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Who managed to open their
presents before coming to church this morning? Did you get anything
nice? Well, I didn't get the chance, so I brought mine with me –
would you mind if I opened them now?
This ones nice & big!
It's... a jumper & hat.
Hmm. I try to get excited
by clothes...
Well, onto the second one.
The label says “Merry Christmas – thought this would help you
clean up your act!” It's...shower gel! I'm always a bit worried if
I get this kind of things - are they trying to tell me something?!
Ah, last one – and it's
such an unusual shape! I wonder what it is...a torch! Is this some
kind of wind-up? Oh, here's a handle – it's a wind-up torch...!
Do you ever feel like the
presents are more exciting when you don't know what they are? Don't
get me wrong, these are great presents & I'm very grateful for
them, but when they were wrapped up& hidden they held so much
mystery & promise, and now I know what they are that's all gone.
I wonder how the shepherds
felt when, after all the excitement of the angels appearing and
filling the sky, they got to the stable? Maybe they had in their mind
the kind of nativity scene we've seen around us over the last few
weeks (or months) – glowing halos, a fluorescent, radioactive
glowing baby, more angels? Instead, its likely they a very ordinary
young couple: travellers, homeless, relying on the generosity of
others to have a roof over their head, huddled together with a very
ordinary looking little baby...
Perhaps
they were disappointed at first glance. The wrapper had come off, but
the gift seemed so much less exciting. And yet, when they saw the
family, “they made known what had been told them about this child;
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.”1
The true worth of the gift of Jesus was not the outside appearance,
but what his birth meant – and still means. God with us. The
promised saviour is here!
The gifts I just unwrapped
might not look exciting, but what do they represent. Maybe the hat
reminds me of Jesus with me in my thoughts – his Spirit guiding my
prayers – his comfort and his peace when I need him most?
The jumper could be Jesus
in my heart, helping me to love the stranger, the poor, the refugee,
the homeless – people existing just as Jesus did in his own life,
on the margins of society.
The torch could remind me
Jesus the light of the world, a lamp unto my feet and a light to my
path. This one never runs out of power, you just keep winding it –
Jesus light shines for ever!
And the shower gel...well,
maybe this reminds me that Jesus would go on to die on the cross for
me, and for you, to wash us clean from our sins “not because of any
works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”2
The best present any of us
have got this Christmas is Jesus. His love is a gift for today,
tomorrow and the rest of our lives. We shouldn't just clear him away
with the left-over turkey, or pack him up with the baubles until next
year. He is willing to be with us every day, not just at Christmas –
and that's a gift that money can't buy.
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1Luke
2:17-18
2Titus
3:5
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