I was delighted to accept an invitation to speak to a group yesterday on the subject “How do Unitarians celebrate Christmas? ”

I mentioned that if you tend to emphasise the humanity of Jesus then celebrating his birthday presents no problems at all – birth being generally agreed to be a reasonably natural start to life.

Unitarians have always been conspicuously good at celebrating Christmas in fact; while a member of the Unitarian congregation at Little Portland Place Charles Dickens gave us some of the most resonant visions of Christmas in A Christmas Carol and the Unitarian E.H.Sears wrote one of the most popular carols ‘It came upon a midnight clear‘ which I ‘m looking forward to hearing tonight.

Both of them, like many other Unitarians, recognise the importance of human responsibility, human agency, agreeing perhaps with the great Unitarian theologian of the 19th century James Martineau that

“the incarnation is true not of Jesus exclusively but [hu]mankind universally, and God everlastingly”

More recently our most able liturgist Rev’d. Cliff Reed wrote “The birth of Jesus stands as a symbol of the divinity inherent in every human birth. It stands for the perennial rebirth of innocence and hope in every new child”

Last Sunday I read A. Powell Davies call to;

“Be open to the possibility of Christmas; open to the hope of Christmas: that sometime there shall be a world in which inhumanity is ended: a world of goodwill from which all cruelty is gone: a world in which the prophecies have found fulfillment, in which nations are at peace and hatred and strife are known no more.”…“

but this lovely passage reminded me of a much more radical call:

Be realistic demand the impossible!

Christmas is a celebration of miracle and wonder, not just polite happiness but wild joy – Peace on earth – Good will to All as the angels sang

Impossible of course – but thats the point isnt it? Can we dare to ‘be realistic and demand the impossible’

Because it is impossible, isnt it, to resurrect a dwindling congregation from the brink of disappearing and restore it to a flourishing purposeful community? Of course its impossible…

So we should be realistic and demand the impossible!

Its impossible to imagine that this could be a place of inspiration and spiritual sanctuary for all regardless of creed, race, religion sexuality or gender so we must be realistic and demand the impossible!

Impossible to imagine that we could all embrace the challenge of loving one another!

Really impossible. Totally impossible.

To set aside our disputes and ok, whilst always acknowledging our differences of opinion and approach, insist that they should be secondary to our primary commitment which is to love one another.

To love one another.

Impossible.

To recognise the incarnation of God in one another; to say ‘Happy Birthday’ to Love at Christmas.

Impossible.

But such is our challenge, that resurrection, that flourishing purposeful community, building together a community of Love.

So this Christmas, in this community and throughout the year, lets be realistic and demand the impossible!

Happy Christmas.