Skip to main content

The Not So Good News for 2016


I originally posted this on Christmas Eve... Now on New Year's Eve I've done a slight re-edit, as it seems an appropriate epitaph to an inauspicious old year, and a rallying cry for the new. It is also a year where I have blogged even less than before, not because it has become unfashionable (though it clearly has - supplanted by the 140 character tweet as the means of conveying opinion - not a format I was ever likely to excel in) but because I'm not sure I had much to say in the face of the momentous events of the last year - it seemed too much like Lear shouting at the storm on the heath... and I suppose there is a degree of that in this post... But I'm simply putting down a marker of how I feel, and at the end of the day that is what this blog has largely been about...  

I'm making no promises about blogging in the new year, but thank you to those who pay attention when I do... 


A year of untruth
And dis-grace.
A year of grieving for the famous
And a year of infamy,
Of public grief, but little else
For the poor and the powerless,
The vulnerable victims
Crushed between a callous dictator
and ruthless rebels
Both backed by chess-playing super-powers
Dealing death by remote control.
Another year of mass migration
Young men fleeing fighting and hunger
Pathfinders seeking peace and hope
For their families back home,
If they still have homes, or families,
Finding their way onto posters
Promoting dread and division,
A year of stark choices
Yes, No, In, Out…
More of the same or who knows what.
A year of democracy dragged through the dirt
Power to the people
Lies to the people
Contempt for the people
From those seekers after power
And those who want to hold on to it
At all costs.
Brexit Means What?
More money for the NHS?
Let’s make America great again
By building a wall, or a fence, or a line in the sand
By locking her up
Or giving free reign to grope her
Whoever she may be.
Another year of terror
Terrorists doing what it says on the tin
Delivering death by the truckload
And many other means
And political parties completing their job
By spreading the fear far and wide
Divide and be conquered by animosity and anxiety,
While the biggest threat to our existence
And all life on this wonderful world
Is downplayed or denied
As “a Chinese plot” or “Green guff”
While we burn money to heat empty sheds
And more and more homeless sleep rough
On cold streets,
Although the streets are strangely
Unseasonably warm.
We need good news for bad
A new year for the old
Grace and truth
Needs to take on flesh again.


the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’
Luke 2:10-14 (NIVUK)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NIVUK)

Shalom

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that
2 comments
Read more

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65
3 comments
Read more

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the &quo
Post a Comment
Read more