Christmas Reflection offered at the Midnight Mass
A Reflection on John 1: 1-14
Guli tells her story of becoming a refugee.
She recalls how she spent her last Christmas “at home”, that is the last Christmas in her homeland of Iran. It was 1979. She was thirteen.
Guli recalls it as being a “strange Christmas”. The Revolution was in its early days. The American hostages had been seized the previous month, and the tiny Anglican Church of which she was a part, was in a precarious state. Its bishop – her father – was in Cyprus, unable to return from his travels for fear of his safety. The future of their community was uncertain.
And yet, her memory of that season was one of blessing and of being surrounded by support and care. Her church, in tradition with many churches around the world, put on a performance of Handal’s Messiah. Her beleaguered community listened intently for the tenor to sing “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people” - they needed to hear words of comfort and hope. The alto of the choir then brought the reminder that “He was despised and rejected”.
Lines that resonated deeply with the people gathered in the church that evening, because derision and rejection were their experience as a community. There had been murders, and there was more to come.
The church was an unusual mix of foreigners and Persians. The choir included British and American missionaries, embassy staff and those working in the oil industry. The next week all the foreigners had gone – recalled to their homeland because the situation in Iran was just too dangerous to stay. “Suddenly” Guli said, “we felt very alone and exposed”.
Six months later, in 1980, following the assassination of her brother, her family left too and made their journey to England.
Here they settled and made home. Guli describes her life now, with family of her own, as rich and being fully integrated with the Christian community where they live.
As she reflects on the trauma of that experience, of being uprooted from her homeland, building a new life, and finding a sense of belonging, she says the words, found in the prologue of John’s Gospel, have a new meaning – “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.
“It is” Guli says, “in the reality of knowing the incarnation – of building a relationship with Christ, who is God in human flesh – that I have come to see that “home” is wherever we join in worship and service with others, each one fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image”.
She now works with people from a wide range of backgrounds, differing faiths and political persuasions to support the integration of refugees in the UK.
Guli Francis-Dehqani is the serving Bishop of Chelmsford.
As I read her story and reflect on the insight she has gained from her experience, I ponder anew for myself, the truth of God coming in human flesh and dwelling among us.
Because God comes simply to where we are, wherever we are. Sometimes we as Christians and the Church - attach so much baggage on God – and God doesn’t need it.
The story of God’s coming at Bethlehem is anything but – a weak and helpless babe lying in a manger - for animals – what could be more simple and makeshift than that?
Truly he came to live among the people and even the animals. By sending the angel to the shepherds on the hillside outside Bethlehem, God found people – people who might otherwise be forgotten – and he said to each, “See, I am here”, “I am with you”.
God does that. God seeks us out and makes himself known.
He came in the dark of night to a group of lonely shepherds on a hillside.
He came at the dawn of a new day to Mary in the garden.
He came to the home where the bereaved disciples waited and prayed.
He came to the two friends on their walk to Emmaus confused by the events that had taken place.
To each God made himself known – not forcibly and without persuasion, simply an invitation to come to know him as a friend.
And as he did to them, so he does to us and to others – for all people are made in the image of God.
So, we belong to one another, and through him communities are formed and transformed by seeking to love and serve one another as God first loves us. In this we find our sense of belonging – our sense of “home” – both to God, and to one another.
This night we join with people all over the world, in places of peace and in places of war, to celebrate and pray for the coming of Christ in hearts, homes and communities, that Christ shall be known and lives transformed by love and service to him and to one another.
Saviour, Redeemer, Friend, Beloved of God:
clothe us in your love,
strengthen us to live gently on this earth,
give us humility to see all we encounter as precious to you,
and teach us to walk with kindness and patience this hour,
and always.
Amen.