Christingle service 24th December 2009 4pm

You’re all going to get a Christingle now but what on earth is one of them.

Well the main things are the candle which stands for God and the orange that stands for the world.

What’s the connection between an orange and the world? Who can tell me?

It’s round

What’s the connection between a candle and God? Who can tell me?

God is light.

The best image we could ever have for God is light.

Just think of what goes missing every night. What goes missing?

The sun

We miss the sun because the world’s kept going by it day and night. We miss the sun because the world turns round every 24 hours so everyone on it gets heat and light and their crops grow.

The sun’s the most important object to the world because it brings it heat and light.

It’s a big clue to thinking about God our Maker.

But the world doesn’t just have objects like sun, earth, moon, seas, fields, and houses. It’s got persons – you and I for a start.

We’re actually the biggest clue to God in the world. The fact there are billions of thinking and loving people points to a Maker with a very big mind and a very big heart.

The Christingle orange stands for the world. The Christingle candle stands for God.

The Christingle red ribbon stands for the blood of Jesus who came to die for the world.

How do you explain that?

Hands up if you’ve got a fish tank in your home?

What happens when you go close to the tank?

The fish fly away.

I sometimes think about God as like a lover of tropical fish.

If you love tropical fish you get a big tank for them like God made for us when he made us the world.

If you love your tropical fish you take care to get the water warm for them, just like God’s made the world warm enough for human beings compared to other planets. You also feed your fish, just like God provides the crops of the field and the animals for us to eat.

But those tropical fish, they’re yours, you care for them and you feed them, but they’re scared of you! When you go up to the tank they dart away from you!

You’ve got tropical fish but they’re not keen to be friends with you.

God made us but we dart away from him. We run away from him.

So what did he do at Christmas?

He came to be one of us in baby Jesus.

The coming of Jesus to us is as if the tropical fish owner became a tropical fish. In that way he could be among his fish, get known by them and make friends with them.

It cost him. When he came into the tank to make friends the fish caused problems. They turned on him and bit him to death. That didn’t stop him doing what he came for though. When he was killed he rose and moved back to his home in heaven. In doing so he opened a way for us to be like God for ever outside the tank of this world in God’s own world we call heaven.

The Christingle red ribbon stands for the blood of Jesus who came to die for the world.

Baby Jesus is the Son of God become Son of Man – he’s the tropical fish owner become tropical fish.

As the candle is stuck in the Christingle orange the Son of God has stuck himself into our world. He did so to make a way out for us, as if the tropical fish owner changed the fish so they could live in his house and not in a fish tank.

You see this world is like a fish tank. Christmas reminds us of another world that’s deeper than the oceans and higher than the heavens God wants us to be part of.

The Son of God became the Son of Man so children of men could become children of God. Let’s say that and act it out.

The Son of God (up) became the Son of Man (heart) so children of men (shoulders) could become children of God (up).

It’s Christmas Eve and we’re looking forward to bedtime and waking up to presents. Mum and dad brought us to church tonight to remind us that the best present of Christmas is baby Jesus.

Baby Jesus, the Son of God became the Son of Man so children of men could become children of God.

Because Christians know that gift we’re glad to give to others. This service has a practical outcome. We’ve got a collection for the work with needy families of the Church of England Children’s Society.

During the collection you’ll get your Christingle.