Advent: 15 December 2022
Greetings,
Behind today’s window in our Advent Calendar A to Z is the letter P. P is for… peace. In some ways, the Christmas story doesn’t have much about it that is peaceful. Mary is initially disturbed by the angel. Joseph plans a discreet separation. Then they journey while Mary is pregnant to Bethlehem at imperial command. There is no room at the inn. Jesus is born in an animal shelter. Later, the Magi come whom Herod has sent for his devious purposes, and the family flee for their lives, while other children are put to death. Meanwhile our own Advents with their plate of peas – parties, planning and present-buying – can seem far from peaceful. But then we are brought short in carol services and nativity plays by the words of the multitude of angels to the shepherds:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards all people.
And so for ever since, Christmas has been associated with peace. One lovely example was the outbreak of games of football between opposing armies during the First World War on Christmas Day. It would be good to think that war in Ukraine and other conflicts would cease for Christmas (western and Orthodox) this year – and not begin again.
Here are three different takes on peace from my box of quotations.
A story about Lord Franks when he was British ambassador to Washington in the late 1940s tells about a Washington radio station that had the idea of ringing the ambassadors of great powers and asking them what they would like for Christmas.
‘Pour Noel’ said the French ambassador ‘I would like to see peace throughout the world.’ The Russian ambassador followed with ‘For Christmas I want freedom for all people enslaved by imperialism, wherever they may be in the world.’
Finally, the station broadcast the response of the British ambassador. His diffident Bristol voice came on the line, ‘Well, it’s awfully kind of you to ask. I think I’d like a small box of candied fruit.’
But couldn’t we have all three?
Rather more seriously, here is a beautiful wintry story about peace, which illustrates Yeats’ line that peace comes dropping slow:
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a coal-mouse asked a wild dove. “Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer.
“In that case I must tell you a marvellous story,” the coal-mouse said. “I sat on a branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not in a giant blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snow-flakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch – nothing more than nothing, as you say – the branch broke off.”
Having said that, the coal-mouse flew away. The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on the matter; thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself: “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come about in the world.”
(Kurt Kauter, ‘The Weight of Nothing’, New Fables: Thus Spake the Marabou)
Finally, this wonderful stanza from Christopher Smart’s poem Rejoice in the Lamb:
For I will consider my cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven time round with elegant quickness.
For he knows that God is his saviour.
For God has bless’d him in the variety of his movements.
For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For I am possessed of a cat, surpassing in beauty,
From whom I take occasion to bless Almighty God.
And just because there haven’t been enough cat pictures in this Advent Calendar yet, here is an image of Tobit, one of our three cats, for whom I can truly say there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest, and from whom I take occasion to bless almighty God. And this image from last summer may remind us that the bitter cold of these days will pass.
We sing of peace in many carols. If you’d like to know more about the story behind certain carols, Revd Prof Ian Bradley will be giving a talk about carols at Holy Trinity Church of Scotland at 4 pm this Sunday afternoon 18 December as part of their Christmas Tree Festival. All welcome.
With all good wishes for a peaceful Christmas and new year.
Yours,
Donald.