A proclamation of values

 ‘…Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing..’ (John 2:10)

Luke 4:14-30 (Year C: Epiphany+3)

Proclamation is the name of a currently running Irish TV drama marking a selection of events took place in Dublin 100 years ago. The programme like the events it purports to remember and to dramatise has received mixed reviews. At the centre of the events was the ‘Proclamation’ made by the leader of the rebellion outside the General Post Office in Dublin during these events.  It was a bold and lyrical proclamation of an ideal and a purpose. 

And the rest is history.

The TV adaptation in the context of the centenary of 1916 might have involved a local crowd chasing Pádraig Pearse down Sackville Street to throw him into the Liffey!  (in real life this would not have been plausible as, in common with the vast majority of armies at the time, the comrades were heavily armed, as they claimed, ‘under the protection of the Most High God’ whose blessing they invoked ‘upon our arms’ to quote the 1916 proclamation).

So much for Irish history.

And Jesus went back to his home town and ‘as was his custom’ (v.16) he went to the local synagogue on the Saturday. He ‘unrolled the scroll’ and ‘found the place where it was written’ in what we recognise as coming from the 61^st chapter of the Book of Isaiah to make a bold and challenging proclamation with the very clear implication that this applied to Jesus and that this was happening right now in front of the synagogue congregation as well as the people in the region.

What did Jesus say?  He had four messages to related:

1. Good news to the poor
2. Freedom and release for those imprisoned
3. recovery of sight to the blind
4. A year of the Lord’s favour.

We can read into this a very radical challenge to the religious and political status quo both then and now. No wonder his own people and religious brethren pursued him to the brow of the hill to kill him once the full implications of what he was saying sank in (Beware of one of our own).

Who are the poor? How do we help the poor?

When Jesus stood up in that synagogue and proclaimed a year of the Lord’s favour he did not waste words.  He went straight to the core of his purpose and mission drawing on a text that would have been very well known to his own people and the synagogue minders.  For some reason the passage recalling this bold proclamation in the synagogue and which is read on this Sunday in the ‘Year of Luke’ stops short at verse 21:

Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

In a touch of enormous irony the fulfilment of scripture this very day that Jesus stood up in the synagogue meant that Jesus very nearly met death as the locals rose up and took him to the brow of the hill in Nazareth to throw him to his death. His fine words and popularity (refer to verse 15 ‘praised by everyone’) quickly turned to hatred, persecution and exclusion from Nazareth and the synagogue there.  That, too, was a fulfilment of scripture. A bold proclamation backed by practical witness and living out of a set of values brings its own opposition and death.

• And what values do we live out of?
• What is our manifesto or proclamation?
• Does it appear to be any different to those manifestos – corporate, ideological, nationalist, religious etc. that dominate our world? 
• Does our proclamation make a difference and how and why and where?
• Can we tell stories from our own water wells where others may draw the living water?
• Is our religion a religion of just words?  Is our religion a religion merely of the head but not of the head and the heart?
• Who knows?
• Who cares? 

The crowd is fickle. There is a limit of 140 characters per tweet and 2 minutes attention span on vimeo or youtube.  If Jesus made his proclamation in 50 words – give or take that he spoke not in English but, presumably, in Aramaic in his local town – then what is our 50 word-20 second pitch? And how do our words and gestures carry credible weight in a world where cynicism, broken promises and fatalism prevail?

Put another way, anyone who wants to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favour that is more than just words but that involves fundamental change either in the way people live, or think or expect is landing herself or himself into serious trouble. Jesus’ time had not yet come but his time would come and there would be payback time for quoting Isaiah and applying it to himself in such a way that someone in the authority got seriously upset. Did that stop Jesus? No more than his cousin John the Baptist it did not. What defines Jesus is not how he defines himself in the finest of Greek philosophy or the exactitude of Jewish Law but in what he does and how he does it. Therein lies the power and love of God at work through his Word.

The point about scripture ‘fulfilment’ is not that the world or our lives goes according to some literal script so that we are in auto-pilot carrying out a blueprint. We are not just followers but pioneers in the life that Jesus brought to us in a backward corner of the Roman empire and that he still brings to us no matter who we are or where we are.

Postscript

The Battle of the Somme in July 1916 also involved proclamation of purpose and mission – the alleged freedom of small nations and all of that – and many Irish men and women died for that.  Millions died for what. And still die.

But, happy is the land that has no need of heroes no matter what political colour they carry: “Unhappy the land that has no heroes,” says a character in Bertolt Brecht’s play Galileo. “No,” replies another. “Unhappy the land that needs heroes.”

Life is too short to drink bad wine

 ‘…you have kept the good wine until now..’ (John 2:10)

John 2:1-11 (Year C: Epiphany+2)

Sex, booze and partying are things one would not typically associate with ‘religious folk’. Yet, this week’s very familiar reading about the wedding in Cana and the miracle of water being turned into wine at a wedding party implies just that: sex, booze and partying.  Not that one is suggesting for a moment sex outside or before marriage!  Such things were practically never heard of ancient Jewish times or here in Ireland until the arrival of TV in the 1960s! Strange as it is we do not read about parties celebrating celibacy in the gospels – much esteemed as it was among some who were called to follow Jesus in a particular way both then and now.  Let’s say that the Jews got their priorities right when it came to these matters. We Christians (who are Jews spiritually) should never forget that even if some distortions in teaching and practice reflecting human standards, only, have been present both now and in the past including the times before Jesus.

The first of many signs

The evangelist John is fond of ‘signs’. The action of Jesus in this particular story is described by him as ‘the first of his signs’. John uses the occasion of a wedding party, the consumption of large quantities of wine.  Six stone water jars for ritual ablutions according to Jewish custom would have been equivalent to 600 litres of wine which, if there were 500 non-teetotalling guests, would be equivalent to a bottle and a half of wine or 9 glasses of wine over say a day or two given that wine had already run out after the first or second day (so that this top up would have been in addition to a large amount already consumed). One assumes that cousin John the Baptist was not present but busy preaching in the desert or baptising at the Jordan.  Indeed, this level of consumption would well exceed government health guidelines on units of alcohol for men or women.

Wine a very key ingredient of Middle Eastern culture and life is part of the signage that this story sets up.  In addition to wine, water, bread and oil also provide key signs at various other parts of the Johannine story.  A Mediterranean cultural context surely pervades.

There is no evidence that Jesus showed up at parties with the specific aim of preaching and do miracles (however, we might speculate about whether 100s of invitations were issued to Jesus across the land after the Cana event?!).  But, the killer punch of the story was not just the transformation of water into wine but the production of good wine much to the amazement of the stewards.

Something more than a party or a spectacular miracle …

This particular party was the occasion for a dramatic sign that gave witness to the Glory of God and the presence of the kingdom of God in our midst.  There was something going on here that was much more than a wedding, wine and a miracle.  Jesus took, according to this story in John, a very Jewish and near Eastern custom of celebrating marriage and all that this entails, added some water and made it into wine and left many awe struck (as well as a few inebriated).

The primary message here is not that we should go partying or drinking lots of wine (the latter in any case ought to be done in moderation or not at all if driving camels) but, rather, that God can powerfully act and transform very ordinary materials, relationships and situation if we let him.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, plays a key role in this story. She alerts Jesus to the impending disaster because the wine was running out and then strongly advises the stewards at the wedding to ‘do whatever he tells you’ (verse 5) after what seems a very abrupt exchange between Jesus and Mary (‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?’). That conversation might suggest that Jesus and Mary were not much given to wine.  Here we can hear a rich and deep message relayed by Mary – the first disciple among equals – that we should follow Jesus and do whatever he tells us.  Mary plays a key role, here, at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry as she does at its close where, at the foot of the cross, Mary is given to the beloved disciple John as mother (and many see this as confirmation of Mary as not only our sister in faith but our spiritual mother in faith as well).  The exchange between Mary and Jesus echoes that between Jesus and John in last Sunday’s story of the Baptism of Jesus as well as the story of magi’s visit to Bethlehem when they followed God’s promptings and not those of Herod in returning from Bethlehem.

And so what ….

To make wine, especially good wine, we need to simply do what Jesus asks us to do which is to fill up the water jars of our life. God does the rest including the transformations into the best of wines.

This story serves a secondary purpose which is that it is good to party –  even in monasteries. However, as monks and others pray Psalm 4 in the evening time after an occasional early evening party to mark a special occasion (known sometimes as a Gaudeamus which is the Latin expression for ‘let us rejoice’): ‘You have put into my heart a greater joy than they have from abundance of corn and new wine’(verse 8).  Or, as St Paul writes: ‘For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.’ (Romans 14:17).

There is a truth and power that goes beyond the very good things of parties, wine and marriage. It is the kingdom of God in our midst now, today, here among us as well as deep within us. It’s time to wake up and see it (‘and [Jesus] revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him’). Trust and openness are the key and this is the point of the wedding feast story. The signs are there if we look.

We do not presume

 ‘…Let it be so now..’ (Matthew 3:15)

Luke 3:15-22 (Year C: Baptism of Jesus)

                                          pic: Reta Halteman Finger

 ‘Let it be’ is the title of a well known Beatles song from the 1960s. It found its way into some celebrations of the liturgy over years (proving that the Beatles were not just a great pop band!). The story of Jesus’ baptism is something of a puzzle. On the one hand, this is not baptism as the Christian community came to know it. It prefigured what would become the all familiar sacrament of Christian initiation. On the other hand, what is Jesus doing when he prevails over his cousin John to be baptised? Somehow, readings of this passage glide over the fact of Jesus’ baptism to the revelation of God’s glory, a voice from heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit.  (Luke spots a direct connection to Isaiah 42:1). It is not every day that John the baptiser saw this happening!

The theology behind this story is well captured in the concluding verses of that hymn sometimes used in liturgies, Down by the Jordan:

Here in the Church, we are baptized and filled with God's Spirit. Freed and forgiven, we're welcomed with joy! Can you hear it? This is God's sign! This is how God says, "You're mine!" Let's take the good news and share it!

The only way to make sense of the story is to travel down to the Jordan, so to speak, and be immersed in the waters of tribulation and cleaning (the two go hand in hand if we can see it).  That takes courage. To go there in the first place is a big step. Then, to allow oneself to be immersed in the waters for a moment is an act of trust on the part of the one being submerged.  When confronted with a demand by his cousin for baptism, John had to change his attitude and plan of action.

Turning to our world we can see that presumption, pride and arrogance are a menace to human spiritual progress.  Masquerading as religiously upright behaviour and teaching it can happen that people place obstacles in the way of others on the grounds that they know the mind and will of God best.  We can all end up as one of the presumptuous preferring to quote scripture, tradition and our own reasoning to avoid the hard work of triangulating scripture, tradition, reason and experience – all with the help of others and under the Holy Spirit.

Like John and like Mary the mother of Jesus, we may find ourselves confronted by the completely unexpected. It might overturn our world and assumptions. And we have to let go of our plan while walking forward in trust. This can be very risky and even painful especially if we don’t see what lies ahead and what lies beside us as someone guides us gently into the waters.  Some seek God through various privations and disciplines. Yet, God meets us on our side of the water and takes us in a direction we never expected or foresaw or wanted or planned or desired.

Jesus walked into the Jordan in solidarity with all of us seeking healing, renewal and life. He didn’t need to do this. In fact, God didn’t need to send Jesus in the first place. However, this God of ours is a God-who-is-love and cannot help himself loving and making himself one with what he has created. And none of this is to take from the sovereignty of a God for whom all things are possible (including non-salvation).

Luke relates many incidents in Jesus’ life when he prayed alone or in public. In this sketch we see a crowd pressing in on the prophet John eager to hear his answer to the questions being asked.  Jesus was beginning to make his mark in the region but John was still the leading prophet who challenged people far and wide with a message of repentance. The symbolism of going down into the water and re-emerging is a powerful one for death and re-birth. Water carries a power and healing that is captured in many religious rituals and practices. In the Christian sacrament – not to be confused with the baptism of John found in the gospels – we go down with Christ to be raised up again.

For an adult undergoing ‘full immersion’ it can be a shock especially if the water is icy cold as it is in the baths in Lourdes in southern France by the waters of the river gave. Going along with a sound and established religious ritual is indeed a good thing to do. But, doing so with faith, conviction and prayer in the presence of God is what makes the difference.  This is why Christian baptism – a much neglected and overlooked sacrament – should be so central to the mission of all that we do as Christians.  Think of it – what happens in baptism is the most crucial outward sign of gift that is ours over all that comes before and all that comes after.  Anybody can be baptised once and for all where there is faith and intention. Baptism is the one sacrament that can – legitimately – be administered by anyone lay or ordained. And it is the one sacrament that is seen to be shared by all disciples of Christ whatever the petty squabbles over other sacraments which in many cases turns out to be a squabble over words and human philosophy (refer to 2 Timothy 2:14). (This is why it is theological nonsense to say that someone was ‘baptised’ into such and such a denomination for we can only be baptised into Christ. We may be received into such and such a denomination or community alongside or after baptism but we are baptised into Christ and are members of his worldwide body which is the catholic church bigger than any one denomination or cult).

We are made members of his Body when ‘water is poured over us’ in baptism and when ‘bread and wine is freely given to us’ in the eucharist.  From there flows discipleship and service day by day, year by year until we meet the Lord fully face to face at our death which is only are final rebirth to everlasting life.

How does our baptism connect with the baptism that Jesus – surprisingly – underwent in the river Jordan?  A baptism by John is a sign of something greater to come. It holds the meaning of repentance, cleansing and renewal. However, the baptism brought by Jesus will see a transformation in the Holy Spirit that will have a lasting effect on individuals and communities. It will build on John’s baptism and the prophecies of old but usher in a new life and reality for those who will taste of the holy spirit. Once marked there is no going back. Even if people walk away from their baptismal vows at some stage in their lives (is there anyone who doesn’t?) we have, each of us, been marked out by God’s love in this founding sacrament and this love will never leave us.

Staying focussed

 ‘…they were overwhelmed with joy..’ (Matthew 2:10)

Matthew 2:1-12 (Year C: Epiphany)

The Epiphany as it is called – the visit of the ‘three wise men’ – customarily marked the end of the Christmas period. In Ireland, it used to be a widely observed ‘holy day of obligation’ among many Christians meaning that schools were closed but ready to re-open the following day after the Christmas break if it fell on a weekday. In Irish tradition this time is referred to as ‘Nollaig na mban’ – the women’s Christmas when the women rested and gathered together while the men did the work at home!.  Nowadays, the 6^th of January is associated with the ‘January sales’ as businesses struggle to clear shelves before the spring stocks arrive.

What does the ‘epiphany’ mean for us today?

The word epiphany comes from the Greek word theophaneia meaning the appearance of God to human beings. There is something of a mystery about the story of the visit to Bethlehem – literally the House of Bread in Hebrew – by the ‘wise men’ who came from the ‘East’. Whatever its historical origins the story has captured the imagination of generations as a type of climax for the story of Christ’s birth. The story of the visit is unique – among the Gospels – to Matthew. It draws attention to the appearance of God’s love in a troubled and divided world – a love that draws all peoples to God-who-is-love.  That all are called no matter who they are and where they come from is a theme in all the Gospels. It may be that Matthew wanted to draw attention to the way that the ‘gentiles’ – those outside the specially chosen Jewish people – are called to see and experience the amazing love that has been born into this world.

The journey of the wise ones (the magi as they are called) was not without danger and toil. To make a journey in such circumstances took incredible stamina, hope and trust that something was worth travelling for to see and behold.  As in today’s world, there is much danger and threat from power brokers who play with people’s lives and practice deceit and oppression. The pilgrims from the east had to use discretion, courage and perseverance to circumvent the Herodian scheming.

Astrology was a popular pastime in ancient times (and is still today among the gullible) and provides a focus for people in search of meaning, assurance and progress through life’s ways. The star that guided, pulled and filled the wise pilgrims was of another kind. It was like an inner star or magnetic force that led strangers over 100's of kilometres of barren desert to a humble place where they found something that exceeded their expectations. They were not just surprised by joy but they were ‘overwhelmed’ with joy, according to Matthew. We may note that they travelled not alone but together. On coming to a place of rest where the star shone they joined Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  Where two or three are gathered there was the messiah of Israel among them. 

The story recounts a symbolic giving of ‘gold, frankincense and myrrh’.  There is a parallel, here, to Psalm &1(72):10-11:

The kings of Tarshish and the seacoasts shall pay him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring him gifts. Before him all kings shall fall prostrate, all nations shall serve him.

But, this Psalm goes on immediately to say:

For he shall save the poor when they cry and the needy who are helpless. He will have pity on the weak and save the lives of the poor. From oppression he will rescue their lives, to him their blood is dear.

All aboard

Ancient interpreters of this text see, here, a symbol of Christ’s royalty, priesthood and death. The origin of these products might suggest a source of what is today Saudi Arabia. Who knows? It doesn’t matter. They came from afar and they were not members of the ‘In-group’.  Matthew is trying to tell us that those ‘far away’ from the promised and chosen people are invited in to see, to believe and to worship.  The barriers between Jew and Gentile were already crumbling in the second chapter of the first book of the Christian New Testament.

On a lighter note some have commented that ‘three wise women’ would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts!  To be fair to the magi we don’t know if they were all men, how many there were and what exactly they did during their stay! The important point is that they made the difficult journey, found what they were looking for and returned safely.  To put it this way:

• They sought love;
• They realised that they were loved;
• They remained in grace-given love; and
• They found love.

The words of Psalm 62(63):2-6 seem very appropriate at this point:

O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. For your love is better than life, my lips will speak your praise. So I will bless you all my life, in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul shall be filled as with a banquet, my mouth shall praise you with joy.

Three ‘stars’, not one, guided them:

• The star within of love seeking love
• The star over and beyond their immediate situation and place
• The star at the end of their journey in Bethlehem.

It was when these three ‘stars’ aligned that the pilgrims were ‘overwhelmed with joy’. The alignment took, in all likelihood, years, trial, error, re-trial and more years.  But, they got there and it didn’t finish there.  Their discovery took them back to where they came to continue their quest. How many stories were told and lives touched by the witness of their journey when they got back home?

And we journey on through life in search of meaning, renewed life and connection.  Like the magi we need to pay attention to the stars within and without that guide us. We can find it deep within if we live a more disciplined life of attention and practice based on compassion. ‘Mindfulness’ may seem like a gimmick word or cliché but it remains a key challenge. After all, Mary ‘treasured all these things’ in her heart many times in those early years of Jesus’ time.

Following our inner spark takes discipline and practice. It does not suggest a flight from reality or duty. Rather, it beckons us to become more focussed on what we are doing and experiencing now. It might be as simple as paying attention to eating, walking, waiting for a bus, conversation, non-verbal cues, pain, joy and hope. 

The story of the epiphany is a story of hope. Let this new calendar year be one of hope.

Postscript

Is it not ironic that the millions fleeing ‘from the east’ to Europe far from threatening ‘Christian civilisation’ in Europe (since when was Europe ever really Christian?) offer a unique opportunity to carry the mutual gold, frankincense and myrrh of kindness, compassion and hospitality.  There was an epiphany moment in a German train station when one child greets another child from the middle east with a kiss and a whisper.  This event told more about the potential of Europe to discover its own soul than any amount of diplomacy, warfare or haute-politique.  As the Guardian reported last year (Germany greets refugees with help and kindness at Munich central station):

Doctors assessing the medical needs of the newcomers, especially the children, say that while it is not immediately obvious when they clamber from the trains, and often beam on being greeted with gifts of cuddly toys from passers-by, about one in five are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many have tooth decay and most are insufficiently inoculated.

A fresh start

 ‘…From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace..’ (John 1:16)

John 1:1-18 (Year C: Christmas 2)

                                                       pic:  Front Royal United Methodist Church

Fresh Start is the name of a recent political agreement in Northern Ireland. Whatever that agreement will represent in the future annals of history there is nothing stopping you and me making a ‘fresh start’ this first Sunday of 2016.  For now, the gyms may be busy, the joggers out in extra force, the new year’s resolution list pinned to the fridge (however I suspect not in most cases!) and lots of people determined to make 2016 a different year. The demarcation of years, months and weeks is an arbitrary human construct as we inherit ancient customs of marking out time in harmony with the seasons or the moon, etc.  Here in the northern hemisphere, new year’s day has an added significance in that spring is only weeks away and there is going to a very gradual and slight lengthening of the days from here on.  It is close to the ‘end of the holiday period’ for those ‘lucky’ enough to have structured jobs, activities and studies as the case may be.  Soon, Christmas trees will be deposited in assigned collection places (can anybody think of the environment please!) and the Christmas decoration (or will we have to say ‘holiday’ period in order to be politically correct as in North America which means it is only a matter of time that such terminology will be applied here in Europe).

Some Christian traditions (e.g. Methodists) mark this Sunday as ‘Covenant Sunday’ – a time for renewal and re-dedication.  The first day of January is also marked as World Peace Day. In the Roman Catholic tradition the 1^st January is the feast of Mary the Mother of God while among Anglicans – never given to excess – the day is marked as the feast of the circumcision of the Lord.  Eastern Orthodox Christians also celebrate the feast of the circumcision.

(That Jesus, the Son of God, was circumcised is a useful reminder that (i) he was flesh and blood and (ii) he remained a Jew throughout his life. For the male portion of humanity thinking too deeply about the former truth may be very unpleasant!).

A fresh start?

The opening verses of the gospel of John – when read carefully – can represent a fresh start in our lives, circles and communities.  It has more than a hint of the seven days of creation in the story of Genesis 1. It also resonate, somehow, with the familiar hymn ‘Morning has broken’.  A light has shone in our darkness. That light was the light of the world and it is the light of our dark worlds  today, Sunday 3^rd January 2016.  No matter how far we have travelled or progressed or regressed or have got side-tracked – we can ‘start again’ to live life in a new way. The startling, exhilarating and shocking aspect of living as human beings is that we have the intelligence, will and understanding to ‘start again’ where we are, how we are and as what we are.  In a spiritual sense we, too, can be born again (John 1:13) whether at the age of 18 or 70. It is never too late or too early.

Perhaps it might be an exercise to write on one side of a sheet of paper our worst fears, disappointments and regrets. Put them into a tin box (or perhaps just throw them into the fire) and revisit them on 31^st December 2016.  Perhaps, then, the sky will not have fallen in after all and the very things we most feared didn’t happen but the things we never really thought of (good or bad) happen. Life is like that.

What can make the difference to our lives in 2016? John 1 gives us a clue. The Light has come into the world. We are not that light. We merely reflect that light. However, we can share in that Life that became flesh as we are and shared our toils, pains and hopes.  We need to get out and about more and see the world full of grace, full of potential and full of the glory of God hidden behind human suffering and environmental chaos.  And when we return in the evening or when we rise early in the morning the Word will be there to greet us and reassure us that we were never alone – neither in the ‘market place’ or in our own abodes.  The point is that we have already received from the fullness of God-who-is-love.  There is a saying that nature abhors a vacuum. But, there is no vacuum in our hearts if we dig deep enough. The Risen Christ already lives there.  ‘Grace upon grace’ awaits us. God desires to fill our hearts and our minds – if we let him. The opening of John hits a high theological note. Jesus was not just an extraordinary human being; he was the Logos or the Word which was with God and was God. This reading of the Good News is grounded in the flesh and blood Jesus we recognise in the nativity story but is also leading us to a faith in a God who has become flesh and blood and overturns our world and lives.

So, as we turn over a new chapter in our lives we can take responsibility for our own fresh start. May we

Thank the past

Experience today 

Embrace the future             (Bronnie Ware)

Dealing with incomprehension

 ‘…Child, why have you treated us like this?..’ (Luke 2:48)

Luke 2:41-52 (Year C: Christmas 1)

This is a story about a family. Custom and tradition. Festival and gathering. A journey back home.  A child goes missing, Worried parents.  Do the cousins know where he is?  Worry. Hell for a time.  Found him. Amazement, relief and anger for a while.  This story has all the hallmarks of one told by Mary to Luke. “Oh I remember the time he was 12. It was unbelievably difficult for me and Joseph.  We were beside ourselves. All the extended family searched for three days in Jerusalem. There were 10,000s of pilgrims from different parts of the world were there like us. Much of the time we could not understand passers-by and they could not understand us.  Some of them thought we were in the city to buy and sell our son!  When we did eventually find him there were words….  He was cheeky and said something about his ‘Father’. I didn’t understand then but I do now. I only wish Joseph were still alive today to understand what happened then. Neither of us could understand what was going on. He was so worried and it had an impact on him for the rest of his life.  But, we gradually began to understand more and more over many years that this child was very special not in a way that all children are special.  The temple officials, theologians and priests even suggested that our son might have a special calling in the Temple given his precociousness and wisdom. But, Jesus had different ideas.”

Dealing with incomprehension was Jesus’s lot in the Temple and it was Mary and Joseph’s lot with the neighbours and cousins ever since Mary was found to be pregnant while not yet with Joseph.

Images of the ‘holy family’ abounded and still abound in religious imagery, poetry and liturgy. Mary, a spotless mother with a Northern European look about her, Joseph carrying a staff or a flower everywhere he goes and Jesus a meek, mild and obedient child as it says in some Christmas hymn. In truth we know very little about Jesus and his family. What little we know is set in the context of Jesus’s ministry, mission and saving power. Family background together with the selection of events uniquely recounted in the first two chapters of Luke and in the first chapter of Matthew is hugely significant for what was the come afterwards and what was foretold according to later Christian faith and understanding of ancient Jewish history and prophecy. Everything fits, somehow, into a story that makes sense of the story of a wandering nomads in the desert (…got that spelling right for once!...) escaping captivity and seeking out a promised land somewhere. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are in that story as they were on the move while seeking refuge in Africa.  How ironic – this Christmas time – that the Saviour of the World as we believe never thought Europe or the America’s a priority. God placed his only son in the Middle East and then Africa among a pilgrim people and a family literally ‘on-the-run’.

We can only image what stresses, tensions and challenges such a way of life entailed for this holy family. It is not the plastic image we so often see and hear about. It is a very flesh and blood and very human family.  The latter-day emphasis on celibacy, other-worldliness and Euro-centric culture and power games may have robbed the story Luke is trying to tell of its vigour and surprise.  Luke was recounting (probably with the help of Mary) a real story about a real family in a real political mess that was and is the ‘Near East’ (note my language here reflects a Euro-centric world view).  Some twelve years later we revisit the family as it undergoes the trauma of losing Jesus for a few days only to find him ‘at his Father’s business’ as some English-language translations have it. Was trauma ever far from the lives of Mary and Joseph?  The little we know suggests that life was a roller coaster of trauma from a potential row over how Mary became pregnant in the first place to fleeing in terror from state terrorists in the ego of Herod Antipas all the way up to Jesus’s crucifixion and the growth of a subversive religious movement that would see Judaism split (but not by intention) and Rome compromised in the fullness of time.  And, at the age of 12, we have another trauma-story.

Some films like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ labour the point that ‘war is hell’.  The story behind Luke and the other gospels is quite different. Yes, war is hell and life can be at times for some people ‘hell’ (use of the word is deliberate here) but over and beyond this ‘hell’ there is a new life and new hope that is born in families and communities across the world.  Organisations like churches need to become more family-like at a local level to provide space for people to rediscover the good news about 21^st century whole-some families.

Surprised by mega-joy

 ‘…Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people..’ (Luke 2:10)

Luke 2:1-20 (Year C: Christmas Day)

Surprised by joy: this is a saying that aptly fits the experience of millions of children this morning. I have clear memories of that both when I was a child and when my own children were of a certain age. A messy, cold living room at 4a.m. in the morning with wrapping, batteries and instruction sheets scattered in all directions even if Santa hadn’t consumed that glass of milk or taken away this carrot for Rudolf!

Surprised by Joy is also the title of a book written by Ulster Irishman, Clive Lewis Staples. He may have taken the expression from a poem by William Wordworth when the poet forgot about the death of his daughter for a moment:

Surprised by joy — impatient as the Wind I turned to share the transport — Oh! with whom But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb, That spot which no vicissitude can find? Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind — But how could I forget thee? Through what power, Even for the least division of an hour, Have I been so beguiled as to be blind To my most grievous loss? — That thought's return Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore, Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn, Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more; That neither present time, nor years unborn Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.

Ultimately, as we look back on life so far we can say ‘one for sorrow; two for joy’. It is up to us to figure out and reframe our experiences according to this ratio. That one would have let oneself be happier is one of the five top regrets of the dying.   The message of Christmas is that tragedy does not define us. Rather, the news is good. This is a different kind of news to the kind enunciated by the Roman Emperor: it is real good news to the poorest and the least privileged of people – shepherds living a precarious life and earning a precarious living.  It is also good news for those temporarily imprisoned by loss, isolation or loneliness.  A saviour has come into our broken and sick world and we do not surrender to despair. Hope is alive and we will be surprised not just by any old sort of joy but ‘a great joy’. Not just charan (joy in ancient Greek) but mega joy – Megalēn joy.