We sang all the right songs and had we the time would have sung some more. We might even have sung about all our hopes and dreams being met in him tonight.
But are they?
Does a Play-station 3 count, or a new bike? How does the headache of trying to sit the whole family around your dining table fit with the birth of Jesus? Or what about paying the credit card bill in January?
And there are the hopes and dreams for a peaceful Christmas, for the end to injustice and poverty, solutions to the world’s biggest problems and answers to the bigger questions like how come the BBC didn’t see the problems with having only three couples left in the semi-final of Strictly Come Dancing?
What are the hopes and dreams that are met in Jesus Christ?
First there are the hopes and dreams of God’s great promises. You need to remember that in Israel the voice of God spoken through the prophets had not been heard for almost 400 years. Almost 800 years before Jesus was born, one of the prophets had spoken about the coming of one who would reconnect us with the God who loves us. He said a child would be born, that God would keep his promise, and now he has.
Second, there are the hopes of a new start. With the arrival of Jesus everything is about to change. As Jesus reaches 30 he begins preaching and teaching and changing lives. For three years he travels around Palestine touching lives, making the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the dead live. He shows people that even though they had grown up thinking that God had forgotten them, that he couldn’t possibly love them, that it simply wasn’t true. He inspired hope and faith in many.
Thirdly, there’s the hope that this can be true for us today. After three short years the authorities finally decided to do away with Jesus. You might be tempted to think that this meant the end of all he had done. But you’d be wrong.
After three days he came back to life, returned to the people he’d spent his time with and told them, “I still love you, now go and share this message, these opportunities for change with everyone you meet.
2000 years later lives are still changing, people are still discovering that no matter how little they might love themselves, God still loves them more than they can imagine.
You can discover that too. We have, I have.
The baby at the heart of our story offers you more hope than you can imagine. He offers you something far better, more precious than the latest toy or high-tech gadget. He offers you the unconditional love of God and the unlimited power of God to transform your life.
Now that’s a hope worth having.
