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Christmas reflection on animals in the stable

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How lovely it always is to see different nativity scenes – Mary, Joseph, the baby in the manger – and then shepherds, kings, maybe angels – if you’re lucky the innkeeper: and then the animals – sheep, often resting at the feet of the shepherd; the cow or ox, looking hungrily into the manger; the donkey, resting after its journey. And sometimes birds nesting up in the eaves of the stable, or, as one of our poems imagined.. mice rustling in the hay. The accounts from Luke are wonderful – but a bit short on animals. There is the flock, being watched over by the shepherds – but no suggestion that in their ‘haste’ to go to Bethlehem they drive or pick up any of their livestock to go with them. There is no account of the kings or magi – so no chance to catch a glimpse of a camel. There is just the mention of the manger – the animals’ feed trough: which implies there must be animals somewhere.   But we love to imagine the animals, to write poems about them, to re-tell the nativity story f...
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Reflection for Carol Service

So here we are again, singing our carols and hearing the readings and, like Mary, pondering in our heart what it all means. Last weekend, at the Nativity Fest at Tiers Cross, I suggested that we could look at our nativity scenes and hear the story of the birth of Jesus and imagine what role we might play in the story. We could think of ourselves like the  Magi , the wise ones, looking for signs of God’s coming among us – and finding Jesus in the least likely place. He wasn’t in the grandeur of Herod’s palace, he was in a humble stable. Or we could imagine ourselves like the  Shepherds,  wanting to protect God’s people from the wrong sorts of messages in our world, helping God’s ‘flock’ to concentrate on the theological significance of the coming of Jesus this Christmas, rather than being swept along by all the things we can buy. Or perhaps we can be like  Mary & Joseph , welcoming Jesus into our lives with prayer and wonder. But today I want to think about one of...
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Advent 2 - the song of Zechariah

Intro to reading: Our reading this morning is the song of Zechariah. We might want to remind ourselves who Zechariah is: he is a priest, married to Elizabeth, who is a cousin of Mary of Nazareth. Zechariah & Elizabeth were childless, but Zechariah is visited by an angel when he is serving in the temple, and told that Elizabeth will have a child, whom Zechariah must call ‘John’ – he is to prepare the way for the Lord – he will grow up to be John the Baptist. Zechariah is struck dumb by this vision of Gabriel, but Elizabeth does indeed have a son, and when Zechariah writes “his name is John” he can speak again – and this is what Zechariah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says:   (Rejoice & Sing 738)     Luke 1:68-79    I wonder whether the song of Zechariah gets eclipsed by the much better known ‘song of Mary’ – the Magnificat: perhaps in just the same way that the birth of John the Baptist is eclipsed by the birth of Jesus.   But in this time ...
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Shining with the light of Christ the King

 John 18: 33-37;   Revelation 1: 4b - 8 Next Sunday is Advent Sunday, December 1 st .   Christmas is undoubtedly getting closer and I wonder how we’re all feeling. Do you feel excited when you see Christmas lights lit up – or do you feel that it’s all too early and does it just make you despair at the commercialisation of Christmas? I was talking to someone last week who observed that ever since the 2020 pandemic, it seems that people are putting up their Christmas lights, decorations, and even trees earlier and earlier. There have certainly been lights up among our neighbours since the beginning of November -  weirdly overlapping somewhat with the Hallowe’en decorations. Perhaps it’s that the more life feels to be hard and out of our control, the more we long for bright lights in the darkness and something to take our minds off the news bulletins. My older brother thinks that all Christian faith is like this – just a way of distracting ourselves from the grimne...
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Friends of God

Psalm 16   John 15: 13-15 Joseph Scriven was born into a wealthy, devout family in Northern Seapatrick, Ireland, in 1819. He completed his education at Trinity College, Dublin. Scriven’s life took a tragic turn in 1844, just before his marriage. His fiancée was thrown from her horse and drowned in the River Bann, the day before their wedding. Overwhelmed by grief, Scriven left Ireland for Canada in 1845, settling in Port Hope, Ontario. In Canada, Scriven committed his life to God and service. At 25, he vowed poverty, sold his belongings, and helped those in need. He preached and read the Bible in community gatherings, taught in a school, and even cut wood  - all for no pay. He was known as “the good Samaritan of Port Hope”. In 1855, Scriven penned a poem titled ‘What is this Friendship for Which We Long?’ to comfort his ailing mother in Ireland, never intending it for public eyes. She kept the poem safe in the pages of her Bible. A decade after his first fiancée’s death, ...
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Remembrance Sunday & Jesus and the widow

Mark 12: 38-44   I’m sure we all come with our own collection of memories, feelings, regrets, and concerns this Remembrance Sunday. Even though very few people are left alive who fought in the second world war, there is always family history, the memories passed down, and there have been other conflicts – just as there are conflicts today.    I am always struck by the power of the two minutes’ silence. People are always having to remember those they have lost; remember lives blighted by injury; remember how fragile justice can be; remember how precious peace is…   In the face of current global conflicts or personal disaster or the weight of history we might just feel too small to matter. We want to speak up for peace, act for peace, pray for peace…but we are just one insignificant person.   If we feel too small to be significant, what Jesus teaches in the temple, in the story we heard from Mark’s gospel, has something to say to us.   Jesus watches a poor wi...
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