Christmas Day was good fun. We had a packed Church for our 10 o’clock Service and I think it went well. But, being self-critical as usual, I thought afterwards that in all the jollity in our prayers, I didn’t remember, in particular, those who are ill or sad at Christmas time. It can be a desperately awful time for people and I should’ve have been more sensitive, especially when we had had a funeral only the previous day.

Today is not a day for sermonising too much – you’ve all had enough of that, but I just want to let you know that I learned on Boxing Day about a sudden death of a person I had just met only a matter of weeks previous. I had heard of a terrible car accident on the news, but the incident and the name didn’t register at the time. Again, it must have been a very sad time at Christmas for that family.

You may have gathered on Christmas Eve night that I have had on my desk a Tony Campolo book. He tells of a story of a friend as they discussed a tragedy on the campus of Pennsylvania State University when a young woman, having spent half an hour reading a newspaper on a grassy knoll, unwrapped a cloth that was concealing a rifle and proceeded to fire the gun at students she chose indiscriminately

His friend’s comment about all this was, “I’m no theologian, but I’m sure that God must have a purpose in all of this. I’m positive it all must be part of his great plan.

Campolo’s response was, “You’re wrong on both scores! First, you are a theologian. And secondly, I really don’t believe that what happened at Penn State University was in any way willed by God”

One of the points is that we all develop theologies to help us make sense out of the absurdities of life. Our theology is our attempt to create meaning out of seemingly senseless acts. There is such a thing as bad theology and there is such a thing as good theology

‘Professional’ theologians seem to be experts in creating a theology which means spending a great deal of time and energy to come up with answers to questions that nobody seems to be asking. Good theology is about answering those pressing questions that are of ultimate concern in our everyday lives. Jesus told stories; and what we make of them makes a profound affect upon our lives

We often have personal sound-bites that we carry around in our heads that makes us into private theologians, trying to make sense out of tragedy and absurdities of life, not least the appalling slaughter of the innocents as we read today in our Gospel. It’s like Easter; we want the glory of Easter without the cross and agony of Good Friday, we want the loveliness of Christmas without the awfulness of what human nature can do. Until we develop a theology, we are either living in denial, or we’re just living in a dream-land

One of the most important things about a personal theology is that it must be honest! It is a set of responses to life’s crucial questions that you have worked out for yourself and if you haven’t got one yet, well, give it time! And even if you never come up with some sort of ‘theology’ (and I use that term quite lightly), it’s better to say “I just don’t know” than to mouth platitudes that have no authentic ring about them

Just to end with. When Jesus was on trial, Pilate asked him if he were really the King of the Jews and he replied, “Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?

Two thousand years later, the same Jesus confronts us with the same question. As you formulate conclusions about who he is and what he means in your struggles with life’s haunting inquiries, he asks the same question, “Do you say this of yourself, or did another tell you?” Are you honest about what you say and believe, or is your theology simply an array of half-truths that you have picked up along the way

I can’t help thinking of a classic Father Ted line, when Ted says to Dougal, “Ah, it makes you think, Dougal!” And after a short pause, Dougal says, “About what, Ted?

There’s no use living in denial or living in a dream-land, we are to work out for our selves the wonder and mystery, the tragedy and sadness of Immanuel, God with us.