Beyond the Manger, the other half of the story

Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen

On Sunday afternoon, June 1st 1975, Darrel Dore was on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Suddenly it wobbled, tipped to one side, and crashed into the sea. Darrell was trapped inside a room on the rig. As the rig sank deeper and deeper into the sea the lights went out and the room began to fill with water.

Thrashing about in the darkness, Darrel accidentally found a huge air bubble that was forming in the corner of the room. He thrust his head inside it.

Then a horrifying thought sent a shiver down his spine. "I'm buried alive". Darrell began to pray - out loud - and as he did, something remarkable happened. He said later:

"I found myself actually talking to Someone. Jesus was there with me. There was no illumination, nothing physical, but I sensed him, a comforting presence. He was real, he was there."

For the next 22 hours that Presence continued to comfort Darrel. But now the oxygen supply inside the bubble was giving out. Death was inevitable. It was just a matter of time.

Then a remarkable thing happened. Darrel saw a tiny star of light shimmering in the pitch-black water. Was it real? or after 22 hours was he beginning to hallucinate? Darrel squinted his eyes. The light seemed to grow brighter. He squinted again.

He wasn't hallucinating. The light was real. It was coming from a diver's helmet. Someone had found him. His 22 hour nightmare was over. Rescue had come. He was saved.

That true story is a remarkable illustration of what Christmas is all about.

Sin had wobbled our world, tipped it to one side, and sent it crashing into the waters of spiritual disaster. Darkness was everywhere. The human race was hopelessly trapped. There was no hope. Humankind was doomed to certain spiritual death.

People turned to God. They prayed in the words of the prophet Isaiah - "O Lord, you are angry and we are sinful, all of us have become unclean. Yet O Lord, you are father. Save and deliver us."

They prayed, and they waited for the time promised to them - the time of the Messiah, the time of the one who would inherit the throne of David and rule - in peace forever.

Then, when the night seemed darkest, something remarkable happened.

A tiny spark of light appeared.

An angel spoke to a young woman and told her that she would conceive and bear a son, and that son would be the Son of the Most High God - that he would be the Messiah.

Another angel told the man engaged to her that though she was pregnant, that he should go ahead and marry her - that her child was the child of God.

The light was dim at first - but its spark could be seen in the cousin of the young woman, who, despite her age and the fact that she had never been able to bear a child before, was suddenly pregnant.

The light was dim - but it brightened through the next weeks and months - at least for some who were looking for such a light. It appeared to them as a star in the sky - a star which they followed in the hope that it would lead them to the birthplace of a great king.

But for all the rest the light was still unseen, and even to those who had seen it it still could be mistaken for nothing but a dream, the hallucination of a drowning man, a hope based on an illusion.

Finally, on the night that the baby was born and laid in a manger, the light appeared to certain poor shepherds who lay a-keeping their flocks, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them as the angel spoke, and said "Behold - I proclaim to you good news of a great joy, for today in David's city a Saviour has been born for you, He is the Messiah, the Lord you have waited for."

And so the nightmare of the human race came to an end. Rescue had come. Jesus, the son of God, had come down from heaven to save the human race, just as the diver had come down to save Darrel Dore.

That is what Christmas is about.

Its about salvation, its about seeing the light come into the world to deliver us from sin and darkness, its about God coming to us, and dwelling with us, and rescuing us from certain death.

Listen to the prophets speak:

Hear O house of David, the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold, a virgin is with child, and shall bear a son, and shall call him Emmanuel.

You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for God one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

There will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. He will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. For a child has been born to us. A son given to us. Authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named - Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This is the other half of the Christmas story, the half we often neglect as we wrap gifts and cook and prepare our homes for Christmas day. This is the part of the story that goes beyond the manger, beyond the beauty of a new born child, beyond the peace of motherhood and the love of kindly strangers.

His birth, his ministry, his very personhood, is summed up in the words of one his disciples and apostles,"The word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life."

The other half of the Christmas Story is the Easter Story - the story of how beyond the manger - lies a cross and the empty tomb.

Let those who have ears listen, the King of Glory has entered in. Amen and Amen.