| On Christmas Eve, in a candle lit church, Rev Philip Wilson preached the following sermon ...
Christmas 2008 will go down in the history books for at least one thing.
Oh, it might be historic for you personally because of a special gift from a loved one, or because of family or friends close- by who you haven’t seen for some time.
I hope it has some of those things in store for you in a few moments when the morning comes.
But that’s not why this Christmas is going to be noteworthy.
No, this year is special because it looks like being the last-ever Woolworths Christmas.
The Christmas tills closed for the last time only six hours ago in 800 Woolworth stores the length and breadth of the country.
And over the next two weeks they will gradually close for good.
And if you’re aged between – say 10 and 100, that’s quite a change because, to put it simply, for generations of people, Woolworths was simply a solid, stable, safe and reliable feature of life.
No-where had a smell quite like Woolworths.
As soon as you walked in the door there was a sugary scent of sweets and plastic, of pencils and rubbers, of clothes and plastic goods.
Yes, some of it was trashy.
But for a lot of people, good-old Woolies offered an affordable way to provide essential household items at an affordable price.
And few stores ever did Christmas as well as Woolworth’s.
Woolworth’s had Christmas lights of every size and shape and shade.
And tinsel and baubles.
And if your lights fused or a bulb blew, you didn’t buy a new set, you bought new bulbs.
And then there was Ladybird-clothing for children, there were big boxes selling LPs, which were replaced by revolving stands selling tape cassettes, which in turn were replaced by smaller stands selling CDs.
When “Top of the Pops” was the highlight of many a teenager’s Thursday night, Woolworths was the place for a Saturday afternoon.
But the thing about the demise of this nearly-100 year old tradition that almost everyone mentions is “Pick ‘n’ Mix”.
Woolies did “Pick ‘n’ Mix” like no other.
There were shrimps and bananas, coke bottles, fudge, jelly beans, white mice, chews and lollies.
How will we ever forget those colours, the smells, the weighing and the measuring and the chewing!
Tonight, for just a few moments, let’s consider that:
Our World is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” World
The fundamental strength behind pick-n-mix is the right to choose. Before pick-n-mix was invented, a person would walk into a sweet shop and buy a whole bag of the same kind of sweets. With pick-n-mix, people can buy the exact amount and type of sweets that they want and put them altogether in one bag by themselves. This then allows them to experience a multitude of taste sensations, in any order, and in any combination.
And right across life we love the freedom to do that, don’t we? Stores and supermarkets which offer choice will flourish and thrive. Those that don’t, won’t.
And human life seems to be happier when we have choices. We are told that, generally speaking, good exam results can bring more choices, good looks can open more doors and lots of money means we can buy more stuff. J.K. Rowling has said that: “It is our choices that show who we are, far more than our abilities”.
And that’s well and good, but the cynical world would tell us that if you had her ability to church out popular children’s books year after year, then your choices will be so much easier.
It’s too late now to fret about Christmas whether we bought just exactly the right little something for a special someone, but wouldn’t it be great if we could do whatever we wanted and choose anything? You know, a diamond ring here, a Range Rover Sport there. Why can’t I just pick ‘n’ mix what I want in life?
But then, didn’t we used to say the same about television? How boring it seemed to have only three TV Channels, then they grew to four, then five. Now there’s probably 145. And still we don’t feel contented. The trouble with this “pick ‘n’ mix” world sometimes is that it’s just all too much. We’re overwhelmed with our choices and we end up making really daft decisions. “Pick ‘n’ Mix” seems like a good idea until we actually do the picking and mixing. Then, it’s as if the whole of life is an excess of shrimps and bananas, coke bottles and fudge.
Well, strange as it might seem:
Our God is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” God
The story of the first Christmas sees God doing the picking and the mixing. In ways that no-one really expected, God – like a Hollywood director – picks a young girl, and then a husband-to-be. This night long ago he picked learned astrologers, and uneducated shepherds. He uses extra-terrestrial beings as well - angels and a star, he even involves none other than the mighty Roman Emperor to conduct a census, so that the key players are in the right place at the right time. God’s place at God’s time.
And God picks all these weird and varied people out of obscurity and mixes them into a story-line far more ingenuous and enriching than any mere human could ever contrive.
It was important that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem to fulfil prophecy, but how can you physically have a baby born in a place where its mother does not live? God had ways of picking his moment to do his work. Isn’t that one of the great mysteries of this night? That God is so much in control?
The Danish Philosopher Soren Kirkegaard once observed how “God behaves like the cook and the artist. He says: “Now for a pinch of spice, a little touch of red.”
Or, it’s as if God is the composer of a fantastic piece of music. And then he stands upon the podium as conductor.
He raises his baton in his hand. And he looks each one of us in the eye. And lovingly, tellingly, knowingly, he leads people. He leads some to be stronger in some parts of the symphony of life, others are to play a softer role.
We think we’re good at making choices, but God is the master of picking and mixing exactly what he wants. And this night, of all nights, that is something of immense beauty and meaning.
God’s Church is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” Church
Oh, I don’t know how your Christmas will be. You could have the best Christmas ever. Or right now your life could be full of sorrows: the loss of a loved one, the fear of a New Year with uncertain health, maybe you are one of the 27,000 Woolworth employees who will be without work. These are difficult days.
When the baby Jesus grew up and began to preach and heal, he said to his first disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you …”
Now that is a powerful thing! ” Powerful because God can pick up your life and mix it in a life of power and purpose. Just as he picked and mixed stars and shepherds, Mary and the Magi, so tonight he wants you and me to be a part of his grand eternal plan.
So God brings together his people into the Church, which is not a building but a group of people of different ages and classes and talents and experiences. And God builds his church so that we will tell a new story to our generation in word and deed.
And so the immense beauty and meaning of the very first Christmas is actually available to you and me tonight. Maybe you’re a student living away from home and you have never bothered with Church life. Mum and Dad aren’t there, and well … there are other choices for a Sunday than that. You have picked and mixed your life your way. Or maybe for you tonight is a unusual night because sitting in a church building is something you haven’t done for a very, very long time.
Whatever our situation, realise that believing in God and belonging to his people cannot easily be separated. Personal belief and communal belonging, we need them both. God will both pick and mix.
Sometimes, like the shepherds whom God wanted to pick ‘n’ mix that first Christmas, we just need to admit we’re frightened. Many of us are blocked by unresolved memories of the past, unredeemed wishes for the future, and undedicated relationships in the present. Most of us, if we’re honest, are dreadfully afraid of what might happen to us if Christ took complete control of our lives.
But, you know, God does a really good job at things, if we let him. And to us this night the angels would say, as they said to the shepherds, “Fear not, behold I bring you good news of a great joy.”
I hope Christmas 2008 will go down in your history books for at least one thing.
No, not the special gift from a loved one, or even because of family or friends close-by who you haven’t seen for some time.
I hope that this Christmas will be special because you realise that no matter what might lie ahead, you will face the future with the same God who, years ago, picked ‘n’ mixed with great success. Now that would be a Christmas worth remembering!
“A Pick ‘n’ Mix Christmas”
Candle-light Service
24.12.08
Christmas 2008 will go down in the history books for at least one thing.
Oh, it might be historic for you personally because of a special gift from a loved one, or because of family or friends close- by who you haven’t seen for some time.
I hope it has some of those things in store for you in a few moments when the morning comes.
But that’s not why this Christmas is going to be noteworthy.
No, this year is special because it looks like being the last-ever Woolworths Christmas.
The Christmas tills closed for the last time only six hours ago in 800 Woolworth stores the length and breadth of the country.
And over the next two weeks they will gradually close for good.
And if you’re aged between – say 10 and 100, that’s quite a change because, to put it simply, for generations of people, Woolworths was simply a solid, stable, safe and reliable feature of life.
No-where had a smell quite like Woolworths.
As soon as you walked in the door there was a sugary scent of sweets and plastic, of pencils and rubbers, of clothes and plastic goods.
Yes, some of it was trashy.
But for a lot of people, good-old Woolies offered an affordable way to provide essential household items at an affordable price.
And few stores ever did Christmas as well as Woolworth’s.
Woolworth’s had Christmas lights of every size and shape and shade.
And tinsel and baubles.
And if your lights fused or a bulb blew, you didn’t buy a new set, you bought new bulbs.
And then there was Ladybird-clothing for children, there were big boxes selling LPs, which were replaced by revolving stands selling tape cassettes, which in turn were replaced by smaller stands selling CDs.
When “Top of the Pops” was the highlight of many a teenager’s Thursday night, Woolworths was the place for a Saturday afternoon.
But the thing about the demise of this nearly-100 year old tradition that almost everyone mentions is “Pick ‘n’ Mix”.
Woolies did “Pick ‘n’ Mix” like no other.
There were shrimps and bananas, coke bottles, fudge, jelly beans, white mice, chews and lollies.
How will we ever forget those colours, the smells, the weighing and the measuring and the chewing!
Tonight, for just a few moments, let’s consider that:
Our World is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” World
The fundamental strength behind pick-n-mix is the right to choose. Before pick-n-mix was invented, a person would walk into a sweet shop and buy a whole bag of the same kind of sweets. With pick-n-mix, people can buy the exact amount and type of sweets that they want and put them altogether in one bag by themselves. This then allows them to experience a multitude of taste sensations, in any order, and in any combination.
And right across life we love the freedom to do that, don’t we? Stores and supermarkets which offer choice will flourish and thrive. Those that don’t, won’t.
And human life seems to be happier when we have choices. We are told that, generally speaking, good exam results can bring more choices, good looks can open more doors and lots of money means we can buy more stuff. J.K. Rowling has said that: “It is our choices that show who we are, far more than our abilities”.
And that’s well and good, but the cynical world would tell us that if you had her ability to church out popular children’s books year after year, then your choices will be so much easier.
It’s too late now to fret about Christmas whether we bought just exactly the right little something for a special someone, but wouldn’t it be great if we could do whatever we wanted and choose anything? You know, a diamond ring here, a Range Rover Sport there. Why can’t I just pick ‘n’ mix what I want in life?
But then, didn’t we used to say the same about television? How boring it seemed to have only three TV Channels, then they grew to four, then five. Now there’s probably 145. And still we don’t feel contented. The trouble with this “pick ‘n’ mix” world sometimes is that it’s just all too much. We’re overwhelmed with our choices and we end up making really daft decisions. “Pick ‘n’ Mix” seems like a good idea until we actually do the picking and mixing. Then, it’s as if the whole of life is an excess of shrimps and bananas, coke bottles and fudge.
Well, strange as it might seem:
Our God is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” God
The story of the first Christmas sees God doing the picking and the mixing. In ways that no-one really expected, God – like a Hollywood director – picks a young girl, and then a husband-to-be. This night long ago he picked learned astrologers, and uneducated shepherds. He uses extra-terrestrial beings as well - angels and a star, he even involves none other than the mighty Roman Emperor to conduct a census, so that the key players are in the right place at the right time. God’s place at God’s time.
And God picks all these weird and varied people out of obscurity and mixes them into a story-line far more ingenuous and enriching than any mere human could ever contrive.
It was important that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem to fulfil prophecy, but how can you physically have a baby born in a place where its mother does not live? God had ways of picking his moment to do his work. Isn’t that one of the great mysteries of this night? That God is so much in control?
The Danish Philosopher Soren Kirkegaard once observed how “God behaves like the cook and the artist. He says: “Now for a pinch of spice, a little touch of red.”
Or, it’s as if God is the composer of a fantastic piece of music. And then he stands upon the podium as conductor.
He raises his baton in his hand. And he looks each one of us in the eye. And lovingly, tellingly, knowingly, he leads people. He leads some to be stronger in some parts of the symphony of life, others are to play a softer role.
We think we’re good at making choices, but God is the master of picking and mixing exactly what he wants. And this night, of all nights, that is something of immense beauty and meaning.
God’s Church is a “Pick ‘n’ Mix” Church
Oh, I don’t know how your Christmas will be. You could have the best Christmas ever. Or right now your life could be full of sorrows: the loss of a loved one, the fear of a New Year with uncertain health, maybe you are one of the 27,000 Woolworth employees who will be without work. These are difficult days.
When the baby Jesus grew up and began to preach and heal, he said to his first disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you …”
Now that is a powerful thing! ” Powerful because God can pick up your life and mix it in a life of power and purpose. Just as he picked and mixed stars and shepherds, Mary and the Magi, so tonight he wants you and me to be a part of his grand eternal plan.
So God brings together his people into the Church, which is not a building but a group of people of different ages and classes and talents and experiences. And God builds his church so that we will tell a new story to our generation in word and deed.
And so the immense beauty and meaning of the very first Christmas is actually available to you and me tonight. Maybe you’re a student living away from home and you have never bothered with Church life. Mum and Dad aren’t there, and well … there are other choices for a Sunday than that. You have picked and mixed your life your way. Or maybe for you tonight is a unusual night because sitting in a church building is something you haven’t done for a very, very long time.
Whatever our situation, realise that believing in God and belonging to his people cannot easily be separated. Personal belief and communal belonging, we need them both. God will both pick and mix.
Sometimes, like the shepherds whom God wanted to pick ‘n’ mix that first Christmas, we just need to admit we’re frightened. Many of us are blocked by unresolved memories of the past, unredeemed wishes for the future, and undedicated relationships in the present. Most of us, if we’re honest, are dreadfully afraid of what might happen to us if Christ took complete control of our lives.
But, you know, God does a really good job at things, if we let him. And to us this night the angels would say, as they said to the shepherds, “Fear not, behold I bring you good news of a great joy.”
I hope Christmas 2008 will go down in your history books for at least one thing.
No, not the special gift from a loved one, or even because of family or friends close-by who you haven’t seen for some time.
I hope that this Christmas will be special because you realise that no matter what might lie ahead, you will face the future with the same God who, years ago, picked ‘n’ mixed with great success. Now that would be a Christmas worth remembering!
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