The Dark Side

Advent is traditionally considered as a season of penitence; a mini-version of Lent, when we are called to consider the four “last things”, death and judgement heaven and hell. This is not something that translates very well into chocolate advent calendars, nor indeed in many church services during December. If I am being honest, these are not things that I preach about very often; I am much more comfortable talking about the God who is love. But talk of bringing love only really makes sense if we admit there are times and places where it is absent, where we are prepared to look at the darker side of our nature and its consequences. In the last few weeks we have heard of the terrible end of Arthur Lanjino-Hughes, killed by the brutality of his parents and the deaths of the 26 refugees in the Channel, victims of people-smugglers and before them a chain of events which led to them being refugees in the first place, the majority of which can probably be laid at the door of the wrong-doing of either individuals or groups. One of the key themes running through the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is the search for justice in a world where it not present. The prophets warned that the God who is a God of justice is also necessarily a God who is a judge, who will hold individuals and groups to account for their actions, who will turn her/face from the perpetrators of evil. As Psalm 82 puts it, “Arise, O God and judge the earth, for it is you that shall take all nations for your possession.”

Rev David Poyner

Those Parties…..

The news is full of parties; Christmas parties held in Downing Street to which we, and apparently the Prime Minister, were not invited. Parties held when we were under the last lot of Covid restrictions when we were all told to avoid unnecessary social contact. For many, this brings back memories of Dominic Cummings’s trip to County Durham at the start of the first lock-down; then there was the rather close physical contact between the former health secretary and one of his aides earlier this year. It does seem like one law for them, one law for us; the powerful do not share the world of the rest of us.

There is a danger that we can be excessively judgemental when we read these stories; I’m aware that I have not always followed Covid restrictions to the letter . But I understand the anger of many (including politicians supportive of the government) at these incidents; the feeling that we really should all be in this world together. We can contrast this with Christmas, when the ultimate power, God, entered this world as a human, fully human to ultimately suffer death. Whatever political rulers may do, God is with us; God does share our world.

Rev David Poyner

Saving Christmas and Saving Us (part 2)

Again we hear politicians and commentators asking how we can save Christmas. I offer two quotations, one from a recent meditation by Sister Theresa White and the other the words of Jesus from St Luke’s Gospel.

“Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to bring good news to the people of the troubled world of his time. He comes todayto give the same message; in the midst of the turmoil, the sorrows and disappointments of everyday lives, God’s faithful love is at work in our broken world.”

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

We do not save Christmas, Christmas save us.

Rev David Poyner

Advent 1955 and Now

Advent begins this Sunday. John Betjeman wrote this poem in 1955; as I gear up to write my Christmas cards, it speaks to me….

The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It’s dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound –
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out ‘Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.’

And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there –
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know –
They’d sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.

We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell’d go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger.

Rev David Poyner