It was a really good set of Christmas services - thank you to all those involved. Who would have thought that we'd have worshipped on Christmas morning to the fiddle and trumpet? It worked!
For what it's worth, I attach below three talks - one was from the carol service, the second from Christmas morning, the other is my sermon for Boxing Day. In the second talk, "A" and "S" refer to me (Andy) and Stephanie respectively, though the bad puns are entirely my own responsibility.
1. FROM THE FULNESS OF HIS BLESSING... Did you know that the Church of England places restrictions on who can bless who? Only priests are allowed to say “God bless you”, everyone else has to say “may God bless us”. It’s ridiculous really, isn’t it – you can imagine enforcers in cassocks hiding behind shrubs waiting for people to sneeze and if somebody says “bless you” they jump out with their big crosses and effect a citizens’ arrest!
Still, there is a certain responsibility to being made a priest; we’re professional bless-ers, or we’re supposed to be. I was ordained priest nine years ago this summer in Paris, and I do remember my first act of blessing in July 2001. How about you, Stephanie?
One of the great Christmas bible passages is John chapter 1. It re-tells the story of creation: in the beginning was the word, the life-force that lights up the world. The word was God before the mountains were formed, before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. And this Word – God himself from the Father’s side – became a human being and moved into our neighbourhood. God’s infinity shrank to the infinitely small, then the cells started dividing again and nine months later God was born. His name is Jesus. “And from the fullness of his blessings”, it says in verse 16, “we have all received one blessing after another”. And from the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another.
I reckon this means two things. First, that if you’re looking for complete blessing – no shadow of a curse, no incompleteness, no semi-blessing, the real thing – it’s all there in Jesus. The blessing that poured out over the universe when it first came into being, the blessing that has loved you from the beginning and wants nothing but the best for you, this blessing is there in Jesus 100%.
And second, Jesus wants this blessing dispersed and distributed. From the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another. It’s fully there in Jesus, but he doesn’t want to hang on to it or hoard it or dole it out drop by drop like homeopathic medicine, he wants everyone to get hold of a bit. No one is too old or too young or too good or too bad or too rich or too poor or too Essex or too chavvy or too posh or too smart or too blind or too unrespectable, it says in the verse it’s for “all”. And the Christmas story is all about how the first drops of this blessing reached all kinds of people – shepherds and kings and single mums and scholars. 2000 years later, it includes YOU. Can I apologise right here and now if you’ve experienced church as mostly saying “you should do more of this” or “you should stop doing that”, when mainly what it’s about is saying “we know this person called Jesus who has a reservoir full of blessing and he wants to give you some and then make you the distributor of his blessing to other people to.”
So here’s what we’re going to dare to do. At the end of your order of service it says “blessing”. And when it says “blessing”, all of us are going to stand up and bless each other all speaking at once, calling down little bits of the full blessing in Jesus on one another. We’re going to write our blessings like consequences – has everyone got a pen and a slip of paper like this? Could you fill in the first bit – “May you.... like the angels”. Feel free to be serious, but feel free to be silly if you like as well. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
Now could everyone fold their slip of paper like this and pass it one to the person behind? If you’re right at the back you might need to come to the front and give it to someone here. Now, you’re going to fill in the second line: May you... like the shepherds. Think of what the shepherds did in that story. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
Just one more now – could you pass your sheets back again? Thank you. This time, we’ve got May you... like Jesus. You could think of Jesus as a baby, or Jesus as a grown man, or Jesus dying and rising, or Jesus as he is now, full of blessing back with the Father, praying for us. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
And from the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another. Amen.
2. M & S ISN'T GOING TO COME LOOKING FOR YOU
A: After last year’s signed nativity, I thought this year we’d have a noisy nativity. Whenever we say sheep, could you baah?
S: And whenever we say wolf could you go awooo!
A: And whenever we say baby could you go waa!
S: And whenever we say angels could you go “Glooooria”
A: And whenever we name a recent X-Factor finalist could you go “du-dush”
S: And whenever we say “look for the sheep”, that’s your signal to go all over the building and find as many sheep and figures as you can and bring them here to the front.
A: Right, here goes. I’m a shepherd. I look after the sheep. I protect them from wolves. I’m in charge of the wagons we travel in, so they call me waggoner.
S: My name’s Esther – Es for short. I’m a shepherd too. I go looking for lost sheep and bring them home. Sometimes it feels like I’m putting them in prison when I lock them up for the night, that’s why they call me Gaol Es. But actually it’s only that I care about them. Could you help me find my sheep? Let’s look for the sheep!
....
A: Thank you all so much for helping. Let’s collect up all our figures here. You have to learn to share! Now, I want to tell you the story of how my ideas about God changed, all in one night. I was sitting on a mat on the hillside, watching the sheep. Now, I did believe in God before this – but I always thought of God as a long way away and a bit scary. Kind of more like a wolf than a shepherd.
S: But then the angels came, filling the skies with song, and speaking of God come to earth as a human baby. Of course, we all hurried down to Bethlehem to see this baby and his mother Mary.
A: That’s right. And that’s when I realised. God isn’t a threat, someone scary like a wolf who’s trying to get you. God’s more like a good shepherd, coming down to look for us and keep us safe. I knelt at the manger and worshipped. And then I’ve spent the rest of my life loving him. When you’ve seen God as he really is, you can only really go in that one direction.
- - -
God’s people were waiting for hundreds of years for someone to come and look for them and rescue them. They were hoping for a Christ. Have you heard the saying “if you take a Christ out of Christmas, all you’re left with is M & S?” I hate to break it to you, but M & S won’t come looking for you.
Suppose you’re drowning off the coast of Anglesey. You’re flailing around in the water and calling out “someone help! Someone throw me a lifebelt! Someone come and find me!” If someone throws you some M and S socks it’s not what you always wanted. And none of the floating rubbish of Christmas is going to help – the turkey and the tinsel and the gifts they won’t like that you buy though you can’t afford them for people you don’t even like. It’s all very nice – not just Christmas it’s M & S Christmas. But it won’t come and look for you when you’re in trouble. What you need is air and sea rescue.
So imagine this – you’re drowning in the Irish Sea when a helicopter comes near. It’s Prince William. Seriously, that’s his job so it might happen. He and his mates risk their own lives leaning out of the helicopter. At one point your only hope is for William to jump down into the water and come beside you in order to tie a rope round you and winch you to safety. He does it. It’s touch and go, but you’re rescued, at great personal cost to him.
Now, imagine that the years pass and William is being crowned William V. Obviously you watch it on telly, and you’re happy for him, like everyone else in the country. But you feel a biyt differently about him from everyone else. They’re all saying “he’s my king”. You’re saying “he’s my king, but he’s also my rescuer, he delivered me from danger and saved my life”.
I was writing this on Monday, and I found myself getting all teary. Not because I’m a big supporter of the monarchy. But because that’s how I feel about Jesus. He’s my king, yes he is, and that’s brilliant. But he’s also my rescuer. He jumped out of the helicopter and came to my level. He risked his life – in fact he gave his life – to rescue me. And then he raised me up to come and sit with him. That’s my Jesus. That’s my Saviour. That’s my king.
3. NEVERTHELESS
I hope you don’t mind if I spend my sermon this morning talking about one word from our reading. Actually, it’s the first word of the reading. Do you remember it? It’s “nevertheless”.
“Nevertheless” is a kind of a fulcrum word, like the arch at the middle of a see-saw. So let’s look first at what comes before it, then what comes after it. Before: (read verses 19-22 of Isaiah chapter 8). The people are desperate for answers. They try mediums and spiritists, it says in verse 19, but the dead are no help to the living. There’s no light, it says in verse 20. They’re roaming, it says in verse 21. They’re going here and there, they can’t rest, they can’t stop, they have no answer. They’re cursing their king, it says in verse 21, so they aren’t getting what they hoped for from political leaders. I guess the coalition had lost popularity. They’re cursing their God, it says in verse 21, so religion can’t have been very helpful. No answer from mediums, politicians, religious leaders. Did you spot those words in verse 22: they look towards the earth. Well, there we are. Look to the earth and you won’t find much hope there. There are a lot of problems in the world today – agreed? Psychological darkness, family darkness, neighbourhood darkness, national darkness, international darkness, environmental darkness. So thank God that after all that bad news there’s the word “Nevertheless”.
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom in Galilee, it says in verse 1. Galilee? Galilee is the area where Nazareth is to be found. There was a saying “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Galilee was a complete backwater. Not like Jerusalem or Jericho or Tyre or London or New York or Paris. But there’s hope for Galilee – because Jesus came there. “Nevertheless, God will honour Galilee”. And if there’s hope for Galilee there’s hope for Galleywood. It will be “as in the day of Midian’s defeat”, it says in verse 4. That’s a reference to the story of Gideon, a shy, weak boy who was hiding for his life from the occupying power, but God used him and a rag-bag band of soldiers to free the people of Israel from the Midianites. If there’s hope for Gideon there’s hope for Galleywood. Look to the earth and there’s no hope, nevertheless as in the day of Midian’s defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them. Even in a dark world, there is hope.
There was once a little girl called Emma. Emma’s mum was very pregnant one November. Her mum led her to one side and said: “You’re going to have a very special present this Christmas. It’ll be very painful for mummy, and she’ll have to go away to hospital, but then you’re going to have a little brother.” Well, sure enough, just before Christmas mummy did go into hospital, and it did hurt, but Emma did get her little brother. The next year mum asked Emma what she’d like for Christmas. Emma paused for a moment and said “If it doesn’t hurt you too much, I’d like a pony.”
What would you like for Christmas? It hurt Jesus to provide it, but how about hope for Galleywood, hope for a world where people look to the earth and find no help? Jesus doesn’t promise a little brother. He doesn’t promise that 2011 will be all weddings and no funerals. All of our Christmases were a little bit different for knowing that Brian Bevan died on Dec 23, not that our Christmases were destroyed or joyless, just that they were different because we were aware he’d just died and our hearts went out to Sally and the family – and to other bereaved families for that matter too. So we still had fun and Stephanie and I ran round the church with bubble-powered water-pistols, but the light was somehow more real against the backdrop of that darkness. Maybe we’re feeling a bit less shallow than normal. Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life but he does want to forgive your sin, simply as a free gift, so you can live without guilt knowing him all your life and live with him forever and ever and ever. And he wants to adopt you and make you a member of his family, the church. And he wants to start changing you from the inside out so you can change the world around you and bring light to the world.
Jesus the Gift
Imagine it’s your birthday, and you’re having a party. In come all your guests, and they start giving each other presents. And then they start opening their presents from each other. You might think “wait a minute, what about me!” Christmas is just like that, it's Jesus' birthday and he's the only one who doesn't get any presents. But Jesus is really glad that we give each other presents at Christmas, because giving is right at the heart of Christmas. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is GIVEN. He didn’t just *come*, he was a gift.
Jesus is a gift. And like all the best gifts, he’s a surprise. OK, the older you get the less surprise there is about what you get for Christmas, but certainly for you children part of the fun is the surprise. Your mum or dad doesn’t come up to you in November and say “here’s a football I bought for you, I’m going to wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree.” It spoils it. It’s only fun if you can go up to it and shake it and wonder what it is every day in December. So when you open a really good surprise Christmas present, you’re meant to say “wow, this is better than I could ever have expected!” It’s like saying “You shouldn’t have”. And not like “O, day-glo socks, you shouldn’t have”. More like “Life knowing God that will last forever at the cost of Jesus’ own life, you shouldn’t have.” That’s the nevertheless. There is snow, there is sadness, there is cold, there is heartbreak but nevertheless there is the gift of Jesus so I needn’t be afraid of the darkness.
Big Monkey, Little Monkey
Here's one of my favourite bedtime stories – I told it to some of you 4 years ago at Christmas. It's all about being afraid of the dark. You see, all day big monkey and little monkey have been playing together in the fields, - here’s little monkey, sweet isn’t he, now he really was a surprise Christmas present yesterday - and now little monkey is tired and it’s his bedtime. So big monkey puts him to bed in the cave.
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's dark."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given a candle, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep", says little monkey, "it's still dark. There's dark there, in the corner."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given you a lamp, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's still dark. There's still a little bit of darkness behind that chest in the corner."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given you candles all round the room, I've lit the fire, I've brought a big lantern, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's still dark."
"Where?" asks big monkey, "where is it still dark, little monkey?"
"Out there," says little monkey, pointing outside the mouth of the cave.
So big monkey picks up little monkey and carries him out of the cave, and he starts to say "I've given you the moon and the stars...", but little monkey doesn't hear him because he's died of fright. No, because he's fallen asleep. You were just nodding off there yourselves, weren't you, so I thought I had to wake you up. You can understand why Alison used to insist I didn't make up bedtime stories for Bethany, I give her nightmares. Here's the point: despite all his promises, big monkey couldn't make all the darkness go away. All he could do is pick up his little brother and hold him tight, and that was enough.
I'm not promising no funerals in 2011 – we already know Brian’s funeral will be on January 6 -, I’m not promising there will be no darkness in the world around, no cancer, no illness, no pain. I'm not promising you no more darkness in you either. I'm certainly not promising no more darkness in me. But I do promise a great nevertheless - there'll be sin in you, but nevertheless, if you turn to God and admit that sin he will forgive it and come to live in you and change you so that you transform the world around you and he'll give you new life forever and ever and ever. As Brian knew well, even death need have to frighten us (though it usually does, for all of us). “Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom," said Bonhoeffer, just before the Nazis hanged him. Do not be afraid. There'll be darkness around you, but nevertheless, if you turn to God he will hold you and join you to his family the church and he'll never let you go. Amen.
For what it's worth, I attach below three talks - one was from the carol service, the second from Christmas morning, the other is my sermon for Boxing Day. In the second talk, "A" and "S" refer to me (Andy) and Stephanie respectively, though the bad puns are entirely my own responsibility.
1. FROM THE FULNESS OF HIS BLESSING... Did you know that the Church of England places restrictions on who can bless who? Only priests are allowed to say “God bless you”, everyone else has to say “may God bless us”. It’s ridiculous really, isn’t it – you can imagine enforcers in cassocks hiding behind shrubs waiting for people to sneeze and if somebody says “bless you” they jump out with their big crosses and effect a citizens’ arrest!
Still, there is a certain responsibility to being made a priest; we’re professional bless-ers, or we’re supposed to be. I was ordained priest nine years ago this summer in Paris, and I do remember my first act of blessing in July 2001. How about you, Stephanie?
One of the great Christmas bible passages is John chapter 1. It re-tells the story of creation: in the beginning was the word, the life-force that lights up the world. The word was God before the mountains were formed, before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. And this Word – God himself from the Father’s side – became a human being and moved into our neighbourhood. God’s infinity shrank to the infinitely small, then the cells started dividing again and nine months later God was born. His name is Jesus. “And from the fullness of his blessings”, it says in verse 16, “we have all received one blessing after another”. And from the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another.
I reckon this means two things. First, that if you’re looking for complete blessing – no shadow of a curse, no incompleteness, no semi-blessing, the real thing – it’s all there in Jesus. The blessing that poured out over the universe when it first came into being, the blessing that has loved you from the beginning and wants nothing but the best for you, this blessing is there in Jesus 100%.
And second, Jesus wants this blessing dispersed and distributed. From the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another. It’s fully there in Jesus, but he doesn’t want to hang on to it or hoard it or dole it out drop by drop like homeopathic medicine, he wants everyone to get hold of a bit. No one is too old or too young or too good or too bad or too rich or too poor or too Essex or too chavvy or too posh or too smart or too blind or too unrespectable, it says in the verse it’s for “all”. And the Christmas story is all about how the first drops of this blessing reached all kinds of people – shepherds and kings and single mums and scholars. 2000 years later, it includes YOU. Can I apologise right here and now if you’ve experienced church as mostly saying “you should do more of this” or “you should stop doing that”, when mainly what it’s about is saying “we know this person called Jesus who has a reservoir full of blessing and he wants to give you some and then make you the distributor of his blessing to other people to.”
So here’s what we’re going to dare to do. At the end of your order of service it says “blessing”. And when it says “blessing”, all of us are going to stand up and bless each other all speaking at once, calling down little bits of the full blessing in Jesus on one another. We’re going to write our blessings like consequences – has everyone got a pen and a slip of paper like this? Could you fill in the first bit – “May you.... like the angels”. Feel free to be serious, but feel free to be silly if you like as well. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
Now could everyone fold their slip of paper like this and pass it one to the person behind? If you’re right at the back you might need to come to the front and give it to someone here. Now, you’re going to fill in the second line: May you... like the shepherds. Think of what the shepherds did in that story. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
Just one more now – could you pass your sheets back again? Thank you. This time, we’ve got May you... like Jesus. You could think of Jesus as a baby, or Jesus as a grown man, or Jesus dying and rising, or Jesus as he is now, full of blessing back with the Father, praying for us. Stephanie, have you got anyone on that side of church with a blessing? And there’s someone here – what did you write? Excellent.
And from the fullness of his blessings we have all received one blessing after another. Amen.
2. M & S ISN'T GOING TO COME LOOKING FOR YOU
A: After last year’s signed nativity, I thought this year we’d have a noisy nativity. Whenever we say sheep, could you baah?
S: And whenever we say wolf could you go awooo!
A: And whenever we say baby could you go waa!
S: And whenever we say angels could you go “Glooooria”
A: And whenever we name a recent X-Factor finalist could you go “du-dush”
S: And whenever we say “look for the sheep”, that’s your signal to go all over the building and find as many sheep and figures as you can and bring them here to the front.
A: Right, here goes. I’m a shepherd. I look after the sheep. I protect them from wolves. I’m in charge of the wagons we travel in, so they call me waggoner.
S: My name’s Esther – Es for short. I’m a shepherd too. I go looking for lost sheep and bring them home. Sometimes it feels like I’m putting them in prison when I lock them up for the night, that’s why they call me Gaol Es. But actually it’s only that I care about them. Could you help me find my sheep? Let’s look for the sheep!
....
A: Thank you all so much for helping. Let’s collect up all our figures here. You have to learn to share! Now, I want to tell you the story of how my ideas about God changed, all in one night. I was sitting on a mat on the hillside, watching the sheep. Now, I did believe in God before this – but I always thought of God as a long way away and a bit scary. Kind of more like a wolf than a shepherd.
S: But then the angels came, filling the skies with song, and speaking of God come to earth as a human baby. Of course, we all hurried down to Bethlehem to see this baby and his mother Mary.
A: That’s right. And that’s when I realised. God isn’t a threat, someone scary like a wolf who’s trying to get you. God’s more like a good shepherd, coming down to look for us and keep us safe. I knelt at the manger and worshipped. And then I’ve spent the rest of my life loving him. When you’ve seen God as he really is, you can only really go in that one direction.
- - -
God’s people were waiting for hundreds of years for someone to come and look for them and rescue them. They were hoping for a Christ. Have you heard the saying “if you take a Christ out of Christmas, all you’re left with is M & S?” I hate to break it to you, but M & S won’t come looking for you.
Suppose you’re drowning off the coast of Anglesey. You’re flailing around in the water and calling out “someone help! Someone throw me a lifebelt! Someone come and find me!” If someone throws you some M and S socks it’s not what you always wanted. And none of the floating rubbish of Christmas is going to help – the turkey and the tinsel and the gifts they won’t like that you buy though you can’t afford them for people you don’t even like. It’s all very nice – not just Christmas it’s M & S Christmas. But it won’t come and look for you when you’re in trouble. What you need is air and sea rescue.
So imagine this – you’re drowning in the Irish Sea when a helicopter comes near. It’s Prince William. Seriously, that’s his job so it might happen. He and his mates risk their own lives leaning out of the helicopter. At one point your only hope is for William to jump down into the water and come beside you in order to tie a rope round you and winch you to safety. He does it. It’s touch and go, but you’re rescued, at great personal cost to him.
Now, imagine that the years pass and William is being crowned William V. Obviously you watch it on telly, and you’re happy for him, like everyone else in the country. But you feel a biyt differently about him from everyone else. They’re all saying “he’s my king”. You’re saying “he’s my king, but he’s also my rescuer, he delivered me from danger and saved my life”.
I was writing this on Monday, and I found myself getting all teary. Not because I’m a big supporter of the monarchy. But because that’s how I feel about Jesus. He’s my king, yes he is, and that’s brilliant. But he’s also my rescuer. He jumped out of the helicopter and came to my level. He risked his life – in fact he gave his life – to rescue me. And then he raised me up to come and sit with him. That’s my Jesus. That’s my Saviour. That’s my king.
3. NEVERTHELESS
I hope you don’t mind if I spend my sermon this morning talking about one word from our reading. Actually, it’s the first word of the reading. Do you remember it? It’s “nevertheless”.
“Nevertheless” is a kind of a fulcrum word, like the arch at the middle of a see-saw. So let’s look first at what comes before it, then what comes after it. Before: (read verses 19-22 of Isaiah chapter 8). The people are desperate for answers. They try mediums and spiritists, it says in verse 19, but the dead are no help to the living. There’s no light, it says in verse 20. They’re roaming, it says in verse 21. They’re going here and there, they can’t rest, they can’t stop, they have no answer. They’re cursing their king, it says in verse 21, so they aren’t getting what they hoped for from political leaders. I guess the coalition had lost popularity. They’re cursing their God, it says in verse 21, so religion can’t have been very helpful. No answer from mediums, politicians, religious leaders. Did you spot those words in verse 22: they look towards the earth. Well, there we are. Look to the earth and you won’t find much hope there. There are a lot of problems in the world today – agreed? Psychological darkness, family darkness, neighbourhood darkness, national darkness, international darkness, environmental darkness. So thank God that after all that bad news there’s the word “Nevertheless”.
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom in Galilee, it says in verse 1. Galilee? Galilee is the area where Nazareth is to be found. There was a saying “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Galilee was a complete backwater. Not like Jerusalem or Jericho or Tyre or London or New York or Paris. But there’s hope for Galilee – because Jesus came there. “Nevertheless, God will honour Galilee”. And if there’s hope for Galilee there’s hope for Galleywood. It will be “as in the day of Midian’s defeat”, it says in verse 4. That’s a reference to the story of Gideon, a shy, weak boy who was hiding for his life from the occupying power, but God used him and a rag-bag band of soldiers to free the people of Israel from the Midianites. If there’s hope for Gideon there’s hope for Galleywood. Look to the earth and there’s no hope, nevertheless as in the day of Midian’s defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them. Even in a dark world, there is hope.
There was once a little girl called Emma. Emma’s mum was very pregnant one November. Her mum led her to one side and said: “You’re going to have a very special present this Christmas. It’ll be very painful for mummy, and she’ll have to go away to hospital, but then you’re going to have a little brother.” Well, sure enough, just before Christmas mummy did go into hospital, and it did hurt, but Emma did get her little brother. The next year mum asked Emma what she’d like for Christmas. Emma paused for a moment and said “If it doesn’t hurt you too much, I’d like a pony.”
What would you like for Christmas? It hurt Jesus to provide it, but how about hope for Galleywood, hope for a world where people look to the earth and find no help? Jesus doesn’t promise a little brother. He doesn’t promise that 2011 will be all weddings and no funerals. All of our Christmases were a little bit different for knowing that Brian Bevan died on Dec 23, not that our Christmases were destroyed or joyless, just that they were different because we were aware he’d just died and our hearts went out to Sally and the family – and to other bereaved families for that matter too. So we still had fun and Stephanie and I ran round the church with bubble-powered water-pistols, but the light was somehow more real against the backdrop of that darkness. Maybe we’re feeling a bit less shallow than normal. Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life but he does want to forgive your sin, simply as a free gift, so you can live without guilt knowing him all your life and live with him forever and ever and ever. And he wants to adopt you and make you a member of his family, the church. And he wants to start changing you from the inside out so you can change the world around you and bring light to the world.
Jesus the Gift
Imagine it’s your birthday, and you’re having a party. In come all your guests, and they start giving each other presents. And then they start opening their presents from each other. You might think “wait a minute, what about me!” Christmas is just like that, it's Jesus' birthday and he's the only one who doesn't get any presents. But Jesus is really glad that we give each other presents at Christmas, because giving is right at the heart of Christmas. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is GIVEN. He didn’t just *come*, he was a gift.
Jesus is a gift. And like all the best gifts, he’s a surprise. OK, the older you get the less surprise there is about what you get for Christmas, but certainly for you children part of the fun is the surprise. Your mum or dad doesn’t come up to you in November and say “here’s a football I bought for you, I’m going to wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree.” It spoils it. It’s only fun if you can go up to it and shake it and wonder what it is every day in December. So when you open a really good surprise Christmas present, you’re meant to say “wow, this is better than I could ever have expected!” It’s like saying “You shouldn’t have”. And not like “O, day-glo socks, you shouldn’t have”. More like “Life knowing God that will last forever at the cost of Jesus’ own life, you shouldn’t have.” That’s the nevertheless. There is snow, there is sadness, there is cold, there is heartbreak but nevertheless there is the gift of Jesus so I needn’t be afraid of the darkness.
Big Monkey, Little Monkey
Here's one of my favourite bedtime stories – I told it to some of you 4 years ago at Christmas. It's all about being afraid of the dark. You see, all day big monkey and little monkey have been playing together in the fields, - here’s little monkey, sweet isn’t he, now he really was a surprise Christmas present yesterday - and now little monkey is tired and it’s his bedtime. So big monkey puts him to bed in the cave.
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's dark."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given a candle, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep", says little monkey, "it's still dark. There's dark there, in the corner."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given you a lamp, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's still dark. There's still a little bit of darkness behind that chest in the corner."
"Don't worry, little monkey, I've given you candles all round the room, I've lit the fire, I've brought a big lantern, it's not really dark."
"I can't sleep," says little monkey, "it's still dark."
"Where?" asks big monkey, "where is it still dark, little monkey?"
"Out there," says little monkey, pointing outside the mouth of the cave.
So big monkey picks up little monkey and carries him out of the cave, and he starts to say "I've given you the moon and the stars...", but little monkey doesn't hear him because he's died of fright. No, because he's fallen asleep. You were just nodding off there yourselves, weren't you, so I thought I had to wake you up. You can understand why Alison used to insist I didn't make up bedtime stories for Bethany, I give her nightmares. Here's the point: despite all his promises, big monkey couldn't make all the darkness go away. All he could do is pick up his little brother and hold him tight, and that was enough.
I'm not promising no funerals in 2011 – we already know Brian’s funeral will be on January 6 -, I’m not promising there will be no darkness in the world around, no cancer, no illness, no pain. I'm not promising you no more darkness in you either. I'm certainly not promising no more darkness in me. But I do promise a great nevertheless - there'll be sin in you, but nevertheless, if you turn to God and admit that sin he will forgive it and come to live in you and change you so that you transform the world around you and he'll give you new life forever and ever and ever. As Brian knew well, even death need have to frighten us (though it usually does, for all of us). “Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom," said Bonhoeffer, just before the Nazis hanged him. Do not be afraid. There'll be darkness around you, but nevertheless, if you turn to God he will hold you and join you to his family the church and he'll never let you go. Amen.
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