Friday, December 27, 2013

The Twelve Days of Christmas

When I was planning Christmas Day Service at my church I decided to make a large part of it a Birthday Party for Jesus.   It seemed very appropriate and something we don't usually do.   After candles (The Advent Candles), Christmas crackers, mince pies, balloons and a game based on the Unforgiving Servant we sang The Twelve Days of Christmas with gusto.   I gave the worshippers a copy of the words as we felt they might get the higher numbers wrong - I usually do!
Before we sang, I spoke about the history of the song.   Back in the days when Protestantism had just established itself in the United Kingdom the poor Roman Catholics had a very bad time indeed.   Their priests had to resort to subterfuge and hide in ingenious "priests' holes" in big houses where the families still continued the Catholic traditional worship.   If they knew the authorities had got wind of their presence they had to literally "go to ground" whilst a search of the house was made.   It was a very difficult and frightening time for Catholics who wanted to remain true to their traditional beliefs.   So it was that, as the Catechism could not be used, an alternative unofficial catechism was adopted.   This was The Twelve Days of Christmas which was a coded way of remembering what was considered something very important.   I append below a cracking of the code for your benefit:

 
My True Love = God

A Partridge in a Pear Tree = Jesus
Two Turtle Doves = Old and New Testaments
Three French Hens = faith, hope and love
Four Calling Birds = The Four Gospels
Five Gold rings = The Pentateuch (First 5 books in the Old Testament)
Six Geese a-Laying = The days of creation
Seven Swans  a-swimming = Seven sacraments
Eight Maids a-milking = the beatitudes of Jesus
Nine Ladies Dancing = Fruits of the Spirit
Ten Lords a-leaping = Ten Commandments
Eleven Pipers Piping = The remaining faithful disciples
Twelve Drummers Drumming = Points of teaching in the Apostles' Creed
 
You can see from this that a Catholic worshipper would be able to remember what each number represented and therefore keep their faith alive.   It reminds me of the need to give the early Christians something to keep their own faith alive during the terrible times of persecution that they faced at the hands of the Romans as they tried to evangelise the known world.   Many were thrown into jail following which they were torn apart by ferocious animals as a fun spectacle before the crowds in the Roman arenas.   To their credit, they accepted their fate and were proud to follow Jesus to death.   But, their encouragement was contained in the Book of Revelation, written in code so that we, today, have difficulty in understanding what it says.   But they knew what the code represented and could read the words with ease.

It has never been easy to live out the Christian life when those who are in command condemn you.   History is a large patchwork of different experiences of suffering on the part of those who have run up against opposition by living out the life taught by Jesus.   It seems that those who have persecuted Christians have known full well the power of Jesus in today's world.   Our faith and belief contains a strength which astounds those outside our ranks.   They have always gone to great lengths to try to eradicate Christianity.   They have always failed.   Prisoners have been incarcerated below ground and still have known the love of God coming and supporting them.   
The song, Twelve Days of Christmas, was obviously just another device to keep faith alive when danger threatened.   We are reminded that there is no place anywhere in which we can experience the absence of God and his love.   When he was imprisoned for preaching against Nazism, Pastor Martin Niemoller heard one door after another close behind him, and each one stood between him and The Book.   This was how he related the story at a meeting I attended as a youngster in Colne Municipal Hall.   Although he was not allowed his Bible, his faith was not diminished,and he survived a great many dreadful experiences before he was released.
As each one of us finds the daylight at the end of our personal tunnel we say, "Thanks be to God!"

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Advent darkness with the offer of light

I write this on the shortest day of the year with gales forecast for tonight and continuing through Christmas 2013.   At 9.00am today the sky above Penysarn, Anglesey was as black as I have seen it.   In daylight terms this was truly a very short day.   Over these 24 hours we could expect a great deal of darkness.
It was out of the darkness that Jesus came in the manger at Bethlehem, situated in a cave stable with his mother and father, unable to find any room in which to stay.   We are reminded of the dark and forbidding world in which we live when we read the nativity story of "no room at the inn".   There never has been any room in this world for God incarnate.   Only those who are committed to God are able to find him a corner in which to dwell.   The indwelling God, here in the world, reminds us that even in a hostile place there is room and a potential for love and salvation.
Today we face great challenges.   It becomes harder to make headway against life's storms.   Each week I volunteer at our local food bank and meet the people who have come for an emergency supply of three days' food.   One client told me of losing his job and a few months later losing his child of 7 months.   The crushing effect of these two events in his life have caused his health to deteriorate too.   Yet, still, he has dignity in his face and wears clean clothes.   His attitude to life ennobles him and causes him to stand up straight, even though he has incredible problems just getting through each day.
Jesus commented that "the poor will always be with us", and this is true.   Society, in general, looks down on people on benefits as though they have no right to occupy our streets and towns.   They say there is no need for poverty.   It might become true if all were to live by the standards Jesus laid down form his disciples.   But while there are those who earn great sums of money and complain about taxation the poor will always be there.   As I look around I see great inequality growing like rising yeast with no signs of abatement.   Oh, yes, the world to which Jesus came 2,000 years ago remains very dark indeed.
When you travel through a long tunnel, you see the small pinprick of light ahead that is the other end of the tunnel.   It gives you a point to aim for, the hope of salvation as you travel in darkness.   That light at the tunnel's far end reminds me of the star of Bethlehem that shone to speak of hope and salvation in all that darkness.   Lowly shepherds and mighty kings from the east together made their way to see the new king who brought salvation.   God beckoned and they came, drawn as if by a magnet.   There in the straw they found a small baby and marvelled at the hope for the world that came with him.
As I writ,e there are millions of Syrians without homes and many without shelter, caught up in a vicious civil war.   All over the world conflict rages as the powerful deny the weak a home or a meal.   Thousands of people in this country are devaluing their lives by taking drugs that will only destroy.   We see pictures of blood dripping from the hands of those who see themselves soldiers fighting a war that has no validity in reality.
Do we need Jesus to come to us again this Christmas?   I'll say we do.   He is our only hope.   People searching for peace and salvation in the worldly things of life do not know of their desperate need of the baby of Bethlehem.   All of them have a chance.   I pray that they do not walk away like the rich young man of the gospels.   Coming to Jesus is no quick fix for it is the beginning of a long journey.   But that journey has the greatest destination and a promise of true peace that cannot come any other way.