.......
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose
And if you ever saw it
You would even say it glows
.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games [1]
…………………………
Perhaps it was something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller ad skinnier than he was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley’s and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose... Harry {potter} lay in his dark cupboard… wishing he had a watch. He didn’t know what time it was and he couldn’t be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn’t risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. He’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he had been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn’t remember being in the car when his parents died. Sometimes when he strained his memory during his long hours in the cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain. This he supposed was the crash, though he couldn’t remember where tall the green light came from. He couldn’t remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. When he was younger Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family…..
At school Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley’s gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley’s gang [2]
…………
“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, watching over their flock by night.” [3]
It seems a noble career - the same profession as ancient King David. But by the 1st century BC it had become dispised. The Pharisees had spent decades defining what it was to be a good Jew. Thousands upon thousands of rituals that had to be performed to stay holy and pure. Pharisees who let’s face it - were privileged rich people who had plenty of time to perform rituals on entering a house, on eating a meal, on getting up from a meal, on leaving the house. Think of the middle class waitrose shopper who opines about the only moral food to buy is organic free range produce with no thought to the family on the Universal Credit who struggle to afford any food let alone organic free range food. So the pharisees looked down on those who failed to wash their hands a thousand times whilst reciting the right passages from the Torah. And the shepherds - Kings David’s profession - were cast out as unclean “stinky shepherds” - shivering on a hillside keeping watch over their flock by night.
…...
Or the Elf on the Shelf - a strange Christmas tradition - of an elf who spends every day doing naughty things. Perhaps some of you have these elves in your house - what have your elves done?
{take examples of elf on shelf doing bad things….}
……………….
And you … when have you felt like an outsider? Perhaps at school where someone is bullying you? Perhaps as a teenager when all the other kids were cool and you were not? Perhaps at work where one person seems to be the bosses favourite and get promoted for no real reason, and however hard you work you seem overlooked? Perhaps as a twenty year old getting pulled over by the police for “stop and search” because the colour of your skin somehow makes you look like a criminal? Or perhaps normally you feel absolutely fine, but in certain social situations you feel not quite included - uncomfortable and on the edge - trying too hard to fit in.
Have you ever felt on the edge, your heart restless because you don’t fit in?
when have you felt like an outsider?
…………………….
And what of a baby - laid in a manger, because there no there was no room for them in the inn? [4] The one who was God himself - “The Word who was with God and the word who was God” - and yet God yet God chooses to be born as the one who is as Isaiah put it “despised and rejected” [5]. Think of Rohingya forced by the authorities out of Burma where they have been living for four generations to return to their so called home of Bangladesh. So Joseph is forced by the authorities to leave the town of Nazareth, perhaps the only town he has known, and travel with his pregnant fiance Mary hundreds of miles away to his supposed home town of Bethlehem.
And there the Baby is born - “He was in the world and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own and his own people did not know him” [6]
….
BUT:
“The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined… For a child has been born to us, a son given to us; authority rests on his shoulders. And he is named Wonderful counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” [7]
In a world full of Rudolphs not allowed to play any reindeer games, of little Harry’s shown no love and pushed under the stairs, of Shepherds written off because they can’t meet unrealistic standards of holiness; of Elves who however hard they try seem to end up doing naughty things; of you and I, whether through our fault or through the sins of society, feeling outsiders.
Into this world full of those despised and rejected - God makes himself born as the one despised and rejectected - given the name Jesus - Yeshua - God rescues. Given the title Emmanuel - God with us.
And so forgiveness hope, light, love and inclusion can become the order of the day.
……..
Mary and Joseph - the outcast couple are visited by Eastern potentates and given costly gifts of Gold, Frankinsense and Myrrh.[8] The Baby - laid in an animal’s feeding trough - is born in Bethlehem, the city of David, marking him out as the Son of David. Laid in a manger that will be copied in churches and houses around the world over two thousand years later.
……….
Through his birth - you (and I) the outsider - are offered the chance to become an insider. “To all who accept him, who believe on his name, he gave power to become Children of God”[9] - the ultimate insider - “Hay - God’s my dad - that’s my Fam!”
St Augustine says “My heart is restless until it finds its rest in you” - and so we can find rest, come home, become the ultimate insider.
…..
Even if perhaps we know that sometimes we are like the Elf on the shelf. However hard we try we end up doing naughty things.
But the legend is quite beautiful - because the naughty Elf - who ought to be shut out because of his naughtiness, - who other people might not give a second chance is given a job by Santa.
Santa by the way who whatever the songs says is NOT watching to see if you have been naughty or nice. I know when I was a kid - even if I was as naughty as the Elf - Santa still gave me presents
Just as Jesus still gives us a second chance, however much anybody else may have written us off.
….
We might be written off sometimes because of the things we do wrong, but Jesus never writes us off,
Other times we might be written off like the Shepherds, the Shepherds who through no fault of their own are considered unclean “stinky smelly shepherds”.
“In that region there were Shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an Angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see I am bring you good news of great joy for all people. To YOU is born this day in the City of David, a Saviour who is the Messiah, The Lord” [10]
An angel appears - not to the Pharisees, not to the chief priests, but to the stinky smelly shepherds.
……
And an owl appears - owl after owl in fact - and young Harry Potter discovers that the cupboard is not to be his home, but rather Hogwarts, a castle from his dream. And young Harry Potter discovers that he no longer has to rely on a blood family who hate him. Rather he has a new family - Hermione and Ron and Hagrid and Dumbledore and Mr and Mrs Weasley. And young Harry discovers that rather than being written off as a burden, he is wizard with a task to make a difference in the world.
….
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
"Rudolph, with your nose so bright
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
.
Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
You'll go down in history"
..........
[1]Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer by John D. Marks lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, ST. Nicholas Music Inc.
[2] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling Chapter 2
[3] Luke 2:8
[4] Luke 2:7
[5] Isaiah 53:3
[6] John 1:10-11
[7] Isaiah 9:2,7
[8] Matthew 2:1-12
[9] John 1:12
[10] Luke 2:8-11
