AS DEW IN APRIL

AS DEW IN APRIL

There is a six hundred year old English carol that likens God’s coming into the world in our flesh and blood to dew falling on the grass. You wake up in the morning and discover a glistening cover of damp moisture making everything shine. Where it comes from you do not know. It makes a silent appearance and all is changed.

He came all so still

Where his mother was,

As dew in April

That falleth on the grass.

Luke has the most developed story of Jesus’ birth and it is striking that hardly anyone knows what is happening. It is all “so still” and silent. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth “in the hill country of Judah” and they rejoice over the news but who else knows? Christians have pondered for centuries the silence and obscurity of events that have changed and are changing the story of humanity.

And yet the transformation today is as hidden as it was then. Jesus liked the image of yeast which a woman mixes with flour (Mt 13:33) and many of his other parables spoken of silent change. Extraordinary efforts are taking place in countless places to respond to the crises of our time. Centuries ago war and famine in Yemen would have passed unnoticed by the outside world. Today it is the deep concern of many world bodies trying to stop the war and relieve the suffering. But their work does not hit the headlines.

And there are many other issues in many other places, but everywhere there is a response. People work long hours unnoticed to address them. When we consider human rights we realise the progress that has been made since the middle of the last century. It is astonishing. Everywhere people are challenging governments, multinational companies and private individuals. Change is unstoppable.

We feel the weight of what it is to be human: the lies, distortions, compromises and selfishness. Yet a battle is raging between the best in human nature and the worst. The little child who was born in Bethlehem has really “brought fire on the earth” and it is burning (Lk 12:49).     

Christmas 2017

Isaiah 9:2-27                  Titus 2:11-14                           Luke 2:1-14