© 2000 Alcress Communications

Perhaps you remember this chant from Primary School. You may have said it, or had it said against you. It was to be used as a counter to the taunts of bullies and name callers — words were harmless things that didn’t matter, they couldn’t harm a fly. Perhaps you also remember this way of thinking — how wrong it was (or is).

In recent times, we have begun to understand the power of words — indeed the whole revision of our prayer book (and much of our daily language) has be brought about by the increasing understanding about the supreme power of language in shaping the society in which it functions. The labelling of people with the stigma associated with those labels will profoundly influence how these people will turn out in life. It seems that the most profound thing is that we develop an accurate and positive self-image in early life that we might reach our maximum potential.

Now I am not interested in pursuing a social science or linguistic theme, but I would like today to explore our Gospel reading — and in particular the sense that it speaks of the Word. Have you thought about words? Words both shape our environment and are shaped by it. Translators of the Bible into other languages face the challenge when the target group is culturally a long way from the source material.

Those who were working on the translation for Innuit (the Eskimos) immediately had problems. The Innuit language has only one word for tree, and over fifty for snow. There is no concept of farming or sheep and so the lamb of God, became the seal of God.

Perhaps is a round about way of getting there but words are about ideas and concepts. And a word is the expression of an idea or an object and its effectiveness is dependant on the shared experience. Indeed if I was to tell you that my name is Kwame Abogyse Atta. As Australians, it might be meaningless, but if you were a Ghanaian, you would indeed know a lot about me — That I was born on a Saturday, that I am a twin and of course — abogyse — I have a beard

Jesus described by John as The Word — is perfect expression of God. In the Word we find God, but this is meaningless unless we have the shared experience. The great act of Christmas is that the Word became flesh, and dwelt temporarily among us. It is this experience of humanity that enabled us to understand the Word, to draw him into our vocabulary. John when writing his first epistle begins as follows:

The whole purpose of Christmas — the reason behind God’s plan, was so that God would not be remote, but could be described as "Emmanuel" — God with us. The baby in the manger was God giving us opportunity to draw near to him, becoming approachable by sharing our experience our life.

This Christmas, in all the hurrying, in the busyness, in all the glitter and gloss, the feasting and festivities, it is easy to overlook the baby in the manger. It is easy to keep God at arms length. It is easy to live without reference to him - until he becomes a reality in our lives, until the Word becomes part of our vocabulary.

May your Christmas be Holy and the year 2000 be all that it promises you, and may you understand the meaning of The Word found in the babe of Bethlehem

AMEN.