Already we have joined with the choirs of angels praising God and singing ‘Glory to God in the Highest.’ Now in this short space of time ‘Come let us go’ and join with the shepherds and go down from the hillside to Bethlehem. Come let us go

Come let us go. Let us like the shepherds leave behind our tasks, our work. As those shepherds left their sheep without another thought so let us leave behind the cooking, the present wrapping, the decorating and all the other activities that we have deemed essential to our Christmas preparations and in so doing know we are freed to go unburdened with the shepherds down from the hillside to Bethlehem. Come let us go.

Come let us go guided by the light of the star and the swinging lanterns of the shepherds and with our hearts racing at the wonder and the mystery of this holy night and what exactly we will find for ourselves when we are guided to that stable in Bethlehem. Come let us go.

Come let us go. Go not to some grand, richly furnished and luxurious house or even a simple plain, unadorned room in an inn   but to a rough straw strewn, pungent smelling stable where animals are housed. Can this really be the place which God has chosen for the birthplace of his Son? His Son, who is God, incarnate. His Son who is Emmanuel God with us. Come let us go and enter that holy place.

Come let us go and with the shepherds push open the stable door to see this thing that has come to pass that the prophets foretold. See once our eyes have adjusted to the gloom a young mother holding in her arms the miracle that is every newborn baby.   A newborn baby wrapped in swaddling bands with not some beautiful crib to lie in but a manger filled with hay. Hay to feed the animals just as one day this baby will feed us God’s children with the bread of life and assuage our thirst with the blood red wine of life.  Like the shepherds come let us kneel.

Come let us kneel as we recognise that this tiny helpless, vulnerable scrap of humanity in the humblest of birth places is indeed God’s promised Messiah, our Saviour. Come let us kneel  humbled  before such mystery

Come let us in awe and wonder recognise in this tiny swaddled babe the Mighty Counsellor who will throughout our lives be there to lead us and guide us in all that we do. Who will be there at our side to bless us with his infinitely wise counsel in all situations. A Mighty Counsellor who reveals the wonder of God’s purposes for each one of us.  Come let us in awe and wonder listen to his voice now showing us the reality of the miracle that is before us.

Come let us on awe and wonder recognise the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father who has created this amazing world of ours and who, despite all our sinfulness our wrongdoing calls us and cares for us as his children. The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father who chose to send to us His Son to be born among us to reveal the infinite and inexhaustible depths of his love for each one of us. This helpless baby before whom we kneel is himself God Incarnate, love incarnate. Come let us in awe and wonder recognise the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.

Come let us in awe and wonder recognise before us the Prince of Peace, that peace that this broken troubled world can never give us but a peace that fills our hearts with a peace which is beyond all understanding.  Come let us in awe and wonder recognise the Prince of Peace.

Come let us kneel in silence for a few brief minutes and allow the miracle of this birth fill our hearts with a joy that can never be eclipsed. the joy that lies at the very heart of Christmas, the joy that comes for knowing that  this tiny helpless baby is indeed  the Word of God made flesh, the word of God who has come to live among us not just some two thousand years ago in one short moment of time but  at each and  every  Christmas  and  each and every day of our lives. Come let us kneel in silence and know that joy as Christ is born in us.this holy night.  

O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray; cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell; O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.