There are some stories we love to hear over and over and over.
Children want to hear the same bedtime stories.
Ford reads the Eragon series of books all the way through, and then starts over.
Walker does the same with Percy Jackson.
I’ve watched the whole West Wing TV series maybe 15 times so far? And I’ve started again…
What are your favorite stories?
There are also some stories we love to tell over and over and over.
Couples tell the story of meeting and falling in love.
Parents tell the story of their child’s birth.
Children tell the story of…well children tell nearly every story over and over and over…
Tonight we gather to tell and hear again the Christmas story.
These stories never, ever, get old.
It doesn’t matter that we know the story by heart. Even when we know all the characters and can quote their conversations, even when we know what happens and how the story ends, some stories are worth hearing again.
Some stories need to be heard again.
It’s not because we think the story has changed or might end differently. It’s because our story is always changing, and maybe, just maybe, we can hear something new each time we hear these old stories.
Every one of us has come here tonight with a particular story.
Sometimes our story includes smiles and celebrations. Other times our story includes tears and grieving.
There are a thousand stories we bring with us tonight.
And so we’ve come to hear the same old story again.
We want to be told what we already know.
We want to be reminded of what we have forgotten.
We have come this night to hear and know again that God was born as a human baby, through a human mother.
God is not up there or out there.
God is here.
God is with us.
Regardless of who we are, regardless of what we’ve done, and regardless of what we’ve been through or going through, God is with us.
The Good News of the Incarnation, the great joy of Christmas, is that God is with us, period.
God is with us in the fear.
God is with us in the darkness.
God is with us in the lonely places.
God is with us in our love for one another.
God is with us in the celebrations.
God is with us in the joy.
God is with us.
Merry Christmas!