Christmas Day service
Hebrew Bible reading: Isaiah 9:2-7
Sarah: Welcome to our political correspondent, James of Joppa.
James: an interesting prediction there, from Isaiah, one of our longest standing and most highly respected prophets. What do you make of it from the political point of view?
James: Well, the military aren't going to be at all happy with this. If, as Isaiah predicts, the oppressor's rod is going to be broken, it's a clear case for cutbacks in army spending on equipment and weapons - rods broken, uniforms burned and so on, as he rather picturesquely puts it.
Sarah: Any chance of that in the near future, do you think?
James: Well, as usual with these prophetic statements, there's a certain degree of hyperbole. Even the world-famous royal house of David would be hard put to it to bring us perfect peace. And justice established forever? In the real world? I think there's a certain naiveté creeping in here.
Sarah: So all this business about the people who walked in darkness seeing a great light, you'd discount that as wishful thinking? There's been enough darkness in recent times. It'd be good to think there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
James: Yes, but what grounds does Isaiah give us for his optimism? ‘A child born to us, a son given to us'? Speaking personally just for a moment, I rather suspect Isaiah was not married. A child coming into the household is never going to produce much peace - irrespective of the child's heritage.
Sarah: But what about all these great promises he makes about the child? Wonderful Counsellor - I'm presuming, by the way, Isaiah's meaning a person who gives good advice, not someone who sorts out your planning permission - Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace? What do you make of all that, from the political point of view?
James: Now here we are moving from politics to religion. It's a boundary Isaiah's treading all the time - remember all his advice to King Ahaz about making an alliance with Egypt? - but it's not one I want to cross.
Sarah: You mean, politics and religion don't mix?
James: On the contrary: when religion comes into politics, it can be a force for transformation and renewal. Or it can be a force for tyranny and repression. Beforehand it's not always easy to tell which. We will have to wait and see what happens when this child grows up. Then we'll be able to make a mature assessment of what it all means.
Sarah: In other words, you don't want to commit yourself. But what if Isaiah's promised transformation can only take place if people do commit themselves to this new leader?
James: Rabbi Sarah, I'm surprised at you. Jerusalem FM is a strictly neutral broadcasting station. We can't be seen to be taking sides.
Sarah: Even God's side?
James: Isaiah assures us that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. I'm more than happy to wait and see.
Christmas is coming is a modern teaching song from John Bell and Graham Maule of the Iona Community about the waiting period of Advent, culminating in the triumphant lighting of the last candle on the Advent wreath on Christmas Day.
R&S 146 probably comes from the United States, and was first published in a Lutheran children's book in 1885, though the second verse in Rejoice and Sing was an addition from 1892. No one is sure who wrote the words. The tune Cradle Song is also American and came over to these shores in 1927.
R&S 178 also comes from the Iona Community, and considers the gulf we sometimes experience between the first Christmas two thousand years ago and now. The tune Scarlet Ribbons is an English traditional melody.
R&S 167 is by Mrs C.F. Alexander, written to explain to children the line in the Creed, ‘conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary'. The tune Irby by H.J. Gauntlett was written for this carol.
Sarah: Well, we've heard all about this new Government census the Romans have given us. And now we hear some of its effects at grassroots level. Our business correspondent, Ian of Idumea, is here to reflect on what we've just heard. Ian, how does all this high-level economics affect the man on the Bethlehem donkey?
Ian: As we've just heard, there's enormous economic dislocation involved. Just because someone's family comes from, say, Bethlehem doesn't mean they're still living there. In these hard times, people have been urged to get on their donkeys and look for work, and that's evidently just what this Joseph has done - gone north to Nazareth, near the big Roman city of Sepphoris, where a carpenter can find work. And then what does the government do but get him to travel back down south to be counted. It doesn't make much sense to me, but then I'm no Roman.
Sarah: Bearing in mind Jerusalem FM's policy of neutrality, would you care to expand just a little on that last remark?
Ian: Well, as our listeners will know, Augustus Caesar - Hail Caesar! - has put a huge new road-building project into place throughout the Empire. He's evidently keen on trade expansion and employment flexibility, which is all to the good, economically speaking. But just because GDP has gone up -
Sarah: Sorry, could you translate that for our listeners?
Ian: Yes, of course. GDP is Gross Donkey Product. If you add up all the wealth of a Roman Province, measured in donkeys, and divide it by the number of people in the province, you end up with the per capita GDP. Per capita means ‘by head', so of course the Romans have to count all the heads in the province of Judaea to be able to calculate it properly.
Sarah: Thank you, Ian, I think we all know our Latin. But this GDP, how does it work out on the ground? This Joseph, say, will he own more donkeys because of increasing GDP?
Ian: No, no, no, that's a very common mistake. It's the number of donkeys owned on average. So King Herod - may he live long and prosper! - may soon own ten thousand donkeys and Joseph here only the one, but on average GDP has gone up.
Sarah: Thank you for that. I'm sure we're all much clearer now. But aren't you forgetting something in this equation?
Ian: It's a very thorough analysis I've made...
Sarah: What about Mary, his fiancée? How does GDP help her? She can't ride more than one donkey, and from what we hear, she won't be in a state to ride at all for a while now.
Ian: There you have me, I'm afraid. As this sad story indicates, there are still massive gaps in provision. In a modern empire, there should be no need for stopgap accommodation like stables. But the rich still go on getting richer and the poor poorer, and I don't see that changing much - not without a total change of heart for those in power.
Sarah: Is there no possibility, then, of people's lives improving when Jesus grows up?
Ian: I'm afraid you'll need to ask a wiser man than I.
Hymn R&S 146: Away in a manger
Gospel reading: Luke 2:8-18
Sarah: So far we've focussed on the macroeconomic aspects of this situation, but of course we can't forget the human point of view. So as part of my guest editorship of the Ha-Yom programme this morning, I've asked a legendary agony aunt, Ann of Arimathea, to give us her take on the unfolding story. Ann, what would your advice to our young couple be, should they be listening to the Ha-Yom programme this morning?
Ann: Good morning, Sarah, and thank you for having me on the programme. Well, to begin with I'd advise them not to write off what the shepherds told them, however unlikely it may seem. Shepherds get a very bad press these days, what with the way their job isolates them, and the smell of sheep, but we should never forget that's how King David started out. So maybe God still has a soft spot for shepherds today.
Sarah: Do you really place much credence in this talk of angels, then? Frankly, I thought they'd had one nip at the whisky too many.
Ann: Have you ever seen an angel, Rabbi?
Sarah: Well, no, I can't say I have.
Ann: Then how do you know what one looks like?
Sarah: Um... they didn't teach us that at college.
Ann: So how do you know the shepherds didn't see angels? Maybe it happens more than you think, and people keep quiet about it for fear of just such a reaction as yours.
Sarah: Well, that's given us all food for thought. Moving swiftly on, however, what's your advice for Mary and Joseph, apart from taking dodgy characters seriously?
Ann: Well, they'll have to watch the denarii, now they're budgeting for three. Let's hope Joseph can still find work when he gets back to Nazareth. And Mary will have to be careful not to overdo it. Those first few weeks after childbirth can be very dangerous. They'd do well to stay here in Bethlehem for a few months - as long as they can move out of that stable.
Sarah: Sound advice for any young couple. But what about that prophecy? About the baby - Jesus, I think they're going to call him? How is any child expected to grow up normally with all that hanging over him? Should they put him into an accelerated learning programme, do you think? With scripture and religious history as key points? And maybe, going by our previous interviews, politics, economics and self-defence for good measure?
Ann: I think every child deserves a childhood. And this one most of all. He needs to learn what it is to be human, one step at a time. He needs to play, to delight in the birds of the air and the flowers of the field; to watch people farming and fishing, doing housework and making bread. And he needs to find out what it feels like to be tired and hungry, angry and confused.
Sarah: Do you mean he needs to learn what it is to be ordinary?
Ann: Precisely. If the shepherds are right, this child knows a thing or two about heaven. Now he needs to find out about earth.
Sarah: Ann of Arimathea, thank you.
