CHRISTMAS AND THE KINGDOM This Christmas will be rather different for all of us, not only in our worship, but also in our family gatherings, as we try to survive until this nasty Covid 19 virus has gone away, or we all get the protection of a vaccination. We could however use this strange Christmas to think about its real message, which so often gets lost in the tinsel and festivity of a mid-winter feast. We all go a bit sloppy at the sight of a new-born baby, which is probably a natural instinct to help the survival of such vulnerable beings. When we see the the nativity scene today however, we know the outcome for that delicate baby, who was born in a stable and before long had become a refugee. He survived his childhood to become our salvation and to die for our sins. His message of peace and healing and promise of his kingdom for us all, was heard and tragically ignored or misunderstood, which led to his death on the cross. Statistically, the most Christian country in the world is the USA and yet it also has the greatest gap between the rich and the poor and also has the highest level of social disorder problems, such as drugs and crime. America also imprisons a huge number of people. Before you become smug, I have to tell you the UK is not too far behind. We live in a world of huge inequality between the rich countries and the rest (the majority), and within each country between rich and poor. We are very privileged to live in a democratic country, it is flawed perhaps, but at least we can tell our politicians what we think of their policies and their personal ethics. I would perhaps however recommend some caution when talking to those in power, whether it is your boss or a politician, as other's opinions are not always appreciated. Sometimes we have to use the tactics of the worldly, using a degree of flattery, which leaders always enjoy, before hitting home with our Christian viewpoint. The vast majority of the world either live in totalitarian states or very flawed democracies where to speak out, even with some flattery included, could still bring death or retribution upon families and whole communities. The test of a true democracy is usually whether its leaders accept satire and humour. I would suggest that President Xi Jinping of China, President Vladimir Putin and a large number of world leaders would not allow any jokes at their expense, and I would imagine nobody who wanted to live until old age would not have made a joke about King Herod 2000 years ago. This puts a huge responsibility on our shoulders to make sure the message that Jesus proclaimed is enacted today, even if it is only in our community or country. We are not asked to be martyrs, but acts of kindness and Christian values can heap coals upon those who cannot accept the kingdom that was initiated by the birth of Jesus. At Christmas we recollect the birth of Jesus into a turbulent world and see him soon become a refugee from persecution. I wonder where Jesus would be born today? In a slum in Central America or India, or perhaps still in Bethlehem; a town still poverty stricken and riven by unresolvable politics. It is easy to look at the past and say, “It was different then”, but was it? Sometimes we think that the Bible only tells a story of how things were 2000 years ago, but if we really study our Bible and let the text seep into our consciousness, it could change us and the world. Jesus was a radical man who challenged the religious and political structures of the time to show people his kingdom of peace and justice. He had no armies, only his words, his healing and the power of God working through him. It was not hard for the enemies of justice and peace to kill his body, but they could not destroy his kingdom, and through his resurrection he reigns in glory. Christmas should awaken us again to the radical Jesus, not just the gentle Jesus in the manger. Let us pray that the real meaning of Christmas gets through to those who really need it, and your prayers of “Thy Kingdom Come” can really help. Fr. Terry
THE FREEDOM TO BE A SAINT Often, as I talk to my friends and to those I meet, I'm met with a common set of questions: • ”Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” • "Why does God allow injustice?” • "Would a truly all loving God condemn the wicked?” These questions are understandable, especially in our present situation. The answer is quite simple, Freedom, freedom is more than just an excuse for Mel Gibson to fight the British with questionable historical accuracy. It is Gods’ most generous gift to us, his willingness to take a ‘back seat’ as it where and allow us to choose his will and his order. This is echoed throughout the Bible; • When God lets Adam and Eve choose to disobey him, for better or worse. • When Moses said in Deuteronomy 30:15,"two ways are set before you, the way of life or the way of death." • When the apostle Peter choose to deny Christ three times to his own shame. Perhaps that is what Hell is, the permanent guarantee of human freedom? Only in a world where man can be punished, are we free to seek reward. Man can only be free to be a saint in a world where he is free to be viscous and cruel. Recent examples being during the Spanish civil war the church faced persecution on a horrible level by Communist and Socialist forces. Martyrs like the Venerable Florentino Asensio Barroso and Saint Inocencio paid the ultimate price to for their ministry, facing torture and death. In Nazi Germany Saint Maximilian Kolbe laid down his life for a man he had never meet. He was even offered the choice of life or martyrdom by Mary and chose to do what was right. He was later called the Patron Saint of ‘Our Difficult Century’ by Pope John Paul 11 Of course, martyrdom isn’t just a christen experience, A young Jehovah's Witness also paid for his decision not to renounce his faith. Rudolf Auschner was executed and in his farewell letter to his mother, he wrote: “Many brothers have walked this path, and so will I.” The power behind these Governments did not dismiss God, they challenged him because they knew he exists. We need to be reminded that, no hammer, sickle or swastika, no flag waving nationalist or money grabbing trust can take from you your freedom to walk with Christ. Those of you who know me will know how much I love the Russian people, I feel a strong spiritual connection to Russia. That's why I'm going to quote a favourite author of mine: "The day is coming where men will say there is no crime, there is no sin, there is no guilt. There is only hunger. And men will come to our feet and say make us slaves, just give us bread" - Dostoevsky in the brothers Karamazov. Today we have an apathetic young generation full of anxiety and with no sense of purpose. One that has tried freedom and left unfulfilled, and now scared of the virus, no longer sees its value. The fire of authoritarianism burns in them, I pray that one day that fire will burn as a Pentecostal light in people instead. As we as a community are faced with a decision on how to move forward I am reminded of a sermon given once by Fr. Terry at St Peter’s in Aston Flamville in which he said we must choose our procession, that of Judas, Pilate and the soldiers or that of Christ, Peter and the disciples. I leave you with a quote from a truly great man: "Free these people. that's the first thing that we have to solve in the world, then all our other problems will be solved and no other problem will be solved until we liberate them." - The Venerable Fulton Sheen. As our advent journey unfolds, let us consider our freedom, conscious that Christ who sets us free, willingly gave himself for us all, coming to us in human flesh, this Christ child, so vulnerable yet so powerfully. William Robinson
The feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is celebrated December 8. The feast day, which dates back to the Middle Ages, reflects the belief that Mary was never tainted by original sin. The first explicit statement of the doctrine is found in a work by Anselm of Canterbury (c.1033–1109): “[I]t would be neither reasonable nor right for the ... evils of Adam to be transmitted to the man conceived from the Virgin.” But the doctrine remained controversial. Thomas Aquinas was opposed to it, but interestingly, two of the early Reformers warmly embraced the doctrine. Martin Luther (1483–1546) affirmed: “Not only was Mary the mother of him who is born [in Bethlehem], but of him who, before the world, was eternally born of the Father, from a Mother in time and at the same time man and God.” And in a sermon preached on the feast of the Immaculate Conception he declared: “It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin.” Even the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531)—a generation before John Calvin moved to Geneva—wrote: “I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary.” Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the doctrine to be infallible dogma: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.” Today, the feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated by Roman Catholics and high-church Anglicans and Lutherans, and also in the Old Catholic Church and Liberal Catholic Church. The feast is not celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, which dismiss the notion of original sin and therefore see no reason for Mary to be spared. The Immaculate Conception is not to be confused with the virgin birth of Christ. Whatever your thoughts are on this, just contemplate for one moment your own encounter with God, and how that changed you life however fleeting this may have been. Then consider saying “Yes” to God and having the Christ live within you for 9 months, and then being with you close by for his life. What do you think now? [Primary source: John F. Nash, "Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess" (2020). Fr Andrew
Thinking about the birds of the air at Christmas Father Andrew has told me that he often hears a blackbird singing away from the top of a tree as he walks to and from the church. The blackbird is one of our more tuneful birds and has a strong liquid voice. The male is very smart with a glossy black plumage and distinctive yellow beak and a yellow orbit around the eye. The female is more muted in colour being a soft brown on top and a mottled breast. This is quite the norm for birds as it is the female that normally broods the eggs and so her plumage needs to be camouflaged so that predators do not spot her or the nest. There are a few exceptions to this rule but none that we are likely to see around here. The Latin name is Turdus merula and that can be translated to Thrush blackbird and the second part of its Latin name is commonly used in Scotland in the form of Merl or blackbird. The blackbird is a member of a large family of true thrushes that are spread round the world. If you watch blackbirds in your garden you soon realise they are very territorial and will see off intruding birds of their own species. In the English Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas", the line commonly sung today as "four calling birds" is believed to have originally been written in the 18th century as "four colly birds", an archaism meaning "black as coal" that was a popular English nickname for the common blackbird. In our neighbourhood we sometimes see song thrushes, but alas much more infrequently than in days gone by. These delicate thrushes eat snails and are sometimes seen hammering the snail against a rock to break off the shell. Their bigger resident cousin is the mistle thrush and again this is now quite a rare sight in our gardens. The mistle thrush is sometimes called the storm cock and can sing even in wet stormy weather from the tops of trees. It is also a very aggressive bird and will defend a particularly choice tree full of berries from other blackbirds or thrushes. I have noted this behaviour on a number of occasions and it is interesting to watch. At this time of year these thrushes are joined by two more species from northern Europe. The first of these is the redwing and this looks somewhat like the song thrush but has a prominent red patch under its wings and from this feature it takes its name. Redwings travel in big flocks and may descend on your garden and start to eat the cotoneaster berries which they consume most eagerly. The biggest winter visitor is the fieldfare, which is sometimes locally called the feld. These birds are quite grey on the neck and rump and again travel in flocks and also raid gardens for the cotoneaster berries. Both the redwing and fieldfare do breed in the UK but in very, very small numbers. The final thrush species we sometimes see in these parts is the ring ouzel also known as the mountain blackbird. This is distinguished by a white collar patch across the breast although the female, which is similar to the female blackbird, has a very pale patch that is barely visible. We are only likely to see these on migration as they fly back from the northern parts towards the Mediterranean, where it winters. The name ouzel used to be applied to the blackbird in olden times . I have seen ring ouzels as near as Burbage Common and a few years ago Vicky and I went to see a couple that spent a few days in a horse pasture feeding up before continuing their journey south. Well, happily, on my long walk around Stanford Reservoir this week I saw all these thrushes except the ring ouzel, which is now happily settled in warmer climes down south. Even the peoples of the Old Testament knew that the birds migrated at different times of the year and we can note this in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 8:7 “Even the stork in the sky Knows her seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush Observe the time of their migration; But My people do not know The ordinance of the Lord. As Father Andrew has often observed the thrushes can have a very sweet song and their music lifts our spirits. As we near Christmas let us think of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness and rejoicing in the coming of the Messiah . How sweet was his voice and the message it proclaimed and let us ponder on that the next time we stand and listen to the sweet liquid song of the blackbird or the song thrush. To be continued, Don Peacock
