A Missable God

Detail, The Census at Bethlehem, Pieter Brueghel the Elder,
Mary and Joseph

The Census at Bethlehem, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565

By Pieter Brueghel the Elder - The Adoration of the Magi,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20714243

Brueghel's masterful paintings of religious stories, set in the hustle and bustle of 16th century Flemish life and landscape, are a fantastic reminder that God doesn't tend to show up in our lives by the announcement of golden-halo wearing angels. Religious story-telling tends to go in for gold and glitter, for God's incontrovertible presence. Perhaps, it would have been better to tell the story in the way that Brueghel has. To recognise that God appears gently and quietly into our lives, if at all.

This Christmas, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of people will celebrate Christmas without even thinking about Jesus Christ. As a priest, I wonder, what's the point in the church having its little fun fair of wise men, shepherds, pregnant Mary, skew-whiff halos and lots of candles?

As an aside, the etymology of the word 'skew-whiff' is from weaving. Handloom weavers would describe fabric that was out of alignment as 'skew-weft'. And I suppose that is a way of thinking about Christianity's placement today in culture - we are out of alignment with the dominant culture. We just don't fit neatly alongside. You can hear all the Christians screaming throughout December - take down the Christmas trees, stop singing carols, it's Advent - we're waiting! And everyone looks around and thinks what's wrong with Scrooge-church? Didn't they invent this stuff? And when everyone else is taking their Christmas trees down after Boxing Day, we're saying, no there's 12 days of fun to be had!  Skew-weft. Exactly.

But, I suppose, even when Christianity was in greater alignment, it was always an alternative choice. Not that I would want to argue that Christianity should be for the select few. But, Scripture seems to attest to the fact that few people enter through the narrow gate:

Matthew 7:13-14 New International Version (NIV)

The Narrow and Wide Gates

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

And that's exactly what Brueghel's paintings describe for us, the fact that the drama of God happens in the corner of a painting with just a few people engaged. How normal, mundane life carries on, even when God is re-making creation through the birth of his Son. It's just a pregnant woman on a donkey. It's just a journey, like so many others are making, to register their birth. It's just another day of collecting in the fire-wood, throwing snow-balls, doing business, begging for food, avoiding sickness. Just a day like any other.

Which means that if we are to notice God, we have to notice him today - because he's not going to arrive with a multitude of angels. He will come with silence. Which means, it's up to us to open our eyes. To notice that in the forgotten and neglected parish churches all over our country, there is magic and mystery happening,where the simple story of a pregnant maiden has become the central narrative of God's love. In which one insignificant family becomes The Holy Family. And the doors are open - open for all to enter in: a family to be welcomed home, a stranger to be greeted with an embrace, a sadness to be met with kindness. A family - The Family - the Body of Christ - The Church. Where we all belong.


See also, Auden's Poem : Musee des Beaux Arts, 'About suffering they were never wrong, The old masters'.