A remark on contemporary Christmas in England
Today we have baby
But no kingdom
The baby is beautiful
What baby is not?
But the baby signs
Nothing now
The baby signs
No gift, no hope,
No kingdom
Signs nothing
Because for us
Self-referencing consumers
There is no screen
Picking up and reflecting back
The light springing from the sign
Signing nothing
The baby withers
To a minor consumer item,
Pictured on three cards in a hundred
Memory discarded
Though we sit in darkness
We look for no great light:
The world’s night no distress
To the electrified twenty-four hour city.
We do not need a kingdom to come,
Our life is no prayer,
Let the baby have the manger
And the star,
And temporary tinsel
But baby can be no sign
For we look for no kingdom
But without the kingdom,
There is no baby.
Without the prayer of Simeon and Anna,
There is no baby.
Without the coming of the Holy Spirit,
There is no baby.
Without my soul magnifying
God my Saviour,
There is no baby
Without angels disturbing abiding shepherds,
There is no baby
Without wise men who have seen what they do not understand,
A king they must seek and find,
There is no baby
No baby worth speaking of.
That is a shocking thing to say:
‘No baby worth speaking of.’
Any baby, every baby,
Is worth infinitely
Intrinsically.
So we affirm
While the world makes off with babies en masse
Holding them cheap.
Our affirmation is a breached dyke
Against the deadly world
And nature.
The floods go over our heads.
Rachel weeps for her children
And will not be comforted.
We affirm too much,
Too easily,
Celebrating the baby
With no eye for kingdom.
We affirm too much
Empiric presence,
Devoid of sign,
Heal hurt lightly
With no prayer for God’s kingdom
Yet to come
Baby is nearly all yet to come
Signs what is not yet,
Evokes hopes of what might this time be,
With fears of further disappointment.
Baby is sign pointing us beyond
What is not in this moment
Baby prays kingdom
Is this really true?
Is it so bleak mid-winter
That this frosty wind should moan?
You refuse a picture so gloomy?
You say we are not so far gone?
We do quite well with baby
And no kingdom.
Then show me, not yet once more the baby,
But people, praying, holding on in hope of the kingdom
Even people giving up for felt lack of the kingdom,
For then, the baby can be sign.
Show me, I say – but that is not quite right
It is not for me to challenge or demand.
Rather, give the baby
Once more, today, to be a sign.
Let the baby come into his kingdom.