sermon Dec 2 - all the fuss about decorating Christmas

[A] On the one hand the visual effect of all the greenery and lighting cheers up the gloom of approaching winter solstice.

But on the other hand this sensory stimulation and cue of past memories of family and giving/receiving presents is a distraction (temptation?) from the everyday message, and the Christ birth message, that should be uppermost in prominence.

There remain the old questions: 

1. WWJD (what would Jesus do?) --how would he make sense of the full-blown industrial production of "the Christmas season"

2. If you met Jesus, what would you talk about; what would you want to know? Surely the proliferation of The Christianity Establishment, franchises, commodities, denominations, and hierarchies or specialists would be something to filter through his original experiences and the world of primitive Christian churches. After all, he was a (fulfilled) Jew, not a Christian as such.

3. If you met a curious foreigner or extraterrestrial would was filled with sincere curiosity and respectfully asked you to describe the main ideas and parts of Christianity, how would you begin. On the one hand it is a simple message: God loves you in full grace and you have only to accept that love, and to extend it to those around you. But on the other hand there are lots of legacies, details, and splitting of hairs for doctrine, practices and feelings.                                                      

[B] Communion was served to day. For an onlooker unfamiliar with the ritual, it must seem strange to take such pains with bits of bread slowly chewed and a sip of the juice of the grape in synchrony.

But the functions of rituals are many. One of these is to slow down the normal, taken-for-granted habits of throwing back food. Some participants will dwell on the historic act that is commemorated, others feel the shared experience of brothers and sisters around the room and those around the world, still others will focus on the essence of creation embodied in these two sources -the grain and the grape. It is possible that some take away the message of belonging to purity and those elected to moral superiority. But others may feel the humility that the symbols represent: the master taking the position of the servant, producing the feeling of gratitude on both sides -the giver and the receiver, bound together in this action.

[C] Sermon snippet: that some people come each week to regain some inspiration and gladness. The worship experience reproduces the right frame of mind and gives some forward motion to one's week.
Others engage with the thinking and discussion of the liturgy and sermon: weaving their fingers of mortal logic around the events and meditation. And yet, ultimately God's ways by definition will exceed or defy our small logic. So perhaps some participants also accept the glimpses of divine craziness that fly as sparks from the pulpit when flint meets metal.