Christmas Day
Service Date:
25 December, 2008
Isaiah 9:2, 6, 7
We've come a long way since 30th November when we first started on the road to Christmas, and now at last we've arrived. [get people to move figures]. And strangely enough we've ended up in a place you may already know. Who's here already? [Get people to identify nativity figures on table] And there's one more addition to our group this morning - who is it? [baby Jesus] How can we tell he's born? [the star] At last, the birthday boy has come. And though he's so small just now, we're expecting a lot from his coming. Think of the journey we've made. We've remembered along the Advent road to Christmas Day the dark things in this world we want God to put right [enumerate words on signs]. We've remembered God's promise to come and change things. We've remembered the hopes we have in our personal lives [enumerate words on clouds], and we've heard how God wants to live in us too.
After all that hoping, all that waiting and wondering, what do we have?
A newborn baby. Though the real baby Jesus would have been a bit bigger than this, it must still have been very hard for his mother to imagine how he could possibly do all the things the angel had told her, all the things we have heard just now in Isaiah's message about a child of promise. How could one child, however amazing, possibly be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? So we come to the end of our journey on Christmas morning, only to discover we're at the very beginning of another journey to find out how Jesus is going to grow into his name, which means ‘God saves'; how it is he's going to remove our fears and fulfil our hopes.
It's like unwrapping a present on Christmas Day. For a long time we've wished for it, but now we've got it, we don't know exactly what it's going to be like, having it. Has anyone got a present they'd like to show us, or have you all been very patient and decided to wait till after church? [Do present]. And now we've arrived at Christmas, remembering Isaiah, we need to do one more thing, to show how Jesus' birth has lit a candle of hope in our darkness. We need to light all our Advent candles. Who wants to help?
We've come a long way since 30th November when we first started on the road to Christmas, and now at last we've arrived. [get people to move figures]. And strangely enough we've ended up in a place you may already know. Who's here already? [Get people to identify nativity figures on table] And there's one more addition to our group this morning - who is it? [baby Jesus] How can we tell he's born? [the star] At last, the birthday boy has come. And though he's so small just now, we're expecting a lot from his coming. Think of the journey we've made. We've remembered along the Advent road to Christmas Day the dark things in this world we want God to put right [enumerate words on signs]. We've remembered God's promise to come and change things. We've remembered the hopes we have in our personal lives [enumerate words on clouds], and we've heard how God wants to live in us too.
After all that hoping, all that waiting and wondering, what do we have?
A newborn baby. Though the real baby Jesus would have been a bit bigger than this, it must still have been very hard for his mother to imagine how he could possibly do all the things the angel had told her, all the things we have heard just now in Isaiah's message about a child of promise. How could one child, however amazing, possibly be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? So we come to the end of our journey on Christmas morning, only to discover we're at the very beginning of another journey to find out how Jesus is going to grow into his name, which means ‘God saves'; how it is he's going to remove our fears and fulfil our hopes.
It's like unwrapping a present on Christmas Day. For a long time we've wished for it, but now we've got it, we don't know exactly what it's going to be like, having it. Has anyone got a present they'd like to show us, or have you all been very patient and decided to wait till after church? [Do present]. And now we've arrived at Christmas, remembering Isaiah, we need to do one more thing, to show how Jesus' birth has lit a candle of hope in our darkness. We need to light all our Advent candles. Who wants to help?
Hymns:
R&S 160: O come, all ye faithfulThe Candles Carol
R&S 145: O little town of Bethlehem
R&S 159: Hark! the herald angels sing
Sermon:
John 1:1-14Those Nativity figures are beautifully made, aren't they? Real works of art. Last Sunday, a little girl who'd come up to help wanted to play with them. But as well as being works of art, lovingly made by Margaret Herbert, they're a bit fragile, so I encouraged her to sit down instead. This year, however, is our year of Nativity figures, for you'll see that here on the table in front of me, we have another whole set - and these ones, just as much works of art, are much less fragile. In fact, I think you should get a closer look, so I'm going to launch them into the congregation, for it's a good thing we have Nativity figures that we can touch and hold as well as just looking at them. Sometimes it can feel as if the whole Christmas story is a bit like the Nativity figures over there - beautiful, artistic, but like the little town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago, remote from everyday living, easy to forget once Christmas is over. But knitted figures are touchable, and once the turkey runs out these characters can still be part of our everyday lives. [pass down with names of characters - who feels like which - how are we part of the story?]
I hear knitting's making something of a comeback, so Pat Campbell and Betty Gibson who made these are ahead of the fashion. Knitting's a bit of a mystery to me - how on earth can thin bits of wool end up not only as scarves and pullovers but also as 3-d figures? The Bible uses a similar picture speaking of a baby being knitted together in its mother's womb; in both cases, patient, active waiting has been necessary. But in the case of Jesus, it's more mysterious even than that. In him, divine and human strands have been knit together so closely, they can't be unravelled. For our reading from John's Gospel tells us that God's word, the one through whom everything was made, has become human and lived among us. Jesus isn't a fragile piece of art, to be admired from a distance at Christmas or even on Sundays. He's not only a created being, knit together in Mary's womb, but also an expert knitter, giving all who recognise him the power to be knit together into God's own life. So in the year ahead let's go on bringing our hopes and fears to God, and what's more, let's invite Jesus to come to us and to knit us together into God's people in our everyday lives.
