Christmas message from Oxford City Rector Anthony Buckley

We have always told stories. It is a way to articulate what we are feeling, or what we are wanting to feel, about what is happening in our lives.

Often when we describe our day, or how we are feeling, we do it by telling stories; we use narrative rather than lists.

Across the centuries, in forests or caves, around the fire or in the tavern, over meals or in places of worship, on the pavement or making a call, we have told stories.

What stories do we choose to hear or tell during uncertain times? The ones we choose tend to include themes of courage and hope, justice and compassion, friendship, reconciliation, sacrifice and perseverance.

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At this time of year one part of a longer historical narrative is told again and again.

Nativity play after nativity play, carol after carol, film after film, book after book. And this retelling has been going on for centuries, through famine, war and plague, through joys and sadnesses, untold fears and hopes.

Her late Majesty the Queen loved this narrative, as her Christmas messages testify.

Her death in September has been one of the events that have made this year unsettling and difficult.

Conflict in Europe, financial and political instability, poverty and anxiety, familiar landscapes appearing to crumble, a feeling for many of being oppressed or crushed.

For many of us this is personal, we may be grieving or cold, a refugee or a host to a refugee.

A homeless Oxford friend recently said that he knew it was getting cold because when he woke up the inside of his nostrils were frozen.

These are not easy times; we are grateful for all those who work so hard to bring help and comfort, they are people of hope.

In the midst of it all Tracey the donkey will be patiently standing in Cornmarket, Oxford, in the afternoon of December 23, before her annual starring role in a nativity service.

And, as the carol has it, the donkey just keeps plodding on. In difficult times our calling may simply be to plod along, doing what we can day by day, and that will be enough.

We may, like the donkey, be fulfilling our calling. with effects beyond our wildest imaginings.  

Tracey will have a starring role. The children likewise, costumed and symbols of hope in themselves, will likewise be starring. But the most significant character will be the baby in the manger.

Why has the Bethlehem narrative stayed the course so well, why does it resonate?

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Perhaps because Joseph and Mary have so little power. They are compelled to go to Bethlehem because the emperor says so, and then struggle to find accommodation.

The feeling of ‘always being told what to do’, and of helplessness, is frustrating or even crushing.

Or perhaps because this is a restless narrative; there is the sense of journeying, most of the characters (except the innkeeper and Herod) keep moving around.

And there are curious and unexpected visitors: local shepherds and wise people from afar, and we likewise value friends with curious and stimulating minds who will make the effort to be with us.

There is deceit and malice in the character of King Herod: some of us will have been badly hurt this year, we look around and see his descendants, existing in various forms across the world; this is a story that does not gloss over the bad news.

Woven through the narrative is love and hope, the belief that there is a God who cares so much that in the midst of all the confusion, the hurt and the guilt, he steps in.

Perhaps this is the chief reason that the story resonates: deep down we know that love and hope are at the heart of the well-being of every child and adult, and this story is full of them.

The narrative reminds us that there is power in the small and helpless, and we should never give up.

In an occupied country, to a young couple with little money and the whiff of scandal, in the room where the animals are usually kept, a baby is born who would change the world.

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However we celebrate this season, whatever our backgrounds and beliefs, may Oxford this Christmas and into 2023 be a place where good stories are well told and heard, where encouragement and support are plentiful, where love and hope are received and shared, and where we see beauty and potential in unexpected beginnings.

And, as the old carol has it: The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. There is enough here for all of us, and so the story still resonates.

Happy Christmas, everyone.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF