We three Kings of Orient are,
bearing gifts we travel afar,
field and fountain,
moor and mountain,
following yonder star...

What can I bring him, poor as I am,
if I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part,
yet what I can, I bring him, bring my…

and a sword shall pierce your own soul too…

bring my heart.

This is the last time you can come and have a look at the Crib for this year. Come and have a look. Come and see the shepherds and the wise men, come and see the baby in the manger. Come on, come and have a look at Christmas. Shall we kneel at the baby Jesus? Kneel in wonder at the baby in the manger?

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head,
the stars in the bright sky look down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

See today, we can have one last look at Christmas. One last think about the presents and the tree and the cards and all the things that Christmas means. Today Christmas comes to an end. We’ve been celebrating Christmas for 40 days or thereabouts and today, it comes to an end. I wonder what the people thought as it all came to an end. I wonder what they were thinking about.

What I would like you to do now, we need 17 people to help with this, is to take away very, very carefully and very, very slowly, I’d like 3 of you to pick up the three Kings. Hold them up high and very, very slowly walk down the.

I wonder what the Kings were thinking as they left, remembering the star perhaps that guided them, perhaps they were remembering as well their visit to Herod and the Palace. Perhaps they went home thinking “gosh, I wonder if we should have visited Herod? I hope everything is going to be alright. I hope we are not going to be responsible for some terrible, terrible event. I don’t know if I could bear that kind of responsibility.”

What about the shepherds? I wonder what the shepherds thought as they went back to their fields. Perhaps they were thinking “this has changed my life. The Angels in the sky singing Glory to God, go and see the baby in the manger now, go and see the baby. It’s changed my life forever but here I am back on the hillside being a shepherd still, changed everything but changed nothing.”

Then the animals. The camel, the donkey, the sheep and the cows for whom this was just their home, where they snuffled and snuggled and scrunched and did all the things that animals normally do, what were they thinking? Absolutely nothing, they are just animals.

Then Joseph? As Joseph left what was he left thinking? “That Mary I fell in love with, she seemed such an ordinary person and then the Angel visits me telling me not to worry, the journey to Bethlehem and now here in Jerusalem in the temple, these words of prophesy saying that things were going to get difficult, it’s all very strange but this is my wife, this is the baby I must look after, I must stay the course, even if she isn’t quite the girl I imagined she was going to be when I first fell in love with her.”

Now Jesus, 40 days old. That’s even 6 weeks old. Smiling by now yes. Smiling at the people he recognises, Mary and Joseph. Sleeping through the night, probably not! Doing those things that little babies do, sleeping during the day and screaming when they are not asleep. Most things being ok until he is taken too far away from his next meal by someone he doesn’t recognise, and then it’s just screaming. Not because there is anything wrong, but because he is just 40 days old and that is what babies do when they are 40 days old.

Mary, still sore, sore from the travelling, sore from the breast feeding, sore from giving birth. Too young to have a baby, too young to know what it is to be a mother. But now she is a mother, she can’t imagine anything else. Every time she is feeding her little baby she just gets that overwhelming sense of love, she can’t imagine the world any other way. She can’t imagine anything more loving or more lovable. Today, she goes with Joseph and the baby to the temple and as they walk in there is this man, this old, old man and an old, old woman who seem to leap with excitement when they see Mary and Joseph and Jesus. And this man called Simeon tells a story about Jesus, that he is going to be the light of the world, that many people are going to think he is a wonderful thing, some people are going to think he is not such a good thing after all. Then he looks straight at Mary in words that pierce her heart like a branding iron “and a sword will pierce your own soul too”.

Today is the day when we have a last look back at Christmas and then turn and think more about the end of Jesus’ life and what that means for us.

My song is love unknown,
my Saviours love for me,
love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be,
oh who am I,
that for my sake,
my Lord should take frail flesh and die.