So I went forth...

04:45 alarm - really, do you really want to get up.
04:47 - up, kettle on.
06:00 - leave house
07:25 - on the trail

St Cuthbert's Way, Pennine Way circular, 40 kms. Self supporting, which in the current warm spell included 4 litres of water, coffee, rations for 24 hours, sleeping bag, warm kit, spare socks, torch, water purifier, waterproofs (it is Britain after all), battery pack, map, compass and my shades of course.

In my head, a whole world of questions, angst, worry, anger and imaginary conversations I would have if anyone of a number of contestants started on me this week.


What I found was peace, a sense of the world/the universe/the divine giving me a not too subtle dig in the ribs to make me look up and see the beauty in front of me and the phenomenal power pack inside of me that is fuelled by our experiences, integrity and authenticity.

This week was never going to be easy, it was rather like walking down a narrow valley with the uneasy feeling that at the end of the valley was going to be a vertical drop or an ambush killing zone. You keep going because there is no other way but...

I was off work this week but Wednesday was the only day off I had in the week and I had ear marked it for me to have a day away, Hence a 04:45 alarm to ensure I got as many hours as I could out of my day off,

Then it hit me, slowly at first, rather like the little lumps on the trail I had plotted, becoming increasingly higher and with more spectacular views as reward for the lung busting climbs, which cause the legs to wobble and your heart beat be so loud  in your ears..

This was my journey

no one else's just mine and I wasn't talking about the 40kms run I had plotted; no my journey was my journey. So why on earth was I allowing someone else's journey to subsume my own. Why was someone's else path illuminating across my map markings and covering not only my waymarkings, but also the spectacular features along the way.

It was as if in that moment the heavens aligned, as if mind and body aligned, as if head and heart aligned.

my journey

I confess planning my run had terrified me because it was going to require some savvy navigation using good old fashioned map & compass work and because of the fog some nifty running on bearings work (get me). Internal squashed Katie, looking at everyone else's wonderful journeys had lost the confidence that I could even get my compass lined up left alone navigate on the hoof, but here I was doing it. Rewarded by some spectacular views (once the fog hopped it).

The hurting internal Katie watching someone else's journey proceeding along towards a destination I had once believed was mine, had begun the day doubting my own ability, my own ability to reach a destination, but once I looked at the map, the land features, took a bearing and set off, I was more than rewarded, I was blessed. For in the stepping out into the unknown, alone, allowed my own journey to become the goal, I could have happily sat out on the those hills all night long, looking at the views, hearing the wild birds, feeling the sun on my back warming both body and soul.

I had come to a point where the ancient words of psalm 121 came to life for me, "I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come. My help comes from he who makes heaven and earth." Ironically words that I use in my work with the dying and gravely ill in the hospitals that I serve in. Yet here I was not dying but very much coming alive. Recognising that in one route closing off to me forever this week, whilst watching someone I love continue to travel down it, was not an ending but a split in the path. That my journey was from this point on in a different direction.

Again, and bizarrely another piece of script, that I use in my death and dying ministry, was going round and round my head as I slogged up the hills:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. (Minnie Louise Haskins)

Do you see what I mean when it seemed like all of creation was giving my a nudge on my journey.
Even when I fell out with myself at 17 miles and needed to make use of my current audible book and headphones, it was sent as if by a miracle - for the book I was listening to #BreakPoint by Ollie Ollerton, was just at the part where he talks of his use of visualisation and how he managed to find true happiness way down his journey, he also made me chuckle a lot with some of his anecdotes.

Even my route planned a few weeks ago with childish excitement for my day off, provided blessings and nudges. Early in the week I had met with some new friends at @ForwardAssist and @SaluteHer to talk about how we could do some joint working. I was immensely luckyto have this time with Tony and Paula, whose energy and drive are awesome. I came away from our time together enthused that my experiences and skills could be put to good use within the veteran's community, They had talked about a retreat they had recently run at an independent bunkhouse called 'Mounthooley' way down the College valley. It wasn't until I checked my mapping I was literally going to run through the grounds and make use of their fresh water (thank you so much). But there was more, for as I ran down the valley I came across a moving memorial to service personnel killed during WW2 on the hills of the Cheviots when various airplanes crashed. Taking time to stop and sit in the memorial for a few moments, remembering those honoured there but also my friends and colleagues who died in Iraq, Afghanistan and those who took their own lives or who came home with life changing injuries, where a timely reminder of those who no longer have the chance to step onwards on their journeys. As if the ghosts of my past had also joined in the mass attempt to get me to look up and outward at the glorious journey ahead. Thank you for Forward assisting me troops.

Now as with all journeys the highs are met with lows, I fell off a baby head into a swamp, I got sunburnt and when I got home there was a mound of ironing and kids' pack lunches to make. However life is like that isn't it, one minute a fantasy setting the next a swamp, and to think otherwise would be deluded. Likewise I am no fool and know that I will have lows, that I will look across to another's projected path and think that should have been me, but I am hopeful that my 40 kms across the Cheviots will become part of my battery pack that enhances and enables me to swing my pack on to my back, orientate my map, set my compass bearing and set off again on the next leg of this adventure called life.

What I do know for now is that my journey will continue to be varied, will from now on be spent quite often solo and self supporting, and I'm ok with that; I just need to settle, check my compass and run on into the next stage - sunburnt, covered in bog mud and surrounded by the glory that is a good, authentic and integrity filled life...So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. 

Flush to Flourish

Flush to Flourish

We are all humans, we all have our own things going on and we don’t always know what each other is carrying. We do know however what we are carrying and so let’s start there:


Now you are kidney dudes are you not, between you, you probably know more about workings, the breakings and fixings of kidneys than anywhere else in the Trust. Whereas I am simply an owner of 2 of them. 


I am certainly not here to give you a lecture about kidneys, but, it would be remiss on World Kidney Day and in this group not to give them a not too small role in the event.

So correct me (gently please) if I am wrong but the owner’s manual for kidneys would say something on along the lines of:


Kidneys are the filters of the body. They sort, second by second, what is coming in, what is needed, what is good for me, what is bad for me, and then sends the good to where it is needed and the bad to the trash disposal.

Am I on the right lines?

Yes!


For the kidneys to work we need to be kind to them, they need to be hydrated regularly, they don’t mind occasional glasses of something other than water, but only in moderation?

They like to have minerals, salts and vitamins that help the body regulate and rebuild itself?

Is that the right idea?

Yes


So if it is the right idea for our kidneys, then why not for the rest of us, and in particular our souls and minds.

It stands to reason that if we don’t regularly hydrate our souls, then they can’t work well.

It stands to reason that if we only put bad stuff in to our souls and minds, then there is nothing of good to be filtered into the rest of us.

If we have nothing good and only bad then surely our filters will become overwhelmed and stop working, just as our kidneys would, then we would become, well what? You’re the medical folks:

(Suggestions from the audience)

Toxic, poisonous, lacking of energy, unwell, tired??

So what can we do to hydrate our souls?


We can flush.


Flush out the toxins, the waste products; we can make a positive decision to give ourselves a good clean out.

Then when we’ve detoxed, we can in the same way as most people seem to do from the 1^st to about 6^th of January every year, we can resolve to continue to look after ourselves, by hydrating our souls regularly, in the same way that we should be hydrating our kidneys, regularly throughout the day.

You will have all heard I imagine the expression “you cannot pour from an empty cup” and it is true. 


In the recent series “Mutiny” when a team of lads re-enacted Captain Bligh’s extraordinary 4000 miles journey from the middle of the pacific to Timor in a tiny open boat. They got to within 130 miles of their destination when they had to call in the medic on the rescue boat, who pleaded with them to take on fresh water from them and drink it, as they were all in an advanced state of dehydration. The GP acting as ship’s surgeon on the little boat, said the last time they had peed had been 24 hours ago and it looked like Guinness!


These guys literally had nothing left in their cup, they were beat and emotionally they were not far from failure. However when the Captain gave the go ahead for the water to come onboard and to be drank freely, not only did they physically begin to pick up, but emotionally and psychologically as individuals  they did, and so did their team work.


In short draining yourself to the point of Guinness pee, is not good for you or your team or your family. It is toxic, poisonous, unhealthy and not necessary. This applies to both your fluid intake and your soul.

You cannot drink from an empty cup…


How do we get back from this…


We Flush,


We Flush our systems out


We Flush our souls out…this can be annual leave, days off, something just for you that reboots you and flushes out all the toxins.


So on the theme of water, last weekend I packed up my campervan and headed up to Kielder water. On the first day I set off and ran to the source of the North Tyne, just over the border of Scotland. To see this tiny little spring bubbling up and knowing what it would be within in 2 miles was amazing. On the second day, having spent the night camping at a viewpoint alone, watching a dark sky come alive – (hydration for the soul enough!), I set off to run 27 miles right around the reservoir, no headphones, no company, just me and my tired and weary soul. 6 hours later with a little stop for soup at the café at Kielder. I arrived back at my truck, with weary legs and a revived soul. 

Whilst running works for me, it isn’t for everyone. It doesn’t even matter what you do, as long as it hydrates your soul and refills your mind cup.

In Flushing out the toxins, we free up space for 3 letters. 


O R and I


Adding those three letters to our Flush


Creates


FLOURISH


#Flourish is a part of life here in the hospitals. It is a force for good, it is like adding a sachet of those minerals and things to our water which help top up what we need.

In hydrating ourselves we enable ourselves to #flourish in part because we are hydrated enough to work/live efficiently and secondly because of how we are then able to be alongside others.


For example, if we are running on Guinness pee reserves, all anyone sees of us is toxins and that’s not nice. Our lack of energy becomes contagious and saps others, and the atmosphere becomes unhealthy, we become radgy and irritable when dehydrated and this is also true when we are emotionally dehydrated.  If however we take the time to Flush and thus enable flourish to become our norm, then things can be different.


We will embody healthiness, we will have more energy with which to engage, encourage and inspire others. We will be able to work more efficiently to sort out the good we need from the bad that we need to let go and dispose of.


We see the difference not just in our working environment (our kidneys) but in our whole lives (the whole body), our families and friends, the people who so often are on the receiving end of the toxins and waste products. 


Those around us will begin to see the difference in us and be inspired by who we are, thus flushing and then flourishing themselves.


When not just the kidneys are working effectively in the body, but all of the systems and organs, then just how awesome are we as humans; and similarly as teams and families when we are all working well, just how amazing are we.


In long distance running It is really easy to skip filling up your water bottle regularly and by the time you feel thirsty and get a headache it is too late, you are dehydrated, you’ve got the cramps and legs that wont move, your race is over. Taking time out to stop at the fuelling stations is imperative and essential, yes it might seem to cost you time, that when you are as slow as me, you don’t have to waste, but unless you take time to stop and refuel and refill, your race is over, you just don’t know it yet.


When we are dehydrated emotionally chances are we have already been causing damage to ourselves, our kidneys our soul. We just might not have noticed yet, or we might be so chronically dehydrated that how we are feeling has become our normal. Tired, grumpy, headache and lacking in enthusiasm for the things that used to make us happy and energised. Dare I say it is like coming in from a night on the pop, knowing that you really should have been drinking water alongside your chosen tipple, that you really should have a pint of water before you go to bed to counter the inevitable sore head from dehydration in the morning, but you can’t be bothered and you have gone past the point of caring about the consequences. You’ll really wish you had in the morning.


Taking the time to flush and refuel your soul is not selfish, it isn’t time wasted, it is investing in you. Under our professional leadership standards I would go as far as to say you have a duty to model good soul hydration regimes to those around you and to encourage others to take the time to find what helps them to do the same.


It can be hard if someone doesn’t recognise that emotionally they are dehydrating, and it takes courage to be like the medic on the rescue boat approaching a bunch of hardened survivalists to tell them they are really not doing themselves any favours by sticking to their damaging regime. Sometimes folks will listen, sometimes they will act on your advice and take action to flush out their systems. Sometimes you just need to leave a bottle of fresh water on their desk, in the hope that they will take a sip and taste just how thirsty they are. All we can do is the best we can, to encourage and nurture, to grow and develop. From that tiny spring on the hillside that I visited, flows the beginnings of the north Tyne, which by the time it joins the south Tyne 46 miles later is a torrent of fresh tumbling powerful energy, but never forget it starts with that tiny spring. 


Remember though that water left becomes stale, it becomes unhealthy and rank. It can itself become poisonous, and so can we. If we are left, if we leave others behind stuck in their own bog or swamp, then quickly that water can become bad for us. Our souls can only take so much before they like kidneys start to flounder with the toxins. If we leave things or issues unchecked, they become stagnant. Flush it away, great rid of the waste products, the problems, the anger and that will leave you, your kidneys, free to flourish again. Sometimes flushing will need to be in the form of a torrent of water, a discussion, a meeting, sometimes it will need to be a gentle pouring of warm water over a cold or injured soul. Flushing away the toxins and giving yours or another’s soul a clean filter to work with is important. I guess in some way it is like using dialysis to help a person whose systems are broken or overwhelmed a way of getting rid of the waste, allowing them to feel better enough to continue the task of hydrating themselves from the cup.


Find what helps you to become you and to flourish then take the time to do it. Be brave enough to say and I quote from Loreal “I am worth it!” because in doing so you will be living with integrity to yourself, living out your values and allowing those around you as well as you to #floUrish.

Remember that not all angels have wings but all members of the NHS are angels. You do an extraordinary job, you deserve to #floUrish not just here but at home. Be proud of who you are, be proud to flush and flourish.

NHS70 a sermon given by Rev’d Nigel Goodfellow

Sermon preached at Morning Prayer at St. Aidan's Church, Thockrington, Northumberland on Wednesday, 4th July 2018.

By Rev’d. Nigel M. Goodfellow MA

Trust Head of Chaplaincy

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

A service to celebrate 70 years of the NHS

and remembering Sir William Beveridge.

Readings:

1 Samuel chapter 3 verses 1 to 10 – Samuel hears God’s call

Matthew chapter 25 verses 35 to 40:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me in:  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: 

I was in prison, and ye came unto me.  

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,

Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, 

Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1)​The story goes, or so they say,

​That there was once a man, named Peter, who loved to garden …

​But as he grew older, he found it increasingly difficult to keep on top of things.

​He, loved to grow potatoes … 

​but the heavy digging needed to turn the plot over was becoming just too much.

His son, George, used to do the digging for him but he had recently had a run in with the police and was in prison.

In one of his letters to George, Peter expressed his frustration at not being able to dig the potato patch.

“Son,” he wrote, “I think my gardening days are over. The digging is too much for me … so I won’t be planting the potatoes this year. I know you would have helped … but you can’t. I miss you.”

A few days later, Peter received a letter back from George.

 Thank 

“Dad,” the letter read, “I am so sorry to hear that you feel your gardening days are over. I’m really frustrated that I can’t help you this year but I’m also glad that you can’t dig the potato patch this year because that’s where I buried the bodies. Miss you too.”

The next day, Peter was woken early by the sound of police vans pulling up outside the house. A group of police officers got out and the senior officer knocked on the door to explain that they had received a tip off that there were bodies buried in the garden and that they had no alternative but to dig up the garden to check.

Eventually the officer came back to Peter and said they were very sorry for the trouble they had caused but they had found nothing.

The next morning Peter, received another letter from George,

“Dad,” he wrote, “Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances, Love George.”

2)​Whether it’s true or not … I’ll leave that for you to work out … but like all good stories … as Jesus demonstrated in the way he taught ... it is the underlying message that is important.

​As George demonstrated, in that story, sometimes in life it is really important to “Think creatively” or to “think radically” or to “think outside of the box”  (whichever term you are most comfortable with).

​In meeting today to celebrate 70 years of the NHS and the key role Sir William Beveridge played in setting up the mechanism for its inception we are celebrating “Revolutionary thinking”  at its best … for that is what it was … as Sir William himself said:

​“Any proposals for the future, while they should use to the full the experience gathered in the past, should not be restricted by consideration of sectional interests established in the obtaining of that experience.

​Now, when the war is abolishing landmarks of every kind, is the opportunity for using experience in a clear field. A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not patching.”

​That revolutionary thinking, that Sir William championed changed the basis of British society and has enabled countless numbers of people to experience life in ways that were unthinkable before then, with as he said “the happiness of common man” as the “object of government in peace and war, not the glory of rulers or races.”

3) ​It took revolutionary thinking to change people’s lives and so today as we remember Sir WIlliamBeveridge ... we give thanks and celebrate his vision and his Revolutionary thinking  that made the NHS possible ...

​but we are not just celebrating the past today ... we are also acknowledging and celebrating what is going on today ... in hospitals, GP practices, in people’s homes and in community settings across the country ... even though it is so often taken for granted ... as a patient recently said to me ...”I didn’t realise what goes on ... how much people really care. It’s a pity you have to be ill to see what goes on day in day out.”

​Sir Williams revolutionary thinking is alive and present in those places today ... where individuals continue to “think outside the box” to make a difference to people’s lives ...

​be they a porter chatting to a patient about the England victory last night as they push them to x-ray and in doing so humanises the experience and puts the patient at ease ... even if it is only for a few minutes ...

​or a domestic chatting to a patient as they clean around the bed of a patient and discovers that the patient is in pain but they don’t want to disturb the nurses as they have so much to do and there’s not enough of them ... so is able to tip the nurses off without making a fuss ...

​or a junior doctor staying behind, yet again, to help a colleague because there’s no letup in the patients coming through the doors of the Emergency Department ...

​or a consultant who devises a dialysis machine for tiny preterm babies in their garage ... in their spare time ...  because nothing currently  exists in the market ...

​or a surgeon who takes the risk of operating on patients every day in an attempt to save someone’s life ... even though they could kill them in the process ...

 You 

​or a nurse ... who dresses the wound, ...or brushes the hair of  the frail elderly person with compassion and care ... or keeps the junior doctors right when they have just rotated onto a new ward and haven’t a clue what they are doing ... or picks up the signs of a collapsing patient and begins resuscitation ... 

​or a therapist who listens to a suicidal patient in their home and develops a care package that transforms their view of life ... or pushes the exercise plan for a patient beyond the pain threshold to help them regain their mobility ...

​or a  lab technician who pushes the boundaries of medical knowledge in the laboratories and ensures that there are valid test results available to make the best clinical decisions ...

​or a secretary ... or manger ... or accountant or chief executive who makes the appointments, looks after the books, and finds revolutionary ways of meeting the targets and keeping the whole thing afloat ...

​or a Chaplain who journeys with patients, relatives and staff through the good times and bad helping them find ways of coping with all that’s happening to them.

​The desire to change people’s lives is alive and well and so today as we look back over 70 years we also pause to say thank you for the skills and gifts that are used ... day in day out ...to make people whole ... to revolutionise others’ lives ... to bring light into darkness and hope in despair.

4)​ Today ... indeed the whole 70th Anniversary celebrations ... are a great chance to look back, to think about the present and be grateful for what has been and still is ... 

​but any event that just focuses on the past and present runs a very real risk of becoming an empty and meaningless ritual if it ends there and we don’t think about what this all means for the future.

​In response to constant questioning about what needed to be done in order to reach their full potential as human beings ... to live as members of the Kingdom of God ...

​Jesus didn’t talk about obeying every letter of the law as some people believed,

​and He didn’t talk about the importance of offering sacrifices, rituals and worship to gain the favour of a benevolent God as some others did ... 

​He was much more revolutionary in his thinking ... and suggested that the answer lay ...in creating a society in which the sick, the imprisoned and the outcast are cared for ... without that everything else he suggested was empty and meaningless.

​Nothing in life remains static ... we are constantly in the midst of change ... and who knows what the future holds ... even for the NHS ... but the one thing that is certain is that there will always be a need for “Revolutionary Thinking” to ensure “the happiness of common man” and a society in which “incentive, opportunity and responsibility is not stifled”.

​As Ghandi famously said,

​“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”

​So as we celebrate the past and the present ... may the revolutionary thinking of Sir William be a challenge and an incentive to us ... to take up the mantle that is passed on to us ... to be revolutionary in our thinking ... to hold to account those in positions of power and authority, including those in parliament ... to ensure that going forward we do not lose sight of that vision for a society in which there is justice and peace, healing and wholeness.

​Amen.​

Yes, but why the Serpent Trail 50 kms race?

 A question I have heard several times from various folks who know  I am crazy enough to  run long distances but crazy enough to do a round trip of 700 miles to do a long distance run, "surely even you aren't that mad?"

Well The Serpent Trail takes for me on what I would call hallowed ground. The route will take me across the South Downs way. Big deal I hear you say. Well if you were a certain generation of the Royal Military Police, this fact alone would take you back to recruit training. The infamous Combat Fitness Test which took in a certain hill called The Trundles (which by the way the view from which it is alleged inspired the words to the hymn Jerusalem). Up the Trundles, round the Trundles, down the Trundles whilst at no time trundling, but either speed marching or running - but absolutely no trundling allowed.

I had the privilege of serving at the then Royal Military Police Training Centre (RMPTC) and then school (RMPTS) twice in my career in the Corps. Once as a soldier recruit and then again as a Platoon Commander following my commissioning.

The friends I made during both those tours are still people I call friend today. Some of have journeyed with me for 26 years, through rain and shine. Some have suffered catastrophic injuries as a result of combat operations and a not insignificant number made the ultimate sacrifice.

I remember and yes love each one of my RMP friends, each in their own unique ways; their smiles, their dark, dark humour, their intimate knowledge of hangmen past, their smelly feet, their ability to laugh in the face of horrendous situations and almost immediately be back alongside you, supporting and caring for you.

So why the Serpent Trail?

Well for me it is a pilgrimage of sorts. I will spend Friday morning at the new home of my Corps. I will pray in the Corps chapel and hopefully light a candle not just for my fallen friends but all of my Corps family including their families. I will give thanks for having the privilege of having served alongside some of the finest humans ever placed on this earth and for what they taught me about myself.

I will then visit the Corps museum and hopefully see what has changed since I left so many moons ago, and simultaneously that which has not including the core values and ethos of the soldiers of the Royal Military Police.

When I lace up my trainers and set off from the start line on Saturday morning along that there Serpent Trail, I will be thinking, remembering and smiling (and most probably at some/lots of points have some tears) of the memories of days gone by, soldier and officer, wearing that red beret and armband.

With every km completed I will be mindful of those who have gone before me, their families and those who because of their service are forever changed.

I will probably have a wry smile at the fact I am voluntarily running with a backpack, whilst being timed up them there big hills, and will scour the tops for that Trundle as I trundle along.

So why the Serpent Trail?

Because sometimes we have to take the time in our lives to honour that which has gone before, recognise how it shapes us for the challenge of the future and be reminded of the strength within each one of us, which as a recruit was sometimes forced/cajoled/yelled to our surface by our Directing Staff at the Depot.

Exemplo Ducemus.

#ultrachaplain #johnsmiles

Change did come

This blog entry is slightly different, in that I am going to direct you to the website of a charity that is very dear to me heart and for whom I have guest blogged an article.
Change did come!

Christmas messages

Christmas Reflection – Christmas messages

Luke 2:1-20

2In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!” ¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Dear Santa Claus,

For Christmas this year, I would like it if you could stop all the wars and keep the children in Syria, Iraq and other countries at war safe. I would also like a pink, purple or YUU bag. I am going to make and leave you a present this year. A Texter Puppy or cat would be nice. I don’t want anything else.

From Hannah

Out of the mouths of children is a phrase often used. The letter to Santa was written by a young lady whose parents have both served in the military, in areas of the world that are a hop skip and jump away from the Biblical lands that we heard in the passage today. She is a little younger than the betrothed Mary yet her understanding of events around  the world are beyond her years, whilst her childhood is apparent in the letter to Santa and the present requests.

I was deeply moved when I first read Hannah’s letter for a variety of reasons.

First of all you cannot help notice Syria appears in both her letter and the gospel reading set for Christmas day. So often we can feel the bible is obsolete almost a history, history book; yet here it is flashing up to us today some 2000 years on, a place of conflict, turmoil, insurrection and the chaos of war. There 2000 years ago people were on the move, commanded to register, which involved hazardous journeys and for one now famous couple trying to find shelter so that their baby could be born and nursed. Today people in Syria are on the move, fleeing from war and unimaginable cruelty, they too are registering and trying to find somewhere safe for their children and babies.

At this time of year in the Christian tradition we are (have, if you are reading this on the 25^th December) observing (observed)  Advent, that period of waiting, waiting for the arrival of Christ. For many people we have simply been waiting to open the Lego or chocolate advent calendar whilst waiting for the big guy to drop down the chimney with a sack of presents. 2000 years ago Mary and Joseph were waiting, waiting for a small baby who would change their lives for ever. We know how the story unfolds for that baby and how his mother will be told  ‘and a sword will pierce your own soul too’ . Mary will spend the next 30 years waiting for this to happen. Waiting at the gates of the refugee’s camps across the middle east and Europe today are families for whom a sword will pierce their own souls too.  Yet despite this they continue to journey on, waiting in the hope that they will find safety and a place for their children to grow.

Some will make it, others will not, the journey is perilous and 2000 years ago similarly children fell victim to the evil of those in power when Herod ordered the hunting down of all baby boys in a bid to stop the survival of the Messiah, whose presence was announced by wise men from afar. Joseph and Mary, again journey on, taking the child to safety in a land far from home, as refugees.

I made mention of the young mother Mary and of Hannah our letter writer earlier on. Mary we know is carrying a gift to the world, she and Joseph are both aware that what they are doing is outside of the ‘norm’, they risk being cast out, and Mary could even have been put to death if Joseph had chosen to. Yet they continue to nurture and protect the small bundle entrusted to them, a swaddling wrapped present to the world. Hannah’s gift to the world is wrapped in grace, it is tied together with love and has a big sticky bow of hope on the outside of it, with a gift label that reads ‘for the world’. Her generous nature bought this gift, her altruism shares it with the world via Santa Claus. Its not often we get to see letters such as this; it outside of the norm and actually Hannah risks losing out on a huge pile of presents by not issuing a missive of a list.

But what we gain from both these young women is immense and immeasurable. Mary’s story is still heard and known 2000 years on and from Hannah we receive the good news that grace, compassion and care for the other is still intrinsic in the next generation. This hope in a world such as ours today is as invaluable to us as the proclamation “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people”.

So today, we thank God for Mary and Joseph, some 2000 years ago but we are also thankful for the Hannah’s of today, who remind us of the goodness and good news in the world.

Amen.

PS Mr Claus, if you’re reading this, I think a Yuu bag wouldn’t go amiss for this one.