Since today is the 14th day of Christmas (at least in the United States) and the Feast of the Epiphany, here is my reaction to a news story three years ago
A Church of England bishop has attacked “sentimental” Christmas card portrayals of the Nativity, saying that Jesus’s family were asylum seekers and the three Wise Men were part of an assassination plot.
The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Keith Sutton, said the shepherds were not the lovable characters depicted in Nativity plays but were on “the fringes of society” and that, for most people, Christmas was a chore.
[Full Delusion]
Did Herod the Great contract out a hit to three foreigners for plausible deniability? How did this assassination go awry? Did King Herod say “Go and murder him” and they thought he said “Gold and myrrh to him”?, frankly that makes sense.
15 comments
If you read the whole story, it puts things a bit into context, but still, a rather dour read! I think he is misled that Jesus was born to an “unmarried woman.” But it’s okay Jeff, we can take comfort in the final line, it seems this is one of the authentically Christian Anglican Bishops:
“The bishop, who is due to retire at Easter, is a firm believer in the physical resurrection of Christ.”
You know that the Jerhova’s Witnesses teach that the star was the work of Satan, and that he sent the Magi in order to try to kill Jesus?
Another Bishop ready to retire who wants to go out with his 15 minutes of fame, with a colorful thought about what happened during the birth of Christ that is so off the mark that it begged to be repeated. I would love to know exactly where he came up with this lame, if not “out there” idea.
Actually, Christmas is somewhat bittersweet, you know, cause Jesus had to die, which kinda sucks.
Ummm… I don’t think that the bishop is completely off in reminding us that Herod was attempting to use the magi to find the location of Jesus in order to kill Him, that the journey to Bethlehem was not comfortable for Mary, that the stable was not any more of a sentimental bed-and-breakfast than a barn would be for us, and that the flight into Egypt wasn’t a summer vacation. I agree that there is too much sentimentalism regarding Christmas. The thought of a traveling family putting a newborn baby into a hog trough isn’t exactly the warm and fuzziest that I can conjure. And I don’t think it is supposed to be.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/martin.ward/gkc/books/Gloria_in_Profundis.html
I’m not sure that “Full Delusion” is entirely appropriate, since most of what the “Bishop” had to say is an accurate, if nonconvential representation of the gospel accounts. GK Chesterton highly recommends the habit of distancing oneself from the familiar, and it’s not a bad thing for Christians to revist their conception of the Nativity of Our Lord.
What I found most curious about his statements was toward the end: -Urging people do something positive for the lonely and distressed, he said: “For love to be real, it is not the thought that counts but what you do about it.”-
Wait a sec – I know Anglicans aren’t really Protestants in the Lutheran or Calvinist sense, but isn’t “what counts is what you do about it” a little too close to “good works?”
Anyway, I found it refreshing to read the Bishop’s comments, although he could have shown a little more bravery and taken on Santa Claus and the Yule Log.
“gold and myrrh to him…,” that’s hilarious!
I kind of felt that what the bishop actually said wasn’t problematic, but the way it was described out of the quotation marks was.
The problem with what the Bishop said is not that its “flamingly” unorthodox, but that it doesn’t set aside proper reverence for the feast and time of year. If you turn Advent and Christmas in to one long Lent, then you’ve completely obliterated the need for any liturgical season at all.
In sum, I think you can take issue with his pastoral emphasis, but not necessarily with his theology. I still find the Joey Soprano/Jesus in cement overshoes schtick a little over the top from the Good Bishop though, I must admit.
Mike,
Read the whole sentence:
“Gold and myrrh to him”?, frankly … makes sense.
I wonder when Jeff will come out with his book. 🙂
Oh, Lord…it’s one of ours again. Yeah – he didn’t say anything specifically inaccurate, but I hate to think what what the world looks like to him. He could turn winning the lottery into a real downer.
He probably describes his breakfast as “aborted chickens with slabs of crushed and burned grass seeds, coated with congealed cow secretions.”
It’s rumored that Balthasar is buried under the home 20 yard line the the Meadowlands stadium in NJ.
The thought of a traveling family putting a newborn baby into a hog trough isn’t exactly the warm and fuzziest that I can conjure.
You make a good point, but one little quibble: I doubt that “hog troughs” were much used in Judea, since the Jews have never been famous for their love of bacon and pork chops. If any were around, a good Jewish mama like Mary certainly would have balked at putting her son in one.
Thank you, Donna, but I had intended to preface the thought by mentioning that it was an analogous translation to my own experience in a midwestern agricultural state. I am quite familiar with Levitical practice and the sentiments of first century Jews.
Regarding the bishop, we don’t seem to know the context of the quotations used in the story. I doubt that the malevolent intent of Herod’s use of the Magi was the main theme of his emailed “Christmas message” or his Christmas homilies. We can’t always trust newspapers to put statements in context. I could easily find some theological reflections of Pope Benedict, written as a theologian and present them in such a manner that they would appear “pastorally inappropriate” or to not “set aside proper reverence for [whatever the matter may be].”
Perhaps it would be better if we approached Advent and the Nativity of the Lord with quiet contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation and of the Son’s self-emptying, rather than with the false sentimentality that the bishop was commenting upon. Yes, Mary would have balked about putting the baby into a hog feeder, even if that were an option [issues of kosher aside]. The point is, however, that the Nativity and early childhood of our Lord is filled with things that any right-minded person would balk at. It’s an important part of the story.
Since Joe and Mary where coming to joe home town for the Census,How was the family an outcast. Everyone there was their cousins,and putting relatives up in the family stable was common pratice since the stables where in the homes. People forget that Mary was doing the most damgerous thing a woman could do back then ,”Having a baby”. It is unlikely Joe would be taking her someplace she wouldn’t be helped