Catholic, Protestant, Liberal, Right-Wing, Left-Wing or alt.worship? It doesn’t matter – just choose your preferred route through this sermon-for-all-people.
Today, Bethlehem is not the same as it was when Jesus was born. No longer would you be able to meet the sheep and lambs walking homeward one by one along the little road to Bethlehem. No, because today a wall has been built across that little road to Bethlehem. A wall that symbolises the divisions between human beings / the oppressive attitude of the criminal state of Israel towards the Palestinians / the need to protect the Western World against Moslem fundamentalism / Banksy’s new canvas / the walls we build in our own hearts.
The shepherds were the first to go to see the new-born Jesus. Not the Wise Men, not Herod, nor the Little Drummer Boy. But the shepherds. And in the humble figures of those hardworking shepherds we can see that Jesus came to liberate the poor from an oppressive regime / the love of God for the outcasts / that they were mythical figures that don’t really exist. After all, modern critical studies have conclusively proved that there were no shepherds in Bethlehem. And even if there were they wouldn’t be in the fields a-biding.
The Bible tells us that they came in and worshipped the new born king. Recognising the divine light that shone in his eyes. / A late first-century attempt to associate Jesus with pagan gods. / Blackleg lickspittles that they were, kow-towing to God at the first opportunity when they should have been nationalising the gold, frankincense and myrrh for the good of the workers. / Reinforcing institutionalised patriarchy.
Surely, we too can learn from the shepherds. If we bow down alongside them, at the manger, in that stable cold and bare / cave at the back of the inn / mythical re-imagining of Jesus’ birth in an attempt to claim divine nature for him / embodiment of oppression, then we can see that this child is indeed born for us / part of a fascist conspiracy / God with us/ probably historical, although the story itself isn't. We go from that place of beauty changed – because we have seen God / the textual critics’ explanation of Luke 2 / how they’re pulling the wool over our eyes / the red flag flying over the manger / the face of Jesus in a pebble.
So now as we leave at this midnight hour, we go out into the darkness of the world. Ready to strive for the Revolution / share the Good News of our saviour / be adopted into his divine nature as he adopted our human one /compare the Synoptic Gospels to find out which parts really were “Q” / punch a shepherd.
A happy Christmas to you all.
We know that the greenhouse is under surveillance (we really should have put one-way mirror in place of all that glass), but now we suspect that the Archdruid has planted listening devices in the tea-light centre of the Chilterns - how else could she know about the off-the-cuff mentions of Banksy, or the socio-political references to shepherds in Bethlehem?
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