What is it that you seek?

thoughts for Christmas  (Mach 1)...some readings  can be Isiaiah 9, Psalm 96-98, Titus 2 & 3, Luke 2 (you can use bible,oremus.org to access these and other readings) 

Archbishop Rowan Williams told the story some years ago of being invited whilst in India

to bless the Christmas pudding mixture

as the staff of a local hotel prepare to make the first batch

which he does 

to the blaring sounds of Jingle Bells

We probably all have little stories to tell 

of strange Christmas  encounters.

• People we only see once a year
• Some people who we know will not be with us for another Christmas
• Strange incidents that happen when we get together...sometimes for good and sometimes  for ill

Christmas is full of these and Rowan Williams says

that the most unlikely people will find they are looking for the same thing and recognise each other instead 

There is a group of shepherds, rough men who sleep out in the open.

Who have to drink to keep warm at night

Who see some blinding lights in the sky

and rush to witness

the birth of a baby.

There is the woman who gets pregnant before she is married

and her fiance who knows he is not the father.

There are three dignified (or perhaps weird) gentleman

who are dark and mysterious

who have come from a long way away

in search of something

and carrying rich treasure.

There is another king

who is so fearful

that, we are told, he orders the slaughter of many children

in order to try and prevent a rival claim to his throne.

What is it that they seek?

What, we might ask, do we seek at Christmas time?

It is, of course, God

We may not always name it as such.

But we seek that which will satisfy our deepest longings and needs.

It is unlikely therefore to be a new bicycle

a diamond ring, or even an iPad.

We all know

that as as desirable as these things are they are fleeting

and will always break, or wear out.

We can damage or lose them

just as easily as we get them.

We can have the biggest and best

and there can still be an empty void inside us.

We find it rather frightening

that we can have lots of stuff

and yet we are still not fulfilled.

Getting  and having, 

does not actually seem to satisfy our wanting

So at Christmas we see some pointers

Chiefly, we see a person Jesus Christ.

Our ultimate fulfilment will come about

when we know Jesus

as friend and brother.

As you come to receive Communion today

pray that you may know Jesus anew.

Chiefly we find Jesus revealed as a child

reminding us that for many, probably most of us

this grace will be experienced through our human relationships

and perhaps we need to note

that it is not the bitter and twisted relationships of the adult

that we sometimes presume to call sophisticated

but rather the open trusting relationship of the child

that better reveals how we might experience God.

Some of us find our family and human relationships really hard.

Christmas gives us an opportunity to begin again

to try a little harder

This doesn't so much make it easy

as make it possible to try again.

Don't miss the opportunity.