0:00:03 > 0:00:072,000 years ago, a star led wise men on a journey
0:00:07 > 0:00:11to bring gifts to a baby, born in a stable.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16This was no ordinary birth.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18And this was no ordinary child.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20God had become one of us.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Tonight, Julian Rhind-Tutt reads how the word became flesh
0:00:29 > 0:00:30from John's Gospel.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32And to sing us towards Christmas,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36we have seasonal hymns from our congregation in Cheltenham
0:00:36 > 0:00:38plus performances by Mary-Jess,
0:00:38 > 0:00:39Libera,
0:00:39 > 0:00:41and Only Men Aloud.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53At this time of year, the shops of Cheltenham's elegant Regency parades
0:00:53 > 0:00:59glitter enticingly, in preparation for the festival of present-giving.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03But let's take time to celebrate another gift of Christmas -
0:01:03 > 0:01:05the most extraordinary gift of all -
0:01:05 > 0:01:09God's coming to Earth to share our humanity.
0:01:09 > 0:01:14We remember this as we set out Nativity scenes,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16open Advent calendars
0:01:16 > 0:01:19and, at this darkest time of the year, light candles,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23to symbolise Jesus, the light of the world, coming among us.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31Here in Cheltenham, our congregation has gathered in All Saints' Church
0:01:31 > 0:01:35to sing praises, in preparation for the advent of the Christ child.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31God taking on mortal form
0:03:31 > 0:03:34is what theologians call "the Incarnation".
0:03:34 > 0:03:40Maybe we need theologians to help make sense of an idea so amazing.
0:03:42 > 0:03:47I do find the Incarnation as the idea that God, who made everything,
0:03:47 > 0:03:52who's the first mover of the universe, brought Creation into existence.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56God enters space, time and history in the form of a human being,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59and that person was Jesus Christ.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06The Incarnation takes the word "God",
0:04:06 > 0:04:10which means a thousand things to a thousand people
0:04:10 > 0:04:16and stops the word "God" being a concept and puts a face on it.
0:04:16 > 0:04:23So that, when people look on Jesus, they see the nature,
0:04:23 > 0:04:27the person, the passions of God.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30And they don't have to speculate any longer.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43# Still, still, still
0:04:43 > 0:04:49# Let all the Earth be still
0:04:49 > 0:04:56# For Mary in her arms enfolding
0:04:56 > 0:05:03# Hope of all the world is holding
0:05:03 > 0:05:08# Still, still, still
0:05:08 > 0:05:16# Let all the Earth be still
0:05:21 > 0:05:27# Light, light, light
0:05:27 > 0:05:34# Let all the Earth be light
0:05:34 > 0:05:39# The holy star, its news ablazing
0:05:39 > 0:05:45# Sign of hope for nations raising
0:05:45 > 0:05:51# Light, light, light
0:05:51 > 0:06:00# Let all the Earth be light
0:06:04 > 0:06:15# Sleep, holy Jesus, sleep
0:06:15 > 0:06:19# Sleep
0:06:21 > 0:06:28# Sleep. #
0:06:31 > 0:06:38CHILDREN SING: # We will rock him, rock him, rock him
0:06:38 > 0:06:44# We will rock him, rock him, rock him... #
0:06:44 > 0:06:47We tend to see Christmas through the eyes of children,
0:06:47 > 0:06:51and people say it's a time for the children.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53And we do Nativity plays,
0:06:53 > 0:06:58and imagine that the shepherds were ten and that Joseph was seven.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Actually, if you look at the story, it's old people.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06It includes wise men from Iraq-Iran region
0:07:06 > 0:07:09who are wise because they're old.
0:07:09 > 0:07:10Wisdom in the ancient world
0:07:10 > 0:07:12was something that came with years
0:07:12 > 0:07:14rather than with a PhD.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18and the shepherds would be older men.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22In this story, which is the centre of the Christian Gospel,
0:07:22 > 0:07:28God entrusts those who are on the periphery or who others might think
0:07:28 > 0:07:32are past it, with a responsibility to let a new thing happen.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34It's great news for old people.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41One older person who was open to new possibilities was Norman Kember.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44In 2005, aged 74 and enjoying a comfortable retirement,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47he volunteered to go
0:07:47 > 0:07:51to one of the most dangerous places on Earth - Baghdad.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Feeling frustrated by the failure of protests to stop the war,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58he went there with a Christian Peacemaker Team.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05One of the reasons was to prove that, at 74, I wasn't quite past it.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08I had some other reasons. I wanted to meet Iraqi people.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11I wanted to see how Christian Peacemaker teams worked.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15I'm a great fan of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18who talked about the cost of discipleship
0:08:18 > 0:08:21and, if following Jesus doesn't involve some costs,
0:08:21 > 0:08:24there's something wrong with it.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Pat, was this not a time where you were hoping that
0:08:26 > 0:08:31he might actually have slowed down, and spent a bit more time at home?
0:08:31 > 0:08:33I wouldn't like to expect him to do nothing,
0:08:33 > 0:08:34because it wouldn't be him.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41I accept that he had ideas, he wanted to do things,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and he wanted to go to Iraq.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47I understood why he wanted to go.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50I couldn't have stopped him, if I'd wanted to.
0:08:52 > 0:08:54While Norman was in Iraq,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58he was kidnapped and held hostage for three-and-a-half months.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00I remember being deeply upset when I realised
0:09:00 > 0:09:04I wasn't going to be home for Christmas,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08but, once one accepted that, that was it.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11We sang carols to our captors, the three of us,
0:09:11 > 0:09:16and they brought as a Christmas cake, of all things.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20So that we celebrated Christmas in a very strange fashion.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23To what extent have your faith, your beliefs,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28your principles altered, as you've got older?
0:09:28 > 0:09:32I think, as a young man, I would be a much more narrow-minded,
0:09:32 > 0:09:40zealous Christian than I am now, because you haven't met other people.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42You have had no experience of other faiths.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46I would like to quote a missionary friend of ours, who said
0:09:46 > 0:09:50that the older he got, the less he believed,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53but that which he did believe, he believed more deeply.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29The Christmas-card images we conjure up of Jesus' birth
0:12:29 > 0:12:34taking place in a snowy landscape, often come from the carols we sing,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39even though snow in Bethlehem is pretty rare.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Christina Rossetti's Christmas poem,
0:12:41 > 0:12:46so vividly evoking a wintry scene, was set to music in 1906,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49and became one of our best-loved carols.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53The tune's called "Cranham"
0:12:53 > 0:12:55and its composer, Gustav Holst,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58was born here in Cheltenham, in this very house.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01This is his piano, the one he composed The Planets on.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05The whole house is a museum now, devoted to his music and his life.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09It's not far from All Saints' Church
0:13:09 > 0:13:13where his father, Adolph von Holst, was organist.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17So the young Gustav began his musical career in the choir there.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Holst's famous contribution to Christmas music, of course,
0:13:21 > 0:13:25is his tune to "In The Bleak Midwinter".
0:13:28 > 0:13:32# In the bleak midwinter
0:13:32 > 0:13:38# Frosty wind made moan
0:13:38 > 0:13:43# Earth stood hard as iron
0:13:43 > 0:13:48# Water like a stone
0:13:48 > 0:13:54# Snow had fallen, snow, snow,
0:13:54 > 0:13:59# Snow on snow
0:13:59 > 0:14:04# In the bleak midwinter
0:14:04 > 0:14:11# Long ago
0:14:18 > 0:14:24# Our God, heaven cannot hold him
0:14:24 > 0:14:29# Nor earth sustain
0:14:29 > 0:14:34# Heav'n and earth shall flee away
0:14:34 > 0:14:38# When he comes to reign
0:14:39 > 0:14:43# In the bleak midwinter
0:14:43 > 0:14:48# A stable place sufficed
0:14:48 > 0:14:54# The Lord God Almighty
0:14:54 > 0:15:03# Jesus Christ
0:15:09 > 0:15:14# What can I give him
0:15:14 > 0:15:18# Poor as I am?
0:15:19 > 0:15:27# If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb
0:15:27 > 0:15:37# If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part
0:15:37 > 0:15:43# Yet what I can, I give him
0:15:44 > 0:15:52# Give my heart. #
0:16:12 > 0:16:17God's decision to share in our very fragile humanity
0:16:17 > 0:16:20is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23It's beautifully expressed in the prologue to John's Gospel,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26read now by Julian Rhind-Tutt.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32In the beginning was the Word.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35And the Word was with God.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44All things came into being through him.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49And without him, not one thing came into being.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53What has come into being in him was life.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59And the life was the light of all people.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03The light shines in the darkness,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07and the darkness did not overcome it.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15God's coming to illuminate the darkness
0:17:15 > 0:17:18is celebrated in our next hymn, by Charles Wesley.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21In it, he explores how, in Jesus,
0:17:21 > 0:17:25God's personality is embodied in a human life.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07I don't think that Mary would have felt
0:20:07 > 0:20:10all through her pregnancy
0:20:10 > 0:20:14that it would be a perfect outcome.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17Partly because she'd be aware that one in four women died
0:20:17 > 0:20:18giving birth to a child,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and that one in three children died at the point of birth.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26There's no guarantee,
0:20:26 > 0:20:33and God enters a risky world in order that that might be indicative
0:20:33 > 0:20:38of how much God loves the world. But it's not a special entrance
0:20:38 > 0:20:42with a special person who's guaranteed to have a painless birth.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46But Mary has to deal with all the anxieties
0:20:46 > 0:20:50that any pregnant woman would have.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57Suzie Ford faced more anxiety than most of us could imagine.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00She was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was 23 weeks pregnant,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and was faced with the possibility of losing not only her baby,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05but her life.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07When I was in hospital,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10I had to have two lots of chemotherapy
0:21:10 > 0:21:14before my little boy was due to be born.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17And that was very, very hard.
0:21:17 > 0:21:22Every moment that the chemotherapy would drip through the tube,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27I was just willing it not to hurt my child.
0:21:28 > 0:21:34And I got to the point where I almost couldn't cope with that pressure.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39And I was at a loss of what I could do to save him.
0:21:39 > 0:21:47And a chaplain came into the room one day, and he held my hand
0:21:47 > 0:21:52and said to me, "You aren't to deal with this problem.
0:21:52 > 0:22:00"What you've got to do is trust in God, give your child to him,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02"and let him cope with this.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"He is there to love and look after you both.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"And you have got to cope with what you're going through,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11"and now give your child to God."
0:22:11 > 0:22:13And that helped.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18That made me able to deal with what was happening to me,
0:22:18 > 0:22:21and it took the worry from me.
0:22:21 > 0:22:28And I feel in some way that Mary gave her trust to God,
0:22:28 > 0:22:33and she was able to say, "I trust in you, I'm going to go ahead
0:22:33 > 0:22:38"and I'm going to take on everything that you've given me."
0:22:44 > 0:22:48I hope that Joe understands that Christmastime means
0:22:48 > 0:22:51that there's something very special happening.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53He's only very little,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57and the excitement of presents is overwhelming.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00But he does know that it's a very special time,
0:23:00 > 0:23:04not only for our family, but also that it's the birth of Jesus.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02There's another astonishing thing.
0:26:02 > 0:26:07As the Gospel of John explains, as far as our relationship with God
0:26:07 > 0:26:11or the Word is concerned, it's not a one-way street.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18To all who received him,
0:26:18 > 0:26:20who believed in his name,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24he gave power to become children of God,
0:26:24 > 0:26:29who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh
0:26:29 > 0:26:34or of the will of man, but of God.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And the Word became flesh and lived among us,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and we have seen his glory,
0:26:41 > 0:26:46the glory as of a father's only son,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50full of grace and truth.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57What does it mean that the Word became flesh?
0:26:57 > 0:26:59That word "Word"
0:26:59 > 0:27:04is translated from the Greek word "logos",
0:27:04 > 0:27:07and that word "logos" has a very powerful meaning.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13The meaning is... It's referring to the spiritual metaphysical reality
0:27:13 > 0:27:17that brought the universe into existence, the creator...
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Whether we call that God or ultimate reality,
0:27:21 > 0:27:26logos refers to that unmoved first mover, the creator of the universe.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31When we hear that the Word became flesh...
0:27:34 > 0:27:40..I don't think that we can ever understand the immensity of that.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45I don't know any way of speaking about the Incarnation
0:27:45 > 0:27:49except that it is to do with the incredible risk that God takes
0:27:49 > 0:27:54because God loves the cosmos, the world and its people.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Christians believe the love and mercy shown by God
0:28:04 > 0:28:08to the whole universe shone out the night Christ was born.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12That's the story of the song O Holy Night.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18# O holy night!
0:28:18 > 0:28:21# The stars are brightly shining
0:28:21 > 0:28:29# It is the night of our dear saviour's birth
0:28:31 > 0:28:39# Long lay the world in sin and error pining
0:28:39 > 0:28:46# Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth
0:28:46 > 0:28:53# A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
0:28:53 > 0:29:01# For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
0:29:01 > 0:29:07# Christ is the Lord
0:29:07 > 0:29:15# For ever we shall praise him
0:29:15 > 0:29:20# His power and glory
0:29:20 > 0:29:23# His glory
0:29:23 > 0:29:28# Ever more proclaim
0:29:28 > 0:29:36# His power and glory
0:29:36 > 0:29:42# Ever more proclaim
0:29:42 > 0:29:45# O holy night
0:29:45 > 0:29:50# O holy night
0:29:50 > 0:29:54# O holy night
0:29:56 > 0:30:00# Holy
0:30:01 > 0:30:11# Night! #
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Come, Lord Jesus,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21into the lives of the poor bringing hope,
0:30:21 > 0:30:24into the lives of the powerful bringing judgment
0:30:24 > 0:30:27into the lives of the weary bringing rest,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30into the lives of the wise bringing restlessness.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34And into our lives and longings, wherever our estate,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36come, Lord Jesus.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45The weeks leading up to Christmas can be a lonely time,
0:30:45 > 0:30:46a dark time for many.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48Worth remembering then
0:30:48 > 0:30:52that the message of Christmas is that we are all God's children,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and we're loved.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33Next week, Aled steps back in time,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36into the world of Charles Dickens. For the 200th anniversary of his birth,
0:33:36 > 0:33:42his great-great-grandson explains the writer's passion for practical Christianity.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46And there will be lots of Dickensian Christmas carols.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:33:58 > 0:34:04E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk