We've been thinking on things unseen about the challenge at Christmastime, the challenge

to keep Jesus himself at the heart of things.

And I know that kind of talk can sometimes devolve into a sense of duty, responsibility, and perhaps

even a burden. It's always struck me as a paradox that the very season when the church celebrates

the one whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light is actually a season in which many Christians

feel an excessive sense of burden.

One of the reasons for that is the false expectations we are encouraged to have.

Here's one example, although I hope I'm not going to spoil your Christmas Eve services

by mentioning it.

These services often begin with the words of Luke chapter 2 verse 15, usually in the King James Version.

Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the

Lord hath made known unto us.

I have to confess, I've given up trying to get to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve because you can't get there.

I think I know what people are trying to say when they use this verse.

But I wonder if the great hymn writer Horatius Bonner had the same experience.

He wrote a little hymn about looking for Christ in which he says, we went to Bethlehem, but Christ wasn't there.

That is to say, I can't generate this new affection I need by making an imaginary geographical journey to where Jesus was born.

So maybe we need to think in a different way about our struggles

to feel Christmas. After all, there were certain elements in the first Christmas that don't

feel very Christmassy. A long journey away from home for a young woman expecting a child

when she was still in her teens.

No Holiday Inn, no Hampton Inn, never mind the Ritz for Joseph and Mary. Going round

...