Christmas Carol Service - The Odd One Out
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Isaiah 7 v 14 ‘The Lord will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (meaning God with us).’
The scene is ‘Have I got News for you’ and it is the ‘Odd one out Round.’ Which is the Odd one out?
Rabbit Hole in Alice & Wonderland
The Tardis in Dr Who
The Wardrobe in Narnia Chronicles
Jesus
First of all, what have they in common? Answer: They are all conduits or doorways for moving between one dimension to another!
Which is the ‘Odd one out?’ Answer = Jesus.
Why? Jesus is Odd one out because all the others are fiction.
Maybe a better answer is ‘Jesus,’ because all the others are objects and Jesus is a person.
Jesus is the one we are singing about and praising in this Carol Service tonight. He is the true God from true God, Light from Light (as we sang in our first carol).
We are obsessed today with moving between dimensions, even Santa moves between dimensions as does Harry Potter as does Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit (secret doorway in Smaug’s lair.
But all the portals are objects Tardis, Rabbit Hole, Wardrobe but the truth is the portal is a person and His name is Jesus whose birth we celebrate on Christmas day.
Jesus is our link between heaven and earth. We read about it in Luke 2v6 ‘While Mary & Joseph were in Bethlehem the time came for her to deliver her child’, true God from true God. The portal between heaven and earth was a baby wrapped in cloths, born in a manger, a cattle trough! Glory to God in the Highest heaven and on earth peace… heaven touched earth in that baby boy.
Then we read about the Wise men (Matt 2v2) they had read it in the sky at night that something extraordinary was about to happen. They followed & the star rested over Bethlehem and they found where heaven touched earth in a baby boy. (Gold Frank, Myrh)
So what makes this relevant at SMH Carol Service on 17 Dec 2015?
Maybe it’s this…. Could it be that Holistic care is when we try and bring a person to that portal, to Christ for healing, for solace, for peace. We do say that Holistic care is recognising the spiritual & our human being is Body Mind and spirit.
This isn’t about the chaplain going onto the wards praying with people. This is each one of us reaching out with the compassion of Christ to someone else…. A colleague or a patient, a carer or a friend. Every one here tonight can access this portal between heaven and earth because the portal is a person…Christ the Lord – not a Tardis or a wardrobe… a person who we can know personally and can grow to know more through our carols and our prayers and in the way we serve others in this place.
The choir is going to lead us in a version of Psalm 23; ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’
As you listen to these familiar words again, can you say for yourself ‘the Lord is MY shepherd’ if not you can make him your portal between heaven and earth.
“When Christ appeared the soul felt its worth… The thrill of hope the weary world rejoices. Fall on your knees…O night when Christ was born”
“Fall on your knees…O night when Christ was born”
Footnote: Sermon preached at St Mary’s Hospital Carol Service I.o.Wight 2015
