Throughout my childhood Christmas was a magical time of year. Early in December I would start in on my parents about when I could put up the Christmas tree- a task in which I delighted. As the gifts came in I would count them every evening and arrange them in piles according to the recipient. As children, my sister and I we were allowed to open one gift before Christmas but the rest on Christmas morning. As we grew older we opened them after midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

I can remember vividly resisting the knowledge that Santa Claus was not as he had been portrayed to me as a small child- so intense was my desire to hold onto the magic of the season. My sister, four years older than I, took a certain delight in my consternation when she told me that Santa wasn't real. I also remember how special the Christmas Eucharist was at my St John`s Church, were I was raised in the faith. And in particular I remember the year when my confirmation class was allowed to buy two tall trees, on for each side of the altar.

I find that what is important to me at Christmas has changed considerably over the years.

Some 50 years after these happy childhood memories I find that what I want for Christmas has got more to do with who is around the tree than what is under it. In fact, the whole gift giving and receiving thing I find somewhat annoying at best and downright tedious at worst.

Festivals of whatever kind raise expectations. Whether the celebration be religious or secular they are intended to remind us of ideals we share - or at least want to share or are expected to share- and to draw us into a personal and collective commitment to them. For many the festival of Christmas, because it is one intensely focussed on both faith and family, is a festival which evokes strong feelings.

Sometimes these feelings are unpleasant ones- possibly even painful. At Christmas more than any other time we grieve the loss of what we once had- the love of a departed spouse, the memories of a time before a broken relationship, a child alienated or deceased, a life spoiled by acrimony, self-indulgence, or failure. Grief, whether it be that caused by death or the loss of a relationship in some other way is very often grief for our own lost expectations. And we often feel this loss more intensely at Christmas than at any other time. The term "Blue Christmas" has been appropriately coined to describe this less than joyous Christmas experience.

Possibly persons who experience Christmas in this way feel more deeply something of what I have described as my own personal experience: the deep need for fulfilment.

I speak of a fulfilment that is deeper than gifts and parties, deeper than most of our relationships and activities. It is a deep hunger of the soul for things hoped for, dreamt of, strived for, but not achieved.

The fulfilment we seek may be of a purely personal nature or it may have to do with our hope for world of peace, justice, and prosperity- or both. Sometimes we may not even be clear what kind of fulfilment we seek.

In some ways Christmas gets harder when you get older:

The life we want isn't always there
The people we want aren't always there
The person we want to be isn't always there

What we want for Christmas is a whole range of things that you just can't go out and buy: recognition from colleagues at work, love and support from family and friends, deliverance from the wearyingly endless violence and cruelty of all that goes on in the world.

When God sent his Son to be born in Bethlehem God, God was addressing these deep desires for fulfilment. God came to be one of us so that we can see that the things that are real in the nature of God can be real in each human being and in the world.

In Jesus he made a path for us -a highway in the desert- beyond ourselves to the very heart of God. In Jesus he says to each of us "The fulfilled humanity that you see in this Jesus is a fulfilled humanity which I freely offer to each of you." The letter to Titus from which we read this morning says this well, "This Spirit (of fulfilment)he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, so that, having been justified by grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ( Titus 3:6)

Some of you will already know this fulfilment at Christmas and that is the worship you bring here this morning. Some of you may still be in your season of discontent. It may be time to let go of Christmases past that no longer fulfil and lay hold on the one which sustains life and builds hope.

That is the Christmas of which the heavenly host sang,

"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favours." (Luke 2:14)

(with acknowledgement to a sermon by Father Jones as found in the sermon resource www.fatherjones.com from Anglicans On Line)