Contemporary Nativity Scenes 2022

   For some years I've wanted to post some images as a collection of Nativity scenes reminding us this story is all about context! The 700 year wait, the middle east tensions, this invention for the story championed by St Francis of Assisi - because as we all know:

No stable, no donkey, how many visitors from the East?, no Innkeeper, how many under 2s were slaughtered, what Census...? It goes on reminding us this literary myth where Matthew is at pains to parallel the story of Moses...

   Anyhow, there's much more to say and I'm not pulling the story down... on the contrary I'm hoping we can hear it for all it's worth! The story of God one of us, here now! God who says everyone is counted, even young girls, the poor, people from a small place, the strugglers and all of us! More to follow!

"O Little Town of Bethlehem"

Things are not what they were in Bethlehem! With Middle Eastern conflict and Israel fuelling discontent, constructing a massive wall and checkpoints, settlements and more...

Peace activists and networks have a way of cutting through...  maybe we'll sing it in coming weeks!

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and restless sleep,
a missile glideth by
While children weep in shallow sleep
for friends who are no more
How silently, how silently
their hope has gone away
No laughter rings, no choir sings
in shepherds’ fields this day
The angels in the heavens
are hushed in sad lament
the holy child forced into exile
finds Herod won’t relent
O holy child of Bethlehem,
descend on us we pray
Your love bring down on David’s town,
drive fear and hate away
Awake the ire of nations,
let justice be restored
Rebuild the peace in silent streets
where once your love was born
O broken town of Bethlehem your people long for peace,
But curfews, raids and barricades have brought them to their knees
Yet still they long for justice, and still they make their stand.
Their hopes and fears still echo down the years
Come heal this holy land.
O holy child of Bethlehem, a royal refugee.
Your place of birth, now hell on earth, through our complicity.
The innocents still suffer, their backs against the wall.
We see the crime, the pain and death
And choose to ignore it all.
O holy streets of Bethlehem, where watch towers block our view.
With armoured cars and tanks and guns so no one can go through.
The market place stands empty. The fruit rots on the tree.
While loving families strive to build
A life of dignity.
O hopeful town of Bethlehem quite soon your day will come
When tanks go back to Israel and prison walls are gone.
Go tell it on the mountain and spread it o’er the plain
The ancient land of Palestine
A nation once again.

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 4

 Station 4. "Photo Reflection News 2022"

Time to observe and reflect and pray about the news here and across the world for 2022!

Just a simple opportunity for you also to think of people, places you know...

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 3

Station 3. "World Map and Tea light Candles"

Lit or unlit, place a candle anywhere in the world you believe needs our prayers and/or God in action.

Let's be careful with any Children and lit Candles but this always creates a significant stunning image! 

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 2

"Play dough symbols of God's Love" 

Everyone is an artist, when it comes to play dough and shaping a simple symbol!

I've seen people make trees, hearts, a hand symbol, a sun, or two people figures, a flower, who knows!

It's a simple way to spend time reflecting on what the symbol means to you...

Leave them together on the table...

Interactive Christmas 2022 Station 1

 

"Station 1 "Hope & Longing in the Manger"

The manger is a symbol, as if all the world's trouble, missed opportunities, our struggles and everything needing hope, joy, peace and love is stuffed in there and love was born into it all! Can we write our hopes & longings on a strip of paper and add it to the manger... Pens and paper are there, maybe grab a book to lean on and write your hopes... taking a turn to place it there...

10mins max, consider social distancing for safety as well!

Christmas Worship Hamilton Uniting Church 2022

   Christmas holds so many truths all at once, as it has for thousands of years. Matthew wrote with strong intention to place Jesus story in parallel with that of Moses, reflecting also Isaiah's prophetic tradition. In this way the details, taught as concrete literal truth, get in the way of what this story might just be about... God One Of Us Here Now! Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, leads us to look with several new lenses at the story we’ve heard since we were toddling around in pajamas. "There’s the beauty of a young family shepherding a new life into the world, amid brutal oppression from a power-hungry empire. There’s the unwed teenage girl who’s told she will carry the savior of the world while a disdainful religious culture watches her belly swell. Through it all, we get a glimpse at Mary’s fierce desire to honor her Creator, and the tremendous power held in the way she accepts this divine assignment." 

As Nadia takes us through the Christmas story, she points out how God moves through the world by turning the notions of “power” and “blessing” upside down while lifting up the voiceless and the oppressed, reminding us that “being ‘blessed’ means seeing God in the world and trusting that God is at work even in things we can’t see, understand, or imagine.” (adapted from Jen Hatmaker)

   Can love be born again in a manger full of all the problems in our world today? Can we know we are all daughters and sons of God as we live out the call to join God in the neighbourhood?

   The Nativity image above invites what all this means, a story in context, note all the hidden clues to meaning in the image, don't stop at 10-12 subtle inclusions...