Listen! I bring you news of great joy!

People say that Christmas is for children -- yet, there are adults who believe that kids are naturally selfish and have to be taught to give, that kids will just grab good things for themselves without caring for others unless they are somehow disciplined into giving. But kids know better. Kids like to keep secrets and plan for special surprises and give. You young ones who are here, you have presents for other people, secrets for them until they unwrap the gifts later tonight or tomorrow morning, don't you? And you LIKE wrapping presents so that people have to guess what you chose for them, right?

|Even almost newborn babies know about giving presents. And babies don't know how to do very much, do they? When they are brand new, babies -- cry -- wiggle -- drink milk -- make their diapers wet -- sleep -- spit up -- wake up in the middle of the night -- make faces -- snuggle next to you -- And smileÉThat's one of the first things babies know to do. They can smile at people who hold them and talk to them and tickle them and love them. One of the very first things babies do is give presents of love in the smiles they offer to almost everyone. Then when babies get just a little bit older, they like to share what they have to eat. They will offer you a bite from their soggy cracker. Sometimes they will even try to push their presents -- maybe part of their peanut butter and jelly sandwich they already thoughtfully squished up together -- right into your mouth with their sticky fingers. One of the first games that little tiny kids play is "Give a Toy." They bring you their toys, and give them to you, then take them back. Of course they don't mean for you to keep the toys. They'd be really unhappy if you took off with their gifts. They do mean to share. This kind of sharing is how very little kids get acquainted with you and begin to make friends. For sure kids like to get presents! So do grownups! And most of us like to give, to show the people special to us how much we love them.

Loving to give presents and making presents special and mysteriously secret is one of the ways that we are like God. God loves to give presents. God started the very first giving, by creating the whole world, the universe and all the stars and snails and rivers and raindrops and planets and possums. God filled up all of creation with the breath of life. God made frogs jump and lightning flash and babies laugh with the energy of life. And God made us want to love and be loved. God loves human beings so much that God even created us with the freedom to choose whether or not we will love each other and God, too. It wouldn't be love, would it, if we just had to love: if we couldn't say I don't like when you do that! Sometimes I don't even LOVE you! One of the presents God gives all of us is freedom inside ourselves, in our own hearts and brains, freedom to think and act.

We don't see God give us most presents. We wake up every morning and there is a brand new day: a present from God! But God doesn't make us write a thank--you letter about our neat new day. Your mom takes you to soccer practice and your dad gives you a special kiss goodnight. In those ways, God surrounds you with lots of love. It's good to say Thanks and I love you, too to your mom and dad, but God doesn't get mad if you forget to say Thanks and I love you, too, to God -- even though it's a good thing to do, sometimes. God designed your mind to help you learn how to ride a bike and cook wienies at the beach. God helps you remember how to brush your teeth, and God gives you the grownups in your family to say Did you brush your teeth this morning? God fixes it so you don't have to think about breathing in and out, or tell your body how to digest the food you eat -- those things just happen, and they are presents from God.

God gives everyone a conscience. We can't see that gift from God, but we all know it's there. Your conscience is that little voice inside you that says when you are choosing between right and wrong. It's that part of you that gets uncomfortable when you feel mean and make other people unhappy because you are unhappy. It's the part of you that says Yes! That's right! Do that! when you decide to comfort someone who is sad, or give someone a turn to play, or congratulate someone when they win -- even if they win from you!

Some of our Bible stories tell how once in a while God talks to people and gives presents and people can see that they come directly from God. But God knew it was not enough to just speak to special people, just to give presents to special people. All God's people, every one of us that God has created, is special to God. So God found a way to become a present for all of us, to be with us to love us always. God knows that we know more about being human beings than anything else, probably because we are human beings. So God decided to come into the world as a human being, just like you and me. When God gave self as a present, he didn't act like almighty God who creates and keeps the whole universe going. God chose to become a baby, because babies can't make people be good, can't force people to want to love. That baby Jesus slept and cried and spit up and waked up his mom and dad at night just as all babies do. He couldn't make things happen, but he could and did show us that God loves us and how God wants us to love each other.

When Jesus grew up, he taught people about God. He told stories that help us remember what God wants. He helped people who were sick, people who were hungry, people who were lonesome and frightened and angry. He showed us how we can do all these things just as well as he did. He showed us, that we can be like him -- as he chose to be like us. Jesus knew that we need ways to remember how much God loves us. We need some way to remember that God became like us.

We need some way to know that we are made like God, and that we can act with as much love as God has. Christmas is one good way to help us remember. But we need lots of reminding (just as you and I need reminding about other things, too.) We need help in remembering more than once a year at Christmas. So Jesus gave us a way we can remember every day at home, and every time we come to church. He told us, every time you eat bread (or tortillas, or muffins, or pancakes, or sandwiches) that we can remember God's gift of coming to be with us and like us. He told us to remember, every time we drink wine -- or juice, or water -- to remember that we share life with God. Tonight, and nearly every time we come to church, we share wine and bread. We call that bread the Body of Jesus Christ. We call the wine the Blood of Jesus. When we eat that bread and take a little drink of the wine, it is God giving self to us all over again. When you eat anything, it becomes a part of you. When we eat the bread and wine in church, God comes into our own bodies, and becomes part of each of us, and we become a little more and a little more like God, just as God always has created us and hoped we will want to become.

Then you and I and everyone who has received a part of God at the party we call Communion get to go out and show other people how much God loves them. There are as many ways to show people that God loves them as there are people to act for God. Some people think they don't have anything special for God to use. A few people think that kids don't know how to act for God, how to love. But everyone has some way to be like God, something to give back to God, something to do for God. There's a poem written by Christina Rossetti that helps us remember that everyone has something special, something that no one else can give. Its last verse goes something like this:

What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring him a lamb.
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part! Yet what can I give him? I'll give God my heart.
Let's you and me remember, this Christmas, that God gives us all kinds of presents. And let's give God our hearts, and hands, and words, and actions, and do our part to give away God's gifts of love everywhere to everyone. AMEN