I am told there are some very good arguments for this gravity-defying position. For those who dwell in small, cramped urban
apartments it is a space-saving technique. It is also an excellent way of showing off ornaments as they hang freely and do not
get buried among the needles. And, for the modern consumer-driven family, there is this bonus: there is so much more room
under the tree for presents.

Hammacher Schlemmer’s catalogue version of the upside down Christmas tree, goes for a little under a $1000 and it boasts
3,700 lifelike PVC branch tips that are carefully pre-strung with 800 bright clear commercial-grade lights. But I digress.

I don’t know what the original purpose was for hanging Christmas trees upside down, but I do think it offers a striking symbol
of the story we will tell tonight: a story of radical reversals and inversions.

Listen carefully tonight to the story as told in lessons, carols and anthems. Listen, and you will be carried into an upside-down
world where God comes to earth as gravity-bound and dependant as an infant … where death is turned inside-out and comes
out as resurrection … a world where the meek inherit the earth, and where strength is exercised through forgiveness, not with
armies or brute force.

Listen and you will hear tell of the most un-regal of kings and the poorest of princes. The One whom God sends to earth on
Christmas Day defies all our expectations. It is as if he took our social stratifications – our cherished differences and
distinctions between rich and poor, illiterate and educated, citizen and immigrant, straight and gay – and hung them
upside-down in order to make room for all in this delightfully inverted realm.


And, in this season of darkness – a season in which many feel acutely the loss of loved ones, the crisis of illness, and a
profound sadness at the wars, pandemics and terrors that stalk the earth – in this season of darkness God shines a bright,
bright light. The Christmas Gospel proclaims that “a light shined in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it”.

 
A millennia ago, some inventive European interior decorator first suspended a Christmas tree upside down. I imagine that this
capsized tree debuted at a fancy dress-ball and shared ceiling space with crystal chandeliers. I imagine it was all the talk.
Welcome now to a world where the status quo is suspended … and all the talk is about One whom lepers loved.

 
So, welcome. Welcome to friend and stranger, to family member and visitor. Welcome to Old South Church on this Christmas
Eve. Welcome to this weird and wonderful place where to be lost is to be found, and the last are first, and it is more blessed to
give than to receive.