There are ministers who assure me that by the end of the first week in December, their Christmas Day sermon is written, edited and printed.  It's an impressive claim, but one that never intimidates me... how can they know, I always wonder, what to say four weeks hence?  Sometimes, for me, it's more about a 'mood' than a 'message', more about finding a framework than what the sermon sounds like.

This year, my talk is shorter than the intercessions that will follow it, and that feels somehow right.  It could yet be wrong... some great globally or locally significant occurrence could mean a last minute re-write (though that more often seems to happen at Easter) and I am open to that eventuality.

But for now, the printing is done, the Christingle playlist is prepared, the table is buried under props, and I am daring to draw a quick breath before it all rushes past in the blink of an eye!