Christmas Day 10 am

It's here! It's finally here! Christmas is finally here! What’s best about Christmas? Is it the Christmas tree with its flashing lights? May be its singing carols, or the Christmas dinner with all the family or perhaps you think the best thing about Christmas is the presents.

But are we forgetting something – what is missing. If we just think of these things are we missing experiencing something. When I was very young you couldn’t get bananas, one day my cousin who was in the navy brought me a banana from Africa and I was so excited, because I had been told they were so good to eat – but do you know what I did? I took hold of the banana and took a great bite, it was awful I didn’t like it. You see no one had told me to peel it – I had taken a bite of banana skin – I had missed finding out how good it was on the inside – I hadn’t really eaten a banana. And if we are not careful we can miss the meaning of Christmas we see all the things which we think of as Christmas but we miss what Christmas really is, a bit like getting stuck in the banana peel and missing the banana.

To try and help us remember I am going to ask some children to come and help me make a Christmas picture.

On my piece of paper I have drawn a circle. The Outside of the circle is the thick peel, then you come to the inner peel, that soft bit before you come to the real thing in the middle.

First put the pictures on red paper on the red circle, look at them all the things we can think of at Christmas time.

Now lets put the ones on blue paper on the yellow circle, so what have we got there? Can you think why we have a bible?

But what is missing what needs to be in the centre? Jesus. For without Jesus we wouldn’t have any of these other things.

So lets have a look, don’t a lot of people see Christmas as the things in the red circle, don’t many stop there, never open the peel and look inside. Never wonder about the angels, shepherds and wise men, never read the Bible, and never think why we really celebrate Christmas

The problem with Christmas is that if we are not careful we can be like me and my first banana. We can get so

caught up in the celebration, the decorations, and the gifts that we miss the real Christmas -- the birthday of Jesus Christ.

We miss the good news which is for all people, wherever we live, who ever we are, Jesus was born for each of us, and that is the most important news ever. The first people God chose to see the baby Jesus were shepherds, people who were not thought of as important, but people who are caring who look after their sheep. And the baby they were called to see was not in a large palace or house, not surrounded by expensive things, but in a stable.

So let us all remember to thank God for sending Jesus and to help us always to have room in our hearts for him.

Just one more thing – going back to my banana, remember if the take the banana out of its peel the peel is useless it just crumbles away. So if my picture was a ball and I took Jesus out of the centre the ball would be useless, it would no longer be a ball. So if you take Jesus out of Christmas it would no longer be Christmas it would just crumble away. Amen.

Have a wonderful day.