(written by Roger Munday, lay pastor/preacher at The Church at Blackshaw Head)
The baby had a birthday,
Cecily Taylor, Worship Live No 24, (London : Stainer & Bell, 2002), p. 12.
We made the brandy sauce;
We drank his health, and spent our wealth,
upon ourselves of course.
We had a lovely party and brightened up the place;
profusely strung, the tinsel hung –
you couldn’t see his face.
Then, when the feast was over, and we’d run out of cheer,
we packed him in the trimmings tin,
till Christmas time next year.
The story of Christmas is not simply the story of the birth of a baby, recalled each winter with great festivity and at great expense. Most people see it as just that, it has to be said, which is why most people pack away the story, along with the fairy lights and tree decorations, on or before twelfth night. That’s when the Christmas story is officially done and dusted for another year, to be put in the loft with the tinsel and baubles and forgotten about until it’s time to do it all over again.
But the story of Christmas is is so much more than the story of the birth of a baby. The story of Christmas is the story of the birth of an idea. A project for a new world order.
The angels came up with the first advertising slogan for this project on Christmas morning : “Peace on Earth and goodwill to all people.”
John the Baptist gave the project a name : Matthew’s gospel tells us that “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.’ “
So : it’s a project called ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’, because it will be like a little bit of heaven here on earth. It’s a project based on the simple principle of “Peace on earth and goodwill to all people”.
Thousands of years ago, the Old Testament prophet Micah declared God’s desire for his people to live their lives in that way. “This is what the Lord requires of you – to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” These words were echoed by other prophets : Amos has God saying “I hate the hypocrisy of your religious feasts – Away with the noise of your songs. I won’t listen to your music; But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream! “ When Isaiah was prophesying the way things were going to be, in a reading often heard at Christmas-tide, he said “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this ”. For the prophets it will happen – it’s a future thing.
The project isn’t an idea of hope for the future, however, It’s hope for the here and now. When Mary was responding to the angels visit to tell her she will become pregnant and bear God’s son, she said in those words we call the magnificat : ‘My soul magnifies the Lord. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has lifted up the humble and brought down the mighty from their seats’.
Jesus has not even been conceived, never mind born, and yet Mary says God has done these things. It has happened and it is happening. It’s a done thing, a now thing.
And it’s an idea that we see Jesus introduce at the start of his ministry. In Matthew’s gospel the beginning of the account of the ministry of Jesus comprises three chapters of teaching which are usually referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. And the teaching begins with a few verses known as ‘the Beatitudes’ :
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.‘Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
The bible commentator William Barclay described the sermon on the mount as the essence of Jesus’ teaching, and ‘the Beatitudes’ as ‘the essence of the essence of the Christian way of life’, so he obviously thought these few words were pretty fundamental to the gospel message.
These words of Jesus are at the heart of the project’s manifesto. Here is our first introduction to this earth-shattering idea – nothing short of the complete overturning of the world’s accepted way of things. In simple terms, I like to think of ‘the Beatitudes’ as the Be Attitudes – the Attitudes we need to adopt to Be faithful followers of Jesus.
We are told that before he started his ministry in Galilee Jesus was baptised by John and the Spirit of God descended to him. Then, full of the Holy Spirit, he went to Nazareth and preached in the synagogue. He read from Isaiah : “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”. Then it says, “he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’“
The project is up and running.
And what happened? “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard his preaching.They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.”
Just like the baby at the centre of the Christmas story, this Kingdom of Heaven idea is fragile. It is vulnerable. It is not welcome and it has many enemies. It needs caring for, nurturing and nursing, enabled to develop and given space and freedom to grow.
Let’s not forget that the baby at the centre of the Christmas story was born into a hostile environment.
– A physically hostile environment, far from home with in an overcrowded town with no room in the inn and no crib for a bed. Laid in a manger all forlorn, in a stable bare. Meanly wrapped in swaddling bands.
– A politically hostile environment, with a cruel king desperate to hold on to what power he had in an occupied land, and prepared to go to any lengths, including mass infanticide, to get rid of any threat to his position.
– And a socially hostile environment, the child of unmarried parents – a poor carpenter from Nazareth and his young, very pregnant wife, compelled to travel nearly a hundred miles on some bureaucratic form-filling exercise. Then, instead of going back home, forced to flee for their lives, and become refugees and asylum-seekers in another country, because of the threat to the life of their infant son.
And this baby, this new world order, this Kingdom of Heaven idea, is also being brought to birth in a hostile environment. It is being obstructed all the time, being threatened all the time, by selfishness, arrogance, greed, hatred, even by political doctrine. The rich don’t want to be sent away empty. The mighty don’t want to be brought down from their seats. And they hold the power in this world. So they create hostile environments. Refugees and asylum seekers are unwelcome. The poor and disadvantaged are marginalised and victimised. Hatred, racism, nationalism and bigotry are on the rise. The humble are ridiculed, the arrogant and pompous exalted. Make no mistake, this baby, this project, is coming into a hostile world, physically, politically and socially.
The good news is that this project is not down to us. It’s not something we’re expected to do – to bring in this new world order, this kingdom of heaven idea.
No, it’s not the church’s job – it would be a long time coming if it was left to us.
It is God’s job – ‘the zeal of the Lord will accomplish it’. And is accomplishing it. It’s happening all around us.now, wherever we see God using somebody for good, however unexpected. Whether it’s Sikhs and Muslims providing a food kitchen after the Hebden floods, strangers volunteering at food banks or a schoolgirl making a protest over climate change, a neighbour offering a lift or to do shopping for someone indisposed, someone simply offering a seat on a bus or letting someone into a traffic queue, I could go on and on, and you could no doubt come up with many examples yourselves. The Kingdom of Heaven is being built everywhere, all the time, wherever kindness rules and love is shown. Wherever people care, show goodwill, and make peace. Wherever love is, God is.
Peace on earth and goodwill to all people isn’t a religious mantra. Nor is it a political slogan. It is, quite simply, the obvious way for humans to coexist. At Blackshaw Head we refer to it by its initials – POEGTAP – and we’ve even set up a website to explore it.
Neither is Peace and Love just a Christian doctrine. It’s there in most belief systems, religious or not. When some of us were reaching our prime ‘love and peace man’ was the hippy response to the Vietnam war – the flower power generation, John and Yoko and all that.
Incidentally I was thinking about this – about the Woodstock festival, which was a high point of that hippy movement, and Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock song – do you know it – ‘I came upon a child of God he was walking on down the road’ . . .
and it had never struck me before but that’s a beatitudes reference – when she sings about a child of God she means a peace protester – blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God. (And the chorus of that song – ‘we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden’ that’s a whole new theological thread we could explore.)
The world has never needed to hear the beatitudes more than it does now. You may have read recently about the change to the doomsday clock. If you’re not familiar with it, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock, first set up in 1947 by a non-profit organisation called the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, that indicates the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe.
It sets this hypothetical global disaster as “midnight” and each January they assess the threats to humanity from various sources, and reach a conclusion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe, which they represent as a number of “minutes” to midnight. The Clock’s original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight.
It has been set backward and forward 24 times since then. The largest-ever number of minutes to midnight is 17 (in 1991), The smallest ever is 100 seconds (1 minute and 40 seconds), which it set last week. It says we are closer now to catastrophe that at any time since 1947.
It stated that its reasoning for this is based on three factors which threaten our existence.
- The first is the escalating international tension and nuclear threat – particularly given recent events in Iran.
- The second is the imminent climate and biodiversity crisis and the lack of real action to address it.
- The third is the growth of disinformation and denial, fake news and the dissemination of lies and untruths.
Together, they see these three factors as what they called a ‘witches brew’ representing the biggest threat to human existence since 1947. Bigger than the depths of the cold war, when it went to three minutes, bigger than the Cuban missile crisis or the Gulf war. It has never before broken the two-minute barrier.
So what is the answer to this three-fold crisis? Look no further than the beatitudes!
What of international tension and nuclear threat? It’s there in the beatitudes. Blessed are the peace-makers.
Six hundred years before Jesus, the Chinese philospoher Lau Tse said:
if there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations; if there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities; if there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbours; if there is to be peace between neighbours, there must be peace in the home; and if there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.
Peace on earth begins here, and now, with me and you. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God.
What of Climate change and biodiversity loss? It’s there in the beatitudes. Blessed are the meek.
Now you may not have thought about this beatitude in this way before. Have you ever wondered what it means – the meek shall inherit the earth. At first glance it seems counterintuitive. It’s the arrogant, the pushy, the self-important, who seem to make their way in this world. But this is not about the world, and all that the world stands for.
The Bible has plenty to say about the world. But here it is talking about the earth. The planet. If you want to inherit the earth, the planet, for yourselves, your children and your children’s children, this says to me, you’ve to be meek. Humble. Live humbly. And we know that this is what we are being told all the time.
Have a humble carbon footprint. Live simply, that others might simply live. Take a humble approach to your needs – don’t forever be shopping for stuff, or wanting new stuff. Take humble approach to travel, ditch the car and get the bus, stop jetting off everywhere just because you can. Take a humble approach to your energy use, turn the heating down and put on another jumper. Humbly re-use your shopping bags, and so on and so on.
– And what of disinformation and fake news? It’s there in the beatitudes. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. That’s the way to the kingdom of heaven. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers. Always be hungry for the truth – try always to get to the truth of the matter. Hold to account those who spread falsehoods. Call out those who distort the truth.
So the answer to the doomsday clock is? –
Micah 6:8
Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.
As I say, this baby is coming into a hostile world, physically, politically and socially. The zeal of the Lord is accomplishing the Kingdom of Heaven project, working in a myriad of ways though a multitude of people. But eventually everyone runs out of steam. Because they’re human. They get compassion fatigue. Other things get in the way. They have to compromise their commitment because of other demands. family. Work. They need some ‘me time’ to put themselves first because they’ve had enough of sacrificing their lifestyle fro the sake of the good works. They’re only human, after all.
But not us.
Those of us who the Spirit of the Lord is upon. Our job is to be Mary and Joseph to this baby – to nurture it and care for it, to protect it and defend it, to speak up for it and to give everything of ourselves for its sake. Like a parent – unconditionally and for always.
That is what we, who follow Christ, have to do for Christ’s kingdom project. That is what he asks of us.
Let’s do it!