Christmas Celebration - following the footsteps

Christmas, at least in Panto land, is a time for making wishes.

What wish would you make?

I would be tempted to wish that all will be well.

When it comes to wishes, there's no pleasing some people.

How long have we been dreaming of a white Christmas … and when it comes! Beautiful to look at, but the problems it has caused! There comes the point at which you wish you could wake up and it was all gone.

So many people think of religion in exactly the same way. It's all about making a wish. And the wish it's so tempting to make is that all will be well. and all the world's woes will be no more.

Wake up and everything will be better.

That's so close to the wonderful message that that comes through at Christmas that it can entice and sadly, mislead.

After all, Jesus came to make a difference – but look around in the world and ask what difference has he made?

Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled.

Not much evidence of reconciliation going on.

Particularly troubling what has been happening to some of the most ancient of Christians this Christmas. CHIKS in Kerala State is a part of fhe world wehre there ancient churches of orthodox descent – that trace their ancestry to Thomas and his travels. Coptic Christians speaking the language of Christ – and one of the most ancient Christian parts of the world – in Iraq. And yet such devastation – devastation of Christian communities there and in the middle east.

If God came in Christ to set everything right … I wonder.

The faith I hold on to is different from that.

It has nothing to do with making wishes.

We have been using footprints to follow the journey Mary and Jospeh, Shepherds and Wise Men made to the stable – following in their footsteps.

Today we think of the footsteps Jesus left

He came to walk the road we have to walk … the path he trod was the path we tread, the road he followed the road we must follow. It may be a path way of joy – great joy. It may be a path way of great pain.


The Christmas message is the Christ walks the path we follow – he is with us in the joys and he is with us in the pain.

Then he offers us a way of life to follow, footsteps for us to plant our own footsteps in – as we are called to follow him.

From the squalor of a borrowed stable – someone has written new words which we have sung already – but I went back to the original words of Graham Kendrick and they spoke to me afresh …

King of heaven now the Friend of sinners,
Humble servant in the Father's hands,
Filled with power and the Holy Spirit,
Filled with mercy for the broken man
Yes he walked my road, and He felt my pain,
Joys and sorrows that I know so well;
Yet His righteous steps, give me hope again
-I will follow my Immanuel!

His righteous steps, give me hope again – I will follow my Immanuel.

That word – Immanuel God with us.

The message is not that everything will be well.

But rather in the mess of the world, Christ opens up for us a God who walks with us wherever the road may lead, - that presence with us, his righteous steps give us hope again.

That then means we have steps we can follow – I will follow the God who in Christ is the God who is with us always come what may. He is the God who calls us to love our neighbours, to love our enemies, to be peace-makers with a ministry of reconciliation and so actively make a difference in the mess of the world.

That’s the good news of Christmas.

Yes he walked my road, and He felt my pain,
Joys and sorrows that I know so well;
Yet His righteous steps, give me hope again
-I will follow my Immanuel!