One of the many things that people appreciated about Christmas last year was the way in which we placed the Crib scene under the altar.  It was almost as though Bethlehem had come to Kelvedon and Feering.  This innovation proved to be so popular, and a wonderful focus for our devotions, that we will be doing the same for Christmas 2004, in both of our churches.  The idea of having a model version of the Nativity was first thought of by St. Francis of Assisi.  Another saint, St. Bonaventure, writing in the 13th century, describes how Francis hit upon the idea: - "That this might not seem an innovation, he sought and obtained licence from the Pope, and they made ready a manger, and bade hay, together with an ox and an ass, be brought unto this place.  The man of God, St. Francis filled with tender love, stood before the manger, bathed in tears, and overflowing with joy.  Solemn masses were celebrated over the manger, Francis the Deacon of Christ chanting the Holy Gospel."

As Christmas approaches we would do well to spend a few moments looking at the characters who make up the Nativity Tableau and see what they, by their presence in the stable, have to teach us about Christmas.

Angels, for example, have a great deal to teach us about the faith.  We know from the Gospels that Angels filled the skies above Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born and the air was filled with the beauty of their song.  "Glory to God in the highest and Peace to his people on earth."  In one of the most beautiful paintings of the Nativity scene that I know, Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity', the artist has placed a number of angels above the stable.  So great was their joy at the birth of Christ that the angels are shown to be dancing in a ring.  The angels sing and the angels dance.  At the birth of the Christ Child there was great rejoicing in Heaven.  This, I feel, should give to those who are 'in Christ' great hope for the future.  Heaven is no way a place of solemnity, 'it is a place of great joy and happiness', of singing and dancing.  But as well as thoroughly enjoying themselves the angels were given an important message to convey to mankind.

"Now in this same district there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch through the night over their flock".

I find that as I try to visualise those shepherds I get two quite contradictory pictures.

The first picture is both romantic and tinselly - that of the familiar heroes of the Crib and the Christmas card.  These are solemn and churchy shepherds, the sort who would look quite at home in a stained glass window.

The second picture is as different as could be.  It's of a ribald gang of red-nosed comedians - and I know exactly where I got them from, they are the ones that girls and boys sing about when the teacher is out of earshot - the ones who "washed their socks by night".  It is impossible to feel that shepherds like these were a very romantic or churchy lot.

From my knowledge of history I find it interesting that the people of the Middle Ages, who actually knew about shepherds and what they were like, were not in the least inclined to be reverent about them.  In fact, in the Miracle Plays, those mediaeval soap operas which acted out the whole of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the shepherds were always portrayed as sock-washers.  They were there to provide comic relief.  They were the Laurel and Hardy characters who dished out a bit of homely knockabout by way of contrast to the sombre scenes of the Passion.  But it is important to grasp that they were not merely figures of fun.   The audience completely identified with them - these silly shepherds, these ordinary, clumsy, muddle-headed, funny, lovable creatures, were ordinary people just like themselves.

The mediaeval instinct was surely right.  That is the most important point about the appearance of the shepherds in the Gospel story.  Any tendency we have to distance them from us, to see them as strange, or different, or holy, is a mistake.  They must be seen for what they are, people like you and I, the people for whom Christ came, the ordinary people.  When God came to live among us he didn't ask for special privileges.  He didn't ask to be accommodated with the rich, or the successful, or the clever.  He was content to spend long years at the carpenter's bench, and when his public ministry began He chose for the most important mission in history the most ordinary people imaginable - fishermen and income-tax clerks and, because we don't know the occupations of all the Twelve, quite possibly a shepherd or two as well.

So what the shepherds are saying to us this Christmas is this: "We were the first.  There was nothing special about us.  We weren't especially clever, we weren't especially good, we weren't especially successful, we weren't even especially religious.  And yet we were the first, the first to worship Jesus, the first to be welcomed into his family.  You see you don't have to qualify.  You only have to come."  That same invitation is still open to you today - "O Come, let us adore him!"

"So they went with all speed and found their way to Mary and Joseph; and the babe lying in a manger."

The invitation is still the same.  Do come along to  St.  Mary's and All Saints' at some point during the Christmas season to one of our many services and stand before the crib scenes under the high altars in order to ponder upon the meaning of this "great and mighty wonder".

Before we look at the two figures closest to Jesus, let us not forget that there were not only humans in the stable but that the animal kingdom was also represented by the ox and the ass who kneel in adoration before their creator God who lay before them asleep in their manger.

Nearest to Jesus we have Mary and Joseph.  Joseph the Worker - there, supporting Mary his wife, the Blessed Virgin to whom we give honour because of her obedience to God's call.  She it was who co-operated with God and was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and thus enabled the Word to be made flesh.

In the centre of the Crib you will, of course, see the Infant Jesus - notice especially that everyone in the scene surrounds and looks at Jesus - the Babe of Bethlehem.  As you look at that Holy Child asleep in the hay, imagine yourself to be there in that Bethlehem stable and you too will become part of what Christmas is really all about.

                                With Christmas Blessings,

                                         FATHER DAVID