Bishop Anderson attended the Mayor of London’s annual carol service on Tuesday 17 December. An event that brought together civic leaders, faith communities, and London residents to celebrate the season of goodwill. The service, held at Southwark Cathedral offered an opportunity for reflection of the past year as well as unity of sharing the festive spirit. Bishop Anderson’s presence highlights the importance of faith and community spirit during this time of year.
Bishop Anderson says “Churches working together with civic leaders to share the message of hope and love was an incredible opportunity. Especially at this time when people feel anxious and lonely, it was an honour for me to share the good news of ‘Emmanuel God with us’ with our sisters and brothers who call this city their home.”
During the service, Bishop Anderson read what is seen below and felt compelled to share this reflection with a wider audience, inviting others to take a moment to read and reflect on these meaningful words.
The Scandal of Incarnation
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bare a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ (Matthew 1:25)
God becoming human, the divine realm breaking into human reality, the Incarnation was a scandal.
The idea of Emmanuel, God with us, disrupts our archaic perceptions of God. Instead of God being this impersonal critical spectator, intangible eternal threatener, God becomes the ultimate participant. The Incarnation unfolded in the context of ‘establishment’ religiosity, deluded ethno-nationalism and exploitative imperialism. The Word becoming flesh is an act of belonging, facilitated by a self-emptying God, restoring the relationship with humanity and between one another, between communities and nations.
Emmanuel, God with us, encapsulates the absolutely vulnerable and helpless courage of a baby. Fundamentally subverting human obsession with power and breaking open the possibility of reimagining justice. The God of the prophet Isaiah and Mary offers a sign of hope: God with us—Emmanuel. This Christ child is hope within a desperate time, the one with the authority to establish justice with righteousness and the one called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”(Isaiah 9:6) Emmanuel as hope disrupts fear and despair. The redemptive movement of God in history disrupts the ordinary. It releases us from our restrictions, our prejudices, fears, and all that limits our humanity. Emmanuel dismantles the familiar stifling structures of tyranny and opens our heart wide open for the Spirit of God to blow afresh and cleanse our failings. The hopes of all the ages are met in Emmanuel who comes into the world to participate in our lives. The prophet Isaiah intentionally proclaims the crucial and liberative force of Emmanuel who transforms hope into justice, prepares a way in wilderness, fills in the valleys, levels hills, smooths out the ruts, clears the rocks, old ways are transformed so that everyone will see the righteous glory of the Lord.
The bearer of Emmanuel is even more scandalous, a vulnerable, single teenager, Mary, bringing God into this world. Not in a royal palace or armed fortress but in a cowshed, among the desperate, anxious and frightened. Here in-lies our response to Emmanuel, a displaced Mary gives her life so that her community may experience the Emmanuel. In an increasingly broken, frightened, fragmented, and polarised world, God as Emmanuel disrupts our perceptions of God from our narrow, simplistic and suffocating visions that tend to essentialise our incredibly diverse lives.
The Incarnation invites us to re-centre and expand our faith in the understanding that we all belong to one another, in God, radically reinterpreting the loving, intimate, nearness of God. In the midst of abuse and institutional abdication of responsibility, Emmanuel, invites us to foster dignity and respect of everyone and to rebuild a sense of safety and belonging in our communities. With Emmanuel, we are empowered to birth new life. Standing up to tyranny and saying “no” to apathy and cruelty. Coming to terms with our privilege and entitlement, treating others with kindness—these acts are not only religious but political because they have implications for our bodies, especially for those on the margins of society.
The Incarnation invites us to embrace the limitless possibility of seeing the divine in each one of us. Emmanuel, who came in the form of a baby with helpless courage, embodies an alternative to popular visions of power, arrogance, and authority. Emmanuel offers hope, renewal and new life that is possible when Love becomes the heartbeat of our relationships.
This Christmas like Mary, may we give birth to hope, light, peace and love, in our own lives and in our communities. Amen.
17 December 2024, Mayor of London Carol Service, Southwark Cathedral.
The Rt Revd Prof Anderson Jeremiah, Bishop of Edmonton