'Tell Them The Story!'

 The end of another cycle of treatment and it seems to have gone well.  At least the ‘bad stuff’ in my blood has been pushed back to some extent and the next cycle, beginning the week after Christmas, will be less demanding.  So, a week’s respite - and much appreciated.

One of the side effects is a sense of heightened emotion which can overtake you without much warning.  A word, a tune, an image and you are off!  So this time of year is a mine-field.  I have always tried to play down the sentimental side of Christmas bearing in mind how many people are carrying personal burdens through the festivities.  And it has always been a frustration that despite the number of services we may have at this time of year there is not enough meditation on what the Incarnation means for the world.  Christmas comes around and minsters are looking for a new angle - I nearly said gimmick - to grab people’s attention.  Years ago, when I was a baby minister an old guy said to me: ‘Why not just tell them the story?’

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was in prison over Christmas 1943 for his opposition to the Nazi regime there was a suggestion that a ‘wind-player’ would come on Christmas Day to play some carols.  Many of the prisoners were not happy. They thought it would give them the ‘screaming miseries’ and make the day even harder for them.  Bonhoeffer agreed.  He wrote to a friend:  

‘I think . . . that in view of all the misery that prevails here, anything like a pretty-pretty, sentimental reminder of Christmas is out of place.  A good personal message, a sermon, would be better; without something of the kind, music by itself may be positively dangerous.’   

The old guy said to me: ‘Tell them the story.’  It is powerful to go deeper than emotion, touching as it does the destiny of individuals and nations.  Something that mattered more to Bonhoeffer that what John Betjeman called ‘carolling in frosty air.’  

Room At The Table!

 Like many people I am  looking forward to a family Christmas celebration.  The grandsons are sure to make it a lively occasion and it will be a blessing to meet up again with Amanda and Patrick, the in-laws, who will putting together the Christmas feast.  Most of us will be there, Mark and Mara will be coming through from London with Mara’s sister Chantelle.  Unfortunately Richard, Mary’s brother, and Jessie, his wife will not be there due to work commitments.  And our Paul will be maintaining law and order on the mean streets of Partick.  But through the wonders of this technological age they will be keeping in touch through the day.

Here’s a thing: what must it be like to be told that you are no longer welcome at your family’s Christmas celebration?  Yes I am talking about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.  There was a time when the unsavoury revelations were percolating down on a daily basis but just when you think it’s all over another smudge appears on an already damaged reputation.  He continues to plead that he has done nothing wrong but the stories keep coming with the possibility of more on the horizon.

The consequences of the allegations have been devastating.  Charities he supported want nothing to do with him; he has been stripped of his titles; and now the Royal Navy is considering his position as a Vice-Admiral.  Everything that he valued in life has evaporated.  And few people are denying that he deserves his loss.  But whenever something like this happens to someone, when they become a pariah, beyond the pale, the epitome of disgrace, someone for whom no excuse can be made - I have to ask myself, as a minister of the Gospel, where I stand in relation to a person like this. If Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was a member of my congregation,  if he was resident in my parish, if he was even just an acquaintance, would I avoid all contact, sneak down the other passage at Tesco to avoid him?  

This is not to minimise the scarred lives of those who were caught up in the the scandalous lifestyle of which Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is alleged to have been a part.  And we must hope that they are receiving the best of support as they navigate the rest of their lives.   But we are also left with this man whose future prospect of hope seems minimal.  In the rest of his life will he  be excluded from the mainstream of society?

There are things to be said.  

Kris Kristofferson has a song called ‘Jesus was a Carpricorn’.  The chorus says: ‘Everybody’s got to have somebody to look down on/Prove they can feel better than any time they choose/ Someone doing something dirty decent folks can frown on . . .’     Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been a focus for much indignation and vilification.  Personally, I have tried to learn that when someone is held up in public to be the worst of the worst, and when my own knee-jerk distaste has passed, I should look look at myself.  Yes they may have committed crimes for which they will deserve the consequences of the law but Jesus taught that what is wrong is not always on the surface.  

I may never have murdered someone or even committed any act of violence but Jesus taught there is such a thing as murderous thought and violent words.  I may not ever have committed adultery but Jesus taught there is such a thing as adulterous thought.    We may be on the right side of the law and accepted moral standards because we have never followed through on any of this but how do we look from the perspective of eternity?  Jesus' pronunciations of judgement are hair-raising: (Matthew 5:21-30.) Jesus goes deep, friends.  Something to be remembered this Advent when our souls are in danger of being overwhelmed with sentimentality.  

We could go on with this. It would leave me little to be said for my self except that I trust in the Gospel which assures my that no matter how great are my sins the love of God is greater.  And He has provided a way out of my dark self into the light of His presence through the powerful sacrifice of His Son Jesus.  What were the words of the angel to Joseph when passing on  the name of the baby: ‘You are to give him the name ‘Jesus’ because he will save his people from their sins.’

Are Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and people like him excluded from this hope?  My pal Albert Bogle has written a new Christmas song entitle ‘Room At The Table.’  The refrain is:

There’s room at the table 

For all who’ve been bruised

A seat at the table 

For those who’ve been used

There’s food at the table 

For the hungry and lost

And a place at the table 

for those who’ve been crossed

Room at the table for all?  Whatever our circumstances, our failure, our loss, we have a place at the table of the One who said only the the sick have need of a physician.