‘Find room for God’, says Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York in Christmas Day sermon (From York Press)

‘Find room for God’, says Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York in Christmas Day sermon

10:40am Saturday 26th December 2009

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People need to find room for God in their lives, the Archbishop of York said in his Christmas Day sermon.

Preaching at York Minster, Dr John Sentamu said little had changed in 2,000 years, with God on the margins of people’s lives as they are “preoccupied with their own agendas”.

Dr Sentamu told worshippers: “In the birth and birthplace of Jesus there is something which corresponds beautifully with his personal biography as well as the fortunes of his Gospel.

“Two thousand years on, he still comes waiting to find room. And there is scant room for him. The reason why Jesus can’t find room for his Gospel, which he embodied in his person at his first coming, is closely analogous to that which he encountered in his birth – namely that people’s hearts are preoccupied. They are filled to the brim with their own agendas already. And we, who are his followers, so poorly represent the worth and largeness of Christ and his Gospel.

“Preoccupied with the presenting and controverted issues of the day, we lack the inspiration he offers, and we end up giving him the stable, when we should be giving him the inn.”

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