Bluebell railway carol service short thought 5th December 2009

I’ll tell you what I like about steam trains. They’ve got soul.

Do you know what I mean?

They don’t run with diesel. They run from a burning furnace!

That’s a soul.

There’s soul in all we represent here at Bluebell railway. We even name our engines and talk about their personality.

Human beings have souls. It’s the bit inside of you that makes you you.

Some people have colder souls than others. Oh yes, you may be feeling the cold tonight in your body, but many of us feel warm in spirit. Cold hands, warm heart – you’ve heard the saying!

If human beings have souls it’s because we’re more than an assembly of molecules.

In some ways humans have become like giants.

Through jet engines we can fly faster than sound.

With radar and sat nav we’ve got giant eyes powerful enough to see through fog and darkness.

Electronics has given us giant ears to amplify the slightest whisper, turn it into a shout and hurl it round the world.

Our harnessing of nuclear energy has given us giant fists with which we can wipe out whole cities with a single blow.

God sees all of this.

He’s given us Christmas because he knows human beings with giant eyes, ears and fists won’t remain giants for long without giant souls.

God gave us life so we could have his life and have it in our souls.

A steam engine slows when the furnace burns low. Though God made us we soon run down. We all too easily grow cold and dark inside.

To use another image, human beings are like computers with infected hard drives. We’re the victims of forces that depress us and make us do damage to others.

The forces of sin work inside of us like a virulent computer bug, slowly and methodically reducing the order within us until, sometimes, all that’s left is a dark screen.

The Christmas gift of Jesus is given to light up our lives, just like a computer buff sees to lighting up a closed down computer.

That’s why we’ve come tonight to carol with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds and kings!

Because God who gave us life gave it so we could have his life - and have it in our souls by the gift of his Son.

In a Channel 4 documentary last April there was a fascinating presentation of everything consumed, produced and to some extent experienced by the average British person in a lifetime.

We walk 15,464 miles. We speak 123,205,740 words. We earn £1,537,380. We drink 15,951 pints of milk. We dream 104,390 dreams. We’re drunk 0.7% of the time. We smoke 77,000 cigarettes. We make love 4,229 times. We eat 4 cows, 21 sheep, 15 pigs and 1,200 chickens in our life time.

Makes you think! Christmas is a time for reflection - hence this short thought, which has almost run its course.

As we reflect in a Christian country the figure of Jesus is rightly set before us at this season.

Tonight we read again of his birth and its foretelling by Isaiah who said this: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined.

St John starts his story of Jesus with similar words: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.

When this station was built Sussex churches were packed compared to today. Yet in Africa, China and South America nowadays you’ve got to almost fight your way into many churches.

Over all the earth, down through twenty centuries the warm light of Jesus has continued to shine.

It’s given to lighten our minds, warm our hearts and energise our lives - if we will welcome it.

Just as the light of the coal and its heat energises the cylinders of our trains the Christ Child is given to energise our living, warm up our souls and to get them moving in worship and service.

Bluebell is a voluntary association with a corporate vision.

So’s the Church of England, so’s Christianity – and both visions link to a burning furnace!

Over Christmas there’ll be opportunities for many of us to stoke our inner furnace.

God has given us life – that’s a statement you can argue about, but, either way, you can’t alter the claim.

He wants to give us his life – here’s where Christianity helps break new ground in human living.

There’s a refuelling possible in life. There’s a warming of the heart. There’s a joy from outside of ourselves waiting to come in if we’ll but welcome its source.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let ev’ry heart prepare him room.

Let’s sing again and warm our hearts as we do so!