Christmas is all about love. GOD GIVES RICH GIFTS TO US – loves to do so - and is faithful every day in doing so. He lovingly speaks to us through all His ways and in all our days. ‘Count your blessings,’ says the old Gospel song. It’ll surprise you to recall just what God has done in your life. Think of those wonderful words to God’s People that came through Jeremiah (29:11): “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord: plans to prosper you and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future.” And in the New Testament, Matthew caught Jesus’ words about God our Father: - “If your son asks for bread will you give him a stone - or a snake instead of a fish? If even earthly fathers give good gifts to their children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts – give the Holy Spirit, to those who ask Him!”

GOD OFFERS HIS PEOPLE WORDS OF AFFIRMATION – “You only have I loved . . .””I have loved you with an everlasting love . . .”

GOD’S ACTS OF SERVICE – O What God has done for us! - Still does – and forever will. Jesus’ mother Mary’s reminds us as she sings a ‘magnificat’ to the God who has performed mighty deeds, who has scattered the proud; brought down haughty rulers and raised up the humble. He nourishes the hungry with good things but sends the rich away empty. He has remembered to be merciful to his servant Israel, coming through to bring them aid.

GOD WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH US - He came in Christ to walk with us again, as he had with Adam in Eden. In Emmanuel: Jesus, God with us walks and talks with disciples. “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. Today, God’s Spirit bears witness within us (says St. Paul in Romans 8), resonating within with us. Again, it’s about spending God spending time with us, and our spending time with God.

AND THEN THERE’S PHYSICAL TOUCH - Can you picture Mary holding Jesus? – changing Jesus’ diapers . . . Imagine his precious wee body being rocked in her arms. See Joseph playing rig-a-jig-jig with him on tired old knees. It’s not sacrilege thus to tell it: - for our Gospel is Earthy, human: physical. Let’s not try to be more spiritual than God. In Creation – in the incarnation, God did despise but rather came into it: came to us - in human flesh. God was on a Cross – Had you been there, says C.S. Lewis, you could have got a sliver from rubbing your finger the wrong way on the Cross upon which our Lord was crucified.

And physical touch is what happened, and happens still when people like Mother Theresa show God’s love, as they care for the sick and dying, as they help a prostitute get off the streets, taking up in their arms weak, prostrate, dying forms, or mal-nourished babies, to cherish, nourish and care for them. ‘I’m doing it unto them, the leper, the beggar, the dying impoverished form, yes, ‘(she offered) – ‘but I’m also doing it unto Jesus - I’m touching Jesus.’ We can see Jesus today – touch him, visit him, feed him, clothe him. There are poor people, under-clothed and under-nourished, imprisoned people - refugees too, waiting for you and I to show up and see, hear and touch Jesus, in them, and discover the wonder that as we do, Jesus touches and changes our life through them.

Here’s More Love Language: - IN THE BEGINNING. St. John begins his Gospel prologue with the words: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created by him; there was nothing created that was not created by him.” These words take us back to Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. But God said, "let there be light and there was light." God so loved - that he created an incredible universe. How? He spoke it into being! through His own dynamic Word that then emanated forth as particles that made the stuff we know, and waves of energy and light. God loved us so much that He created a world for us.

Oh, I know, that’s a too human-centred statement and know that we are part of a bigger plan, but perhaps we think it’s just a bit part that we have. But the Scriptures say that He created us just a tad lower than the angels, gave us glory and honour, and crowned us as vice-regents of and stewards of earth, under His Kingly Rule. We’ve messed it up to be sure, ourselves - and our world, too: quite a bit, actually. But God’s love for His creation, for the cosmos (for us and for our world), is unchanged and unchanging.Christmas gifts can be practical and whimsical, playful and deeply touching. Who knew you needed and would love: a sunrise, a sunset – a cool path in the forest, the bright burst of Spring flowers and the pungent splendour and colour of autumn leaves; the crystal diamonds of the snow. What if God in all of the wonders of creation is just (just?!) saying: – ‘I love you!’ Our prodigal Heavenly Father lavishes so much upon us: just to say: He loves us.’ And certainly, when He gave us His Son who came to die for us, it was to say: ‘I love you!” – big time.

Speaking of Creation . . . Some years ago when we were living in Calgary, we had the great pleasure of having our children's babysitter, Lorraine, stay for supper one evening, Our eldest – Andrew, was asked to give thanks for the meal. We were delighted when he offered up this: -"Dear Lord, thank you for Lawayne - and all other living creatures."

Scientists talk about the Big Bang, but really it was the Big Light – and the beginning of all the other lights tiny and immense that reveal matter and gases and stuff as yet unknown, in all shapes and sizes. Light was beginning to shine in the darkness – moving out, expanding still, to reveal more and more of God’s creation and the wonder of the universe. Before there was light, says Genesis there was naught but darkness. There was chaos; nothing was as yet formed into what it was to be.

Scientists tell us that in the vast darkness of space, of the whole universe, that we can only see – because of light, about 5% of all there is – "out there." They believe as they study and observe the effects upon stars and planets that we can see, that there are dark holes and dark matter influencing the stars and planets. They think that about 29% of the universe is made up of ‘dark matter.’ And then, there’s what scientists call dark energy making up the rest of the universe. Unseen, dark energy, out there - it’s mysterious and as yet mostly unknowable.

Most of God’s Creation we cannot see. Neither x-ray are huge telescopes can as yet reveal the wonders of God's universe. Your dog can hear more than can you. Your cat sees more keenly that we can, in the night. And horses and cows run in the field sometimes days before the earthquake comes, for they can feel beneath their hooves what we homo sapiens do not feel until it is upon us. “Twinkle, twinkle little star . . .” apparently there are lots of them, giving us wonder. And galaxies upon galaxies – a whole universe full. God is the Author of all that is revealed, of all that’s yet to be revealed. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning.”

All creation was spoken into being by the dynamic of God's Word. And, says St. John in his prologue, that living, creative Word was in fact a Person, One who took on flesh as Jesus of Nazareth. God's Word is more than a mere word. It’s not merely Poetry in some Prologue. In that stable in Bethlehem was God's Word, the Power and creative energy that made possible all things and makes possible all things. God's Word is a Person: that wee Babe in that strawy Manger was and is the Lord of Glory! His Life and Light and Glory was revealed to me – to us, writes St John. He could be seen, touched, walked with, lived with, listened to. In 1st C. Palestine, God touched down on this-here planet in the Person of Jesus. Jesus is the Word that God spoke in creating everything that is, including your own good self. Jesus is the Light that God caused to shine into the darkness, the light already present and shining when people are born into this world. All people benefit from the light that is Jesus just as they do from the light of the sun. Our earthly sun is the author of light and warmth on this planet. The Son of Righteousness enables all that grows to grow, everything that lives to live. And - John goes on to say in his Gospel - in one short pithy but pregnant statement, that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish . . .’ Martin Luther in his great hymn, A Mighty Fortress, speaks to us in metaphor-form of the sure Victory of God over Evil, in Christ Jesus: "The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure: one little word shall fell him." One little word. One little Baby in swaddling clothes and the devil is undone.

God was – is, speaking. What is God saying? Well, here’s Hebrews 1:1f - “God, who in many different ways spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high”

So much is mystery but there’s this, for sure, and I hope this resounds and resonates deeply within your heart: God is saying that He loves us and would draw us home to himself, and to our own true self. Look. I think it Word, can re-create you and me by Jesus – and by His Spirit, and bring us fully to be who and how God envisioned us, before ever there was a world. Have I said: God loves this world so much. God loves you. He even likes you. (big smile) The carols, the songs, the poems , prophets, angels, shepherds, wise-folk . . . all that’s Christmas - and God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, call you to: ‘Come and worship!’] Worship God’s only begotten. Worship Him who is our Saviour. Worship the ‘Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing . . .’ "God commended His love towards us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Let’s happily respond: -- O Yes – ‘Come let us adore Him . . . Christ the Lord!’

Now here’s a poem I wrote a Christmas or two ago. I offer it again in love to God and to you as well - a gift for this Christ-Mass.

Deep within our history
Swelling with the mystery
Breaking forth th' audacious Love of God

Entering that mystery
Making it our story
Hoping in th' audacious Love of God

Birthing pains like Mary
Exiles true, though weary
Trusting in th' audacious love of God

Through life's hills and canyons
Friends and new companions
Joining in th' audacious love of God

‘Loving God, our Strength, our Solace
Bringing to us lost and homeless
Finding with them, as they join us --
Rest and Hope at Home in You.’

Journeying with the Saviour
Finding each day: treasure
Living in th' audacious Love of God

Thanks for loving us, O God. We love you too.