I think this is the time for you to take leave of your senses.

In the middle of the everyday, the cut and dried, whatever you are doing right now — don't you yearn for something marvellous?

That's what happened that first Christmas season. Someone took leave of her senses:

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild
Had Mary been filled with reason
There'd have been no room for the child.

But Mary said Yes. Jesus was born. The world has never been the same. No sense at all.

What about you? Are ready to take leave of your senses and say Yes to God? When the holy madness of the season steals upon you — will you make room for the child?

It makes no sense at all. But when your saviour is born — it makes all the sense in the world.

Prayer: Loving God, more grand than we can know, more humble than we dare believe, give us holy leave of our senses this day not for foolishness but for faith. Help us know the moment in these coming hours when all is possible, all is here to make your love real — in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

My mother used to catch hold of me before I went out on a date, or to a party, or before I went off to start something new. "Michael, now you remember who you are." I think you know what she meant. There was little danger that I would forget my name or address. There were dangers in those years that I might forget the values I was given, the commitments I had made. There was a chance I might answer to some name other than my own. There was some possibility I could forget what was really important. So, "Michael, remember who you are."

Do you remember who you are? What really matters? What really counts? We all forget sometimes. Sad, isn't it, not to know who we really are.

But there's news for when we forget.

Even when you forget — God remembers who you are.

Prayer: Gracious God, thank you that you know us better than we do ourselves. You see our deceptions and our little games. You see even more. You see who we really are and you see the promise of what we are called to be. And O God, in your grace, let us never forget it. Amen.

What is the resemblance in God's family? How can people have a family resemblance when they come from all over the world?

We certainly don't look the same.

The Bible says: Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him… (1 John 3:2)

But that's not heredity, that's Christianity.

Prayer: Gracious God: This is yet another day to grow up, to become something more than we are. Help us to see the goal, that we all will grow into the full measure of Christ and that at our end, we will see the great family from which we have come and into which we grow to the endless praise of God. Amen.

Ever get the idea that church doesn't matter much?

"I go to church," you say. "That's nice" is the answer. Nice, as if you confessed a passion for rhododendrons or let on you spent Sundays breeding Irish setters.

Not "nice", says the apostle Paul: You are the body of Christ.

Church is very different from cutting flowers or breeding dogs. You are nothing less than the body of Christ.

There is a wonderful poem by Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours;

yours are the only hands with which he can do his work,
yours are the only feet with which he can go about the world,
yours are the only eyes through which his compassion can shine forth upon a troubled world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Prayer: Gracious God: Help us this day to get our hands dirty and muscles sore. Give us aching feet and bloodshot eyes. Let us end our waking hours this day with just one more thing — the knowledge that all this has been for your work in the world. Amen.

Do you know what I heard on the radio last week? An ad for a local funeral chapel, totally serious and in painfully good taste.

"When your loved one dies, come and see us about our new Grief Management Program."

Grief Management?

Someone you really loves dies, and all the world can offer is Grief Management? Give me a break! What belongs to Christians is as far from Grief Management as a diamond is from a charcoal briquette.

It's the dead raised to life, not the floral arrangement for our last public appearance. Newness of life, not a tastefully printed obituary.

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though they die, yet shall they live." John 11:25

Unless anyone still wants to sign up for Grief Management …

Prayer: Dear God, we all know that we will die someday but we'd rather not speak of it now. Help us with the little deaths that will meet us today, to know them, face them, accept them and find in them the life you offer out of them. In other words, O Lord, help us through these deaths to find the life you offer, and we still receive, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

You know this, I think:

Share everything,
play fair,
don't hurt people,
put things back where you found them,
and clean up your own mess.

You already knew that, didn't you? A few hundred million people went to kindergarten but only one man wrote the book on it.

Sometimes we need someone to uncomplicate the Truth for us. What really matters is so very simple.

Just as the prophet Micah says: "God has shown you what is good."

Don't try to complicate it. It's as simple as one, two, three.

Are you ready?

Do Justice.
Love Mercy,
Walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6)

Prayer: Gracious God, we look high up when we should see what is near the ground. We search far away for what is close by our side. Thank you there are some simple times when your will is clear. Help us not to make your will harder than it is, or more complicated than you intend. Give us the strength to do, not to argue, to believe, not to ask for a second opinion. Remind us through this day what we have known for years: your way is gracious, good and true, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have you thought about what you want to leave behind? Spiritually, I mean.

When I was little, we used to go to the family cottage in winter and we had to walk in all the way from the main road. The snow was up above my waist and I could not walk. I was too small. So my father would go ahead and make the steps. I walked in his path. It wasn't easy but I could do it. My father is gone now and I walk ahead and others follow.

We began to walk in the path that others first made, now it is our turn to do the same. So if there is to be any spiritual legacy to your living and mine, it is that there shall be a well-worn trail leading to the kingdom of heaven.

So it really does matter what you do today — and that you get up and start to walk. Others will follow.

Prayer: So many years ago, before we can even remember, you began your work in us. What human hands led us in those steps, what faces we know better than our own, smiled upon us the first recognition of your grace? These were your people, O Lord, who have gone before. Thank you.

Give me today a way to go so that at this day's end there may be a worthy trail to follow for all who will share this prayer tomorrow. Amen.