Thoughts

Easter is in late April this year. It is the fifth latest date for Easter. If your birthday is on 21^stApril, the last time Easter landed on your birthday was 1957. However, if you live long enough there are a few Easter birthdays to come in 2030, 2041 and 2052! Then it will be nearly another fifty years until you see Easter on your birthday again; make the most of these four Easters. Back to the pancakes: because Easter is later, Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) is on 5^th March. The date of Easter is a moveable feast and everything else has to try and fit around it, which is often easier said than done. Take for instance the school term. The spring term can be very short. This year with a late Easter, the term is twelve weeks long, two or three weeks longer than usual. Consequently, the first half term of the summer term is just five weeks long with three bank holidays to fit in.

In the church year, it often feels that Easter comes hot on the heels of Christmas. When Easter is as late as this year, there is a gap of a month between the end of Christmas and the beginning of Lent. The church calls this ordinary time when there is no special season. On the face of it,this does not seem very interesting. Yet writing this article between Christmas and New Year, when I have been busy and pressurised by work, the idea of a quieter simpler time is enormously appealing. We can only stretch ourselves beyond our normal capacity for a short period of time. Doing anything excessively always results in some form of damage. If we ignore the warning signals, we start making bad judgments, forgetting important things and often becoming ill. Our lives need to be accentuated by highlights which encourage and enthuse. We have to endure the low points in our lives. For most of the time,our lives should be normal and balanced. Too much of the good stuff can be exhausting and make us complacent. Too much of the bad stuff can make us feel low, withdrawn and lead to depression and illness. Life has, for the most part, to be lived normally. What is normal? This is a cause of great debate but I think we know what is right and good for us and we should aspire to get that balance. As part of normal living, there needs to be a good spiritual dimension. We need to keep the lines of communication open to God. God is not just there for a crisis and important times. It is just as important to share our small worries and simple thanks on a daily and regular basis. It is important to develop a real relationship with God and include Him as an integral part of our everyday lives.

Ordinary time reminds us that we need to cultivate a good and healthy lifestyle that incorporates a real spiritual dimension. A little and often works so much better than crisis management.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

I am always a little surprised how early Christmas decorations appear, they have drifted into November. When I was growing up, the Christmas decorations went up a week before Christmas. We always seemed to be behind everyone else’s decorations. By contrast, the decorations disappear very quickly within the twelve days of Christmas. I am not sure if people have become tired of the space that the decorations occupy and want their home back to normal, or perhaps the old wives tale of a year’s bad luck if you fail to get them putaway still holds some power. Whatever the reason, the long expected and awaited Christmas is very quickly put away and boxed up for another year.

Now, try to remember your best Christmas present. I do realise it was last year but it is still only a week ago! Try to remember who gave you such a thoughtful and special present that you really wanted. Now imagine taking that present putting it in a box, sealing it and putting it away for next Christmas. The present is so special that you decide to use it only at Christmas every year, that way it will never really get used or ever wear out. What kind ofreaction do you think you might get from such a generous present giver?It may well be the last present you receive from that person!

My point is that thestoryof Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, however,if he just gets born and that is all that happens, it is just a short story and not life changing. But that is not what happens, there is a whole life to be followed and engaged with. Yet, it seems people are happy to celebrate a birth and ignore the significance of the life that follows. The birth becomes important because of the significance of the life lived by Jesus. As we follow Jesus’ life, it brings a new perspective to the ordinaryworld that was around him. Everyday events and experiences took on new significance as Jesus encountered life. At the heart of this Jesus lived an ordinary existence,nota privileged sheltered life. He encountered people in desperate need, often cast out from their community. Jesus met their need and reintegrated them back to their families and communities. He was equally eager for people to encounter and engage with God. Through Jesus,we get glimpses of how God sees the world and how God seesand cares for us.

People thought that God had forgotten them and did not care. But the opposite was true, God was there waiting for them to find their way home. Unlike the person who gave that special present that you put away for next year, God will keep trying each and every time to engage and find us. It is more a matter of whether we have forgotten about God.  Perhaps we put him away until Christmas next year or there is an emergency we cannot handle. That is not a healthy way to encounter Jesus.

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com

The nativity play is often very much part of the preparations for Christmas. Yet, we come to the nativity with mixed feelings. Perhaps, we have been involved in the production of the nativity play, all the children are off sick and we are not sure how we are going to manage! Maybe we look back with fondness and remember a time when we were playing an important part like Mary, Gabriel or a King, and it made a great impression of us. On the other hand, we may be emotionally scarred by not being given a leading role and had to settle for a minor role like a donkey or a sheep and still resent the person who got a better character. I guess many of us might have missed out on the whole thing and it is either a source of relief or a great sadness.

Putting aside personal involvement, I guess most of us have seen several nativity plays and have different memories of them. They often range from very simple with very young children to very accomplished with both adults and children. They can be set in a traditional way or a more contemporary way, yet we recognise the same underlying story. It is often a personal connection that makes one play stick in our minds. I always think of my father in law, as one of the kings in splendid robes bringing gold as a gift. The story often has amusing dimensions, some intentional and some unexpected. There must be a huge catalogue, characters dashing off to the loo, or really not getting on with their fellow actors, or spotting a parent and being completely absent in the middle of the play. The grumpy innkeeper, who has no room at the inn and would rather be safely tucked up in bed usually makes for a colourful character.

Yet, behind the happy outward story, there are some quite painful truths that are easily forgotten. Mary and Joseph were traveling home yet there is no welcome or mention of the family to help out. It was Mary’s first child, she would have been very afraid of what was about to happen to her. There is no mention of a midwife to help with the birth. Complications with births were life-threatening events for both mum and baby. When you understand some of the dangers involved and social isolation, the celebrations of the safe arrival of the baby and mother doing well resound from heaven to earth. The shepherds witness it first hand and are moved to find out more. The people of the East see a star and travel to find out more of what has happened.

If you see a nativity play this year, will it be just like a Christmas decoration that is got out every year and put away for the rest of the year? Or like the shepherds and wisemen will we be drawn into the story and be able to give thanks to God for Jesus Christ, who lived like us?

Rev. Martin Wood. The Rectory, Church Lane, Cheriton Bishop EX6 6HY 01647 24119 (Tuesday to Sunday) revwood163@gmail.com