Christmas Eve 2005
Midnight Service from Liverpool Cathedral, broadcast by ITV
I know! This is the moment when you steal away to wrap your Christmas presents! Perhaps you bought them at the last moment! Rushing into the shops as they were closing, finding they'd just sold the last bottle of your wife's favourite perfume!
Tomorrow morning frowning women all over the country will be smelling of an unfamiliar scent which their men will be telling them "Darling, I thought you'd love to try this new little number!"
Or perhaps you bought your presents a long time ago - like in the sales last Christmas! Or maybe you've been saving up to buy something really special for someone you adore. Wrapping its been a labour of love as you dream of how they'll react when they open it.
Some years ago in the famine in Ethiopia my wife Sarah was working with the Relief Agency Tearfund and visited the refugee camps in the desert. The sight and sound of hundreds of thousands of starving children wounded her. She came home at Christmas and found the contrast between the poverty of the poor and the wealth of the rich unbearable. Refusing to waste money on gift paper she wrapped all her presents in newspaper!
The presents which the Wise Men gave to Jesus had the same earthy feel to them. Though there was nothing last minute about their gifts. They'd spent time tracking Jesus down, they'd consulted the stars and the Prophets and came with a treasure chest of gifts.
By all accounts the child they were seeking was extraordinary.
This was a baby that a King feared.
This was a prince whom the Prophets predicted.
This was a child whom the Angels protected.
This was the person on whom the Star shone.
When they eventually found the child with Mary his mother they filled up with joy.
What they did next in that room in Bethlehem was also extraordinary. They worshipped him. These strangers from another land fell to their knees and offered the sort of homage you would give only to God.
At the heart of Christmas is a child with two names: Emmanuel, which means "God is with us" and Jesus, which means "he will save his people from their sin"! They were names with a meaning.
This was God's Christmas gift to the world.
"Do we look like a planet that needs saving?" ,
and
"Do we look like people that need God?"
Well, speaking for myself, I think so!
This our planet is far from well, it is the sick star of the universe. And much of the sickness is of our own doing. We've taken God's creation, banished him from our lives and are turning his global garden into a desert. This coming year Britain has the Presidency of the European Union and the Chair of the G8 and an opportunity to reverse the destruction of the earth which is both a crime against humanity and an offence to God who made it.
I know that many people who'd like to believe in God are put off by religion and by the fact that religion seems to have caused so many wars. The truth is that it is people who cause wars and will use anything including religion to get their way.
But on this Christmas Eve I'd like you to come with the Wise Men and look into the face of Jesus and to ask you - do you see there the face of hatred or the face of love?
The Wise Men saw the face of God. They opened their treasure chest full of gifts and worshipped him.
The presents they bought were gifts, of and from the earth. Gold a precious metal; Myrrh, resin from a desert bush, used as a tonic to make people well; Frankincense, from the trees of Dhofar, used both for medicine and for burning as incense as an offering to God.
They brought gifts for the health and wealth of Jesus. They brought them to the one who even though a baby was and is the giver of both health and wealth to the world.
But the reason the planet needs saving and the reason we need forgiving is that we've turned God's world into a place where many have no share in this wealth and health.
But just like the flame on a candle burns and turns the wax to liquid so the love of God flames out of the life of Jesus to melt the hardest hearts.
The sadness of this Holy Night is that many will sing about Jesus without ever feeling the power of his love. It's like getting a present and leaving it in the box all wrapped up .
Yet if on this Holy Night of Christmas you feel all is not right with the world. If you feel the planet needs saving and that deep in your heart you need God's forgiveness then do something different this Christmas. Rip the wrapping paper off God's Christmas Gift to the world and like the Wise Men, take Jesus to your heart tonight.
Imagine his hand reaching out to you.
Lean on him.
Pray simply
Lord, be forever with me.
Make a gift of yourself to God tonight and say 'I'll walk with God from this day on' - and see where he will lead you - and the world.