MORE THAN THIS

• I have to admit that I find some of our most common Christmas traditions quite humourous.
• Our bibles give us very little info about Jesus’ birth, so we have extrapolated details over the centuries to fill in the story.
• I will hazard a guess that most of what most of us think we know about the Christmas story is not in the bible.
• Only birth in two gospels:  Matthew and Luke; very different.  Mary Joseph from Nazareth originally or only moved their years later.  Married, not married; manger/shepherds; house/star/magi; don’t get me started about a star above a manger and wisemen at the stable.
• Night time? Time of year?  Dec 25 picked as celebration time not because it was known when Jesus’ birthday was. 
• Winter!  That’s the one that gets me.  We love to have it snowing for Jesus’ birth.  (see snow globe)
• That picture is beyond silly - snow? newborn holding head up?
• Any nativity set, any Christmas card or snowglobe or facebook meme is only our attempt to try and capture that wonderful moment in time.
• To preserve the intersection of the divine and human realms;
• To capture that moment when Immanuel emerges;
• (pardon the winter snowglobe pun) To freeze it in time.
• I appreciate that, but I believe that we do not serve ourselves well when we seek to isolate ourselves in one moment.
• World events:
• War attitudes, must be set aside to evolve into peace (Cuba-US relations);
• Jihadist violence against Canadian soldiers in Montreal and Ottawa - cannot be held so tightly that every Islamic believe in our midst is viewed suspiciously;
• US legacy of racism and concerns over isolated moments of police brutality with racial overtones cannot be held as justification to shoot a person in uniform, just because he is in that uniform.
• Living in frozen time, isolates us from becoming more than we were in that moment.
• Although the birth of Jesus is a moment in time, the significance of God-with-us is more than one moment, more than one night.
• If we are interested in Jesus, we naturally are interested in more than Christmas.
• We are interested in Wonder.  Wonder at how we can experience the Holy among us.
• As Jesus grew, his message was all about knowing God in the ordinary events of life - all about not shielding people from the graces of God.
• Greatest Guide for Living - Love God, Others, Self.
• Love can be a cliché - compassion, respect, acceptance, honest care > class-less living
• If the purpose of Christmas was to begin the Jesus-experience, and the Jesus’ experience is about loving God, neighbour and self; then Christmas is the impetus for living in Jesus’ Way.
• Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild!  Creator and Creation reconciled!

Singing:  #48VU “Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing”