School Christmas Service 2014

Rev. Elspeth recounted the following story during the School Christmas service. As the story was read out appropriately named sweets were thrown into the audience when certain words were mentioned…. read the script below you’ll get the picture!  Needless to say the children were delighted!

Rev. Elspeth recounting the Christmas sweet story.

Rev. Elspeth recounting the Christmas sweet story

Church

The children reaching for the sweets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“When I was on the mainland last week, I went shopping in a large supermarket. I was amazed at all the different sweets and biscuits on sale. And it struck me that perhaps the sweets could help me tell the story of Christmas. As I tell the story, of you hear the name of a chocolate bar, sweet or biscuit, shout ‘Christmas’ and wait and see what happens. But you’ll have to be quiet in between or you might miss the name of the next sweet.

It all began with a girl called Mary who heard a WISPA, from an angel who told her that she would give birth to God’s son. But how could this be? She was not yet married to Joseph. To have a baby now would be real what everyone in the village talked about. But in another heavenly WISPA, Joseph also heard of God’s plan and decided he had to go along with it.

But before the baby arrived, political events overtook them. Joseph had to return to Bethlehem for the census – it was miles away – a very long journey, but Joseph thought the BREAK-A-WAY would do Mary good. They had to travel on foot or a donkey simply because in those days they couldn’t get an AEROplane or a DOUBLE DECKER bus. When they arrived, Joseph tried to find lodgings, but they didn’t have any luck. “No room”, they all said. Eventually they were offered a small stable – it was there that the baby was born. He was named Jesus, which means Saviour.

That night, some shepherds were watching their flocks under the night sky. Angels sang “Glory to God in the Highest”. The shepherds decided to “take a break” (KIT- KAT) from looking after the sheep and said to one another, “let’s go and see what’s happening in Bethlehem”. When they got there they found Joseph, Mary and Jesus, who was lying in a manger of all places –and they thought that this child was special. Could this be just as the prophets had foretold – was he the LION of Judah? But it was getting late, AFTER EIGHT, in fact – so the shepherds returned to the hills – with DELIGHT in their hearts and singing praise to God as they went.

Meanwhile in a far country, there were some Wise men – many people called them SMARTIES – who were busily scanning the GALAXYs when they saw a new light in the MILKY WAY. Could it be MARS? No, it was a special STAR – signalling the birth of a King. They knew they had to follow the star so they did up their BUTTONS and climbed on their “CARAMELS“. This happened as the snow began falling in small FLAKES settled on the ground which became so CRUNCHIE that children couldn’t even make SNOWBALLS. They went to Herod’s Palace – not afraid to HOBNOB with royalty – to see if Herod knew about this royal birth. Herod was very interested – “A King has been born?” he mused, but deep down he could hardly conceal his SNICKERS. He didn’t really believe the Wise men and thought theM ALL TEASERS, but he decided to FUDGE the issue by saying that he wanted to go and worship the baby as well – and told the wise men to report to him on their way back. The wise men set off and eventually found the young Jesus and they offered him their BOUNTY – Gold, Frankincense, and some Myrrh. Then God warned them in a dream that Herod was up to his TWIX and really wanted to kill the child. So they headed home over the hills by a different route.

Now that’s just a short version of the real story of Christmas. Some people don’t believe it, but according to the Bible, Jesus was born so that ALLSORTS of people might come to know God’s love for them. Like the shepherds and the Wise men, many people are looking for meaning and purpose – they don’t want to simply be a DRIFTER any more. Now the Jesus of the Nativity is no MINATURE HERO and because He is who He is, then the Christmas Story really is a cause for CELEBRATIONS!”