C3/CCC Sermon Transcript for December 24, 2007
“Longing for a Christmas Miracle"
By Ian Lawton

Sue Monk Kidd writes in her book Where the Heart Waits:

"When my daughter was small she got the dubious part of the Bethlehem star in a Christmas play. After her first rehearsal she burst through the door with her costume, a five-pointed star lined in shiny gold tinsel designed to drape over her like a sandwich board. 'What exactly will you be doing in the play?' I asked her.

'I just stand there and shine,' she told me.

Isnt that beautiful?

You are part of the cosmic Christmas play that takes place wherever life occurs. What exactly do you do in the cosmic Christmas play?

You shine. You just shine!

This service is a celebration of the light that is your life, manifesting in global diversity. Light as inner radiance. Light as love between and light as the light of life iself.

The image I offer you this Christmas is courtesy of G K Chesterton.

He wrote about the role of Santa Clause in his life, and how Santa became a larger part of his life as he grew older.
Consider this- as a child, you stand in awe of the empty stocking at the end of the bed, which in the morning is full of toys. You have done nothing to deserve the toys. They just arrive.

As you grow older your awe and gratitude expand. You notice the relationship between things. Now you appreciate not just toys, but also the stocking at the end of the bed, the bed in the room, the room in the house, the house on the planet, and the planet in the void. You did nothing to deserve to be part of this almighty void, and yet you have a place in the miracle of life.
Once you thanked Santa Claus for a few toys, now, you are thankful for stars and starfish and smiling faces and the open ocean. Once you thought it astonishing to find a gift so big that it filled half a stocking. Now you are astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and still most of it spills out the stockings; it is the large and amazing present of yourself.

You are the Christmas miracle, filling stockings and filling hearts with warmth.

You are the Christmas miracle, offering your life as a gift to the world.

You are the Christmas miracle. You don’t need an ancient virgin birth, a supernatural star in the sky or angelic messages.

You are the miracle, nature is the star and the wondrous message is love and goodwill for all people.

You are the manger in which the work of Christmas begins-

to feed the lost
to heal the broken
to feed the hungry
to release the prisoner
to rebuild the nations
to bring peace among people
to make music in the heart  (Howard Thurman- The Work of Christmas)

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