What did the snow man order at Macdonalds?
Iceburgers with chilli sauce!
What do you get if you cross an apple with a Christmas tree?
A pineapple!
Well, Christmas is here so we’re going to light the Christmas candle from one of the Advent candles. Which reminds me - what did the big candle say to the little candle?
I'm going out tonight!
Well this one isn’t going out, it’s coming on – who shall we choose?
Sunday Club member to light candle.
Christmas is here and it’s time to be thankful for Jesus.
All the gifts we’ve been given this morning are given to honour the greatest Gift from the greatest Giver!
So what gifts have we been given?
Time for children to share.
All of these gifts were given us because of what the angel told those shepherds in our bible reading.
Let’s read it our loud together. It’s the fifth paragraph of this morning’s gospel reading from Luke chapter 2:
What did the angel say to them?
'Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’
Good news of great joy! God has come to earth to give himself a human face, the face of Jesus!
What does it say the child was wrapped in?
Bands of cloth or what were called swaddling bands. Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants snugly in blankets or cloth strips so that movement of their limbs is tightly restricted. People believed that swaddling bands helped an infant to develop proper posture.
Swaddling fell out of favor in the seventeenth century. It has become popular again as modern medical studies indicate that swaddling assists babies to sleep, and to remain asleep.
Come back to Jesus though, the baby tightly bound lying in a manger.
We believe this infant Jesus was bound up so that we could be free!
Can anyone point me to an image of Jesus in church outside of the crib that shows him once again bound up?
When Jesus was bound up in the manger it pointed towards his being bound to a cruel cross 33 years later.
Mary and Joseph were told to call their son Jesus, which means Saviour. We know about Jesus more because of how he died and rose than on account of his birth. We keep Christmas because of Easter.
This Christmas eucharist is Christ’s Mass in which we see the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. The eucharist is about the gift of Jesus who’s always alive and with us and loving us – that’s the truth of Christmas.
Jesus was bound so we could be free!
In recent weeks I have seen people released from the power of guilt by the power of Jesus’ forgiveness, people released from the power of cancer by his healing power, worried people released from their anxieties. I have come across people who’ve died freed from fear of death by their faith in the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy.
In the joy of this morning you may know many constraints in your life. There is the constraint of a guilty conscience. There is the constraint of regret, of anxiety, of the fear of death, of loneliness.
Today the Son of God was bound in swaddling cloths to free you! We know as Christians, as lovers of Jesus, what we call salvation, a new dimension of freedom in our lives that is the best gift of Christmas.
God who made each one of us in love loves us so much he wants each one of us to be one with him. The Son of God became man so all who open their hearts to him could know the liberty of the children of God!
Let’s pause for a quiet moment to reflect on that great thought
Our service moves on now to centre on a new born baby, Arthur Beesley, whom we are to bless on the day God showed himself in the Babe of Bethlehem.
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