Live Nativity
Hope at Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsEveryone is invited to come and meet the King
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Transcript
[opposing fields]
Children, I don’t know if you can see what I’ve got here, but these are magnets. Who’s played with magnets?
Do you know that magnets stick together one way around [click] but push away when they’re the other way round? And you just can’t make them click no matter how hard you try?
For many of us the Christmas story is very familiar - so familiar that it’s easy to miss some of the surprises. To miss some of the places where it’s like God has pushed together all the wrong ends. And it’d never normally click. But Christmas, and Jesus, is special.
Let me give you two big surprises here, two things that don’t normally click - but come together at Christmas, come together in Jesus.
“Come and meet the king,” was Colin’s song - Christians believe Jesus is the greatest King of all because he’s God, the one who created everything. Remember the gold he was given as a present? fit for a king - because that’s what the stars told those magi: a great king had been born.
Who do you think gets to meet kings and queens? Any of you children met a king or a queen? ooh you must be special.
I made a joke about our shepherds being smelly - but it’s true they would have been smelly. People back then thought shepherds were nobodies - they’d never get to meet a king. Nobody would trust a word they said.
But who does God send his angels to? Who does he invite to be the very first to come and meet the king? Shepherds.
People like that, invited to meet the king? [magnets won’t go together]
First surprise: Who got to meet him. Second surprise? How he came.
Most grownups would agree our world is in a sad mess - broken in lots of ways and lots of places. God wants to change all that. To fix it. That’s why he came as Jesus at Christmas.
But if that’s what he was up to, then it’s a bit of a surprise that he came like this. [gesture to baby]
Do you think it’s fun, being a baby? I’m not sure. You can’t say much - just “waaaa”. Can’t do much - can’t even change your own nappy. Can’t go anywhere at all by yourself - just taken anywhere your parents like.
Why would the God who made everything, who ruled the universe, come as a helpless little baby if he wanted to fix our world? Surely a grownup superman or mega robot or at least a world leader would be better?
Coming to fix the world - as a helpless baby? [magnets won’t go together]
This is a very surprising story when you stop and think about it. But God knows what he’s doing.
He entered our world - and became one of us, a baby, to fix us - ‘cause we’re the real root of the problem: the mess out there comes from the mess in here, inside each one of us.
Rather than just throwing the world away and starting again, he came to transform us because he knows us, and he loves us. We’re precious to him - and he wants to meet each one of us.
If we’re nobodies - even if we’re smelly - like the shepherds, still he invites us to come meet King Jesus.
If we’re not from round here - not sure we belong - like the magi, still he invites us to come meet King Jesus.
He invites you to come meet King Jesus - because everyone is welcome to come and meet the King.