The Government Shall Be Upon His Shoulders

Some good words by NT Wright from his Christmas Eve sermon:

"‘Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders.’ Unless you sigh with relief at those words, you haven’t really been listening...

The election of Barack Obama has been hailed with wild delight around the world. Desmond Tutu sounded crazy with joy talking about him on the radio – even while being realistic about the fact that the black revolution he helped to inspire has failed to confront Robert Mugabe. Oprah Winfrey said on election night that there had ‘never been a night like this on the planet earth’, which may have been over-egging the Christmas cake just a little. The whole world was hungry for hope, and now Obama, who is indeed brilliant, charming, shrewd and very capable, is being told that the government of the world is upon hisshoulders, and we expect him to solve its problems. Poor man: no ordinary mortal can bear that burden. Nor should we ask it of him. The irrational joy and hope at his election only shows the extent to which other hopes have failed, making us snatch too eagerly at sudden fresh signs. And that can only be because we have forgotten the Christmas message, or have neutered it, have rendered it toothless, as though the shoulder of the child born this night was simply a shoulder for individuals to lean on rather than the shoulder to take the weight of the world’s government...

Only through deep devotion to the child who is born to us, the son who is given to us, can we make sure that the government really is upon his shoulders, and so prevent our good intentions being misdirected to serve our own ends, real or imagined. ‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing’: we come here tonight, aware that the kingdom Jesus came to bring needs to be worked out in the real and tough challenges that lie ahead of us globally, nationally and locally but aware, too, that if it is Jesus’ kingdom we are working out we cannot get enough of Jesus himself, cannot worship him enough, cannot ponder him enough, cannot invoke him enough, cannot love and adore him enough, cannot taste him enough."