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
