Christmas Card Mysteries: No 8

Christmas Day!

Surely, at last, the mystery is over and revelation begins.

Yet we remember those angels declaring peace to humankind and we see our world, even our neighbourhoods, no more peaceful and possibly less so as a New Year begins.  It is a mystery.  But this beautiful, troubling card helps.

With a little detective work (because we have had many canal holidays) I worked out that this is a picture of the Kennet and Avon Canal in Bath.  The text inside reads Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always.  The picture is certainly peaceful if one were to measure it in decibels. The crunch of footsteps in the snow and that's about it I imagine.

My recollection of this section of canal is that we became stuck on it in a lock and in a fairly scary place where it joins a river.  No peace there.  And given Bath's geography, evident enough in the picture, a decent snowfall is going to bring distress as well as peace.  Slippery pavements, impassable hills, cancelled events.  

The pictured idyll overlays a dark unease.  

Whereas Christmas? On Christmas Day it's worth reflecting that it is really the opposite.  Most of the participants in the first Christmas were dislodged or distressed at some stage - the mother, the shepherd, the fiance, the wise men, king Herod, the bereaved parents of Bethlehem, the children of Bethlehem.  

But the pictured disruptions and deaths overlayed a bright peace, in which and to which we continue to move.

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 7

It is rehearsed almost to the point of irritation that there was 'no room for them in the inn'.  And I write that as the chair of a charity that helps the homeless and lonely.  The near irritation derives from the patently obvious fact that it is far more significant that Jesus died deserted than that he was born 'not in the inn' though the latter is admittedly a portent of his greater rejection.

Unfortunately most Christmases are darkened by world events and it is also a cliched truth that Jesus's family were forced to flee their country.  Again, it was not general world politics but actual human hatred directed at king Jesus that is reason for the story, but it still reminds us that Christ is more easily seen in the tents than in the palaces.

Anyhow, welcome to my latest Christmas Card Mystery.  Mystery No 6 had disappearing shepherds.  This card catapults Christ beyond the experience of a humble birth and a toddler refugee experience: it makes him an orphan.  It's great news for Barnardos fundraising department.  Less good for the Catholic devotion to BVM*  who it seems, with Joseph, has left the kid in the hay in the open air to be rescued by passing shepherds and wise men.

And you thought parenting in 2016 was bad?

*Blessed Virgin Mary for the non-liturgical reader

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 6

This card is unusual in that, instead of crowding a chronology of things into one moment in the stable, it has three pictures to tell how the shepherds heard, looked, then went to the stable.

An obvious alarm is that they seem to have needed the wise men's star as well as the instruction of the angel to find the babe.  I'd always thought the angel's directions were rather good - 
"Today in the City of David a Saviour has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

But looking at the third picture it appears that even the previously unknown addition of the 'sat nav' star to aid the shepherds was not enough.

For yes, on picture 2 there are 5 shepherds, on picture 3 at the mangerside there are only 3 (plus the wise men).  Maybe two went to the pub?  Or midnight mass?  Still, overall a 60% attendance rate is something most pastors would be happy to accept . . .

Happy Birthday, Maurice White

Maurice White, founding father and general genius of Earth, Wind and Fire (EWF) would have been celebrating his 75th birthday today.  Sadly for his loved ones and many fans he died back in February. 

EWF formed part of my musical growing up background.  I was never a huge fan mainly, I think, because I was not into the relentless Californian feel-goodness that characterised their undoubtedly skillful music.     

This feel-good song is the more remarkable because its subject matter is the opposite - 

Somethin' happened along the way
Yesterday was all we had
Somethin' happened along the way
What used to be happy is sad
Somethin' happened along the way
What used to be was all we had

Perhaps on a birthday it is worth thinking about that Love which cannot die, does not die, the Love that is stronger than death.  The advantage of a birthday near Christmas is that such a Love is relatively easy to locate.

If you look in the hay.

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 5

Our morning Worship Service today opened with Once in Royal David's City.  Its last verse contrasts that humble manger birthplace with Christ's ascended glory - we will see Him but

Not in that poor lowly stable

A reflective knowledge of Middle Eastern housing in the First Century makes our ideas of a stable unlikely - animals were usually kept in the lower room of a house.  But never mind that.  This card has a stable with a gold roof.  Together with some nifty woodwork we have a stable that might just have been the best-looking building in Bethlehem.  It's so posh that the cow has been left outside.  So grand, in fact, that the star and the holy family are the second and third things that catch the eye after admiring the not-at-all lowly stable.  It's fit for a King - and that is its mysterious mistake.

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 4

The mystery of this card can be easily summarised in one question.  Given the evidential star, why are those Wise Men heading in the wrong direction?

Perhaps they are three other wise men.  But then, why are they on a Christmas card?

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 3

We've received a card with a quite alarming warning on the back.

You may think that at my age I should take such a warning in my stride and not worry about it.  But what worried me about it was that for the life of me I couldn't see how a Christmas Card warranted this health and safety warning.  Like most people (I like to think) I find 'contains nuts' warnings on packets of nuts a form of corporate insanity but at least I know that nuts are dangerous to some people.  But a card - not a toy, contains small parts  . . .????

Here's the card:

Eventually I solved the mystery.  The offending small part is the little red and white ribbon at the top left - the one you'd have swallowed as a 2 year old thinking it was a toy . . .

Inevitably I studied the picture to check that health and safety had been properly respected throughout the product.

Ah, there are two stockings above a live flame.  Paper wrapped presents where the sparks may fly on the hearth.  Electric lights where ones hands should hold the banister.  Presents on the stairs and a pile of them at the foot of the stairs. Filled glasses of plonk on the narrow mantelpiece above the fire.  The tree too near the fire.

That ribbon is just about the safest thing on the card!  

  

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 2

Luke 2:8 In the same region there were shepherds staying out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night.

It's a must-do reading at the Carol Service.

Today we received THIS card (it's actually a little longer than the photo)

From time to time card makers experiment with different shapes.  The designer of this card plainly designs bookmarks the rest of the year, but in the busy season it's 'all hands on deck' I suppose.

Elongation offers special opportunities one might imagine.  A card this long could have both Jerusalem AND Bethlehem on it.  Or even Nazareth and the holy family making their long journey from left to right or whatever.  Or there's the star, appearing to those wise men far away in the East.

It's a missed opportunity then, is it not?  The star has already arrived (early).  Instead, far away to the right we have the shepherds. That will be the shepherds that Luke told us were 'in the same region/vicinity'.  Well, these shepherds aren't!  

It's a mystery.

Christmas Card Mysteries: No 1

The Christmas cards have started to arrive!  I love Christmas cards, despite spending most Decembers blogging about the weirdness that many contain.

One thing that everyone once concerned themselves about was sending their Christmas cards in time.  The Royal Mail have helpfully always supplied deadline dates.  But now we live in a social media world and people can send their Christmas Cards for free.

I've had two already.

But why?

How long does it take to send an email or a Facebook message?  Surely the right time to send such cards is on the day they celebrate - Christmas Day?  But no - they seem in general to arrive BEFORE the deadline for posting to Pitcairn Island.  It's a mystery.

Truth be told I don't much care for electronic cards.  I'm struggling to articulate why.  This card is an example of why I'm struggling to articulate why.

I can't help thinking that with a design like this it might as well be tweeted as posted!