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So, very Christmas, my friends.

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When I was little, I can always remember feeling just a little bit sad on Christmas night because

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you spend so long preparing for this one day.

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I mean, I can remember our tree being in our living room and like more and more presents

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were coming underneath it and they were all, my mother loved like glitter paper.

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So it was all very shiny and pretty and we had these plans and we were looking forward

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to them.

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Just all month long, things just got better and better and just like spiraling towards

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this one day and then it just happens, right?

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It just sort of happens and everyone shows up and the presents are unwrapped and then

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they're put away and the dishes are done and the food is put away and then it's just sort

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of quiet.

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And I always remember feeling just a little bit sad on Christmas night because it just

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happened.

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It was so quick.

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So I've always been very thankful that the church calendar doesn't do that.

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The church calendar gives us a full 12 days to celebrate Christmas and we almost, we always

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get at least one more Sunday to celebrate Christmas and I'm especially thankful for the

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years that we get to.

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And so there's, this is not one of those just in case you're wondering, but I'm especially

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thankful for the years that we do get to.

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This has always been a particular favorite season of mine that we get 12 full days to

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celebrate and think about and praise God for the birth of Jesus.

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And I love that we got a chance.

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I talked to Jack this week.

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I was like, listen, we're busy and we're only in the office like one day this whole week,

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but what if I just totally change the service on Sunday and so that's what's happened here.

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So if you hate it, you can send emails to me.

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But I love doing Christmas lessons in carols because we get to read the story one more

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time.

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We get to hear the full story of God's incarnation and we get to sing the songs that I love,

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we only have this short little season to sing and we get to hear it without all the

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busyness of Christmas, without all the busyness of waiting for what's next.

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Our relatives are coming, the food is in the oven and we're sort of waiting to get out

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of church on Christmas Eve.

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So today we get a chance to just hear the story, sit with it and live with it.

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But we also get a chance to hear the beginning of John's gospel.

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And John's gospel doesn't start with a traditional Christmas message.

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John starts by unraveling the mystery that is God's incarnation, the mystery of God choosing

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to become fully human and to share life's experiences with us, the wonderful and the

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terrible and the miraculous things that make up our days on this earth.

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John tells us that our salvation has always been part of God's plan from the moment of

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the fall in the Garden of Eden, from the moment that humans had to start grappling with

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sin and death and shame and evil from that very moment God has sought us, God has kept

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seeking us, God has called us again and again to come back home.

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John's gospel starts with the reminder that there is absolutely no link that God will

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not go to to rescue us from the powers of evil in the world.

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John reminds us that God would choose to even become human, to dwell among us and in doing

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so redeem every aspect of the human experience.

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The miracle of Christmas is that we have a God who has chosen to be in the thick of life

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with us.

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God doesn't just tell us that God will be present, God jumps in fully, becoming one

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of us experiencing the fullness of human life.

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That's the miracle and the mystery of Christmas, the miracle and the mystery that John names

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for us in the beginning of his gospel.

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In Jesus we have a God who has and is and will always will be present with us.

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Not a passive observer but someone who knows what it means to love and to hurt and to try

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and to fail and to laugh and to cry.

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In Jesus we have a God who not only knows our hearts and our souls but has experienced

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the things that affect our heart and our souls.

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God promises to be with us in our best moments, in those times of joy.

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God makes them fuller and sweeter and richer but perhaps more importantly we have a God

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who has promised to be with us in the worst things, in our fear and in our grieving that

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God reminds us when we are loved and redeemed and cared for even when we don't know how

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to go forward ourselves.

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To paraphrase John's gospel today, Jesus is the light of the world and try though it has

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nothing in this dark world has ever overcome it.

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And wherever you are this Christmas, however you find yourself and wherever and however

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you find yourself and all the Christmases ahead and the years in between those Christmases,

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I hope you know that God is with you.

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Whether they bring joy or grief or anxiety or contentment, God is with you experiencing

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those things with you.

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The great mystery of Christmas is that Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, chose to become human,

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chose to become human to fully defeat every single thing in creation that would ever try

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to separate you from God.

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So Merry Christmas my friends, we have a few more days yet to celebrate and to praise God

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for the most singularly amazing event in human history.

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God's love for all of creation manifested in the birth of Jesus Christ.

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Amen.