Christmas Ode

Christmas Ode

 

[painting by Rev Laura Ferguson]

So you think you know the story

of Christmas pretty well?

Universe created, chaos ordered

Humans fell,

 

Chose a different path

Which fractured everything

We detoured this whole journey

To this little baby king

 

God’s plan to bring us wholeness

Was always set in Jesus

But our foray out of Eden

Meant God’s plan had now to save us

 

Too.  In Abram God was still our God

But he didn’t get it either

Sold his wife to Pharaoh

God cursed Egypt – that’s a side bar

 

Which will come up again

As Egypt is a symbol

For all that keeps us slaves

Liberation is the end goal.

 

So Abraham and Sarah

Both are given the great promise

Though they can’t have kids

Cos their old and he’s no Adonis

 

But God says that’s no barrier

They will birth a nation

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah

Becca, Rachel’s son

 

Joseph is how they end up

in Egypt, doing well

400 years pass in a blip

And now it’s a living hell

 

God chooses Moses as their Saviour

He is not so keen

Send someone else, he says to God

But he went and we have seen

 

So many movies of the plagues

And Pharaoh’s stubborn heart

God liberates God’s people

Not before Egypt’s torn apart

                                                  ….by Pharoah’s stubborn heart.

 

So off God’s people trot

Spend some time wand’ring the desert

Complaining that they should have stayed

In slav’ry…no, they didn’t get it.

 

But before we write them off

As stupid people from times past

Let’s check ourselves and all the times

We choose what doesn’t last

 

We are bitter, mean and angry

Ungenerous and small

Those people sat in the desert

Are not far from us at all.

 

They end up far from God though

‘shipping idols made of gold

Yet God still gives the Ten Words

Which bring life to them of old.

Here’s how to live they say

So that things will go quite well

Live like this, you’ll know God’s blessing

Will they do it?  Who can tell?

 

No, you’re right, they didn’t do it,

Instead of slaves, became the masters

Cheating, treating people badly

Where will this go?  My nerve’s in tatters!

 

Well off to exile’s where they went

To learn that that’s what happens

Choose to oppress, you’ll be oppressed

In Babylon’s hanging gardens

 

Back in slav’ry they have gone

And so return to God

Please come and get us, save us, bless us

And God doesn’t say sod

 

Off.  I know, I don’t get it either

But that is how God rolls

And if we are all honest

Aren’t we glad that’s how this unfolds

 

So God rescues them again

Again and again again

This cycle of unfaithfulness to God

Goes on again again

 

Again again again again

Until we end up here

Romans are the new Egypt

They’re the ones to fear

 

And this is where the rescue plan

Needs something a little special

So Mary finds herself on the

end of a message from an angel

 

‘Here’s God’s plan’, Gabriel says

A baby, are you in?

‘A little freaked, but sure’, she says

‘You say he’ll sort out all the Sin?’

 

‘The Sin which keeps us all as slaves,

Which keeps our souls in chains,

Which is the start of all the wars,

Injustice, tyrants’ reigns’

 

‘Which cracked the world at the beginning

And so we live with cracks

With earthquakes, storms and great tsunamis

Pain, death and all the lack

 

‘Of food, whilst others are so full and fat

Sin isn’t just the stuff

we do, it’s all that isn’t right,

It’s the rabid lack of love’

 

‘Will this baby sort the whole damn lot

Is that to what I’m saying Yes?’

‘Yes’ said Gabriel, then ‘Yes’ said Mary

‘Glad that’s sorted…there’ll be a mess’

 

‘Sure, but don’t you worry Mary

You are part of this whole story

You are needed in this bit

Because you are so ordinary’

 

‘The shepherds are whose coming next

To represent the outcast

And then the Persians bringing gifts

All here, the first and last’

 

‘And last of all are those who hear

This story being told

In Churches up and down the land

Each Christmas in the cold’

 

‘This story which includes all them

Who briefly dare to come

And hear once more the tale of God

Who left a heav’nly home’

 

‘Remember when you hear this ode

That the story started then

With Universe created, chaos ordered

Humans fell….I won’t repeat again’

 

‘This is your story too, and know

God’s waiting for your Yes

There’s no bigger plot surprise

For you…God stepped into the mess.’

 

 

[painting by Rev Laura Ferguson]