The Invitation

The Invitation

 

We are holding
An open stable
Just moved in
To your neighbourhood
We'd like to invite you
To a Christmas table
We'd love you to come
Bad and Good

Come as you are
In onesie, tracksuit
Or Sunday best
Come, if you like,
In your birthday suit
You won’t be under dressed

The guest of honour
will be naked too
If you pick him up
He may puke on you
He may poke your eye
And smell of poo
But he is completely
Accepting of you,

What's that you say,
How vulnerable you feel
When going to a strangers'
For a sit down meal
Well the son of God
Knows exactly how you feel
But dining at the stable
Being vulnerable’s the deal

But it's worth it for the food
And you won’t ever be misconstrued

So Come all ye faithless
Broken and despondent
O Come ye,
O Come ye,
To Bethlehem.

 

Reflection: The Raw and the Real

Of course, the idea of Mary and Joseph hosting a get together in the stable in which they were temporarily housed is absurd. Somehow, though, I find the grittiness and the unembellished ‘reality’ of the situation of the nativity, very inviting. If you’re home is anything like mine was growing up (and still, if I am honest) then, at this first Christmas the chaos is almost cosy. The raw and the real invite in themselves a sort of unpretentiousness about the occasion. I feel like everyone there was entirely themselves. Christmas has always been messy.

In a few of my other works I explore the unreality and santisation that some of the greeting card sentiment and sanctimony has imposed on our image of the nativity, through some of the carols.

And surely, if there is anything more profound to take away from the narrative of Jesus’ first advent than the fact that God did not stand off in all his glory but became one of us, I am lost to find it.
There is great holiness in this moment, but it is never apart from the mess and the filth of the stable floor.

It was clear from the beginning. This Jesus is someone you can be yourself around. And that is inviting. The advent is an invitation for us into the world of that stable, the world of animal dung, feeding troughs, bloody afterbirth, crying and baby sick, broken hearts and fallible people and yes, thank God, redemption.

 

~Scripture~

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’~ John 7:37-38 (NIV)

 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ~ Matt 11:28 (NIV)

Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.

~Isaiah 55:1-2 (NIV)