Let us pray: O God, may the joy and wonder of this night be made apparent through the words that I speak. Bless them and use them. Amen.

    With the traditional melody Greensleeves providing musical support, and the manger in full view, the Christmas Carol of William Chatterton Dix asks this question: What Child is This? It echoes, in a fashion, a similar question asked by that same child, now grown to adulthood, as  he addresses his friends the disciples with the question: Who do you say that I am?

    The answer of course, is varied, and one that drew you here tonight. What about this child, lying in a manger, has brought you here tonight? Why do we gather at this time of year, with gifts to and from each other, twinkling lights adorning our homes outside and in, and feasting that delights us in the present, even though we may look back later and wonder why we indulged quite so much?

    Perhaps our lives have been just too busy up until now, to really pause for even a moment and think of answers to that question. Perhaps it was just too big a rush getting everyone dressed and out the door to get here, to have time to spare to think about an answer to the question of why you are here?

    But here you are, and something about that birth some two thousand years ago has spoken to you on this night. That’s why you are here, even if you haven’t had a lot of time to think about it. So, in this season of gift giving, let me offer you a small gift - a gift of time - perhaps the time you dearly need, just to take a moment and allow yourself to reflect on that question. After all, one of the promises of this season is the gift of peace - even though it might have seemed a remote dream in the weeks and days leading up to tonight. So take this smidgen of time, and allow yourself an unbusy moment - a moment to just sit and think, and maybe an answer will pop into your mind - one you weren’t expecting, one that provides a clue to the spirit that brought you here tonight.

One minute of quiet time.

    Well, it would be interesting and informative to spend time talking with each other about what happened for you in that moment, given perhaps that that might have been the longest moment you’ve had to think in the past month or so. I hope you will share something about it with a loved one or friend, if it’s possible and helpful for you to do that.

    Here’s an answer that occurred to me. You’ve seen hints of it already when the children were sitting around the manger a few moments ago. It’s an answer that is at once both delightfully simple and enormously complicated, but one that I believe invites us into deeper relationship with each other and with God.

    It is defined by that big red heart that came out of the gift in the manger. It is love that drew us here tonight, and it is the challenge to share that love more openly, more sincerely, more widely that we are called to take from here tonight.

    As I said, it is both simple and complicated. Isn’t love always that way.

    I don’t think it’s too big a risk for me to say that many of you are here because of love - the love you share in families, and among other things, that love is expressed at Christmas time by coming together for worship on Christmas Eve. You are also here, I know, because you love God. I trust you also know that you are here because God loves you, an expression made real with the birth of a child - Emmanuel - God-with-us - in a manger. I think that’s the simple and straightforward part - an equation of mutual love between loved ones and family members and between God and us. A love expressed by the birth of a child, an example of vulnerability, tangible hope and promise, innocence and possibility.

    But I also believe that you are here to risk loving beyond your present boundaries. You may not have come with that in mind, but it’s part of the transformation that God offers to us in the form of a child born in a manger long ago. We are here in part because we know the kind of hope that child once grown into adulthood offered to the people he met in his life and beyond, to people throughout the ages, to us and to ones who will come after us. We are here because that baby Jesus grew to be a person who challenged people to risk loving beyond their own boundaries of what was right and who was worthy. The story of his birth even takes us there. And that’s where, in our human minds it gets complicated, not so easy, much harder to come to terms with and much more difficult to live out.

    Emmanuel is not God-with-me or God-with-you, it is God-with-us and that means all of humanity. That means there is a part of God in everyone we meet, and we dishonour God and God’s purpose if we forget that. We are here because of love and it is love we are called to spread in the world, a love that stretches our boundaries of who is lovable, a love that stretches our comfort level with respect to the people with whom we associate, a love which does not discriminate. A love which goes beyond our capacity to love each other, even to the point of loving creation and treating it with respect. A love which treats all people and all creation as a wonderful and holy gift from God.

    Where does your comfort level with loving others stop? Street people? Corporate executives? Polluters? Environmentalists?  Politicians? Money Market traders? Software developers? Real estate tycoons? Publishing moguls? Drug addicts? Hookers? Drug dealers? Islamic terrorists? Right-wing Christian fundamentalists?  Superpower military commanders? Radical liberationists? Middle of the road middle class homeowners? We all have our lists, but the call from God to love without condition places everyone as that child in the manger. And that child in the manger is a reminder to us that no matter who we are or what faith tradition we follow, we are loved by God. That’s the message that child in manger demonstrated with the actions of his life. He also dared to bring people face to face with the possibility of transformation in their ways of thinking and in confronting their own comfort levels and their own particular view of the way things should be.

    The promise we hear in the weeks of advent - hope, peace and joy culminate in the fourth promise - the promise of love - love that dares us into believing that we are loved, and love that dares us to love beyond our own boundaries. This is the gift of Christmas. May we receive and give with joy and celebration. Merry Christmas. Amen.