Christmas Eve is a strange time to be preaching. Not that it's inappropriate, but so many of one's usual assumptions don't work that night. The church is usually full -- thanks be to God! -- but it's full of strangers. The "C & E" people appear, all the folks visiting from hither and yon, and a number of the just plain curious. Add to that the fact that many of the regular complement are away, and you have a totally new congregation.

Of all the days in the church year, this one comes closest to the old reality of Christendom. The gulf between church and society is at its narrowest point. Christmas has a great deal of sentimentality about it, and I believe that many people come to Christmas Eve & Day services out of that sentiment -- it's "what you do" on Christmas, as one person told me last year. Their family doesn't attend worship any other time, but always finds a church to visit on Christmas Eve.

So: should I as the preacher scorn these people who come for what I may see as inadequate reasons? Of course not. I firmly believe that everyone who walks throught the church's door to worship is led by the Holy Spirit. We are called to cooperate with the Spirit, and to show our visitors that they are welcome in the name of Christ. And we need to proclaim to them the deep truth of Christmas.

Christmas is about the Incarnation -- the Word made flesh. In the words of Bishop Frank Griswold, "Incarnation is God's shocking insistence that flesh and blood like ours be the medium of God's word." (Christmas message 2005, full text here).

It's all very well to coo at a newborn baby, but the Incarnation demands that we go beyond -- to participate in the sanctification of the world in our flesh. We need to change the baby's diapers! The challenge, then, to the preacher, is to move people beyond the manger to the "down and dirty" of the world.

And we must always remember that the nativity story, beautiful and beloved as it may be, is just the beginning...