Christmas is a Fragile Time

A Christmas message from the Archdeacons to the Diocese of Llandaff.

Christmas is a fragile time.

The Christmas story is full of fragility. God takes an enormous risk as he enters the fragile reality of human life. We read of a young girl, betrothed, insecurely housed, living in poverty. She is Theotokos or Godbearer. Imagine if you will, the moment of this birth, in the first century, the extraordinary risk to Mary and to the Christ child.

God takes an enormous risk as he enters the fragile reality of human life

Imagine the moment the incarnate Lord opens his eyes for the first time. His vision is limited. He can’t focus. Apart from his mother, everything is a blur. Everything is so bright, yet nothing is in colour. Think about his sense of dislocation and dependence on his mother. The cutting of the umbilical cord. His helplessness. He can’t speak, sit up, or move. Think about the trauma of it all.

This year we have all felt fragile. The trauma of Covid is still working its way through our bodies, leaving us exhausted, with our emotions still raw and close to the surface.

Without time to recover we have felt the heavy threat of war near at hand and been thrust into a cost-of-living crisis, hearing stories of families heating food on radiators or choosing to eat rather than heat their homes. We all rage against such poverty and injustice. We know this is not the way it is supposed to be. This takes its toll on us too.

Church life of course feels fragile. We are beginning to get a sense of the impact of Covid on our congregations, the decline is significant, we’ve lost loved one, long term members have walked away, others have just got out of the habit.

We all rage against such poverty and injustice. We know this is not the way it is supposed to be

All this time, we have been working out what it means to minister alongside one another in ministry areas and regional deaneries. Learning new habits, practices and processes is demanding at the best of times. Change is never easy. It is even more demanding in times like these.

As the body of Christ, we know this Word made flesh is not a muscular Superman, ripped, lean and hard. Rather, like a child, the flesh of God is feeble, soft, and fragile. This is the church, in all its fragility, that we know and love.

Remarkably God chose to manifest himself in this fragility. He still does. In our faltering steps and missteps, in our faithful obedience in the face of scarcity and decline, in our fragile new relationships, in our poverty, God is here, with us.

We are grateful for all that God has been doing in you and through you

So, thank you for your ministry and mission during this difficult season. Thank you for your diligence and faithfulness despite everything. We are grateful for all that God has been doing in you and through you over the last year no matter how fragile it has felt.

By Archdeacon of Margam Mike Komor and Archdeacon of Llandaff Rod Green

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash