Anyone for a Brussel Sprout

We’d like to invite you to Come to the Table today, Christmas Day!  No, we don’t have an inexhaustible supply of Brussel Sprouts, nor pigs in blankets, so why such a question? Because the Church today is often said to be in a managed decline. How we might arrest such a fall in membership, belonging to the church, is a complex matter. But we might offer a proposal. It is from Dan White, an American theologian. Whilst we are here, anyone for a Brussel Sprout? – I have quite a few going spare.

“The church is in decline because we are turned inward instead of outward. Our hearts are not breaking for what breaks the heart of God, which is people facing a Christ-less eternity. And sadly, only a simple “invite” is all that is often needed: “Come and see, come and hear, come and explore.” 
Or perhaps Go and see them, Go and hear them, Let’s Go and explore?

https://www.churchandculture.org/blog/2021/11/1/the-real-reason-churches-are-in-decline

In our churches today we contemplate that given some more money, if we had the latest technology, more resources we would be ok. When possibly it might just need for us to focus around the table again. I’m just thinking that it wasn’t Jesus who came up with this great idea to throw a birthday party each and every year, and offer special increasingly more expensive gifts to each other. It was a Roman Emperor, 3 centuries later, who chose the day, for reasons which are still dubious.

But Jesus shared bread and wine, staple items back then, to those around the table. As we have seen through the recent Pandemic, people have needed that time to connect, that time to be with another, hear each other’s stories and chill a little. So this year’s Christmas message is a little different, a bit quirky: we are asking you to take a few moments this year to reflect on the table where you might be sharing your main meal today.

Invitation?

You might be alone, and if that’s so, we invite you to consider ringing someone and having a chat. Go on disturb their peeling of the Brussel Sprouts – someone is going to thank you big time…😉 

If it’s two of you or you are at a table more resembling the Last Supper – that’s a table for 13, all on one side please – then enjoy. But regardless may our focus be upon the people this year, the conversation and the love rather than the presents, gizmo’s and whatever.

Let’s pray: Holy Amazing God, on this day of celebration, whenever and wherever you were actually born, we celebrate the gift of Jesus to us. We celebrate the wonder of the birth, however that occurred. We thank you for allowing us to be part of your kin_dom, that you would share your love with us, to give that love before we even got onto the field, before we knew of you. Loving God, in that sharing, we might see the sharing of our food, our lives today, of all days. May we see that joy in strengthening bonds between folk, making new relationships with others – seeing you in all the faces across the table, outside walking past our place, and on the bus or train. Amen

What do the Gospels say about upturning tables?

Oh what a gift! Come and see what God has done: song titles from the past and present that herald the enormity, the significance, the wow-ness of the birth of Jesus. We have a couple travelling from one area to another, we have angels blinding everyone with their light wherever they go, and shepherds who really should have cleaned their boots before coming inside. What did your Mum tell you?  But there is so much more in the Gospels, the good news. 

When our Gospels describes those that have preceded Jesus, the names of warriors and leaders adorn the lists but there are also 5 women [from Matthew’s Gospel]. We have Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah. These were not women of possible note – you might disagree.

Tamar bore her Father-in-Law’s children, Rahab is described as a harlot but who hid spies, Ruth was the foreigner who married Boaz, and Bathsheba: didn’t she seduce David? All are mentioned in hushed tones, improperly accused of improper sexual conduct. And then there was Mary, also vulnerable to such accusations. But all linked to the birth of Jesus, celebrated in fact. 

So what?

They, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary, were all needed. It makes me think that perhaps this Jesus is very much like many of us in society today. And that’s what makes the birth of Jesus all the more special. No palaces were necessary, no great processions, just a baby, born to parents in disputed circumstances who makes such a difference to the world. Jesus turns the world upside down even at his birth. Perhaps making the table the focal point of our lives might be a real upheaval in our lives, in the life of the Church, but perhaps this Christmas we might ponder on the life of Jesus which was to continually upset the proverbial apple cart of society so that people could be equal and loved. 

So, we have heard of what a Christmas meal might bring: no, not the wind from those Brussel Sprouts, are you sure : anyone for a Brussel Sprout? – but the feeling as being as one, of being with family – whether that be 2 or 12. It is that sharing the news of what’s been happening – both the good stuff and the sad – and being welcomed, accepted, loved by all. It’s rubbing shoulders or elbowing the next person so you can get to the gravy, and renewing or even making new connections – for all are loved. 

Injustice

And if anyone says that God isn’t relevant today, consider that in Matthew’s Gospel we have social injustice with Herod killing children and others just to ensure that everyone sees that he has power – we wouldn’t see that in our world today? #Putin but God was born into that world. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is born into squalor with only some lowly shepherds in attendance, we have the exact picture of economic injustice – but Jesus was still born into that. So where there is mess, either with social or economic injustice, we will see God, for God was with us (Emmanuel) then and still with us now.

Where’s my present?

We pray for the people across the world who today may not have that opportunity to be as one. Those who don’t recognise Jesus’ celebration, but celebrate it anyway. Those who aren’t able to be together because they are separated by miles and miles. Those that can’t hear that familiar voice anymore. Those who may be working. And as we pause, as we seek to know more of you God, we thank you for all these people. We ask that in some way we might be part of your solution in bringing people together, making community where there is none, strengthen bonds which have loosened over the years – showing your love.

May that be our vision of a present this year.