Beowulf and Christmas: Whole Creation infused with the life and love of God

Sermon preached at St Mary's Church, Whitkirk, Leeds

Christmas Midnight - 24th December 2007

Despite being told constantly that we are a deeply secular people, myths and legends seem to be in vogue at the moment.  Some are up-to-date, even futuristic fantasy adventures like Dr Who and the strange worlds he visits in his TARDIS.  Some are magical as with Harry Potter and his epic battle against the evil Voldemort.  Did you think for a moment as you read the final book that she was actually going to kill him off and this time evil would get the upper hand?  I take it that those bothered about these things will have read it by now so spoilers are allowed!  Even an agnostic author like Philip Pullman, with His Dark Materials trilogy, sets his tales in a mythical world of parallel universes with people having souls that inhabit animals.

So it should be no surprise that one of this autumn’s big films, starring Angelina Jolie, was an adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon saga Beowulf.  I made the mistake of looking up the text of this poem on the internet and printed it off; 85 pages later, I am the proud owner of the complete saga.  In short it is the tale of a land oppressed by an evil monster, Grendel.  He is slain by the hero Beowulf and consequently unleashes the even more terrifying anger of Grendel’s mother – played by Angelina Jolie in the film.  A final fight takes place in an underwater cave and in scenes reminiscent of Harry Potter a magical sword dispatchers her restoring freedom once more.  The second part of the saga pitches Beowulf against a dragon terrorising the land.  This time Beowulf is mortally wounded, even though the dragon is slain, and the poem ends with his funeral pyre.

Beowulf has been described as a bridge between the pagan and Christian worlds of Anglo-Saxon culture, but it has a deeply Christian framework.  Idolatry is condemned, heaven and hell are pitted as two possible places to end up and Grendel is clearly dispatched to burn in the fires of hell.  Beowulf thanks God for help given, and only one God not many as in pagan religion.  God is the creator, Father and ultimate judge.  Interestingly the hero of the piece, Beowulf, ultimately succumbs to the natural limitations of being human and is killed.  Earthly treasure is then described as being ‘as useless as it ever was’.  By implication higher treasures are to be sought.  The evil Grendel is said to be descended from Cain, who slew his brother Abel in the Old Testament book of Genesis.  He is the product of hatred and violence, of the evil that sin in the heart produces.  The saga is an allegory of good versus evil, of right versus wrong.

While Beowulf does not make overt references to Christ, it has a Christian ethos running through it.  It is rather like our society which has Christianity as its wall paper and it is therefore formed within a Christian world view.  Even Richard Dawkins, the ardent atheistic scientist, has acknowledged this. 

Tonight, we are confronted with facing what lies behind that Christian wall paper and to ask if it is just wall paper or something much deeper.  Culturally, our society is undeniably infused with Christianity.  The claim of our gospel reading tonight is that the whole of creation is infused with Christ (John 1:1-14).  He is the origin and the means through which there is anything rather than nothing.  This is more than wall paper; this is life blood flowing through our vanes.  With this life blood, as John puts it in the prologue to his gospel, we become children of God (v12).  This is more than some fleeting visitor; this is the ultimate cosmic saga.

And yet, the details of tonight have become so overlain with nostalgia and sentimentality that they seem to belong with children’s fantasy stories and an enchanted world view that owes more to escapism than to normal living.  That’s one reason why I felt the Liverpool Nativity on TV last weekend didn’t work as well as the Manchester Passion did last year.  We are brought here to a cross roads and have to decide which way to turn.  One way will take us deeper into what Christmas means, the other will be to dismiss it as a first century fantasy adventure.  Perhaps the film makers, with their renewed interest in myths and legends, show that there is a common currency about on which we can build the more sophisticated approach and therefore engage with the Christmas narrative at the deeper level.

The key to unlocking the deeper narrative is that verse in the gospel reading that spoke of all who believe in his name being given power to become children of God (v12).  The Christ-child, by his presence, brings a powerful message that human beings are, as St Paul put it in his letter to the Romans, joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:12-25).  The child in the manger tells us that to be human is to share in the very life of God.  Athanasius, 4^th century bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, wrote that “God became human so that human beings may become divine”.  What could be regarded as being futile, and many do regard life as ultimately futile, is made by God to share in the eternal and thereby given a value beyond measure.

This makes Christmas not just a piece of sentimental, reassuring nostalgia, but a sign that creation is infused with nothing short of the life of God.  It is a season of hope.  The true love of all, God, gives the greatest gift that there is on this first day of Christmas, his very self to us and for us and in the process shares this life with us.  There is a way of exploring the other eleven gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas, but that’ll cost you £4 and requires internet access!

So tonight, nostalgia and sentimentality there may be, and there is certainly a magic about this midnight Eucharist, but behind that lies a profound hope.  It is the greatest hope we can have, a legend of cosmic significance.  The child in the manger declares that the whole of creation is infused with the life and love of God.  What more could anyone hope for; it is the greatest Christmas present that there is.

© Ian Black 2007