Picture from Ipswich Star 7th December 2022
We have a very colourful Anglican Church just down the road from where we live, colourful because of their splendid posters and banners. The Church makes a lovely nativity tableau each year during Advent, which I always enjoy looking at as I queue to get across a nearby junction. Two or three years ago, somebody helped themselves to the baby Jesus, which caused a bit of upset, so the nativity scene was raised onto stilts to safeguard it. I noticed as I drove past last weekend that the Nativity had gone up for this year and having tried to encourage Churches to shift displays outside during the pandemic, to try to spread the message of Christmas, I was thrilled to see that this Church still spreading the news of the Christmas story in this way
The Ipswich Star, our local paper, reported this week that the Nativity scene at the Church has been destroyed by vandals this year and obviously the people of the Church are distraught. It saddens me, because at a time of rising costs and challenging times for so many people this Christmas, we are being reminded constantly of the importance of spreading good will during this season and I believe that it is important for the Church to be demonstrating hope and love at Christmas. In some ways, I hope that this was simply an act of vandalism and not some sort of attack on Christianity, but either way it hurts me that people will wantonly destroy something that is a sign of beauty for selfish reasons.
This Sunday in our Advent journey the theme is “when God reigns, there is room for all of nature” and I am reminded that whatever we believe about the story of creation, there is sufficient evidence to prove that over the centuries, human beings have dominated this beautiful planet, taking ownership and causing so many of the problems we are encountering today as though the world is here for one reason, and once reason alone, to satisfy human beings insatiable appetite for our own wellbeing. Things need to change and change fast.
I love the fact that the nativity story doesn’t happen in a cosy home or a wealthy palace, but in a grubby, smelly stable. Looking at the nostalgic pictures of the nativity scene, our eyes are drawn to Mary, Joseph and the baby, the shepherds and the wise men, but we do well to remember that by its nature as a stable there is a chance that there were working animals, the shepherds are remembered as bringing a lamb. I can imagine, birds flying in and out, mice in the straw and bugs, there are always bugs. It is important for us to remember that the most important birth in history was for the whole of nature, not just for human beings.
I hope that the people who desecrated the nativity scene at this Ipswich Church, feel proud of themselves as they pass the Church with an empty stable now and a banner announcing “Jesus came to save us all” I also hope that the Church leaves what is left to remind the people of our town that there is a much more important message contained in the Christmas story than simply the nostalgic tale depicted in attractive scenes on Christmas cards.