaphysical speculations as to the nature of the Deity, a voice says to us, You will never make much progress that way, but you can see God m Jesus Christ. Look at Jesus, study His life, bathe your soul m the white radiance of his perfect character, and you will know what God is like. For he that hath seen Christ hath seen the Fa the]-. Yes, Jesus is God ; that is the foundation truth of the Christian Faith. And because He is God, He demands our worship and will be satisfied with nothing less. Do not insult Christ by offering Him your admiration; He will have none of it. You can admire man, but you cannot admire God. .With Him it must be worship or nothing; there is no possible alternative that He will accept. What, then, shall we do with Jesus that, is called Christ, on this His Birthday? Shall we worship Him 1 ? I trow we shall. Before ever we think of ourselves this morning, of the tremendous, the unspeakable difference the Incarnation has made for us; before ever we ask, for ourselves and for others, those Christmas blessings which the Saviour is so ready, so anxious to bestow upon vs — it will be our pride, our joy, our delight to bow down with the shepherds m profoundest homage and adoration before the Manger Throne of the Incarnate Christ, and to join with the Universal Church m earth and heaven m her great Christmas Anthem of praise and worship: We praise Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord, Thou only 0 Christ with the Holy Ghost art most high m the glory of God the Father. 11. Secondly, Jesus Christ claims our discipl eship. Perfect God, He is also perfect Man, the mirror m. which we can see Avhat human life can be and ought to be. If as God I must worship Him, as man I must take Him as my pattern, and, especially on Christmas Day, I must try to follow the example of His great humility. The crib is the symbol of the lowliness of Jesus; the humble circumstances Of His birth translate the selfabasement involved m the Incarnation into terms which we can understand—-)

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain, ■-■.;.■,:.. Heaven and earth shall flee away, ■ When He comes to reign. In the bleak mid- winter A stable-place sufficed v The Lord God Almighty, ; Jesus Christ. Our Lord once told us to go and sitdown m the lowest room; at Bethlehem He practised what he taught. He once warned us that except we become as little children we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Surely He had the right to say it, Who Himself became a little child. Oh! if you would realise the humility of God, look at the last little helpless infant born into the world, and think that such was once the Lord Jesus . Christ. From His lowly cradle, the Babe of Bethlehem preaches to us the beauty of humility, and reminds us that before we can hope to be with Him m His glory, we must become, m heart and spirit, little children too. Is not that a lesson we all of us need to learn 1 ? Pride is the parent stem on which all the other deadly sins are grafted ; and pride is m all of us, m the poor as well as m the rich, m the young as much as m the old, manifesting its presence m an almost infinite variety of ways. How promptly we respond to flattery, how delighted we are if people speak well of us, how bitterly We resent it if we are slighted or rebuked, how quick we are to take offence, how envious of others, how eager to belittle them. We find it almost impossible to admit that we are ever m the wrong; we think so much of our own opinion, and are wounded if others do not take oiir.advi.ee. We despise commonplace -tasks,' we do our good deeds to be seen of men, we are so easily fascinated, poor creatures that we are, by titles, and Avealth, and position and success. So universal is pride, so congenial to our human weakness, so terribly difficult to overcome. And surely this is the reason why the earthly life of Jesus begins m the Manger. He suffered Himself to be laid m that lowly crib, that He might woo us to the practice of humility by His own most beantiful example. As we think of His hands stretched out to Mary m imploring dependence, of. His voice crying with cold m the manger stall, howpoor, how mean, how worthless, How infinitely petty and degraded seem our conceit, our vanity, our selfsatisfaction. Believe "it, it will mean a real step forward on our path Heavenward if we earnestly resolve this Christmas morning that so often as we are tempted to plnme ourselves m our talents, our position, our achievements, our success, we. will pay a. visit m spirit to the Manger, and gazing at the Eternal Son of the Father, born m poverty and naked-

ness, pray for grace to follow the example of His great humility. ... : . 111. Once more, from his Christmas cradle, Christ Jesus claims our love. He presents Himself to us there, not only as our God and our Saviour, but as our baby Brother. He embodies m Himself that most sweet and tender relationship, and pleads for 'our love m the appealing-, the irrestible accents of His baby voice. What, theii, shall we do with this Jesus Who asks for our love? Shall we give it to Him? Ah! how can we help it? How could Aye refuse to love Him AVho loved us so much that He laid aside His glory, and took upon Him our nature, and was born as a helpless infant that He might save us from our sins and unite us to Himself? Surely the cry must be wrung 1 from our hearts, just as truly at the Manger of Bethlehem as on Calvary beneath the shadow of the Cross : We love Him because He first loved us. And how can we show our love to Him this Christmas? For remember, as I said just now, this is a practical matter. The question is, What shall we do ? Well, my friends, He Himself has told us what to do. "A new commandment," He said, "I give unto you, (hat ye love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples.'' Let us take the spirit of Christ-love into our hearts and homes this Christinas. Let us crush down our selfishness. • iiir quarrelsomeness, and bitter tempers. Let us be kind and self-for-getting and thoughtful for others; for our parents and children and brothers and sisters. Let us be generous and charitable to the poor and friendless; Let us do our utmost to make Christmas a happy time for the children, for the sake of the Babe of ikthlehein. So shall we show that our hearts are full of love and gratitude tc Him Who Himself was a little child, and poor and friendless, and outcast, and m want, and Who has said : ' ' Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye do it unto Me."