Real love

from Helen

May I speak in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.AMEN

This morning I want to begin by explaining that we are all just like penguins and tigers. Please don’t try and work this out by yourselves!!

In the build up to today there have been many adverts on the television and many discussions about dreams and hopes. As ever people have been asked if they were hoping for a white Christmas, what would they really like for Christmas, who they would like to spend Christmas with and what they may like to eat.

One advert that stuck out for me this year was the John Lewis advert. In the advert there is a little boy whose toy penguin has come to life. This penguin is constantly with the little boy, they go everywhere together and the little boy even feeds the penguin some of his breakfast! Life is fun for both of them but then …. One day the little boy notices that every time the penguin sees a couple on the TV or walking along by him he gets sad. 

The penguin is missing something and in the background the music playing talks about real love and what it is. Then onChristmas morning the little boy wakes the penguin up really early and takes him downstairs where there is a female penguin waiting. The two penguins are really happy and then the penguins turn back into toys. 

Real love for the penguin was in being with someone like him, another penguin. For the penguin and the little boy they were happy but the penguin needed another just like him another penguin! It is a bit like us really, we can be happy but realise that something is missing and that something is someone just like us, or rather someone who can show us what it is to love. 

The advert ends with the words, ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of.’ 

We will all have had dreams for Christmas – thoughts of how we would like to celebrate the day and the people we would like to still be able to celebrate with. The problem with dreams is that they will not complete all that we need, we can still be missing something. 

Now I don’t want to get you down, after all I have told you that you are all like penguins – I am already on dodgy ground but we all need something else, someone like us. We can never be happy all the time but we can always know the true joy of Jesus who became one of us, who felt the same emotions that we feel. In the reading from the gospel of John(1:1-14) we heard of Jesus – the word which means our everything, our reason, our life who wasn’t just present at creation with God but actually was and is God. The word who came and lived amongst us. Like the penguin who needed to feel real love by sharing life with another penguin so Jesus came amongst us so that we could know real love. Jesus is the light in the darkness, that means that Jesus is always there shining for us and helping us, we are part of His family when we accept Him and when we do this we can know real love. 

There is another advert which you won’t have seen on the TV about a little boy and a full size tiger. This tiger much like the penguin goes everywhere with the little boy, they play together they have lots of fun and they share breakfast together. But the little boy notices the tiger crying when he sees people who are in love together, he feels something is missing. Then at Christmas the little boy wakes up the tiger who has fallen asleep and takes him to Church. 

When they get to Church the little boy is amazed by an incredible light and he starts walking towards the light. As he does this he drops the tiger who has turned back into a toy on the floor. There is another tiger there so the two tigers much like the penguins enjoy each other’s company and love. The little boy looks at the light and it is a cross lit up. The little boy looking at the light sees what real love is, God who would come amongst us as a child and then as an adult die for us is there for us all. 

The advert ends with the words, ‘ Give someone more than they have been dreaming of this Christmas – Christ.’

This is real love. We are hopefully not likely to be thrown on the floor like the tiger but like the tiger and the penguin we are missing something. The something we all need is Jesus who became like us, who loves us all, who’s so great that all we can do is stand in awe of Him just like the little boy who realised that he needed Jesus.

Happy Christmas everyone and may we always remember that God who came amongst us, who was one of us, just like us is love, He is real love and all he wants us to do is to come to Him. AMEN