What makes it possible for us to hear good news? How do know what news will turn out to be good? Every Tuesday we have a Question of the Day in the chaplaincy and the other week it was ‘The first Christmas story is full of people receiving news that is surprising. When was a time that you received surprising news?’
Lots of interesting thoughts were shared, like amazing birthday gifts or trips, winning prizes or getting good results. However, one conversation in particular really stuck with me. Chai is a regular at our charity soup lunch and a big fan of the cake at Brew@2 (he’s given permission to use his name) but he wouldn’t describe himself as having any particular faith.
We got into a conversation about the fact that ‘surprising news’ can be both positive and negative and Chai had the insight that Herod’s problem was that he thought that the good news was actually bad news. He wasn’t able to see it for what it was. We wondered about the factors that might have put Herod in a position to read the situation so badly.
Was it because he was obsessed with hanging onto power in an impossible political situation? Or did his wealth blind him? Or had he been taken over by an obsessive fear that only bad things were heading his way?
The good news that is the Christmas story, that God is with us, and God is for us and God loves us like precious children, will seem wonderful if we are in a place to receive it. But understandably, if we are low or anxious or preoccupied or obsessed it is really hard to let the light break in.
In ‘Crazy Jane Talks to the Bishop’ by WB Yeats are the lines
‘But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.’
Not to put to put too fine a point on it, the good news of Christmas is that God joins us in the sh*t. Quite literally.
If you are feeling this season like you are in a place where you are struggling to see the light, whether through anxiety or low mood or exhaustion, it might be hard to feel that love, I hope you will find friends who can be with you. The chaplaincy team are here for you, too, so please don’t hesitate to ask for a conversation or just some company. Christmas is precisely for those of us who feel like we are in the dark, as it says in Isaiah 9.2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
May you know the breaking of the dawn this season.
Karen Turner
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