Cross from Anvil Pottery/St Beuno's

 

On my recent visit to St Beuno's in North Wales for a (brief) silent retreat, I bought the cross pictured as a reminder of my times at St Beuno's, but also as a pointer to the journey ahead,

Anvil Pottery is relatively close to St Beuno's, situated in the village of Llanrhaeadr in the Vale of Clwyd. It was fitting to buy something that was made nearby, and a reminder of what we each can do. That links very much to my thinking and reflecting at St Beuno's around what God calls me (and each one of us) to do.

The Celtic style of the Cross speaks to me of mission and pilgrimage as I consider the implications of where God is now calling me to be and what God is calling me to do. In very many ways that is daunting, but I can have confidence because God does not call us to go on our own, but rather walks the road with us.

That's an encouraging thought as we enter a new year. 

I am currently reading Nigel Tranter's novel about the life of Columba (simply titled 'Columba'), and that, too, is a good reminder of the struggles and joys as we take the opportunity to do what God asks of us. Columba found that it led him places that he had not expected and that he did not want, but, as he also discovered, God's places are always places of blessing.

Letters from Father Christmas

I have just read J R R Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas, a delightful and imaginative set of letters which he, 'as Father Christmas', wrote to his children over a period of just over twenty years. The first letter was penned in 1920 when the eldest child was just 3, and continued through the childhoods of the three other children.

He recounts the adventures of Father Nicholas Christmas and his associates, often enhancing what he is saying with drawings of the events taking place at the North Pole.

It was a great reminder of what we might call the 'magic' of Christmas, and of the different customs and traditions that can emerge in families. We always do this ....  

It is sometimes said, and with good reason, that we risk overwhelming Christmas with all sorts of secular and commercial matters that have little to do with its essence. 

However, I always like to remember the immensity of what we are celebrating when we say Emmanuel - God-with-us. I don't think we can do too much to celebrate Christmas. The birth of a baby at Bethlehem has had such a massive impact on the life of this world. It deserves a big cellebration, a very big celebration. There is so much mystery in the fact that, as the carol puts it, 'Love came down at Christmas.'

What Are You Doing For Christmas?

 Reflection offered at the 'midnight' service for Sawston Free Church via Zoom - acknowledging a variety of sources which I have 'lost')

What are you doing for Christmas?  That question has somewhat different connotations this year; and, indeed, some of us might well have answered it differently, just a few weeks, or even days, ago.  Christmas is looking different.  Boris has been accused by many of cancelling Christmas.  Well, I am prepared to accuse him of quite a lot, but not of that.  Because Christmas is not cancelled,  Christmas is difficult.  Christmas is different.  But – unto us a child is born!  The light has come.  The Chrismas message of peace and love is alive and well.  Christmas is happening.  And, though the answers may not be easy, or we would expect or hope, we still, even at this late moment, might, as it were, ask of each other: what are you doing for Christmas?  Or, perhaps, what does Christmas mean to you?  How does Christmas fit this strange landscape in which we find ourselves?

But think of the questions Mary and Joseph might have faced.  When’s the baby due?  Where are you going?  Where are you going to stay?

2021 is census year in Britain.  It is due on March 21^st.  But, fortunately, we don’t all have to go back to our burthplace in order to be counted, as appears to have been the case for Mary and Joseph.  At least, they had to go to Joseph’s birthplace.  And so they got caught up in what must have been a somewhat amazing population movement and it’s hardly surprising that, when they got there, they couldn’t find anywhere to stay.  And that’s how they came to be in a stable – so the story goes.

In many ways, it’s a quite incredible story.  Surely someone would have taken pity on Joseph and his heavily pregnant wife.  Surely there was a room somewhere for someone in this situation.  But then the story is incredible – that God should come to earth and share our human experience – but that’s what Christmas is all about.

It all seems quite remote from things like reindeer and tinsel, mince pies and balloons.  So many things have been built on across the years.  And that’s fine.  Traditions grow and develop.  It’s fine so long as we remember the essential Christmas message – that God came to earth in human form and so demonstrated his amazing love for us. 

The stable and the shepherds remind us that God comes to those who don’t fit in.  The wise men and their gifts remind us that God comes to those who do.  The angels remind us that what is offered is summed up in that tremendous word ‘peace’ – Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.

What are you doing for Christmas?  I’m celebrating the birth of Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem, God come to earth to offer love, and joy, and peace.

Godly Play Style Nativity by Zoom

With the current situation we need to continue to adapt. I was leading a Christmas Eve family service by Zoom for Sawston Free Church and so, with the help of Bob Hartman's 'Lion Storyteller Bible' and some Godly Play material, devised a 'sort of'' nativity play, following a Godly Play style - with stable, holy family, shepherd, innkeeper, wise men, angels, a few animals and the 'people of the world' - a reminder that Christmas is still happening.

Emmanuel - God is with us, and how we need all the peace, love, joy, hope and faith that comes with that.

Happy Christmas!

 

Praying with our friends in Vellore

Zoom has some real benefits. I was delighted, today, to be part of a prayer gathering between a group from Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council and a group from the Diocese of Vellore, and to have the opportunity to offer a brief reflection on the conversation we had around the challenges, particularly by way of coronavirus, currently affecting our two communities.

It was interesting to see that, despite the profound differences between the two locations, that there were marked similarities between the issues we have faced and the responses we have made. In India food rations have been sent to the families of pupils at home because of closed schools while in England we have been supporting an increased use of foodbanks. Just one example. We have also both faced the difficulties when churches could not meet for worship.

In responding to the conversation I mentioned that some in the UK have been claiming that Christmas is cancelled, but that is definitely not so. God continues to make a difference in our world. Citing some words of Lesslie Newbigin I suggested we need to remain positive. Newbigin once said: “Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact? The mission of the church in the pages of the New Testament is like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving.”

Defining 2020

 

2020 will go down as a year unlike any other, defined by different ways of doing things, a different set of phrases - and immense gratitude to those who did so much to keep life on track. 

One memorable element is undoubtedly the NHS clap. For several weeks we went outside at 8pm on a Thursday to bang drums, pan lids, spoons, whatever - or simply to clap as we applauded the commitment of NHS staff in addressing the Covid challenge.  

Of course, there were many other key workers, supermarket staff, delivery drivers, teachers, etc etc. Where would we have been without them? Where would we be?

A lot has been said of late about Christmas being cancelled. Actually, that's not true; but it is going to be different. But, as we continue with the challenges of these strange times, it remains that case that we can celebrate that, in the words of the carol, 'love came down at Christmas'. Let's do that by finding some specific way, we who are the Body of Christ, to express that love.

Fiesta with God

Nouwen, cited in “Arrivals and Departures” (ed. Ford) says in a quotation from “Gracias”  - “the poor are a eucharistic people, people who know [how] to say thanks to God, to life, to each other. They may not come to Mass, they may not participate in many church celebrations. But in their hearts they are deeply religious because, for them, all of life is a long fiesta with God.”

I am struck by that idea of life as a fiesta with God. That’s how it should be - but how rarely is it the case! I am also struck by the stress on gratitude. That should be our approach to things, but also is too often lacking. So much can be changed by how we approach things.