I am sure everyone here today is aware of the events which unfolded at Sandy Hook School in Connecticut and the sorrow that has been brought to so many families in that small town. It was inevitable that people started to look into the life of the young man who carried out the killings and it has been reported that he spent a lot of time viewing violent video games. That has started a debate in some newspapers as to whether violent images actually make people more prone to violent conduct. It is a debate that has been going on for many years, long before there was video technology, and it seems to be very difficult to draw any definite conclusions. Some years ago I took part in a television discussion where the opinions of two psychologists were given and they were reluctant to make a link between violent images and behaviour.
What we can say, though, is that violent images do have an impact on us, even if it’s just that we turn away. They are powerful, they stay with us, they can lead us to doubt the goodness in life. That raises the issue of how we look after our minds. We hear a lot about the importance of looking after our bodies through sensible eating and exercise but we also need to be careful what we watch and what we read and what we listen to. A very early Christian called Paul once wrote a letter to a Christian community and he said:
‘Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.‘ (Philippians 4: 8)
It is here that Mary, the mother of Jesus, can be a help to us. She had been through a difficult time. She had been in the final stages of pregnancy when she had to make that journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, something like 90 miles, and probably on foot. Bethlehem was crowded with people, there was no room for her and Joseph to stay anywhere, and she had to give birth in a place that was used to shelter animals, using rags to wrap her baby and a feeding trough to lay him to sleep. Horrendous conditions but she had one good thought to hold on to. She had been told that her baby was very special. In fact, he was the Son of God and the Shepherds who came to her confirmed that. They had been visited by angels who told them about the birth of a Saviour, someone who was going to make a huge difference to the whole of humankind.
And Mary listened to this good news. She ‘treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’ What that means is that she thought very deeply about her baby and what his birth meant to the world. I don’t think that she understood everything about him but she knew that something had happened which was going to change things for the better. She had grown up among a people who believed that one day a special person would be born in their midst and he would be like a light in the darkness - the darkness of sin and suffering and death. And now she was thinking that her son was that person. She had that good thought to hold on to.
And it is a thought we can all hold on to. There may be a lot going on that makes us think the world is a very dark place but Christmas tells us about someone who pushed back the darkness. He cared for people who were sick and had suffered loss; he spoke up for the poor and those who were denied justice; he gave his life for the sake of the whole world; he rose from the dead to show that this life is not all we have; and he promised that the whole of human history is moving towards a great climax when the darkness will be taken out of human experience entirely.
I believe that when we think about these things, who Jesus was, why he came and what he has promised, it changes us. No one loved as he loved, no one gave so much, no one can show us a better way to live. I hope this Christmas you will take time to ponder these things in your heart, allow them to take root and to direct your future.
