I’m not going to be posting my Christmas sermons – with services & family things & a week off over New Year, I just don’t think I’m going to get there. So instead I thought I’d let you in to what’s been growing in my head & heart over the past few months as background to what I’ll be preaching on over the next couple of days…
For a while now I’ve had this sense that we’ve missed the point. From the outside I guess everything looks OK, but I have this gnawing feeling that somehow we’ve lost sight of what it’s all supposed to be about. That lead me to ask the question:
What is the point?
I don’t mean that in a nihilistic way, that everything is meaningless & pointless. Instead, I mean why do we do what we do? What’s our purpose? Maybe the one or two books on Derrida & the philosophy of deconstruction were one or two too many, but I’m sort of thinking that we can keep really busy, do a whole lot of stuff that looks great, but in the end what’s it all for? What are we actually trying to achieve?
And is who we are consistent with who Jesus wants his people to be? Please note, because I think this is vital – I don’t believe that the Christian faith is primarily about what he wants us to do, but who he created us to be!
Earlier this week I was doing some prep work for my Christmas sermons when I read through John 1:1-14 a couple of times. For a humble fisherman, John was capable of some amazing thought. This passage is just beautiful & layered with meaning. I’m going to have two attempts over the next two days at unpacking some of it, but I encourage you to also do it for yourself. In Jesus we meet a man who is full of life & light (v4), grace & truth (v14,17) who gives us ‘the right to become children of God’ (v12)!
So maybe that’s the point. This is who we are – children of God, full of light & life, grace & truth. As the Son of God inhabits a human body, he joins all of God’s fullness with us to give us these gifts & more!
Jesus joins all of God’s fullness with you, to give you all your heart & soul & spirit need this Christmas & always…
So, what does your heart, soul or spirit need right now? This is not a time to wrap up our lives in pretty paper, decorate them with tinsel or fairy lights & pretend everything is OK. The Son of God enters the world surrounded by animal manure, so the crap in our lives isn’t going to shock him at all. Christmas is a time to bring our deepest needs to him, because in the birth of Jesus, the Almighty promises to give us everything we need for this life & the next.
We’ll all be unwrapping gifts this Christmas. Jesus is a gift we can unwrap not just at Christmas, but every day of our lives. The more we do that, the more good things we find in our relationship with him, and the better God’s gift gets.
I really hope & pray the peace the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on that first Christmas Eve will fill your hearts & lives with joy & hope, now & always.
