John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

It's about why we matter

Churches Weekly Newsletter - No.141, 25 December 2022 / 1 January 2023

Would Mary and Joseph have wanted to go to Bethlehem that night? if you think about it, given Mary's vulnerable condition and their being among the struggling poor, it's unlikely that they would. The gospel makes it pretty clear that - like everyone else who'd made that physically demanding, financially costly journey - they were given no choice.

Luke doesn't record with what punishment Governor Quirinus threatened non-compliant taxpayers, but we can judge from the narrative that his census was aggressively enforced. If you're barely subsisting, why would you want to go to Bethlehem at your own crippling expense to sign up to a new tax regime which you knew would impoverish you even more in the future? In the distressing knowledge that in your absence your home might be torched by followers of the Zealot tax resistance movement?

The Christ-child was born into a struggle which persists to this day: the struggle of ordinary people to get by in situations of extreme duress forced on them by rulers who treat the working classes contemptuously.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a struggle poignantly portrayed by James Stewart as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. Bailey is an honest man driven to attempt suicide as he faces ruin at the hands of avaricious banker Henry F. Potter. Like the nativity story itself, the film is a Christmas favourite, of which Matt Haig writes, 'It's not schmaltzy. It's raw. It has incredible power. About the big importance of small lives. About the dehumanising cruelty of capitalism. About why we matter. About the difference a life can make. About why we should stay alive.' This could also perfectly describe the nativity stories told by Matthew and Luke. 

A vice-president of Humanists UK, Polly Toynbee, this week observed that 'In all Christmas messages, the poor inherit the earth, the stable stands for the homeless and refugees'. Toynbee finds it 'a mystery ... why so little of this goodwill gets beyond the tinsel into politics.' She neglects to mention the numbers of Christians who are active in feeding the poor and supporting homeless people and refugees, and the many who campaign for changes in law and practice to improve the well-being of those who are struggling.

But I think it is fair to ask: if we do believe that the nativity story holds truths which are relevant to our world today, then how in our homes this Christmas might we celebrate 'the big importance of small lives', how as individuals and communities this coming year might might we resist 'the dehumanising cruelty of capitalism', and how as churches might we stand with ordinary folk like Mary, Joseph, and George Bailey to affirm just 'why we matter'?

 

With some amount of goodwill

Churches Weekly Newsletter: No.140, 18 December 2022

Keasden's travelling crib arrived at Dovenantor last week (thanks, Ann Sheridan, for sharing this picture) and local households will continue to play host to Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and their assorted animals until their return to St Matthew's Church on Thursday (22nd, 7.00pm) for our Carols around the Crib service, where they will be joined by the baby Jesus of course, and later the Wise Men. It'll be a joyful moment in our Christmas celebrations.

Hospitality is one of this season's major themes; whether that means us preparing for meals at home with extended families or our travelling to other people's homes to enjoy the welcome they give us. According to Wikipedia 'Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.’

'Some amount of goodwill' is a pregnant phrase. After a bruising year in public life it's easy to recognise how our conflicted world instinctively creates hostile environments and provokes us to put up barriers between ourselves and those who are unlike us. Yet in our carolling gatherings and crib-hosting homes we give space to another kind of story. As millions of the world’s people continue to move from places of distress and conflict, seeking safety and daring to dream of maybe even finding a welcome, we might reflect on the generous reception which many here extended towards Ukrainian families this year; and we’re reminded of the refugee status of the Christ child himself:

We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
                                                         Malcolm Guite: Refugee

The Christmas story challenges us to be hospitable people, in the fullest meaning of that expression, now and every day of our lives. The families who hosted the traveling crib had this prayer to say at home with their strange visitors. It's a prayer we might all embrace:

Loving God, We thank you for Mary and Joseph and for their courage and trust. Thank you for the way their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was paralleled in their journey from being ordinary people to the extraordinary people you called them to be. Please be with us as we travel through Christmas this year, and as we seek to become the people you call us to be. May we too have courage and trust. Amen

Blessings,
John