Susie and I were in Edinburgh for the weekend of Advent Sunday. Much excitement because a friend got me a ticket for the match at Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon - Scotland versus Argentina. I walked in from Corstorphine savoring the build-up. Murrayfield has been impressively re-built since I was last there, with new seats replacing the old terraces. The ‘souvenir program’ was £5.00, which is more than it used to be. And there was a great show before the kick-off with pipe bands and fireworks.

Unfortunately it wasn’t much of a game. Scotland promised much, but lost 9-6 to a late drop goal. More to the point our seats were in Row WW at the very top of the steeply raked South Stand. The players looked tiny, and you don’t get the advantage of television close-ups and instant replays. At that distance it is difficult to feel involved.

For many people Christmas is like that. Its very expensive and there’s a lot of hype and advance publicity. But when the day comes it somehow passes us by, and afterwards we can wonder what the excitement was all about.

Eugene Peterson has taught us that we enjoy stories because we seek to place ourselves in them. Where then do I situate myself in the Christmas story? With whom do I identify? With Mary and Joseph, a young couple far from home and expecting a baby? With the inn-keeper, wanting perhaps to show charity at Christmas but aware of his lack of resources? With the shepherds sleeping rough?

Theologically untrained, but dimly aware that God was doing extraordinary things in a village not far from them? The travelers from the East, setting out on a journey to a destination as yet unknown? The chief priests and teachers of the law in Jerusalem? Who knew that the Messiah would be born at Bethlehem, but who never dreamed of going to look for themselves.

This is the story that we shall be celebrating again this Christmas. The Lyon Anglican Church annual service of Readings and Carols will be at 10.30am in the chapel on Place Docteurs Mérieux, just across the square from the Halle Tony Garnier. You are warmly invited to join us, and to stay afterwards for a glass of mulled wine and a mince-pie.

And I pray that the joy of the angels, the wonder of the shepherds, and the peace of the Christ-child, may fill your hearts this Christmas.