Has anyone brought a
present they’ve received?
Christmas shouldn’t be all
about the presents.
But it is all about a
present.
Or rather, it is all about
a Prescence.
(See what I did there?)
It is about Jesus given to
us.
Jesus come to be God
present with us – God with us and for us.
The gift of Jesus: born as
God made human, God made flesh.
God coming to share our
condition and save us from ourselves.
The Bible says, “to us a
child is born, to us a son is given.”
The angels says to the
shepherds:
“Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Jesus is born to us, given
to us.
He is God’s perfect and
ultimate gift to us.
All we ever wanted and
needed – although perhaps we didn’t know it.
That’s the best type of
present, isn’t it?
A surprise you didn’t even
know you wanted.
The giver knows you better
than you know yourself.
Well, God is the ultimate
thoughtful, loving giving.
And I’ve got several gifts
for you today to remind you of that greatest gift.
First, a piece of
straw.
Now, if we can, I’d like
to give every person here a single strand of straw.
Or at least one for all
the children.
Just what you wanted!
I think I need a team of
people to help me here.
The Bible never actually
says that Jesus was born in a stable, but it does say there was no room for
them in the inn or the guest room and that Jesus was laid in a manger.
So the straw – the animal
bedding – is meant to remind us of that manger.
Who knows if there was
straw or not.
Quite likely Jesus didn’t
have a lovely mattress.
I expect they tried to
clean up the manger, but maybe straw was the best they could do.
Jesus certainly didn’t
have a beautiful crib in a royal palace.
Likely he was in the room
that the animals normally used.
The manger – the animals
feeding trough – may have just been a hole in the ground.
Jesus’ birth was very
ordinary.
Even less than ordinary.
He had to slum it and make
do.
He came to share our mess
– to be with us as we are.
And that makes sense
because he came to be our saviour – to rescue us from the mess we’ve made of
things.
He joined our human
family, and became our brother, that he might save us.
Christmas tells us we
don’t need to pretend and put on our Sunday best.
We can come to Jesus as we
are, because Jesus came to us as we are.
So that’s the first gift,
a piece of straw, to remind us of Jesus’ humble birth:
Jesus who came from the
throne of heaven to be laid in borrowed manger for you and me.
Now, the second gift,
if you’d like one, is one of these.
I’m just going to put some
gloves on, because I don’t really want this to touch my hands.
What do you think this is?
[Chocolate raisin]
Mess!
What does it look like?
What’s it meant to be? What are we pretending it is just to humour the Rector
for now?
A reminder of sheep and
shepherds
The shepherds are
literally outsiders who are invited in
Smelly
The leaders of the OT
shepherds – Abraham, Moses, David
Their shepherds had mostly
gone wrong / bad
Jesus the Shepherd – THE
GOOD Shepherd – the true and ultimate new and better
The one who would lead us,
and protect us, and provide for us, and give us security and rest.
The one we need because we
all like sheep have gone astray and we need to come home to the shepherd and
overseer of our souls.
Jesus comes to seek and to
save us lost sheep and he lovingly puts us on his shoulders and carries us
home.
Jesus the Shepherd who
also turns out to be the Lamb
Jesus dies for his sheep,
as the sacrificial victim in our place, to take away the sin of the world.
And then he rises again
from the dead.
Like this chocolate,
there’s more to Jesus than might first appear.
Jesus looks so
unpromising, and turns out to be brilliant!
Jesus deserves a second
and third look
He’s very easy to mistake
– to overlook
He’s much better than we
can ever imagine
As you feast this
Christmas, taste and see that the Lord is good!
[eat a chocolate]
Two more gifts:
Gospel
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