Even though we have only one church in Pomonal, badged by the Uniting Church as belonging to us, (and I am a Uniting Church minister), you’re probably aware that there are many flavours and colours of Christianity. Even in Pomonal Community Church we have Church of Christ, Anglican, Pentecostal (Hillsong), Roman Catholic, and Baptist flavoured people, past and present, amongst the Unitings of previous Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist colouring. Why am I telling you this? Because the flavours and colours of the diverse types of Christians in the local and global Church bring different perspectives to how we see Jesus, the God of all of us, and the one we all gather around in worship and fellowship. It can depend upon your colour and flavour what you want to highlight in faith; for some Christians this means Christmas is their most important season of the year, or day on the calendar. Other Christians find deeper meaning in Easter, or Pentecost, or they love all Sundays equally and don’t go in for the special occasions as much as they prefer the everyday, lowkey faith of week-by-week. I value all of these colours and flavours, as a Pastor I need to support and love everyone, but when I get to pick just for Damien, Damien likes Christmas. The Christianese words I want to share with you this evening, and there’s only two and they come with definitions, are “tabernacled” and “incarnation”. They have similar meanings as they relate to what Christians believe about Christmas. In simple terms, and why complicate things, “tabernacled” means “pitched his tent in our camp”. In John 1:14 the versions of the Bible we most often use at Pomonal say that God…came and lived among us. The Christmas story in John doesn’t have angels or shepherds, or wise men, or donkeys, it doesn’t even have a baby. John’s story is about light piercing darkness, and God coming to earth to live among humankind; to pitch a tent and choose to stay. God tabernacles to use our jargon word, which religious people also connect with Jewish stories about God and Moses in the wilderness after the Exodus. A tabernacle is both a tent (with poles and ropes), and a temple (a place to gather for worship); so, the tabernacle is God’s tent in our camp. John says that’s one way of reading Christmas. The other word I mentioned is incarnation, which has nothing to do with cars or flowers, but with carne in the sense of flesh. God, who is spirit, came to earth and “was incarnate of the Virgin Mary” as our creeds go; literally Jesus was born with flesh. The central truth of Christianity is that God became a human, a boy and then a man, and lived as an actual person for thirty years or so. Incarnate, not only does God pitch a tent in our campsite but Jesus turns up with meat for the barbeque. Maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but I hope I’ve made the point, I like Christmas because Christmas is about tabernacling and incarnation; God choosing to come to where we are and being with us as we be ourselves. John also writes about light in the darkness, and we need some of that here. In November I was asked to bless a new house in Pomonal, a replacement for one burned down in February last year. I prayed that God would bless that new house, a new home, different to the last one but on the same site. I asked God to make it a place of healing after so much hurt, and peace after so much pain. Christmas is about hope because Christ is about hope; light in the darkness, God living and staying amongst us in the middle of…this…and not some sort of FIFO agent who goes home for a shower and comes back clean while the rest of us live in soot. In all of the colours and flavours of Pomonal this year and last, the Christians are some but not all of them. Whatever colour you are and whatever flavour, different to me or not, sooty, sweet, sour, sandy, or savoury Christmas means that you are seen, you are welcomed, you are invited, and you don’t have to be alone. There’s enough chocolate for everyone; because you are God’s favourites.