Thought for the Week: Rev Houston McKelvey on humility before God and man

Just as I was about to have a mope-session that this would be the second Christmas we would not be able to visit our grandsons abroad, two pictures from the so-called Dundonald ‘Liberation Army’ arrived on my laptop screen. The first picture was of Mary and Joseph and the innkeeper in traditional dress. And the donkey was there. However, the innkeeper had an appliance in his hand and was demanding to see Joseph’s covid certificate.

The second picture was of Mary on the donkey saying to Joseph: “Why didn’t you bring the car?”. And his response was: “Have you seen the price of diesel?” It may come as a shock to the ‘Dundonald Liberation Army’ guys that they are quite good at theology.

The challenge to those who will worship the Christ Child this Christmas is to examine the relevance of His birth to our current society and to our deadly global pandemic predicament. What can we readily see in a basic account of our Saviour’s birth? Firstly, His parents could not find accomodation. An anxious young woman is forced to give birth among animals in the stable. Yes, I think Christ has more empathy and first-hand knowledge of the homeless and the socially dislocated than we may dare to contemplate.

The manger scene poses a first challenging question. Who are the individuals and the groups today towards whom the Christ Child wishes us to exercise empathy? Secondly, the Christ Child with his parents became refugees. They were forced to flee their own land because of the powerful people who feared their infant son.

Power is addictive. You don’t need a degree in psychology to see that in our politics in councils, Stormont and Westminster. Churches are not free of it either. Members and ministers alike can use and abuse power so that things are done their way and none other. This scenario poses a second challenging question - what do we need to learn from the powerlessness and vulnerability of the Christ Child?

An early church teaching which helps me is the Biblical statement that though Christ was equal with God He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a child. God in the Christ Child exposed Himself to the best and the worst of the humanity which God had created.

Philippians 2:7 is key. “Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

Throughout all of Christ’s life and especially when He was assessing His call to ministry and had gathered around him apostles, He was trying to explore and experience the relationship and limits of power and love. So when we look at the Christ Child and especially in the midst of the uncertainties, individually and internationally, of the present pandemic, we need only grasp hold of one tenet of faith, the Christ Child and the Saviour He became has experienced threat and uncertainty on a scale we could not imagine.

Humility is key. Humility before God and people both locally and internationally is the strategy modelled by Christ. Our mission must be fully compatible with his gospel of love and service.

We have no other way open to us. Our mission is shaped by the Christ Child who became the Saviour. God so loved the world that His followers have no alternative strategy and practice.

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