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Christmas 2005
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 25th December 2005
Revd. Matthew Vernon
(this sermon includes questions/responses with the congregation)
How you travelled far this morning?
Where to you live…?
Christmas is a story of journeys.
Santa - over a hundred million miles.
The wise men - over a thousand kilometres.
The shepherds - from the hills around Bethlehem.
Mary and Joseph - 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
Jesus too: down the human birth canal, only about twenty centimetres;
• the most significant and risky journey a human makes.
The most important journey that we celebrate today can't be measured in centimetres or kilometres.
It's a journey that God made when God was born in Jesus.
We often think of God being up there.
Of God watching us from above
• from a comfortable distance.
• a distant God.
But Jesus' birth, the Incarnation, shows us that God is not distant, but very close to us.
God is intimately involved with our world.
As intimately as a new born baby.
God with us -
• Emmanuel!
Do you like being hugged?
What did Mary do after Jesus was born?
When Jesus was born, Mary cuddled him.
Many Christmas images show Mary holding the baby Jesus.
Cuddling someone is a kind of journey.
A hug closes the distance between two people.
There is often distance between us and someone else isn't there?
Between you and as stranger in a lift.
• Close but yet distant.
Between you and the person next to you on a bus.
Between you and the beggar in the street.
God comes to our world as a baby who is cuddled and hugged by his mother Mary.
A baby which needs to be cuddled.
A baby that undermines our need for distance.
We live in a world where distance is thought to be important.
We talk about the top people
• and down and outs.
We talk about people being miles apart in there views.
We think distance keeps us safe.
Today we remember that God's message to us:
• break down the distance you set up between people.
Close the gap between strangers, between rich and poor, between friends.
God is with us.
• very close
As close as a baby in your arms.
God is near closer than the person sitting next to you.
Go on, give them a hug…
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