I am writing this on the day
after the bin lorry tragedy in Queen St, Glasgow. At this point the extent of the injuries sustained and
the total number of lives lost has not been established. Information is only slowly building up
although we have some idea of the pain and sense of loss being experienced by
many families.
The inevitable regret is being
expressed that this has happened in a season of joy and celebration and
fun. One cannot argue, however,
that the right decision has been taken to switch off the lights in George
Square and to silence the traditional music. One young woman interviewed today for television has said:
‘You feel bad about celebrating Christmas.’
This won’t be the first Christmas
where I have felt exactly like that.
My first Christmas in St Paul’s in 1988 fell under the shadow of the
Lockerbie bombing and the loss of 259 lives. If the celebrations were inevitably muted that year I
remember thinking that this particular tragedy forced us back on the central
meaning of Christmas. Matthew links the birth of Jesus with an ancient
prophecy that said: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son
and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.”
(Matthew 1: 22-23).
This did not mean joy and celebration
for those directly involved in the birth of Jesus. For Joseph and Mary there were difficult decisions to be
made; there was a journey to be made from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary well
on in her pregnancy; there was no comfortable place for Mary to give
birth.
Later, King Herod was disturbed
at the news of the birth of the Messiah.
He tried to use the Magi to ascertain the exact place where Jesus was so
that he could eliminate this threat to his power and authority. When that didn’t work he ordered the
killing of every baby boy in Bethlehem 2 years old and under.
But still the message persisted:
‘God with us.’ Not just in the
days of joy and celebration and fun and achievement but even in the darkest of
days. God was still present
and working in the anxious thoughts of Mary and Joseph, in the hardship they
both experienced, in the anger and violence of a paranoid king. No one feels the challenge of that
thought more than I but this is where the Word of God brings me time and
again. Christianity is not
in the end a feel-good religion so much as a reality-grounded faith in a God
who is working out His good and loving purpose in the midst of human suffering
and tragedy. The birth of
His Son was a dark time for many people but that birth was the hope of
humankind. The death of His Son
was the darkest moment in human history but through that death came the
possibility of forgiveness and renewal for men and women and the hope of life
beyond death. This revelation of
God in the midst of humanity led Paul the Apostle to say: ‘There is nothing in
all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
We feel the darkness of Christmas
2014 in Glasgow but yet one more ancient witness needs to be heard. John the Apostle, perhaps the closest
to Jesus and the most discerning wrote:
‘The light shines in the
darkness, but the darkness has never overcome it.’ (John 1: 5)
