St Stephen

I have woken up to the sound of rain and the sight of the snow's demise. This is a good thing -the white" Christmas around here had turned, with week old snow, to a bit of a grey one and our street was testing every inch of my car's suspension with all its ice ruts and potholes.

Perhaps this sudden change of landscape is a good reminder today. As the wonderland of a snowy Christmas gives way to a soggy day of somewhat dreary winter landscape the Church moves from celebrating a birth to remembering a death -that of Stephen, the first martyr.

Stephen was one of the first batch of deacons appointed by the newly forming Church to oversee the distribution of food and money to the poor. But he was singled out for attack by the authorities and eventually martyred under false accusations of speaking threats against the Temple and the Jewish establishment.

I have to confess that I have always felt a bit odd jumping from Christmas Day to martyrdom - I always want to ask for another "day off" to enjoy the stable scene. And, of course, in many countries December 26th is a public holiday.

But lest we get carried away with romantic notion the Church calendar reminds us that life and death and rolled up together in the Christian pilgrimage. God is cased in humanity, and enters into a process which has to lead to death at some point, and yet in that shedding of life there is profound hope.

The reality is that we live in a world of contradictions - and of those who would deliberately deface and destroy the good and the innocent. It looks like someone tried to attack a plane yesterday - luckily no one was hurt. But we live in a world where evil is real, and where Christmas Day becomes an icon to be destroyed by hatred and not time of peace.

Like Stephen, the only thing which we can really cling to is God - a living relationship with Jesus Christ. Like Stephen we have to find Christ in our darkest moments and speak the truth of that encounter. The truth of encounter with Christ is not predictable and is the action of humbling ourselves before a child in a manger - an almost mystical act which demands that we suspend so many of our preconceptions. As we contemplate this feast we are called, not to turn our backs on the celebration of Incarnation, but to make that celebration more real, to shed our attachments and find the truth of Christ's birth - both stark reality and profound and life changing, hope.