From the Bishop
Bishop Mark's Christmas Message
Monday 24 December 2007

Bishop Mark’s Christmas Message

This Advent, unsurprisingly, I have been thinking about journeys. I have travelled many miles in the past two months, reaching into the corners of the Diocese and I hope by Pentecost to have visited you all.

As I drive from place to place I have been reflecting on the journeys taken by the main characters in our Christmas story, some of those journeys were physically short, but spiritually long, while others  must have seemed to take forever and then the moment was over in a flash.

Mary herself, heavily pregnant, journeying to an unknown community, with a man who had to explain to his fellow tribesman the reason he had stuck by her. She must have dreaded every mile, she must have reflected on the changes in her life since her encounter with Gabriel. The visit to Elizabeth, giving her space from the gossips and finger pointers, the love shown by Elizabeth to her young cousin, then the acceptance by  Joseph and this slow and painful journey with no welcome sign at the end. Would we have walked beside her taking her arm when she stumbled?

Joseph, wondering what he had done, how could things have changed so quickly, one minute planning a future, now uprooted by the authorities,  escorting  his pregnant fiancée to a town he hardly knows to face people who will accuse him of all sorts of things. Would we have slapped him on the back and helped to carry his luggage?

The wise men, not a term used by many who knew them I shouldn’t imagine. Following a star half way round the world, to visit the new king of a country no one knew, occupied by invaders and without its own authority, taking gifts of great wealth into the unknown. Would you have helped them find the way, or tapped your head and pointed your finger at them?

Those Shepherds, the outsiders, the men of the hills, doing something  extraordinary, coming into town, not for a drink or a ceilidh, but to see a newborn babe. I have to say that whatever angels might look or sound like, they must be very persuasive. Most men cannot even remember the weight of their own babies let alone rush off to visit someone else’s. Would you have come with them, into town?

The soldier, called upon to march to Bethlehem with the task of killing babies, how much dutch courage did he need, how much fear did he have of his officers, what was going through his mind, and would we have stepped out of line and said NO?

All of these journeys taken by ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, some filled with fear, some with excitement and some with wonderment.

This Christmas many people are making similar journeys, asylum seekers looking for a place to rest, young dads with no hope of finding accommodation in our towns and cities, people of faith scorned and laughed at for having a vision, ordinary people touched by something God given around them and young soldiers called on to do unspeakable things by those frightened of losing power. And will we stand by them,  give them courage and help them to find the right pathway?  The child born in Bethlehem would and does and he calls us to do the same.

Take our Christmas story into our communities, a story filled with courage, hope, fear and love, a story that deserves to be told by those who journey in faith, but told with the courage and the hope and above all the love, the love that Jesus showed us  the love for all people in all places at all times.

May you all have a blessed and joyful Christmas

+Mark